On Wed, 2 Jul 2003 18:35:06 +0100, Gadget wrote:

I'd heard that the French make soup with Sorrell.
If anyone wants a recipe, I can post it to this forum.

Fire away, I'm all ears.

SIMPLE SORREL SOUP - Takes 30 mins
Tastes far better than it would first appear

1 onion (or 2 shallots)
1oz Butter
3 medium potatoes, cut into half inch cubes
1 litre of stock
Seasoning (salt, pepper, + tsp. Nutmeg)
Two good handfulls of Sorrell
(remove the stalks, chop roughly)
---------------------------------------------------
Chop the onion and fry gently in butter till soft.

Add the stock and the potatoes, bring to boil then simmer until the
potatoes are soft.

Add the seasoning.

Add the chopped Sorrel. Don't allow to boil any more (see later).

Blend the mixture, using whatever gadget you have. The original recipe
assumed you'd need a separate Magimix thingy. I just used an electric
"hand" blender whilst it was all still in the saucepan. The Sorrel
just softened & mixed in without any hassle.

Eat. Nice reward for all that work out there.

NOTE - the original Christopher Lloyd recipe recommended not allowing
the soup to boil once the Sorrel was added, otherwise it would lose
it's nice fresh colour and the flavour would be affected.

I can say the flavour of our soup was amazing (much more than you
would assume from such ordinary ingredients and such unassuming plain
green leaves).

Since first making this, I've seen other people mention the Oxalic
Acid in Sorrel and warnings not to eat it more than 10 times a week. A
few people recommend extended heating/boiling to overcome this. You
may wish to decide either way (though I don't get round to cooking
often enough for too much worrying over this).

Enjoy. Please pass back any feedback on your results!

Colin
-----
(Please reply via the newsgroup)

On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 19:16:39 GMT,
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 23:11:26 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

If like me you are plagued with nettles .......did you know that you can
use
sorrel instead of dock leaves if you are stung, in fact they work better
as
they can be crushed more easily before rubbing on the sting.
Both Sorrell and dock contain anti histamines which reduce the effects
of
the sting.

That's very interesting David. I often wondered how they worked. Do
you have any details (website etc.) that has identified the
antihistamine chemical component?
Regards
Geoff


....and the plantain which has narrow leaves: Plantago lanceolata
http://www.geocities.com/kurtjost/spitzwegerich.htm

, but not the wide-leaved variety: Plantago major
http://www.senckenberg.uni-frankfurt...itwegerich.htm
or at least not as much, so I'm told.

Tim.