Zurkelpatatjes

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   Zurkelpatatjes

I received this from a friend in Belgium and had to share; it looks very easy and delicious!

 This has been a very hot summer; never ever did I have such a nice patch of sorrel.

I have mentioned sorrel before; it was frequently used many years ago in typical Flemish dishes such as stampers, but also in a quintessential Flemish dish using eel. This dish is better known in culinary circles by its French name, anguilles au vert, meaning eel in green; in Flemish, the name is paling in’t groen. 

There’s also a very good Flemish potato dish using a lot of fresh sorrel, potato and bacon; it has a tart and fresh taste and is a great use of the green. The dish is called zurkelpatatjes, and it is mostly served with pork. Zurkel is sorrel and you may have guessed that patatjes are small potatoes. Patatjes is in fact kind of a pet-name for potatoes; officially, we use the name aardappelen for potatoes instead of patat. It kind of shows how much zurkelpatatjes are cherished.

Curiously enough, in my part of the already tiny Flanders region, we don’t know that dish well, so I Googled some recipes and they were all very different. Some wilt the sorrel first like spinach, others add it raw to boiled potatoes. I learned that blanching is out; sorrel loses most of its taste in water. That’s why potato water is never used to thin the potato mix, milk is an absolute must. Another important fact is tht sorrel discolours very fast when heated, from fresh green into an ugly khaki colour, so that is something to keep in mind.

Today, I made zurkelpatatjes with sorrel and bacon. I served them with breaded red snapper and beurre noisette (hazelnut butter). Following is how I made it; this is not complicated at all, but does take a bit of work.

First thing to do is to boil potatoes. I used 4 medium-sized peeled potatoes, around 2.5 to 3 pounds.

I proceeded with harvesting two large handfuls of sorrel leaves from my garden; I then washed them and ripped out the stalks, exactly how you would prepare spinach.

To prepare this, I cut raw, streaky bacon - slices of raw pork belly - into bite-sized chunks and dried them in paper towel before pan-frying them over a medium fire, seasoning well. When nicely browned, I added two thirds of the roughly chopped sorrel to wilt quickly in a few minutes, then set aside.

Next, crush the drained potatoes, then add the bacon/sorrel mixture, a nice chunk of butter and some milk; just enough to loosen it all a little. 

For the beurre noisette, melt a nice chunk of really good butter in a sauteuse on medium fire. Let it brown as far as you dare, but, without burning it. Making a beurre noisette is a bit tricky. Many times I end up with undercooking the butter, which gives nothing more than melted butter. Cook it on medium low until it starts to darken, go a bit further when it starts to smoke and smell nutty. When cooked long enough - right on the border when it will burn - you get this dark noisette or hazelnut butter, totally different than melted butter. That’s when it’s ready. It is so good with all kinds of stoemp and other potato dishes. Set it aside but keep it warm. 

The fish was first dipped in a beaten egg that was loosened with a few tablespoons of Grimbergen blonde beer, then dipped in breadcrumbs that were mixed with dried dill, lots of salt and white pepper. Panfry the fish until done - easy!

Just before serving the dish, I added the left-over raw sorrel, two tablespoons of sour cream, some seasoning and a last bit of milk to the zurkelpatatjes.

The picture explains how I plated it:

Incredible how the hazelnut butter and potatoes work together! There’s a distinct sorrel taste but the tart taste of sorrel stays in the background. One word: delicious!

This dish is usually served with pork meat like sausage or pork chops, but I do believe that using fish instead is absolutely fantastic!