It's been a busy week and I haven't had much chance to cook (but we did enjoy some Chinese takeout during the week -- definitely wasn't in Julia's cookbook) so I was determined to make something this weekend. Here it is -- Epinards a la Creme (creamed spinach). Dare I tell you what meal this went with? If you heard an odd clunking sound it was probably Julia rolling over in her grave. We had some leftover taco fixing's and decided to make some "walking tacos" for dinner since they'd be quick and easy. Not to be deterred, I made my French creamed spinach as a side dish for our non-Mexican walking tacos. Hey, if you're on a quest you're on a quest. Don Quixote had his windmills, I have "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
It seemed like a great recipe for today, just a couple of minutes here and there (2 to blanch, 2 to actually cook) and the spinach leaves came in a big tub of separate "baby spinach" leaves. Ahhhhh, but the fine print did me in again. To get to the end result I had to work through three fairly simple and straight forward recipes. The last step did me in -- the part about braising in cream for 15 minutes. Fifteen? Where did that come from? Sheesh, I thought I was ahead of schedule on this one. I was actually reading the funny papers waiting until 10 minutes before time to serve dinner so I wouldn't finish too early. With five minutes until dinner time and, what I thought was, two minutes of final cooking time I reread Julia's instructions and saw that I needed to let everything simmer for 15 minutes after adding the cream. When did that get put into the recipe? I'm pretty sure it wasn't there when I first read it.
So, dinner was planned for 5 of us and I wanted to make sure I had plenty for everyone. We went shopping the evening before and I hadn't looked closely at the recipe for over a week. I didn't remember exactly how much fresh spinach I'd need so debated for a minute or two at the store whether one 10 ounce tub of spinach was enough or if I should get two. You know the one's I'm talking about? The tub is about 8"x10"x18 inches and is a whole lot of spinach when used as a salad. Just to be safe I got two tubs. Much to my surprise, as I began preparing dinner and reread Julia's instructions I discover that for just 3 cups of cooked spinach I need to start with 3 pounds of fresh spinach. Three pounds? Remember that saying -- "A pints a pound the world around?" I remember it and Elizabeth likes to recite it to me everytime I ask for a measurement conversion. Nonetheless, that saying has never made any sense to me and it still doesn't. If I ask: "Honey, how many teaspoons in a tablespoon?" I'll immediately get the answer: "A pints a pound the world around." My daughter Loralie tried to clear it up once and gave me a picture of "Gallon Man" with different measurements on his body. In spite of looking like someone had written numbers on Iron Man, it didn't solve anything for me. For now, I just use the handy refrigerator magnet on our freezer door that has all kinds of conversion tables.
Now, back to the spinach. I ended up with 20 ounces of raw spinach and, while actually remembering that a pound is 16 ounces, I quickly realize that I've go nowhere near the 48 ounces Julia said I'd need for 3 cups. Hence this became an appetizer for Popeye instead of a main course to give him superpower to defeat Bluto. Oh well, I decided to make due with what I had on hand, although I was tempted to quickly mow the lawn and mix in some grass clippings for extra volume...
I mentioned that the actual cooking time was pretty quick. I took the largest pot we own and brought several quarts of water to a boil. Then the raw spinach was just dumped in and boiled for two minutes. This is called blanching and, once done, completed the first recipe of "Epinards Blanchis" (blanched spinach). This was actually a pretty amazing step -- the spinach was dropped into the boiling water and immediately softened and changed color to a dark green. After two minutes the water was drained and cold water added to stop the cooking
Following the blanching, the blanched spinach was removed from the water and actually gently squeezed to remove as much water as possible. The blanched spinach was then moved to a cutting board and quickly chopped. After being chopped, the spinach went into a covered dish and was left in the fridge until ready for the final step. I was pretty excited to have this done a couple hours before dinner -- thinking I had lots of time to do the final quick step. The blanched and chopped spinach was ready to be pulled out for the second recipe for "Puree d'Epinards Simple (cooked chopped spinach) which would take the spinach at another point where it could be served. I was pretty excited to have this done a couple hours before dinner -- thinking I had lots of time to do the final quick step.
As soon as I was ready to finish up, I took the spinach out of the fridge and put it into a pan with some hot bubbling butter for about 2 minutes. This step removes more of the moisture and after adding some salt and pepper the spinach would be ready to serve as plain chopped spinach. But today that was not to be -- we were going to have creamed spinach! This is also the jumping off point for several other versions of spinach so I'll be getting practice on these steps again.
After the spinach had cooked enough that it was beginning to actually stick to the pan a bit, it was time add a couple spoonfuls of flour and cook for another two minutes. Then it was time for the cream. The spinach was pulled from the heat and the cream added a spoonful at time and stirred in then put back onto low heat. That's where the timing was thrown off -- it had to simmer covered for about 15 minutes! **sigh** Had I read that earlier I'd have been done right on time! So close.
It actually turned out pretty tasty, but there was about 1/3 as much as I'd planned on. We enjoyed the appetizer, served 15 minutes after the main course was started, and it actually seemed to fit into the pattern that the family is becoming used to. I was only mocked a little bit tonight. I did cheat a bit with the main photo at the top -- hopefully it looks like a big serving bowl full of the creamed spinach. Confession: That's a soup bowl that I zoomed in on for the photo.
I did learn an interesting tip from Julia regarding cooking spinach. Did you know that you should avoid cooking the spinach in aluminum or cast iron pans other than for the blanching step? Apparently spinach will easily pick up the metallic taste form aluminum or iron. Who'd of thunk it? Now you know and you also know about creamed spinach. Just make sure you buy it by the bushel!!
Bon appetit!
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