Ingredients:
2 lbs baby spinach (rinsed clean)
1/2 a yellow onion (chopped small)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tbl spoons minced bell pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock or 2 tbl Spoons glace de poulet (reduced chicken stock - that
chicken jelly me`re grande [grand mamma] used to make with the left overs from roast chicken)
1 tsp rice vinegar
2tsp regular vinegar (Yes, you can skip the rice vinegar or use
whatever kind you like.)
Have salt on hand, I use sea salt, all together, maybe a tablespoon tops.
1-2 tbl spoons lemon juice
1 tbl spoon bacon fat
2-3 tbl spoons olive oil
Equipment:
Wooden Spoon with a long handle
cullender (to drain the spinach)
cutting board
knife
measuring spoons (if you feel the need)
large skillet with lid
Heat, fire, burner whatever.
Step 1. Wash the spinach well and set aside to drain. You need to get almost all the water off.
Step 2. Chop the Onion, Bell Pepper, and Garlic
Step 3. Heat the bacon fat and half of the olive oil in the large skillet.
Step 3. Saute the Onion, Bell Pepper, and Garlic in the fat and oil. If there is not quite enough oil,
add the rest of the olive oil. Remember, you are not deep frying these things, just cooking
them in a light coat of oil until clear.
Step 4. Once the onions are clear, add the spinach. Add it a good layer at a time
(in all, perhaps three layers), sprinkling a little sea salt on top of each layer. Use
the wooden spoon to get it all in. The spinach will be almost over-flowing the pan.
Step 5. Add the chicken stock or glace.
Step 6. Cover and reduce the heat to low.
Step 7. After ten minutes or so, check the contents. You should see some really dark green reduced leaves
and a few that are not yet reduced. Stir the contents and cover again.
Step 8. Check the contents after five minutes. Most of the leaves should be dark green and you should see a lot of green liquid.
Step 9. Crank up the heat to Medium (gas stove) or Medium High (electric stove).
We need to boil off some of the liquid.
Step 10. After ten or fifteen minutes the liquid should be reduced by half. You are entering a
realm of vanishing returns. The longer you cook it at that heat, the more liquid you
will extract from the spinach, and the worse it will taste. Lower the heat. Set it on the lowest setting.
Step 11. Add the vinegar. Stir in well and cover the skillet.
Step 12. Let wait as long as you need to until dinner is ready.
When dinner is ready, turn off the heat. Add a little of the lemon juice to brighten the flavor.
Taste. Season to taste with hot sauce, etc. and serve. You should be ready to eat and enjoy.
I mentioned my ten year old...
I said that my ten year old likes this spinach. She does.
It is slightly sour and salty, and has depth
from the chicken glace and the spinach. She is not
really aware of the reasons, she just likes the taste.
She has been eating "grown up" food all of her life.
I never went in for that special food for kids
and the good stuff for mom and dad. It is too expensive
and time consuming to cook twice. I cook it,
and if they do not want it, they do not have to eat it.
That has always been my rule. My ten year old
discovered quickly that a lot of the stuff mom and dad eat is
really good. It took my seventeen year old a good
while longer. My ex used to coddle her a bit and I continued it.
If I was grilling steak and she wanted a burger,
that was fine by me! The ten year old thought she was nuts.
Turn down rare ribeye steak for over-done ground round?
What kind of crack was she smoking? The seventeen year old
was actually fifteen when she decided to pop
a piece of the "gross-looking red meat" in her mouth.
It was too funny. She steeled herself, and took a
deep breath and popped it in. She chewed it, and her eyes
got bigger and she relaxed and made noises like
"oh wow" and "ooh, that's so good!"
Now I wait until she is out somewhere to grill ribeyes.
She even admits to liking deer, but it makes her cry if we
tell her up front what we are eating for dinner.
The bottom line is, that if your kids aren't
eating what is good for them, you started out wrong and
caved in too many times. It is not too late for the speech:
"That's what we're eating kids. Eat it, or don't eat it.
But if you whine at my table you are not welcome to sit
at it for two days."
No, I never let them starve. I just made them wait until after
the family had eaten to have dinner. We would sit
down as a family and eat, finish, clear the table, have dessert,
clear the table and then the whinner got to sit down.
In twenty-two years of raising four kids I have been through
that three times. Once for each daughter (which is also
once for each kid over nine). The youngest is six and lives with my
other ex; his day hasn't come yet.
Which brings up my other comment. If you are not eating as a family
at least once a day, at least six days a week, nutrition is not
your family's major problem.
Spinach with advice. You get your dime's worth here!
Y'all take care, and let me know if you liked the spinach.
courtesy of www.dougriddle.com
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