Seasonal recipes for May: How to cook with sorrel

With its sharp lemony flavour, these little leaves are at their best in the spring time and can easily be grown at home. Use them in salads, soups and sauces to make the most of their flavour

Thou shall have a fishy: Larger leaves are best used in sauces with fish (Matt Inwood)

Sorrel comes as two varieties, wild and French, and is available from the end of April until around September, but it gets significantly more bitter as the months roll on.

When you're buying sorrel, make sure to pick the leaves that are bright green, crisp and fresh – just like when picking any other green leaf herb or salad leaf.

It can be used raw in a green salad – it's best to use the smaller leaves for this – to give it a bit of zing, but it's best used by turning the larger leaves into a green soup or a sauce to accompany a meaty white fish.

Alice King, Farmdrop's residence, chef says: "Sorrel is fresh and lemony so it’s perfect with oily fish like mackerel and fatty meat such as lamb, as it cuts through the richness.

"It’s been used in cooking since the Middle Ages to give a dish sourness before citrus fruit reached Europe. It’s best during the summer months, but availability is dependent on the weather – this season we’re expecting it to hit the shop in May.”

Here are four ways to use the seasonal green at home.

Pan fried mackerel with sorrel sauce

Fresh sorrel has a delightful lemony flavour that works wonders with oily fish. Blitz it up with parsley, another fish friendly herb, and a dash of mustard and vinegar to create a tart green sauce that's a match made in heaven with fresh-off-the-boat Lyme Bay Reserve mackerel.

Time: 15 minutes

Serves 2

4 mackerel fillets
1 garlic clove
10ml red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
200g sorrel
100g parsley
½ lemon
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

First make your sorrel sauce. In a food processor add the garlic, mustard and vinegar and blend. Add the sorrel and parsley leaves (discard the stalks) and blend again. Transfer to a bowl and add the lemon juice and olive oil, stirring continuously. Check for seasoning, adding more olive oil to loosen the sauce if necessary.

Sprinkle the mackerel fillets with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a frying pan to a medium heat and add the mackerel, skin side down. Cook for 1-2 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets, then flip the mackerel over and cook for a further 30 seconds.

To serve, place the mackerel on a plate with the gorgeously crispy skin on show and drizzle with the sorrel sauce. Delicious with a fresh watercress salad and warm jersey royals.

Recipe from Farm Drop (Farmdrop.com)

Londrino recipe - do not re use image

Peas with sorrel emulsion

1 kg of peas peeled preferably small so they don't need cooking 
2 bunches of long sorrel  leaves 
​1⁄3 of bunch of chives 
​1⁄3 of bunch of coriander
1 tray of  curly pea shoots 
350g of good grape seed oil 
sea salt to season 

Wash all the greens, dry them out in a salad spinner. In a powerful blender mix the greens with the grapeseed oil until smooth, season with salt.

This eventually will split but that's fine, stir a bit with a spoon before serving.

Place a few spoonful of this mixture on plate, top up with peas ready so serve with pea shoots over the top

Recipe from chef Leandro Carreira at Londrino (Londrino.co.uk)

cod, sorrel and salmon recipe from HOME

Cod, smoked salmon and sorrel

Serves 4

4 x 100g fillet of cod ( centre cut, skinned)
100g salt 
150g butter 
150g fish stock

For the sorrel puree

100g sorrel
200g spinach 
salt 
125g butter 

For the smoked salmon sauce

1 shallot sliced
250g mussels (cleaned and live)
100ml white wine 
150ml whipping cream 
½ lemon, juiced
100g smoked salmon
1 tbsp shredded parsley 

Quick-cure the cod by covering the fillets with the salt on a baking tray and leaving it in the fridge, in cling film. This helps remove excess moisture and make the fish nice and firm. Wash the salt off after 30 minutes, and then rest unwrapped in the fridge until you're ready to cook.

Rinse the spinach and sorrel and dry off in a salad spinner. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan and wilt the spinach and sorrel for about 2 minutes. Use a blender or food processor to blend until smooth, then pass through a sieve to get a super-smooth puree. Add salt to taste.

Get another pan ferociously hot, add a drizzle of oil, and add the mussels in their shells, sliced shallot, and white wine. Cover and steam the mussels with the lid on for around 4 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened discarding the ones that haven’t. Add the cream and reduce by half, then pass through a sieve. Season and add lemon juice to taste.

Heat the fish stock and butter to 55 degrees Celsius in a saucepan, using a thermometer to check the temperature, and then poach the cod in this emulsion for 7 minutes. Tip: For a more visual striking dish, carefully blowtorch the top of the cod.

Remove the cod from the emulsion and bring the remaining sauce to the boil. Take it off the heat and add the parsley and smoked salmon. Serve the cod on top of the sorrel puree, and spoon the salmon sauce on top.

Recipe from HOME (Homeleeds.co.uk)

Sorrel-goats-curt-beetroot-hinds-head-chef-pete-gray

 

Smoked goats curd salad

For the pickled baby beetroots

150g baby beetroots, peeled and cut in halves
20g olive oil
15g chardonnay vinegar
A pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients (apart from the baby beetroots) in a bowl and set aside. In a separate pan, add the prepped beetroots to boiling water. Remove once cooked through but still firm and plunge into and iced bath. Once cooled, drain and add the pickle mixture. This should be made at least 24 hours before using.

For the smoked goats curd

200g goats curd
20g smoked water (available from Amazon)

Mix the ingredients together and reserve in the fridge until needed.

For the salt and vinegar pumpkin seeds

100g pumpkin seeds
20g Chardonnay vinegar
A pinch of salt

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot dry pan, shaking the pan to ensure even toasting. Remove and place into a large frying pan spread evenly across the base of the pan. On a high heat stir the seeds with a spoon until they begin to release oil and speckle. Add the salt to the pan then the vinegar and cook until all the vinegar has evaporated, this will happen very quickly as the pan is hot. Transfer the seeds from the pan to a tray lined with parchment paper. Once cool store in an airtight container.

For the pickled lemon

100g white wine vinegar
50g white caster sugar
1 unwaxed lemon

Heat the vinegar and sugar in a small pan along with 110g water, whisking until dissolved. Allow to cool. Using a mandolin, carefully slice the lemon into 1mm slices, discarding any pips. Place the cooled pickling liquor and lemon into a container. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 days.

For the lemon dressing

75g olive oil
40g reserved pickled lemon liquor

Make the lemon dressing by whisking together the olive oil and pickling liquor in the weights indicated.

For the cider pickled pears

40g white caster sugar
75g white wine vinegar
5g lemon juice
225g apple cider
1 william pear

To assemble the dish

Reserved baby beetroots
Reserved smoked goats curd
Reserved pickled lemon
Reserved pumpkin seeds
Reserved pickled pears
Picked and wash rocket and baby gem lettuce, mixed with reserved lemon dressing
Red vein sorrel
Marinated violet artichokes (available from shops like Waitrose)
Fresh grated horseradish

Heat the vinegar and sugar in a small pan along with the cider, and the lemon juice whisking until dissolved. Peel, core and cut the pear into quarters and add it to the pickled liquor. Simmer the wedges until they are cooked through but still firm, let them cool down and reserve them cover until needed.

With a spoon arrange some of the goats curd on the bottom of the plate, sprinkle the salt and vinegar pumpkin seeds and some freshly ground black pepper. In a mixing bowl mix the salad leaves, red vein sorrel, the pear halves and the violet artichokes. Arrange the salad on top of the curd. Finally add the pickled baby beetroots and some freshly grated horseradish.

Recipe from head chef Pete Gray at The Hind's Head (Hindsheadbray.com)