Spinach Now

Home Cooks No Longer in Avant-Guarde

In the days of two-step vegetable cooking, spinach was blanched by brief steaming or boiling. The second step, at the least, involved a sauté in butter, or a long braise in cream. An ambitious cook would bake spinach in a soufflé, or a gratin or custard with eggs, flour, and heavy cream.

As a busy home cook I have never had time for the second step. I blanched, seasoned, served. From time to time I might exchange a "recipe," call it seasoning, with a friend. Talk about being outside the mainstream of real cooking.

Now it develops that simple blanching may be best after all, not from the brief time involved, but out of respect for the vegetable.

Gurus Comment on Blanched Spinach

Richard Olney (Simple French Cooking) feels strongly that fresh spinach should be blanched in boiling water, as each leaf is individually cooked. His boiling time is under 2 minutes, 3 or 4 minutes for older leaves.

He takes issue with those who hold that spinach should be cooked in a pan with only its washing water. He observes that part of the spinach then becomes stewed. Moreover, the water becomes black and must be thrown away, along with much of the vegetable’s goodness.

Alice Waters (Chez Panisse Vegetables) sometimes boils, sometimes steams in a basket over boiling water. For a salad she may place spinach, mixed with the dressing, in a stainless bowl, the bowl placed over simmering water until the spinach wilts. On other occasions she may wilt spinach briefly in olive oil.

In the restaurant she will long-cook spinach, but apparently serves no gratins.

On the Subtleties of Washing Spinach

When it comes to washing spinach the busy home cook can be categorical: Never, never will I wash a leaf of fresh spinach. This is too ugly a chore to contemplate. You must plunge the leaves up and down in a tub of fresh water, then change the water and do the same thing all over again, then once more, scrubbing the stems for sand all the time, and when will there ever be time to cook the dinner?

No. There is a time for fresh spinach, and a time for frozen spinach. The time for fresh spinach occurs thus: You find in the store a package of thoroughly pre-washed spinach. Buy this package if you can afford it. This is your window of opportunity for fresh spinach. The rest of the year belongs to frozen spinach. It is not quite the same, but on balance good enough, good enough.

To Chop Spinach

If you chop after wilting, you will have much less volume with which to deal.

A chopping board or tile is useful here. Fold up spinach and cut it in one direction, then give the board a quarter turn and chop again.

The Usefulness of Frozen Spinach

In our household, we have settled on frozen spinach as the primary backup vegetable. A package or two is always available in the freezer, for a variety of uses. (We also keep a little frozen corn and, for decoration, a package of frozen peas. That’s about it for frozen vegetables in our freezer.)

Many cookbook writers seem to sneer at frozen vegetables of any type. Julia Child, always attentive to the practical problems of the home cook, encourages use of frozen spinach. Of course it can never have the wonderful flavor of fresh spinach, but it is tasty in its own right. For some uses, as a bed under salmon, say, or stirred into white sauce for lasagna, it is nearly indistinguishable from fresh spinach.

SIMPLE SPINACH

To cook spinach, boiling briefly in water is the preferred method. This is simpler than you might think, as the quantity of water is not vast. Steaming is second choice. The third method presented below, cooking over a very slow burner, is the height of convenience. With the latter method, there is some sacrifice to quality for fresh spinach, but not for frozen.

To Serve Spinach

If we regard blanched spinach as a serious vegetable, we should present it accordingly. This is a grateful performance, as simply cooked spinach is a lovely green, and the leaves retain their shape.

The blanched spinach may be spread on a plate, decorated with lemon slices, and perhaps paprika. Or it may be served in an oval bowl, decorated the same way.

Do not serve spinach in silver (nor cook it in aluminum).

Spinach blanched by boiling stores better than uncooked spinach. It will hold two days or longer in the refrigerator with no change in quality.

Serves four

Place about 1 ½ inch of water in the pan, add salt, and bring rapidly to the boil.

Place a handful of spinach leaves in the water. Leave 1 or 2 minutes until spinach is wilted, and tastes done. (If spinach is somewhat old, it may take a bit longer.)

Remove cooked spinach to a plate. Spread it out on the plate so that it will cool and stop cooking.

Repeat with another handful of spinach. Place cooked spinach on the second plate, to cool.

Repeat until all spinach is cooked.

Place cooled spinach on a serving plate or bowl, and season with pepper.

(May be done ahead to this point.)

When ready to serve, dot with a little butter, or drizzle on a little olive oil. Warm in microwave or warming oven, decorate with lemon slices, and serve.

Wilt spinach by steaming in a basket over water, perhaps 2 or 3 minutes.

