iheartyum » spinach

Spinach Sauté with Apples, Dried Fruit and Pine Nuts

Gwen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:40:57 +0000

Ok, so I’m on a spinach kick.About a month ago, we met my cousin Constance (à la stuffed acorn squash) and her beau in Vegas. Our first night there we ate a rather generic meal at yet another one of those modern tapas restaurants. But to our shock, the best plate that evening was a simple and quiet spinach dish that my clever cousin ordered. This is my attempt to replicate the spot-on flavors of that highly memorable dish. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Spinach Sauté with Apples, Dried Fruit and Pine Nuts
Serves 3 – 4 as a side dish

16 oz baby spinach
1 shallot, small dice
1 fuji apple, peeled and cored, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/8 cup dried currants
1/8 cup golden raisins
1 tbsp butter + 1/2 tbsp butter, seperated
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/8 cup chicken or veggie stock

Begin by toasting your pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat. Go ahead and use your largest skillet for this, to keep the dishes at a minimum. When pine nuts are golden, remove from pan and reserve for later. Wipe out any crumbs and set the pan over medium-high heat.

To the pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter. Drop in your shallot and apples and saute for 2 minutes, just until they begin to soften. Add in the dried currants and raisins and continue to cook, stirring often, until apples have turned slightly golden at the edges, about 4 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper. This is the doneness you’re looking for here:

Pour in the sherry vinegar and stock, quickly followed by as much of the spinach as you can fit in the pan. The stock here is added to produce steam, which will allow the spinach to wilt more quickly and evenly. Turn the heat down to medium and drop on the lid, or even a sheet pan, to trap in all that good steam. After 1-2 minutes, give the spinach a stir, adding in any spinach that didn’t make it the first round. Continue to wilt over medium heat for 1 – 2 additional minutes.

Now remove the lid and toss in the pine nuts (we’re adding these at the very end so they retain their texture). Give it a taste and adjust your salt and pepper seasonings. Finally, right before serving, I like to stir in the remaining 1/2 tbsp of butter which helps make everything beautiful and glossy and adds some depth to the light brothy sauce.

Baby Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Gwen — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:42:48 +0000

Hello friends, remember me? It’s that old blog you’ve forgotten about. Today I thought I’d post some old-school deliciousness: spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. Here’s my spin on the 100-year-old classic. Traditionally its a wilted salad, but that’s because the recipe was concocted when there was only one type of spinach readily available: the giant, gritty full grown leaves. I prefer to keep some of the fresh crispness in the baby spinach to counter the rich, tangy dressing. BTW, this makes a great, speedy weeknight dinner for two.

Baby Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Serves 2 for dinner, or 4 as a side-dish

4 slices of bacon, diced
1 shallot, fine mince (or an 1/8 cup finely minced red onion, if you must)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar — no substitutes this time. this is the real deal.
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 package baby spinach (about 6 cups)
1 cup white mushrooms, sliced paper thin (about half a small package)
1/4 cup red onion, sliced paper thin
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into wedges

Go ahead and put your eggs on to boil. Seriously, I know you don’t have any sitting around in your fridge. For the record, I like to start mine in cold water, bring to a rapid boil over high heat, cover and switch the heat off. 20 minutes later the eggs are perfectly cooked. Then drop the whole pan under the faucet and run cool water in until the eggs are chilled enough to handle.

While the eggs are cooking, drop the bacon into a large skillet over medium heat. The closer the bacon gets to done, the lower I drop the heat. It takes 7-10 minutes for the bacon to get beautifully golden and crispy. Remove with slotted spoon and let the bacon drain on a paper towel while you finish the dressing.

You should have about 3 tbsps of drippings left in the pan. Add some olive oil if you’re short to round it out. Gently saute the shallot over medium heat until its lovely and golden. Now add the vinegar, sugar, mustards, a healthy grind of pepper and a pinch of salt and whisk to combine, scraping up all the little bacony bits that stuck to the pan. Allow to simmer for 1-2 minutes so the dressing can thicken up and for some of the bite of the vinegar to cook off. If you really feel the need to wilt your baby spinach, or if you’re using the adult spinach leaves, toss the greens into the skillet for the last 30-60 seconds of cooking, being sure to flip/stir the spinach to ensure even wilting.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, mushrooms and red onions and toss gently. Pour the warm dressing straight from the skillet into the bowl and quickly toss to coat evenly. Now sprinkle over those yummy bacony bits. You forgot about them, didn’t you? No you didn’t, you’ve been snacking on them the whole time you’ve been cooking. Wait, that was me.

Season the egg wedges with a bit of salt. Serve the salad in a big bowl with the wedges of egg adorning the outsides. Look at that, what a pro.

Sesame Seasoned Spinach

keebot — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Korean food is all about side dishes! Here’s a lightly seasoned spinach dish that I’m rather partial to eat!

Sesame Seasoned Spinach! SSS! Like the KKK but fortified with iron?

Ingredients:
1 bunch thingie of spinach
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of korean red pepper flakes (if using crushed red pepper, just use a dash or 2)

The Korean red pepper flakes are actually kinda sweet. It’s a sweet heat, not a hot hot burninating heat. So if you are only going to use normal crushed red peppers, definitely use less. (: Less is more!

Of course, wash and clip off the dead ends of zee spinach! (:

First, the sauce!

Grab a large mixing bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of korean red pepper flakes

Throw the spinach into a pot of boiling water. It’s okay to pile it on there. (: You can fold it into the water.

Like so!
It should only take about 2 or 3 minutes for the spinach to be ready. Any longer and they become too mushy.
Once it looks like this, turn off the heat and take the sukka out of the water!

Rinse in cold water!
Drain!

Swish and mix it around in the sauce.

Plate and sprinkle a little sesame seeds on that mofo!

Such a great leetle side dish full of vitamin yum!