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Puree of Sorrel
Remove the stalks and also all stale leaves, if any adhering, then thoroughly wash in three different changes of cold water two quarts very fresh sorrel; lift it up with the hands and drain well. Heat half ounce butter in a small saucepan and add the sorrel. Season with a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon white pepper and a tablespoon fine sugar. Cover the pan, and gently cook on a moderate fire for ten minutes, lightly mixing once in a while; drain off all the water, then press the sorrel through a small sieve into a bowl, add a few bits of butter, mix well with a wooden spoon and serve as required.
A plain French-style sorrel purée, meant as an accompaniment rather than a dish in its own right. The two things that matter are the pan you use and how little you cook it.
- Use a non-reactive panSorrel is high in oxalic acid and will pick up a metallic taste and grey colour from bare aluminium, cast iron or unlined copper. Stainless steel or enamelled cast iron only.
- "Two quarts very fresh sorrel"This is loose, unpacked leaves -- perhaps 4 to 8 oz by weight depending how tightly they are packed. It collapses to a fraction of its volume, so the finished puree is small, a cup or so.
- "Moderate fire"Medium heat on a modern burner. Ten minutes covered is ample; sorrel melts into pulp within two or three minutes.
- No added waterThe recipe never calls for any, and none is needed — the leaves release a great deal of their own, which is what you drain off afterwards. Half an ounce of butter (one tablespoon) is enough to keep it from catching at the start.
- The sugar is not optionalA tablespoon in this quantity reads as a lot, but sorrel is aggressively sour and the sugar is there to blunt the acid, not to sweeten. Taste before you add all of it if your sorrel is young and mild.
- Sieve or notPressing through a fine sieve removes the stringy leaf ribs and gives the smooth texture intended. A food processor will chop them rather than remove them; if you use one, still pass the result through a sieve.
- Expect a drab colourCooked sorrel turns olive-brown within seconds and nothing prevents it. This is normal and not a sign of overcooking.
- ServingEnough for four as a sharp accompaniment to poached or baked fish, veal, or soft-boiled eggs. It is also the base for a sorrel sauce if let down with cream.
- Oxalic acidOrdinary culinary quantities are fine for most people, but sorrel is worth avoiding in volume by anyone prone to kidney stones.
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) was a standard kitchen-garden green across northern Europe long before lemons were cheap, valued precisely for the sourness that makes it awkward now -- it supplied acidity to sauces, soups and stuffings in the way vinegar or citrus does today. French cookery kept it in the repertoire when English-speaking kitchens largely dropped it: this is the puree d'oseille of the classic French larder, the same preparation that underlies sorrel soup and the sorrel sauce traditionally served with shad and other oily fish. The generous sugar and the instruction to press everything through a sieve suggest a French professional method, where a puree was expected to be smooth and balanced before it reached the plate. Sorrel is still difficult to buy in most markets, being perishable, which is much of the reason it has become a gardener's vegetable rather than a shopper's.