Spinach (Epinards)

The "Queen" Cookery Books. No.10. Veg... · S. Beaty-Pownall · 1902
Source
The "Queen" Cookery Books. No.10. Vegerable
Time
Cook: 15 min Total: 15 min
Status
success · extracted 4 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (12)
Instructions (14)
  1. Pick over the spinach, removing all faded or imperfect leaves and any coarse stalk.
  2. Wash well in two or three waters.
  3. Put it on in a pan with a little water, or only the water adhering to the leaves after washing.
  4. Let it cook till tender, which takes from ten to fifteen minutes.
  5. Drain well, and rub it through a sieve.
  6. Melt together 1oz. of butter with a teaspoonful of flour, till perfectly smooth.
  7. Add this to the spinach with pepper, salt, and a little new milk or cream, or good gravy.
  8. Stir it all well together till hot, and serve.
  9. Spinach improves by reheating.
  10. To ensure success with spinach cooked thus, the vegetable when blanched should be well drained, pressed, and chopped, then sieved and finished off with butter or cream, or an addition of rich veal stock as preferred.
  11. When made thus into a purée it is served with croûtons and poached eggs, or œufs mollets, as preferred.
  12. In England spinach is, after well washing, put on in a generous amount of boiling salted water, the leaves being pressed down from time to time to keep them covered whilst cooking.
  13. They are then strained, pressed, and finished off as before.
  14. Remember that the young leaves of nettles, beetroot, watercress, turnip tops, and even curly kale, are excellent treated as spinach.
Original Text · last edited 4 days ago
Spinach (Epinards).—Pick over the spinach (about 2 to 3lb.), removing all faded or imperfect leaves and any coarse stalk. Well wash in two or three waters, then either put it on in a pan with a little water, or only the water adhering to the leaves after washing, and let it cook till tender, which takes from ten to fifteen minutes. Now drain well, and rub it through a sieve. Melt together 1oz. of butter with a teaspoonful of flour, till perfectly smooth, add this to the spinach with pepper, salt, and a little new milk or cream, or good gravy, stir it all well together till hot, and serve. Spinach improves by reheating, and in France a large quantity is cooked at a time (generally by the crèmeries, from whom it may be bought ready for re-heating and finishing off). But to ensure success with spinach cooked thus, the vegetable when blanched should be well drained, pressed, and chopped, then sieved and finished off with butter or cream, or an addition of rich veal stock as preferred. (French cooks almost invariably stipulate for an extra allowance of butter when spinach is used.) When made thus into a purée it is served with croûtons and poached eggs, or œufs mollets, as preferred. In England spinach is, after well washing, put on in a generous amount of boiling salted water, the leaves being pressed down from time to time to keep them covered whilst cooking. They are then strained, pressed, and finished off as before. Remember that the young leaves of nettles, beetroot, watercress, turnip tops, and even curly kale, are excellent treated as spinach.
Notes