How to prepare spinach

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 500 g, you will need:

• 1 1 kg fresh spinach
• 2 20 g butter
• 3 coarse salt
• 4 salt
• 5 pepper
• Total weight: 1,020 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
52 min.	17 min.	1 hour 9 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Start by washing 1 kg fresh spinach in several changes of lukewarm water (not too cold, like for all earthy vegetables).
• 2: Drain.
• 3: To prepare the leaves, you need to remove the central vein, for that there are two methods:
  Fold the leaf in two along the central vein.
• 4: Then with a knife, remove the central vein.
• 5: You should keep only the green and tender part of the leaf.
• 6: Second method: fold the leaf in half along the central vein.
• 7: Then detach the vein by pulling on the stalk, from the base towards the top (in the direction of the arrow), until it's completely detached.
• 8: Do this for all the leaves.
  If you don't want to blanch the spinach, but just wilt it with a little butter, dry thoroughly in a salad spinner and go on to the following stage.
• 9:

  To blanch spinach

  If you wish to blanch before cooking, which brings out the flavour, boil a large pan of water, then salt using 1 tablespoon of salt per litre of water.
  Also prepare a large container, or your sink, full of water as cold as possible (ice-cold).
• 10: Tip in spinach leaves.
• 11: Plunge the leaves down under the water, while waiting for it to come back to the boil.
• 12: As soon as it boils again, remove spinach from pan with a skimmer, and transfer to ice-cold water.
• 13: As soon as spinach is completely cooled, drain thoroughly.
• 14: Then use a salad spinner to remove as much water as possible.
  Note: you will sometimes read in other recipes that you should squeeze spinach in your hands to remove water. I don't think this is a good idea because it gives you hard blocks of spinach, with the leaves all stuck together, not so easy to use.
• 15: And finally set aside on absorbant paper to collect any remaining water.
  The spinach is ready to be used in your recipe.
• 16: See how to in this video.
• 17: If you wish to eat it like this (and it is already excellent), you just need to heat it through in a frying pan with a knob of butter.
• 18:

  Spinach "wilted" in butter

  If you have not blanched you spinach, take a high-sided pan, and melt 20 g butter in it.
• 19: As soon as it's fairly hot, add the spinach. If it won't all fit in the pan, wait until the first batch wilts, then add the rest.
• 20: As soon as spinach wilts, salt and pepper, taste to check, it's ready.

Remarks

There is a a huge task of "spinach rehabilitation" to be done with children: "spinach is not inevitably the horrible green mush which you ate in the canteen"...

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