A "micro-photo" for a micro-harvest!
Because I know that many people don't have time to do much reading through a blog to get to a recipe at the end...and simply want to cut-to-the-chase...here's the recipe for creamy wood sorrel sauce that goes great on fish and egg dishes.
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Recipe: Creamy Sorrel Sauce (serves two)
1-cup of wood sorrel leaves stems removed, and rinsed
1-1/2 to 2 tsp. melted butter
Scant dash of salt
Cream for thinning to desired consistency
Wedged or thinly sliced lemons for a garnish.
Melt the butter in a non-stick or seasoned skillet. Add the sorrel leaves. On medium-low heat, cook and stir the leaves until they attain an olive green color and "melt" down into a thick sauce.
Add a splash, or several, of cream to create the sauce consistency you desire for fish, chicken, or egg dishes. Garnish with sauteed shallot slices and lemon slices or wedges, if desired.
Seared and poached tuna steak with Sauvignon blanc reduction sauce, sauteed shallot slices, wood sorrel sauce with a side of green beans almondine. See my next post - in a few days - for the process of making this dish.
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Wood sorrel goes by several names...sour grass, creeping wood sorrel, lemon clover, pickle plant, and oxalis...yes, you read me right. OXALIS! Yes, that common lawn "weed" that is so hard to kill. But why would anyone want to?
Wood sorrel is beautiful (and cute from a clovery and miniscule standpoint), tasty, and useful. I say, what's not to love!
Botanically, it's known as Oxalis stricta. And, it has so many wonderful properties - both edible and medicinal (see Notes below for its medicinal uses).
Today, we're going to explore my favorite way to prepare and eat this so-called "weed".
Remember a weed is simply a plant growing in what we have deemed the "wrong place". I might also add, that a weed is a plant we have not allowed ourselves to appreciate - rather like the unmet stranger with the potential to become a dear friend or strong ally.
When I think of wood sorrel, French garden sorrel with its large, arrow-shaped, lemony-flavored leaves comes to mind. So tasty as a sauce, as a base for soup, an ingredient in soups and salads or pasta dishes, and my favorite...sorrel sauce. And wood sorrel has the same flavor as French sorrel!
Sorrel sauce goes wonderfully with eggs and fish, also chicken. French Sorrel grew in my Utah garden but went mostly dormant during the summer heat, coming back robustly as cooler temperatures returned. It grew in an honored spot at the back steps near the kitchen door.
A smaller wilder version grows here in Idaho. It's called "sheep sorrel". It has small arrow-shaped leaves, the same lemony flavor, and may be gathered from late Spring until Fall.
Today we'll explore another sorrel, wood sorrel. It has the same flavor as the other sorrels, grows everywhere - the woods, in garden beds, and, of course, lawns. It's easy to find and harvest, but a little tedious to prepare.
Wood sorrel harvested from garden beds and borders around my condo. It differs from the clover family of plants because it has heart-shaped leaves.
Now comes the "tedious" part, but I make it enjoyable instead.
After all, it comes down to how we think about a thing or event that determines our enjoyment and level of inner peace. So, I fix myself a dande-mocha-frappuccino (will share this recipe in an upcoming post), park myself at the bistro table on my front porch and begin to process the wood sorrel.
The fibrous stems must be removed from the tender leaves. I pinch the stems off at the base of each leaf. Processed leaves go into one bowl and the stems in another for discarding.
A metal bowl for the de-stemmed leaves, my harvest bowl in the center, on the right a bowl for the discarded stems. Near the Mason jar candle is the remains of my dande-mocha-frappuccino. Yum!
I try, and most often succeed, in elevating seemingly tedious tasks by adding enjoyable elements to the process or giving myself some sort of reward upon completion.
This morning while processing the sorrel leaves I relished the view across the condo common to the woods beyond, sipped my beverage, and enjoyed the coolness of a lovely Summer's morning soon to turn way too hot. My heart was buoyed by gratitude that I'm retired and have the luxury of time to spend on wee, and not so wee, tasks and chores, for the place where I live, and that in this moment - all things and beings in my world are well.
After separating the leaves from their stems, a gentle rinse is needed.
After rinsing I allowed excess water to drain from the leaves for about 10 minutes.
My leaf harvest resulted in about one cup of leaves. To a pan I added about 1-1/2 teaspoons of butter to a skillet to melt before adding the sorrel leaves.
As the leaves soften they change from bright green to olive green and "melt" into a saucy consistency.
All cooked down. The sauce is now ready to use as is, or after adding a splash of cream to thin and create the proper saucy consistency for your needs. Or, at this stage - prior to adding the cream - it may be frozen for up to three months.
The finished sauce - sans cream - has a bright citrus taste, plus a hint of artichoke heart-dipped-in-butter flavor. Once cream is added the sauce lightens in color and maintains a mild lemony/citron flavor.
If I need just a bit of sauce for only one or two servings I'll harvest the wood sorrel from the condo gardens. If I desire more servings, with only a minimum of processing, I'll go a few miles farther afield to a nearby forested park where sheep sorrel grows in abundance.
My purpose for this micro-harvest of wood sorrel is to make myself a tuna steak with sorrel sauce for lunch today (see photo near the top of this post) and a poached egg "Florentine" using sorrel sauce instead of spinach for my breakfast/brunch on Sunday morning.
Notes:
Sorrel is rich is oxalic acid and therefore shouldn't be eaten in great quantities by those with kidney failure or who are pregnant. I eat it several times a year in small quantities as a sauce or flavoring ingredient in soups.
Sorrell soothes the stomach, cools the skin, treats scurvy (Vit. C content), fever, urinary tract infections, swollen gums, sore throats, nausea, and mouth sores. It is said to cleanse the blood and benefit the liver. and may aid in cancer cases. However, sheep sorrel - Rumex acetosella - displays even more of these attributes.
For another version of my Sorrel Sauce visit:
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