Celebrating Spinach

After a lovely trip to Featherstone Farm, the farm with the CSA program in which we participate, we lucky subscribers were offered a parting gift of impossibly fresh lettuces or spinach. I had visions of a celebratory meal rather than the usual near-instant gratification of a gigantic salad with tender baby lettuces, and selected the spinach. It was a tough choice, but I was determined to learn to make soufflé this spring and the spinach was a prime flavoring candidate.

I can’t believe I’m getting this excited about a bundle of spinach, but boy, oh boy, was this great stuff! At least as tender as the so-called baby spinach you might buy in a plastic bag, but with large, deep-dark, curly leaves, so fresh as to be completely innocent of the concept of wilt. It almost seemed a shame to eat it. Perhaps I should have made it into a bouquet.

Anyway, I did get around that celebratory soufflé. I’d never made a soufflé of any kind before, but thanks to Alice Waters and her book, The Art of Simple Food, I was pretty confident that I knew what I was doing. This is a lovely book filled with basic (but by no means simplistic) recipes and guidelines for essential traditional dishes that feature high-quality ingredients and allow them to shine. The descriptions and instructions are so detailed, so minute, that you might just feel like a master before you even turn on the kitchen light. And so, with this book, I felt like I had learned how to make a soufflé and I just had to follow through.

The basic concept of the soufflé, sweet or savory, is a white sauce (or pastry cream for a sweet soufflé) flavored (in my case with fresh spinach and feta cheese), combined with egg yolks and folded together with foamy beaten egg whites. It seemed pretty complicated to me until The Art of Simple Food helped me to take everything apart and consider each step in the process individually. The good news is that each preliminary step can be done separately and the results held until you’re ready for them. There’s no real hurry from stage to stage. You have to fold the egg whites into the base as soon as they are beaten, but you don’t have to beat them until you are ready for that step.

The only thing you must do quickly is eat the soufflé when it comes out of the oven, which is the best part anyway. If you delay, this airy dish will deflate and your carefully planned procedure will have been for naught. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat a fallen (or even leftover) soufflé. It just means you’ll have something more like a frittata or a thick omelet.

For my first attempt at soufflé, this went extremely well. The spinach was beautiful and tasty and was complimented well by the intermittent pockets of semi-melted feta cheese. The dish was nice and puffy with a golden-brown surface, and I was glad that I had made some effort to find a nice round dish to make it in. A smaller dish (or bigger soufflé) would have allowed for more dramatic rising of the soufflé over the edges, but who needs drama? Especially when all you really want to do is celebrate the first fresh spinach of the season.

Spinach and Feta Souffle

Depending on how salty your feta cheese is, you might want to use less salt in this dish than I did. I prefer my egg dishes well-salted, so may have used more salt than you would like or need.

1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt (plus more for blanching spinach if desired)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces fresh spinach
4 eggs, separated
3 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1. In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sauté about 1 minute. Whisk the flour into the butter mixture. Cook about 1 minute more, stirring frequently.

2. Slowly whisk in the milk. Try to keep the flour mixture (roux) from forming lumps. Cook, keeping the heat at about medium-low and stirring or whisking frequently, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat and set aside.


3. Bring a large pot of salted (if desired) water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook about 2 minutes or until wilted. Remove the spinach, drain and rinse in cold water or plunge into a bowl of ice water. Squeeze dry and chop. (You will not need the pot of water any more for this recipe.)

4. Pour the milk mixture (white sauce) into a large bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. When each yolk has been incorporated, stir in the chopped spinach and feta cheese.

5. Butter the bottom and sides of a 1-1.5 liter (about 1 -1 ½ quart) soufflé dish. Preheat oven to 375 F.

6. With an electric mixer (or by hand, if you’re so inclined) beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. That is, when you lift the beater or whisk out of the egg white foam, it will stand up in peaks that do not collapse. Be careful not to overbeat the egg whites.

7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the base mixture, preferably with a rubber spatula or wide, flat spoon. To do this, spoon about one third of the whites at a time onto the base. Cut down through the whites with the edge of the spatula and turn it to bring some of the base up over the whites. Gently stir this way until the whites are incorporated with the base, leaving a puffy mixture. Try not to deflate the egg whites.

