Sautéed Spinach for (can you guess, yet?)
(recipe follows)
Sautéed Spinach is one of those dishes best made as improve. Knowing what flavors suit spinach, you combine flavors that match whatever you’re having it with or in. You can use frozen spinach, but fresh is of course better. You can use the whole leaf, but stemmed, spinach is smooth and creamy in the mouth. If you dislike spinach, it try it freshly stemmed quickly cooked quickly with these flavor combinations.
- Western: Bacon, garlic, onion or shallot, lemon juice or vinegar
- Indian: Cumin, garlic, lemon juice or yogurt or creme fraise, salt
- Asian: Soy sauce, sugar, vinegar
You’ll notice in those combinations there is sweetness, sourness, and saltiness. In my opinion, sourness balanced with sweetness bring out spinach’s full favor and the salt rounds it out. These combinations are meant to go in a Savory Pie, turn overs, or tarts. They’ve worked well for me over the years. You add fat and cook the garlic, onion, shallot until it’s nice and brown or the cumin until it pops, then add the spinach. After the spinach wilts off the heat, add the liquid ingredients and salt, stir and taste. Served as a side, chopped hard boiled eggs are very nice tossed into it.
Sautéed Spinach
sautéed spinach
- 1 or 2 bunches of freshly stemmed spinach blades
- 1 or 2 slices of bacon (for the fat in your recipe)
- 1/4 cup very thinly sliced or minced onions or 1 shallot thinly sliced
- a few drops of lemon or vinegar to taste
- salt to taste
or
- 1 or 2 bunches of freshly stemmed spinach blades
- 1 or 2 tablespoon butter, ghee, or flavorless oil (butter works best 1:1 with oil)
- up to 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- a few drops of lemon juice or up to a tablespoon fresh unflavored yogurt
- 1/4 cup very thinly sliced onions (optional)
- salt to taste
or
- 1 or 2 bunches of freshly stemmed spinach blades
- 1 or 2 tablespoon butter, ghee, or flavorless oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- up to 1 teaspoon sugar
- a few drops vinegar
- salt to taste
Method:
Fry the bacon until the oil is released, remove from the pan, add onions or shallots and cook until well browned. Add the spinach and cook coating in the fat, off the heat, add lemon/vinegar, salt, and the bacon chopped fine. Cool for the pie or serve.
Put the oil in the fry pan on high. Add the cumin seeds and when they pop add the onions (if using) and cook until they’re brown, then add the spinach and stir constantly mixing them with the flavored oil until they wilt, off the heat, add lemon juice and salt. Taste. Alternatively, add yogurt and salt then taste. Let it cool for the pie or serve.
Heat oil in try pan, add spinach and cook until wilted. Add soy and sugar and toss until the liquids have evaporated off. Add salt and vinegar, mix and taste. Cool for the pie or serve.
[original post: I’m going to be publishing a recipe which has a few steps. Instead of making one massive post I’m going to write the recipes for each individual component. When I publish that final recipe, I’ll link everything together and unhide the actual recipe in this post.]
I love spinach! I’m getting massive doses of greens to increase calcium and I have no complaints. We do a quick saute add a small amount of salt (or not), then serve with a small amount of soy sauce.
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Spinach is not one of my favourites – i’m slowly warming to it and making it in a variety of ways. I’ll try yours.
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Pingback: Savory Pie — Your Way! | Made by you and I
Please say it’s for palak paneer? Please? Pretty please?
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hehehehe, that’s coming. I’m reshooting it this week.
🙂
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oooooh, good!
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Definitely a demon!
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Sadistic bastard. Sighh …
I bought a bunch of fresh ‘English’ spinach on Friday and cooked it with caramelised onions for dinner, along with leftovers from a yummy eggplant thing, and it was absolutely tasteless. Yummy eggplant good, onions good, spinach nozzink. However, I left ITS leftovers and cooked ’em into a frittata last night, and that was really nice. Spinach ? Prefer silverbeet meself …
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Are you saying you cooked the spinach with the caramelized onions in a fry pan? (BTW, canalized onions are coming soon.) Or, did you boil or steam the spinach and then add it to the onions? Were you using any seasonings? Aid you stem the spinach before you cooked it?
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I am. That is what I did. Well, that is to say, I cooked the onions for ten minutes or so and then added the spinach and put the lid on for a coupla minutes.
No I didn’t.
[grin]
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Oh, dear. We have some work to do.
I was planning on posting The Onion Sandwich (caramelized onions) after, but maybe I’ll do it before to help you out. 😉
Are you okay with adding cream to food?
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‘S long as it ain’t much … I’ve put back on a whole shitload of the weight I lost … 😦
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Well, if it makes you feel any better, I found some of that weight. I’m trying to wear well, but I have a hunch you look better in it than me. After all, women ‘should’ be shapely and men should not have moobs — that’s my cue for a gym break.
😉
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Yer young. Go for it.
Me ? – gym ? [falls about laughing]
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M.R., you have gotten older, not feeble. As a published author, your age is in the public domain and I can tell you — one day I’ll take some pics for you — of men and women much older than you working it at the gym — and looking good.
One man I’m thinking of is nearing his 70’s and regularly benches 100kg and runs like a madman. With the aging population here the norm is physically fit. It’s rarer and rarer to see elderly people, but people in their 80’s are all around. If you’re worried about your weight, consider a yoga DVD or class. It’s low impact and good for stress — Wow! it’s 1:30a.m. I have to eat dinner and go to bed.
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You have me thinking …
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But do they have osteoarthritis of the lumbar area, such that they can’t lie flat ? or run ? or even walk rapidly ?
😐
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http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/08/10/are-you-faster-than-a-90-year-old-japans-turbo-granny-still-smashing-records/
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I’m blessed with good health, so I can’t comment M.R. It seems to me that when people want to do something, they can.
When I was 19 I had a job and my boss, a vibrant woman, told me how she broke her back many years before. The doctors said she’d never walk, but she didn’t give up and did, in fact, did and does much more than walk.
We’ve all heard the stories. Some of us have met people who have done great things. I think the point to remember is that we have within each of us potential to go beyond what we perceive as our limits. So, osteoarthritis or not, if there’s something you want to do, strive towards it and be glad you have a goal to work for.
So sayith The Rotund.
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