Ingredients
Sorrel
Other Names: French sorrel: Acetosa (Italian); herb patience; oseille (French); round leaf sorrel. Garden sorrel: Belleville sorrel; broad-leafed sorrel. English sorrel: Greensauce (British); sour dock; sour grass.
General Description: Sorrel is the name for a group of plants of the genus Rumex_, in the buckwheat family and native to Eurasia, known for their pleasantly acidic leaves, which contain oxalic acid. Sorrel is shaped like elongated spinach leaves and ranges in color from pale to dark green. It gets its name from an ancient Germanic word meaning “sour”; all other European names for this plant also mean “sour.” Sorrel grows wild throughout Europe, Asia, and North America and has been eaten as a salad and cooking green since ancient times because it’s stimulating to the appetite and balances rich foods. Laplanders use sorrel in place of rennet to curdle milk when making cheese. Though the French usually tame sorrel’s acidity by cooking it in butter or cream, they also utilize the herb’s acidity by stuffing spring shad with a puree of sorrel so that the acid softens and supposedly helps dissolve the numerous bones. Garden sorrel (R. acetosa_), indigenous to Britain and most of Europe, is a slender plant about two feet high, with juicy stems and leaves and whorled spikes of reddish green flowers. Eventually French sorrel (R. scutatus), with larger, milder, more succulent leaves, became most popular in Britain.
Season: Fresh sorrel is available in limited supply year-round, with a peak season in spring.
Purchase and Avoid: Choose sorrel with whole, bright green leaves and avoid woody-looking stems or yellow or wilted leaves. Gourmet food stores sometimes carry cooked sorrel in jars and cans. Sorrel is not sold in dried form.
Storage: Refrigerate fresh sorrel in a plastic bag up to 3 days. Cook sorrel briefly and freeze it for use as a sauce.
Note: Avoid using aluminum or cast-iron cookware for sorrel; its high level of acidity will react with the pot, lending a metallic flavor and a grayish color to the food.
Serving Suggestions: Add a few chopped young leaves to salad for zesty flavor. Stir shredded sorrel into creamy potato and leek soup just before serving. Fill an omelet with sorrel cooked in butter with shallots.
Food Affinities: Butter, chicken, cream, eggs, goose, lamb, leek, pork, potato, salmon, scallion, shad, shallot, sour cream, sweetbreads, veal.
from Quirk Books: www.quirkbooks.com