8. Spoon the mixture into the buttered soufflé dish. Bake at 375 F for 35 minutes or until the soufflé has puffed up significantly, but is still a bit wobbly if very gently shaken and the top is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other fresh spinach dishes: Deconstructed Spanakopita Salad, Spinach Salad with Apples and Maple Walnut Vinaigrette

Other egg and vegetable dishes: Zucchini Frittata with Tomatoes on Top, Potato and Bacon Frittata
One year ago: Spring Vegetable Tabbouleh

Farm Visit

Each year Featherstone Farm, the farm that runs the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program to which we subscribe, holds an open house, complete with guided farm tours at their main facility in Rushford, MN. I’ve subscribed to this CSA for three years, and am about to begin the fourth, but I have never taken the trip out to the farm to participate in the open house. I don’t have any good excuses, really. One year I had visitors on that weekend, but in other years, I just missed the boat (or the hayride, as it were.)

When I had the good fortune to speak briefly with Michael Pollan after a talk he gave in town, I told him that I was a subscriber to the Featherstone CSA. When he found out that I hadn’t been there yet, he, who had just toured the farm, told me I had to go. Since I’ve already changed large parts of my life based on things Pollan recommends, I supposed I should go to the open house (there was also a bit of reminding and nudging from Harry). I’m really glad I did.

Even after a pretty big breakfast, the fields and greenhouses full of vegetables to come conspired to make me hungry. Strawberry and raspberry patches, rows of delicate salad greens, and a whole field of garlic (a field of garlic, people!), and this was just the tip of the iceberg! Still, when you’ve seen the acreage devoted in this country to commodity corn, soybeans and other such products, it’s quite surprising how little land is actually required to organically grow so much real food. (Did you know that growing vegetables and fruits on land designated for commodity crops can result in large fines? Yes, growing healthy food is bad for America, apparently…sorry to be cranky about this. You can read an intelligent treatment of the issue by Jack Hedin, farmer/owner of Featherstone, published in the New York Times here. Please do.)

Even though I know that fabulous fruits and vegetables are grown at Featherstone, the people involved in all ways with the farm are even better. The subscribers are dedicated to this sane and sustainable method of producing and procuring food. The people who work on the farm and its administration are smart and friendly with that kind of enviable energy that makes one glad they are on the side of good. These are the kind of can-do people that we could use a lot more of in this crazy world of ours!

And then there was me, practically drooling over the lanes of lacy lettuce, the little tufts of leaves marking the spots where potatoes will be dug in a couple months (or less), and the field of young garlic (a field of garlic, people!). I always get impatient in these last couple weeks of May as I wait for our first box of produce from Featherstone. Now that I’ve seen the farm in action, I’m more excited than ever. Those friendly, energetic people at the farm must be mind-readers as well, because they sent us home with a bunch of spinach so beautiful, so tender, so super-mega-ultra fresh and so brilliantly green it would make something from the Emerald City blush pink with shame.

More on that lovely spinach in the next post….

One year ago: Corn and Green Onion Tart with Bacon

Herbs on Demand

I have to admit that I just don’t keep up very well in this on-demand world of ours. Unlike the creators of the Six-Million Dollar Man, I don’t have the technology. On the lower-tech end of things, however, I do like to keep herb plants in containers on my porch in the warmer weather for on-demand flavor enhancement.

I usually try to keep these plants alive over the winter in a spare room, but this never works, and most of them die. That just means I get to shop for more herbs in the spring, which is what I did recently. This year, I’m trying not to go overboard and plant more than I can use, but we’ll see how that goes. Of course, as soon as I declared that spring was here, winter gave one final gasp, and I had to keep my little herb plants inside at night. I still haven’t got around to transplanting them, but I can still eat them.

I had been waiting since my previous herb plantings met their demise to make a white bean soup with lots of herbs that I came up with last year, and the few cold and rainy days we had provided the perfect opportunity. I love white beans with herbs, especially sage, rosemary and thyme, and lots of garlic never hurts such a concoction. Add the usual carrot, onion and celery and simmer it all in broth and it’s soup. But it’s more than soup, really. It’s creamy white beans and perky, flavorful herbs that were picked less than an hour before they are eaten.

Usually when I make this, the ingredient list (in my head) reads more like “a big carrot, a couple ribs of celery, some onion, a handful of herbs from the porch, some broth (chicken is a little better, but vegetable will do) and some beans. Season to taste.” Well, since I’m now excited enough about this soup to post it to The Messy Apron, I tried to put some more discreet quantities in the recipe below. You can play a little fast and loose with most of the ingredients and use whatever herbs you have or like. I used sage, chives, rosemary, thyme and a dried bay leaf. (I think the sage is absolutely essential with white beans.) The sage and chives, I minced and added directly to the broth, and the rosemary, thyme and bay leaf I tied together into a bouquet garni and removed them when the soup was done. It saves the trouble of de-leafing the thyme or having to chew on rosemary leaves, but still gets the flavors of those herbs into the soup.