Frozen spinach need not be cooked, only thawed and heated through. Place it in a covered pan over a burner turned to the lowest possible low. While you go about doing other things, in 30 to 45 minutes the spinach will be nicely thawed. It can be served immediately, or held, or processed further.

This method may also be used for fresh spinach, although the leaves do not cook as uniformly as in boiling or steaming above.

To cooked simple spinach, fresh or frozen, stir in any of the following:

The onions cooked until golden make a rather substantial dish, particularly if used together with cooked, sliced mushrooms.

Nutmeg is a traditional seasoning for spinach, perhaps a bit of a cliché by now to some people. For something a little different, try galangal, also called Laos powder. This has an unusual flowery fragrance. Available from Penzeys catalogue or website.

Mint occurs frequently in Middle Eastern recipes for spinach.

SPINACH AND YOGURT

Spinach and yogurt make a fine combination. Claudia Roden (A Book of Middle Eastern Food) states that spinach "has a remarkable affinity with yogurt." Yogurt may be placed on top of the spinach, or stirred in.

The yogurt may be plain, or flavored with garlic, roasted cumin, or other spices.

Yogurt On Top

Yogurt makes a fine topping for spinach. Sprinkle the yogurt with paprika for color. (Or use Aleppo red pepper, see index.)

Instead of paprika, try a Turkish embellishment using dried mint. Heat the dried mint (fresh is unsuitable) in oil or butter. Very quickly it will release its flavor ("exploding" with flavor as various recipes around the world, describing such embellishments with different spices, sometimes state). Place the exploded Turkish mint and oil on the yogurt topping and serve immediately.

Yogurt Stirred In

Yogurt simply stirred into warm spinach makes a nice vegetable. Use a little or a lot, to taste.

As it is, this will not be a raita, although it could be made such. What is a raita?

Yogurt is used extensively in India for cooking, marinating, and relishes. There are "hundreds" of relishes, according to Madhur Jaffrey. Of these, one type is a raita: A cooked or raw vegetable stirred into yogurt, seasonings added, and the dish refrigerated before serving.

Jaffrey’s favorite raita uses eggplant. In addition to raw or cooked spinach, she likes cucumber, boiled potato, tomato and onion, dumplings. Her seasonings include raw onions and fresh mint.

Serves 4

Wash and cook spinach as Simple Spinach above, or other method.

When spinach is cool, squeeze out the juice. (If using thick yogurt cream, reserve the juice. Stir into the cream enough spinach juice, plus water if needed, to make the desired consistency.)

Chop spinach fine. Peel and puree the garlic.

Mix yogurt and garlic in a serving bowl. Stir in the spinach.

Variations

Omit garlic.

In place of garlic, stir in a few roasted cumin seeds. 

Use various yogurt garnishes, as described for black bean soup. 

Here is something a little different for spinach. It is a substantial dish, made so by a rather large quantity of golden onions. The onions flavor, and also stiffen, the spinach.

Onions are minced, as they are to disappear in the final dish. Like Escoffier’s glazed carrots, they are started in both water and oil.

This makes a fine accompaniment for meat or poultry. The dish may be prepared well ahead, in fact benefits as spinach absorbs the golden onion flavor. It can be refrigerated, and goes well with eggs for breakfast next day.

Serves 4

Cook fresh or frozen spinach from a recipe for Simple Spinach above. For convenience, delay chopping until after cooking. When spinach is cooked, pour off excess water and reserve for later use.

Mince the onions and place them in the pan. Add water to half the height of the onions or a little less. Stir in olive oil.

Bring rapidly to simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Check from time to time. The aim is to cook in water, but most of the water should be gone at the end. If onions give signs of drying out, add teaspoons of water.

Uncover. Keep simmering. The water will evaporate and the oil will take over. In 15 minutes, more or less, the onions will start to acquire the characteristic golden yellow taste. They will turn a little yellow, but not acquire the golden yellow that they would if cooked in oil from the start. Be guided by taste, not appearance.

When onions are cooked, stir into the cooked spinach. Heat and cook together a minute or two. The mixture may be quite thick. Stir in reserved spinach juice and water to desired consistency. Season and remove from heat. Set aside until ready to serve.

Sauce: Peel and puree the garlic. Beat yogurt and garlic together in a small bowl. Just before serving, place on top of the spinach. Decorate with paprika.

Variations

Mushrooms and/or diced ham are obvious candidates for addition here. Cook separately and stir into the onions before adding spinach. This could become a one-dish meal.

For a creamier sauce, use thick yogurt cream.

In place of paprika, use Aleppo red pepper.