Saturday 1 May 2010

Salmon with Sorrel Sauce

To my shame, I've had a sorrel plant flourishing in my herb patch for I-don't-know-how-long now and I only just took a taste a couple of weeks back, when I was tidying up the patch and got curious.

What a delightful flavour! All sweet and tangy and lemony!

The plant isn't looking too great at the moment, as it's sheltering a whole clan of snails I haven't been able to shift and all the leaves are dotted with little holes. But today I cut the whole lot back (it's supposed to regrow quickly several times a year like this), picked out all the snails, and selected the best leaves for a new recipe...

This is from James Martin Digs Deep (yes, I do watch a lot of cooking TV...), although as always I altered it a little...

Salmon with Sorrel Sauce
(serves 2)

  • Season salmon fillets and fry both sides in a little butter and oil.
  • Finely chop a few spring onions and two garlic cloves. Saute in a little butter over a medium heat for a few minutes.
  • Add 50ml white wine, 50ml cream and 150ml stock (I used vegetable stock). Add 100g frozen peas, 1 tbsp lemon juice and seasoning. Bring to the boil.
  • Remove from the heat, then add a big handful of chopped sorrel. (The sorrel really doesn't want cooking more than this, or it will go brown and bitter.)
  • Spoon the sauce onto a plate and serve the salmon on top.

I served it with new potatoes (not Nomegrown yet!) and asparagus.

Twas delicious, but not sorrely enough for me. The flavour really was fantastic and I wanted more! Next time I will use much more sorrel, and might try pureeing the sauce to make it thicker and clingier - as it was it was very thin and brothy, with peas and bits of leaf in. In fact, I can't wait to try it again!

3 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

We did the same with scorzonera - have just dug it up and composted it - just didn't like the look of it.

We also have some horseradish plants that we have never tasted - too many warnings about using it has scared us off!

Amy said...

I have never tried sorrel but I have seen that Sarah Raven often uses it interchangeably with spinach. I had some lovely wilted spinach dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice, I wonder if that would work with sorrel?

Green Lane, I had the most amazing green beans with horseradish sauce at a restaurant the other day. They had a sort of creamy sauce which helped you recover from the kick but it was seriously good.

Nome said...

Amy, sorrel has a much more distinctive flavour than spinach, but it's delicious - I'd definitely give it a try! I think I'd skip the lemon juice - it doesn't need it. Just some black pepper I think. Watch this space - as soon as my plant grows back I'll try it as a side dish.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...