Topic: Sorrel

[caroline7758]

Watching the Big Dig and seeing the father and daughter allotmenteers talking about growing sorrel made me wonder what sorrel can be used for. Any fans?

[katynewbie]

 :-\

I have just sown some out of curiosity! I have heard people rave about the soup, think you can use it as another leafy thing in salads, also incorporate it into a rub type thing on top of meat to give extra flavour. Will let you know after I have tried all these!

 ;)

[Suzanne]

I use sorrel in salads a lot as gives a lemon tang. It is also great added to a lemon butter sauce for salmon or even asparagus.

The french buckler leaved sorrel is the best one for salads as the normal dock leaf like one is a bit coarse.

[Mrs Ava]

I was interested in that also.  I knew sorrel was lemony but have never gotten around to growing it.  Some of the telly chefs rave about it, so maybe I should get me some seeds.

[bennettsleg]

I sowed a whole packet in a tray last weekend and put them in the propagator and half the tray ( the cooler half) are showing through already - overnight, infact.  I knew they'd be a bit close together but I'll deal with that later on and b-in-law is eyeing up a patch of his garden fro some already!

They are perrenial and therefore can spread.

Never eaten them before and am quite looking forward to it!

[Trevor_D]

We've had it for years. It's beautiful! (Especially as it comes early in the year when there's not much else around.)

You don't need much of it. Add it to a salad; add it to a leek & potato soup. But best of all, cook it in butter. Just cut it up and melt it in butter (just a minute or two) and you have an instant puree, sauce or omelette filling. Add cream to soften the taste. Use as a side garnish or stir into a sauce to finish off. It is stunning with both fish & chicken. But as a vegetable on its own it's totally overpowering. We wouldn't be without it. And it grows in dappled shade. (We've got plenty of that in our garden!)

[dandelion]

In Belgium we used to eat a traditional peasant dish called 'Zurkelstoemp' which is roughly mashed potatoes with sorrel and fried lardons (bacon).  Very nice! Another Belgian recipe is 'Eeel in green' which is eel in a green sauce (sorrel, spinach and chervil I think). Sorrel soup is lovely too.  I've tried to grow sorrel from seed but it does not like the same as the stuff we used to forage for.

[chlodonnay]

I put some sorrel seeds in a tray to grow and they cam up really quickly. My mum said that they are best just to put straight in the ground as they are really hardy so I have done that also. I love sorrel with salmon and chicken in a creamy sauce (with a dash of white win). Its also lovely with eggs and a hollandaise sauce (like an eggs benedict with extra wilted sorrel). I also put it in the juicer with lots of veg if I feel like a need a vitamin hit!

[sawfish]

Its lovely stuff lemony and nice in salads, not the usual boring leaf taste. Its perrenial too!

[saddad]

We have Sachevel (?) a very large leafed form from HSL, which looks very dock like, Buckler leaf which is neater and great in salads and there is a red veined form which is very decorative but I haven't got any...
All started from seed but esiest from a bit of root... (Think Dock) if you want a bit of B-L let me know E-J... it self seeded in front of the compost bins and is indestructible although it suffers a bit when we turn the bins!
 ;D

[okra]

Also had it in the herb patch for years and rarely use it in salads or fried with spinach and eggs (lovely)

[pigeonseed]

I've got a book with old recipes in it and they use a lot of sorrel. One is trout with sorrel

poach the trout until the flesh flakes, toss 2 cups of sorrel in 4 tblsp butter with 2 crushed anchovies, serve the trout on a bed of the sorrel.

I think sorrel is nice with fish.

[cambourne7]

hi

i use sorrel to chew when i am shoveling compost it helps to hide the smell\taste.

Cambourne7

[tim]

Dock, Dad? Nail on head!!

[cambourne7]

?? thats a little cryptic

[pigeonseed]

I think you have to be a bit careful how much sorrel you eat, because it has oxalic acid in it. But I don't know how much is too much.