Sorrel

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  We've been busy with wedding planning, the actual wedding, and honeymoon.  And being tired from all of that and just trying to get back into a more normal rhythm of things.  And on top of that, I've been getting pretty ambitious with weeknight dinners and trying to use as many bowls as possible to up my presentation game.  Luckily G can just put all of them in the dishwasher, so he's not complaining too much.

Ok, so last weekend's new find at the farmer's market.  Sorrel!  Herb or green, or both?  It was straddling the border of the greens and the herbs at the stand.  G asked what it was, and I had no idea, so of course I bought a bunch! 

According to the internet, sorrel is an herb.  When eaten raw, the leaves taste sour, with a flavor kind of like kiwis.  I verified this.  To me it tastes kind of like lemon but more grassy and pleasant! 

So now onto recipes: most of the things that turned up in a quick search involves making sorrel into sauce to go with salmon or protein, sorrel pesto, pureeing sorrel into soup, or just putting some sorrel leaves into a salad to give it a more citrusy brightness.

Here's a long list of ideas: http://chocolateandzucchini.com/ingredients-fine-foods/50-things-to-do-with-fresh-sorrel/

So I decided to make a sorrel pesto, and mix it into a wild rice blend and serve it with poached eggs on top.  I looked at enough of the pesto recipes and they all looked pretty similar, but I had to improvise based on the ingredients we had. 

Sorrel Pesto: (makes about 8 oz)
2 cups sorrel leaves, packed
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
[freshly grated parmesan cheese <-- this is what we were missing!]

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it's a paste,  Then slowly drip olive oil in until the pesto is a consistency that you like.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I mixed about half of the pesto into steaming hot rice, and let it sit until it was warm.  The rice with pesto ended up almost like a risotto because of the creaminess of the pesto.  But a risotto without having to stir it constantly over the stove.  Win!

And it got even better topped with 2 poached eggs!  (we sous vide the eggs for 45 mins at 145  deg F, and then poached them in simmering water for 1 min to solidify the outside skin of the tight white)