2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The bright sour leaves of sorrel are a real storehouse of useful substances: they are rich in calcium, potassium and magnesium, and also contain folic acid, which prevents the development of oncology, and vitamins A and C. Delicious green cabbage soup is prepared from sorrel, or simply crispy leaves are eaten fresh. How can we preserve sorrel so that it will delight us and give us its benefits all year round? It's time to take a closer look at the most common storage methods
Which leaves to choose?
The most suitable for storage will be young leaves that are not too large - there is less oxalic acid in such leaves than in their large counterparts, and an excess content of oxalic acid can provoke urolithiasis. Ideally, it is important to try to harvest the sorrel before early July.
Freezing sorrel
Useful microelements and valuable vitamins are preserved in frozen sorrel unchanged. And its taste also does not undergo absolutely any changes.
Sorrel should be frozen in several stages. First, all the leaves are carefully sorted out, sifting out blades of grass or flower arrows that have accidentally fallen to them. Then the greens are thoroughly washed. A spacious basin filled with water is ideal for this: the sorrel leaves in this case will remain intact, and all the dirt will instantly settle on the bottom of the basin.
If you plan to freeze large leaves, for convenience they are cut into transverse stripes about three centimeters wide each. Next, sorrel is dipped in boiling water, where it is kept for about a minute. At the same time, its color will change from green to olive, but there is nothing wrong with that: the quality of the collected leaves will not suffer in any case. Using a slotted spoon, the leaves are removed from the water and the liquid is allowed to drain. As for the greens, they must cool and dry properly - sometimes it takes several hours. And only after that, the sorrel leaves are laid out in plastic bags and sent to the freezer. In this form, sorrel can persist throughout the winter.
Before using frozen sorrel for cooking various dishes, it should not be thawed - the leaves removed from the freezer are immediately put into the desired dish, which by this time should be almost completely ready.
Dry sorrel
To use sorrel as a seasoning, it is often dried. The sorted, washed and dried leaves are thoroughly crushed and laid out on pre-prepared paper towels, covering them on top with exactly the same towels. For better drying, sorrel is placed under the direct rays of the sun (in apartment conditions, it can be laid out on a wide windowsill). Paper towels will quickly absorb excess moisture, and the gentle sun will make the sour leaves brittle and dry. If you wish, you can turn the ready-made seasoning into a powder - for this you just need to rub it between your fingers.
Cold salting
The prepared sorrel is cut into small pieces, after which it is densely laid in layers in clean glass jars. Sprinkle salt on each layer of greenery. Then the containers are tightly closed and, in fact, everything is ready! Cold salted sorrel is usually stored in the refrigerator.
Canning sorrel
The taste of canned sorrel remains practically unchanged, but these bright leaves still lose a small part of the nutrients. To preserve this useful plant, take 250 ml of water, 750 g of sorrel and several small pre-sterilized glass jars. The leaves are sorted out and washed, and then the petioles are cut off from them and for several minutes the leaves are blanched in boiling water. Then the greens are immediately put into jars, filling the leaves with water, in which they blanched a few minutes ago. The jars are rolled up and set to cool down with their necks. As for the storage of such blanks, they are perfectly stored both in the refrigerator and in the basement or cellar.
Sorrel in its own juice
Excellent storage option for sorrel! Jars filled to the brim with sorrel are placed in large and wide containers of water. You can use a basin or a spacious saucepan for these purposes. Putting them on the fire, they wait until all the greens settle, and then, as they settle, new portions of sorrel leaves are added - as a result, the containers should be filled with them to the brim. After that, the jars are removed from the water, sealed with plastic lids and taken to a cool place. Sorrel in its own juice is excellently stored all winter. At the same time, there is no need to fear that due to the lack of sugar and salt, it may deteriorate: the acid contained in the sorrel juice is an excellent preservative!
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Mountain Sorrel
Mountain sorrel is one of the plants of the family called Umbelliferae, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Peucedanum oreoselinum L. As for the name of the mountaineer family itself, in Latin it will be like this: Apiaceae Lindl.
Morison's Sorrel
Morison's sorrel belongs to the family of plants called umbellate, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Peucedanum morisonii L. As for the name of the family of the Morison mountaineer, in Latin it will be: Apiaceae Lindl.
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