Seared Spinach

This is another recipe that I stole from good old Urban Gourmet, that shithole that employed me for about a year during college. I actually learned a lot there, and it was the first place where I had a grill, sauté station, roast station, made soups, sandwiches, and salads, was responsible for prepping the entire mise en place, and as I’ve written else where, learned how to chop things at lightning speed with my eyes closed, while dealing with an asshole boss and his browbeaten wife.

This recipe is astoundingly delicious, almost always a guaranteed hit, and it’s remarkably simple to do. One thing in particular will fuck it up: a pan that is anything cooler than screaming hot. A pan that isn’t hot enough will result in a soupy mess and will dissipate the flavor; you want the water to sizzle and evaporate the instant it leaves the spinach leaf and hits the pan, rather than collect in the pan. That way, all the seasonings, which in this case are garlic, salt, and pepper, remain in the spinach, rather than distributed evenly throughout the water remaining in the bottom of your pan. The resultant dish is not by any means dry – in fact, it seems to somehow contain all the juices, although the science of this one is beyond me to explain.

These days, I usually make this with baby spinach. It’s just so readily available. But the best variety to stand up to the intensity of a good sear is curly leaf spinach, sometimes called Savoy Spinach. It’s harder and harder to find, but time was, I’d buy a package of triple washed, curly-leaf spinach for this recipe. If you do that, and get a nice screaming hot pan, this might be the simplest, fastest, and most rewarding dish in this whole collection.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS high heat, neutral oil
• 1 package triple-washed curly-leaf spinach
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper

Directions:

Prepare the spinach by removing all of the large stems and any tough, frayed ends of smaller stems. Hold in a bowl while you mince your garlic and heat up your pan.

Film the bottom of a large skillet with the oil, set the heat to high until your pan is screaming hot. The oil should be just starting to smoke around the edges – you want to bring it to that point where you think it might be smoking but you can’t quite discern it yet.

Add the spinach quickly in large handfuls. It will likely tower well above the edges of the pan – no worries, that will all change soon.

Add the garlic to the top of the spinach pile, along with the salt and pepper. Allow the spinach to sit without touching it for about 20-30 seconds, then, using a pair of tongs, begin to lift the stuff on the bottom and placing it on the top of the pile. Keep doing this, keeping things moving consistently with your tongs, for about another 2 minutes. You will soon be left with a small bowlful of spinach, a perfect portion for two – remove from the heat as soon as it is finished. The garlic most likely will not have browned, despite its small size and the intense heat of the pan, as it should mostly have been caught up in the moisture of the spinach. But it will be cooked.

Serve this immediately, alongside virtually anything.