Chard Cakes With Sorrel Sauce

- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3cups sorrel leaves
- ½cup Greek yogurt
- 1garlic clove, crushed
- 3tablespoons olive oil
- ½teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Salt
- pepper
- 1¼pounds Swiss chard
- ⅓cup pine nuts
- 4ounces kashkaval cheese (or pecorino, coarsely grated
- 1egg
- 6tablespoons dried white bread crumbs
- Mixture of vegetable oil and olive oil, for frying
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the sauce: In a food processor or a blender, place sorrel, yogurt, garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, the mustard and salt to taste; process until it is bright green. Taste and add salt, if desired. Refrigerate until needed.
- Step 2
Cut woody white stalks from chard leaves. Bring a large pan of water to boil. Add the stalks and simmer for 4 minutes. Then add the leaves, stir and continue simmering for 3 minutes. Drain the chard and allow to cool slightly. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much water as possible. Chop leaves and stalks roughly and put in a medium bowl.
- Step 3
In a small skillet, fry pine nuts in 1 tablespoon olive oil for 1 minute, or until light brown. Add nuts and oil to the chard, followed by the cheese, egg, bread crumbs, ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. If mixture is very soft and sticky, add more crumbs.
- Step 4
Pour enough frying oil into a large skillet to come ¼ inch up the sides. Shape chard mixture into eight patties roughly 2 inches in diameter and ⅝-inch thick. Fry them for about 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Place on paper towels to absorb oil. Serve warm or at room temperature, with sauce on the side.
Private Notes
Comments
This is a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from his book Plenty. I don't bother with the breadcrumbs but you do need to squeeze the chard until no water comes out. Sorrel can be hard to find so I often make the sauce with parsley. It is delicious!
A lot of oil inside and then frying. Can these be baked?
I have an allergy to pine nuts. What's a good substitute for this? Thanks in advance for any help!
Such a divide in the opinions on this recipe! I'm making it in the first week's if fall (maybe) and it's divine. But if you're expecting summery (who wouldn't, what with all that Sorrel and chard!) no, it's not that. It doesn't work the way I thought. I assumed the egg and crumbs were the binder but as it's cooking its actually the *cheese* that finally holds it together, so if it's a little crumbly, throw it in the pan and then don't touch it - let the cheese caramelize and bind.
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