I don’t suppose I really have to wait for the next cold day to make this soup again. In fact, since I cooked up a whole big bunch of dried Great Northern beans and froze what didn’t fit in the soup (you could use canned beans, but they will probably be less firm in the final product), I probably won’t wait. And I’ve got plenty more herbs just waiting to offer their services on demand.

White Bean Soup with Fresh Herbs
I like to cut the carrots, onions and celery into quite small pieces, about the size of the beans.

This herb mixture of herbs is what I used last time I made this. You can use whatever you like, but, with the exception of the bay leaf, it is best to use fresh herbs.

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped carrot
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 3-inch sprig rosemary
3-4 6-inch thyme stems
1 dried bay leaf
1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh chives, minced
4 cups cooked or canned white beans, such as navy or Great Northern (drained and rinsed if canned)
6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth (vegetable broth will do as well)

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, celery and ½ teaspoon salt. Saute 5-8 minutes or until the onion is translucent and the carrot and celery are beginning to become tender.

2. Tie the rosemary, thyme and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine. Add this bundle along with the sage, chives and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and boil gently for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the herb bundle. Taste for salt and add more if desired.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Other recipes for on-demand herbs: Chickpea and Olive Salad with Greek Flavors

Seitan Stir Fry

Well, I made about a pound of seitan, so I tried a stir fry with vegetables to test it out as an ingredient. I actually started with a recipe (unusual for me when making stir fry), which had, in addition to the seitan, shiitake mushrooms, some green beans (I used asparagus, too) and black bean garlic sauce, a perky Asian condiment. I also added some dried hot chile peppers, which turned out to be my downfall.

In an effort to create the more authentic flavor developed in a very hot wok, I’ve been trying to make stir-fried dishes at the maximum heat the largest burner on the stove will give. Unfortunately, when making this particular stir fry, I got a little careless with the hot pan and the peppers and garlic. I now have some idea what it is like to be pepper sprayed. I coughed, sniffed, blew my nose and wiped my eyes all through dinner, unable to taste much of anything.

So, the recipe and method weren’t perfect. I decided I wanted more asparagus, fewer mushrooms, and a lot less tear gas, so I tried again with the rest of the seitan. There was a limited amount of asparagus left in the refrigerator, but I did have some green beans, and, while I preferred the yummy asparagus, the beans were good too. I also was much more careful with the peppers and managed to avoid coughing my way through the meal.

Oh yeah, and the seitan was good in this stir fry. It pretty much picks up the flavors around it, especially the black bean garlic sauce, which is rich and savory, plus a little salty (loaded with umami if that’s what you’re into) like a soy sauce on steroids. You can find it with the Asian condiments in large grocery stores. If you don’t want to use seitan, homemade or otherwise, and you want to keep the dish vegetarian, you could use extra-firm tofu (I find that they resemble each other quite a bit). Just about any other dense protein, like chicken, pork or beef would probably be good, too.


Seitan Stir Fry with Asparagus, Green Beans and Black Bean Garlic Sauce
Based on a recipe in Cooking Light magazine

If you’re serving this dish with rice, it’s a good idea to wait until the rice is cooked, or almost cooked before beginning to cook the stir fry.

4 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cup boiling water
¼ cup Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
2 tablespoons black bean garlic sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoons canola, peanut, or vegetable oil
8 ounces sliced seitan, drained if stored in liquid
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 dried chile peppers, broken in half
1 pound chopped asparagus, green beans or a mixture

1. Place the shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let stand about 20 minutes, or until completely reconstituted. (You can slice, chop, etc the remaining ingredients while waiting for the mushrooms to soak.)

2. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Thinly slice the mushrooms and set aside.

3. To the mushroom soaking liquid, add the Shaoxing wine, black bean garlic sauce, and cornstarch. Whisk well to combine and dissolve all of the cornstarch. Set aside.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add the seitan and stir fry until golden brown. Remove from the heat and remove the seitan from the pan. Set aside.


5. Add the remaining oil to the pan, leaving it off the heat. (This is how I avoided gassing myself!) Add the garlic and chiles and stir them for about 30 seconds. (If the pan is not hot enough for them to sizzle, you can return it to the heat, but be careful not to scorch them.)

6. Return the pan to the heat and add the asparagus and/or green beans. Stir fry 5-7 minutes or until they are tender-crisp. (I actually like mine a little crunchy.)

7. Add the mushrooms and stir fry 2 minutes. Stir in the seitan.

8. Stir the mushroom liquid mixture (to re-dissolve any settled cornstarch) and pour it into the pan. Stir and cook until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from the heat and serve, preferably over rice or noodles.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Mustard Greens and Green Bean Stir Fry with Peanuts, Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

One Year ago: Simple Shredded Carrot Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Vinaigrette