Oseille
L'oseille doit être bien épluchée et lavée. Mettez-la cuire à l'eau bouillante à grande eau et salée, cinq minutes de cuisson, retirez-la avec précaution et mettez-la dans une bassine d'eau froide si l'oseille est très-acide, faites cette opération deux fois, retirez-la aussitôt et égouttez-la bien. Dans une casserole, mettez un bon morceau de beurre, l'oseille et du sel, mettez sur le feu et remuez toujours afin que en fondant le beurre se lie bien à l'oseille, ajoutez un peu de lait, encore un morceau de beurre et liez toujours, servez garni de croutons frits.
Sorrel — the tart, lemony green that has all but vanished from American kitchens — braised down with butter and a little milk into a soft, bright purée.
- What sorrel isOseille is a leafy green with a sharp, lemony bite that comes from oxalic acid. It cooks down dramatically, like spinach, and turns from green to a muted khaki almost at once — that’s normal.
- Blanch to tame the acidThe recipe’s trick — a brief boil, then cold water, repeated for very acidic sorrel — mellows the tartness. Skip it if you like sorrel sharp.
- Bind with butterOff the fierce heat, stir in a good knob of butter so it melts into and binds the sorrel; a splash of milk and a second knob smooth it further.
- A quick cookFive minutes is all the boiling it needs; sorrel collapses fast, and overcooking only dulls it.
- Serve with croutonsFried croutons add crunch against the soft purée — and sorrel is a classic partner to eggs and to fish, if you want to build a plate around it.
Sorrel was once a standard of the kitchen garden on both sides of the Atlantic, valued for a fresh acidity cooks reached for long before lemons were cheap and plentiful. In French cooking it remains beloved — potage Germiny, a silky sorrel soup, and sorrel sauce for salmon are classics still — but in America it faded into obscurity, kept alive mostly in old Creole and immigrant kitchens. Its oxalic tang, the very thing that makes it useful, is also why it’s eaten cooked and in moderation rather than by the bowlful.
From page 105 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
