It is so pleasant to plunge into the sunny green summer in the middle of the gray cold winter. To do this, you can take a vacation and take off for a week in some hot country, or you can do less and prepare for dinner a real wonderful summer soup using canned sorrel. Of course, in order for him to appear in the house at the right time, it will be necessary to take care of this in advance. After all, sorrel grows at the very beginning of summer, when the affectionate sun already begins to bake, from late May to early June. It is during this period that you need to collect this plant, which has a pleasant acidity and gives the soup cooked from it such an unforgettable summer aroma.
How to preserve sorrel for the winter? The process itself does not cause any difficulties. The main thing is the proper processing of leaves before the procedure. In order to get canned sorrel, which will last until winter, and maybe even longer, first of all it must be washed very carefully. If you do this procedure not very carefully and leave any dirt, then there is a high probability of the multiplication of viruses and bacteria, which abounds in the leaf surface. Therefore, the processing process must begin with washing, sorting them one by one. You should remove all unnecessary: foreign leaves, grass, insects accidentally falling there. In order to get all the dirt you have not noticed, you need to fill the leaves of the sorrel with cold water and leave them to soak for half an hour. During this time, the leaves should be completely cleaned. While you can prepare the banks, having sterilized them well, for example, by steam. The covers from them will need to be treated with boiling water right before rolling up.
Having cleared the canned sorrel from contamination, we proceed to give it the form in which it will be stored. You can cut it in any way of your choice. Some housewives can preserve sorrel leaves in their entirety, but I think it’s better to chop them all the same - so a larger quantity of them will fit in the jar. You can store sorrel in the form of mashed potatoes, but most often it is cut, as in a soup. Now you should put everything in jars to start cooking canned sorrel, the recipe of which you choose at your discretion. It must be laid very tightly.
The last stage in canning is filling cans with water. Here you have to make a choice, because there are several ways. When cooked, the leaves will lose color and will look like in a soup. There is nothing to say about the advantages of any particular of these methods - all of them allow the sorrel to survive for a very long time.
So, the first way is to fill the jars up to the neck with hot water, you can slightly salted. Be careful that containers do not burst due to temperature changes. Avoid direct contact of the water with the walls of the can during its filling.
The second way: pour layers of leaves with salt and pour cold water. This will result in a very salty canned sorrel. Do not forget about it when you cook the soup!
When using the following method, it is necessary to fill the leaves with chilled boiled water. Then close the covers.
Well, the last known method is to pour sorrel with a mixture of water, salt and vinegar. About 50 grams of vinegar and a tablespoon of salt should be taken per liter of water.
As you can see, all methods are simple, affordable, or rather, practically free. Using any of them, you will get your piece of summer in the middle of winter, boiling a wonderful soup according to your favorite recipe.