Sorrel seems to be the hardest word.
A sorrel recipe – a no cook, blended pâté using smoked mackerel and seasonal fresh farmers market sorrel leaves.
Yet another new ingredient from the farmers market to play with this week. This time sorrel – a lemony, tart green leafy which can be cooked and eaten much like spinach, but with a very different taste. This bunch of sorrel was from a little organic stall at the market, where I have bought rocket, kale, wild garlic and purslane in the past.
I love trying new ingredients, especially when they fit exactly with my ethos of eating seasonally and locally, but what to do with it? I don’t think I’ve ever come across a sorrel recipe before. A frittata, or quiche perhaps, or how about yet another pesto? God not another pesto!
When trying something new a little nibble and then a ponder usually sparks an idea but this time I was really stuck so a bit of research for a sorrel recipe via the BBC Food website ensued. I loved James Tanner’s idea of blending it with mackerel into a pâté, so I used that as a starting point. I used 10% fat Greek yoghurt instead of a huge amount of butter. Nothing wrong with butter but sometimes its good to lighten things up a bit. However it must be said that I don’t think you should skimp on fat further with a lower fat yoghurt. Fat is a flavour carrier, and Greek yoghurt has a wonderful thick creamy texture that can’t be replicated without that fat. I like Yeo Valley Organic Greek yoghurt.
As an unplanned final flourish I added a few shavings of Zamorano – an incredible raw sheeps milk cheese on top. I’m usually against the idea of cheese and fish together. Putting tuna on a pizza or cheese on a tuna jacket potato is, I believe, a criminal food offence. But somehow on top of the heap of green lemony mackerel mush it just works.
I served the pâté on my toasted gluten free pumpernickel-rye style bread and I’ll be teaching this bread recipe in my next savoury baking class on 14th May! There are still some spaces left – do come along!
If you want to explore other Springtime unusual leaves – either from the farmers market or foraged – you might enjoy these recipes;
- Wild Garlic Pesto
- Wild Garlic & Ricotta Toast
- Pea & Purslane Puree
- Nettle Farinata
Add a bit of Zamorano Cheese
- 50g fresh sorrel leaves
- 75g thick greek yoghurt (10% fat)
- 3 fillets of smoked mackerel, skinned, approx 160g
- Zest and juice of half a lemon
- ½ tsp salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- Optional gluten free bread & cheese to serve
- Place the sorrel in the food processor and blitz into small pieces.
- Add in the yoghurt, 2 of the mackerel fillets, the lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper and blend again until smooth. Flake in the final mackerel fillet and blitz again very very briefly. This will give the pâté some texture.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- Serve spread on toast or with crudités.
What would you have done with sorrel? Do you have any tried and tested sorrel recipes?
Nice read 🙂
Thanks!!
Thank you 🙂