Sorrel Recipe By Chef Mireille Roc

I am so excited to introduce today’s post. It’s a little out of the ordinary – hence the excitement. Today, I have a guest post from Chef Mireille Roc of The Schizo Chef, and a fellow food blogger from the Big Apple! I met Mireille a few weeks ago on Instagram. I was browsing through pictures (as you do!) and I noticed she had lots of diverse foods on her gallery – a truly multicultural foodie and chef!

I was intrigued and as I read more about her, I discovered she’s got such a diverse cultural background which obviously was the influence for her love of diverse food. Interestingly, her diverse background sparked an interest in African food and so when she reached out to ask if I would be interested in swapping recipes, I gladly obliged!

If you love multicultural food, as I do, then you’ll love Mireille, and you should connect with her at Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Here’s a bit about Mireille first before we get on to her post – in her own words..

Chef Mireille is a NYC based freelance chef/chef instructor/recipe developer/food & travel writer. She comes from a diverse cultural background including Aruba, Haiti, India and Indonesia. She explores authentic global cuisine and globally inspired new dishes on her blog, The Schizo Chef. Appreciation of different cultures via its food breaks down biases and encourages dialogue.

Many foods transcend continents and cultures, especially those of the Caribbean. Some foods were introduced into Caribbean culture via African slaves and others were introduced later via Indian indentured servants, Arab traders and Chinese immigrants. Most Caribbean people are a mixture of these races and cultures. As diverse as our heritage is our cuisine.

Just as ugali (African cornmeal porridge), also known as pap in South Africa became funchi in Aruba, fungee in Antigua, coo coo in Barbados and xerem in Brazil, sorrel has its origins in the African continent. What Africans call bissap is what we call sorrel. As happens whenever foods transcend continents, the original recipe is somewhat adjusted to local preferences and availability, but you can still find the origins if you look hard enough.

Sorrel is a beverage popular throughout the Caribbean, although there is slight variation in the spices used to flavour it from island to island. Jamaicans for example make it with a lot of ginger. Too much in my opinion so that it burns as you swallow it. This is the way my mother always made it, who comes from the Dutch Caribbean paradise of Aruba.

Sorrel is made from a variety of hibiscus. Although usually sold dried, you can occasionally even here in New York City, find fresh sorrel/ hibiscus flowers to make it. Then the flavour is even more intense although the colour is less deep.