Re-blog: 50 things to do with Sorrel

Lately there has been a good amount of French sorrel at the Union Square Greenmarket. I am a fan of its lemony, tart flavor (it's a rhubarb relative) and have been adding it to salads, using the leaves for wraps, adding it to dal, making it into pesto, etc.

Chocolate & Zucchini very usefully compiled suggestions from readers on Twitter for things to do with sorrel!

Sorrel pairings:

- Sorrel + fish (especially fatty fish, such as salmon -- seek out a sustainable source -- or mackerel)
- Sorrel + shellfish (especially scallops, same comment as for salmon)
- Sorrel + cream or butter
- Sorrel + bacon
- Sorrel + potatoes
- Sorrel + rice
- Sorrel + lentils
- Sorrel + celeriac
- Sorrel + leafy greens (spinach, Swiss chard, kale)
- Sorrel + eggs
- Sorrel + chicken or veal
- Sorrel + mustard
- Sorrel + goat cheese

Sorrel uses:

- Add to soups
- Make it into a sauce for fish
- Add to omelets and scrambled eggs
- Add to a stuffing for meat
- Shred sorrel and stuff it into fish
- Add to quiches
- Add to mashed potatoes
- Add to hummus
- Add to pasta
- Add to mixed-leaf and herb salads
- Add to chard and spinach anywhere you would use those
- Use as a filling for buckwheat crêpes
- Make it into a pesto, to use in pasta, on pizzas, or with grilled salmon

Recipe ideas:
- Salmon with sorrel, a legendary dish originally invented by the Troisgros brothers in Roanne in 1973
- Baked line-caught seabass with beurre blanc and sorrel
- Chop sorrell into a butter sauce to go with salmon fishcakes.
- Pair with salmon, mustard seeds and raspberries.
- Hot sorrel soup, with leeks, dill and sour cream
- Soup of fresh shelling beans and sorrel
- Green borscht
- Chilled sorrel soup with plain yogurt and lemon (a.k.a. schav in Yiddish)
- Lightly sauté in butter with shallots, deglaze with sherry, then mix all with goat cheese and use as an omelet filling.
- Chicken and sorrel sandwich with fresh mayonnaise
- Toss into mixed-leaf salads, with a relatively sweet dressing, and optional goat cheese crumbled on top.
- Chopped sorrel with black beans or lentils for a cold salad
- Warm potato and salmon salad with sorrel vinaigrette
- A salad of white peaches and sorrel
- Charlotte potato salad with wilted sorrel, yogurt and some freshly grated horseradish and chives
- Rice with sorrel and lemon, served as a side to fish
- Chop with an onion, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté lightly in butter and stuff a chicken.
- Pan sear with butter, and pair with a thin piece of veal in a port reduction, with a very light sprinkling of sumac.
- Fried beans with sorrel, feta and sumac from the second Ottolenghi book, Plenty
- Add to spanakopita.
- Sauté briefly in olive oil and mix with almond butter and salt, to accompany mushrooms (crisp bacon optional).
- Sorrel spinach pesto with pumpkin seeds
- Sprinkle sorrel, chiffonaded or gently melted into frying butter, on fresh pasta. Grate a little lemon zest on top.
- Toss some penne with sorrel, red onion, mint and garlic.

Bibbity Bobbity Bibimbap

Every Tuesday I arrive at kp, Vip, and M's urban hang suite for Gita Sutras with Rasanath Das, and then we make an easy, vegetarian, communal dinner.

Last week, it was this simple Korean brown rice and veggies bowl, or bibimbap.

With the brown rice in the rice cooker in the background, we chopped:
- a bunch of scallions (on the bias, into 1" pieces),
- about 10 shiitake mushrooms (minus the stems),
- a bunch of lacinato kale,
- two handfuls of snow peas,
- a couple handfuls of broccoli florets, and
- a yam (julienned, skin on) and
- a couple of carrots (also julienned).

(Sprouts, other types of mushrooms, other types of greens, some quickly pickled cucumber/daikon, etc., would also be great!)

We also got about 2" of ginger minced and ready, and kept a sliced avocado and about 1/3 C sesame seeds aside.

Vip fried 4 eggs, sunny side down, while we dry toasted the sesame seeds then set them aside, and sauteed (separately) each vegetable (except the carrots, which we left raw with a sprinkle of lemon juice) in a pan with 1/2 tbsp. olive oil and 1/2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil, 1/2 tsp. of the minced ginger, a few dashes of salt, and a couple pinches of our super hot red chilli powder, keeping each aside when done. (For the peapods and kale, we added a squeeze of lemon juice.)

When all the vegetables were sauteed, we stirred the toasted sesame seeds, a pinch of salt, and a dash of lemon juice into the cooked brown rice, then put a serving spoon of the rice mixture into each of our bowls, and topped the rice with a spoonful of each sauteed vegetable, sliced avocado, some carrots, and some Sunja's vegetarian kimchi, then topped each bowl with a fried egg, and each put in his/her own desired amount of hot sauce before mixing everything up!

Recipe by Miz Hummus: Grand Marnier candied pecans

Grand Marnier candied pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2. Grate the rinds of 2 large oranges to create 7 tablespoons zest.

3. Melt together over low heat in a saucepan:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons salt
Zest

4. Let cool slightly

5. Add mixture to a mixing bowl and cover 5 cups pecans in mixture

6. Butter two cookie sheets

7. Spread pecans evenly on cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes

8. Let cool for 5 min and then sprinkle pecans with 1/8 cup Grand Marnier

9. Let cool completely and serve

Rosemary-lemon gremolata over broiled wild Alaskan salmon

We had a large filet (perhaps 2 lbs?) of wild Alaskan salmon, and marinated it for about 2 hours in a gremolata of extra virgin olive oil, chopped rosemary, crushed red chilli pepper, sliced garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper, then roasted it covered with foil in a 350°F oven for about 20 minutes, then removed the foil and let it broil for a few minutes on high.