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?
:-\
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!
;)
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.
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.
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!
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!)
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.
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!
Its lovely stuff lemony and nice in salads, not the usual boring leaf taste. Its perrenial too!
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
Also had it in the herb patch for years and rarely use it in salads or fried with spinach and eggs (lovely)
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.
hi
i use sorrel to chew when i am shoveling compost it helps to hide the smell\taste.
Cambourne7
Dock, Dad? Nail on head!!
?? thats a little cryptic
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.