Serves 4
Fish served in a sorrel sauce is a staple of French cuisine. The sauce is especially good with salmon fillets, but also complements halibut, cod and sole. Making the sauce with garden sorrel will yield a more intensely lemony sauce, while a French sorrel sauce will be milder. To serve, distribute hot sorrel sauce in the centers of four large, heated plates, and place fish on top of the sauce. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt and garnish with a bit of chopped sorrel. Serve with new potatoes.
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 2 cups fresh sorrel leaves, stems and heavy veins removed; chopped
• 1?3 cup dry vermouth
• 1 2?3 cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• Coarse salt
• Freshly ground pepper
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add shallots and cook until soft.
2. Add sorrel and cook gently until sorrel wilts.
3. Add vermouth and cook until reduced slightly.
4. Add cream and lemon juice, and cook over medium heat until sauce slightly thickens, about 6 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mercy Ingraham, a retired nurse, is an open-hearth cooking instructor who lives, gardens and cooks in eastern Pennsylvania.
Click here for the original article, Herb to Know: Sorrel (Rumex acutatus, R. acetosa).
