How To Cook Spinach

Spinach With Cream

Blanch and prepare it as above, only use cream instead of broth. Boil the cream before you throw it over the spinach. If it should curdle, the cream only is lost, whereas otherwise you would lose the spinach, butter and all. Spinach with cream requires a little sugar and nutmeg. It is needless to repeat, that a little salt is also requisite, as there can be no good seasoning without it. You must always have fried toasts of bread round the spinach when you send it up to table, or some made of puff-paste flourets; but mind that they must both be fresh made.

Spinach French Fashion

This dish in Paris is called a l'Anglaise. The spinach is to be blanched as above. Squeeze it well, and pound it in a mortar. Then mark it in a stew-pan with a little butter. Leave it for three quarters of an hour on a very slow fire till very dry. Next throw in a quarter of a pound of very fresh butter, with salt, and grated nutmeg. Work the spinach well, till it is thick; but take care the butter does not turn to oil.

Croustades Of Spinach

This dish is introduced merely for the sake of variety. Cut some bread into hearts, which you slit all round. Fry them in butter. Arrange those hearts in the form of a rosette.

Next cut a round of bread, which slit in the same manner, and place it in the middle, over the points of the hearts. Fry these till they are of a fine brown, then cut out the interior, take out all the crumb, and fill the vacuity with spinach, either with cream or consomme. Observe, that when spinach is dressed to put under meat, whether fricandeau or sweetbread, etc. it must be more seasoned than when dressed for entremets, and a little more liquid, as it is like sauce.

Spinach Au Consomme

You must take particular care when the spinach is picked, that no stalks nor weed are left amongst it. The least oversight may cause the spinach to be good for nothing, notwithstanding all the trouble you might take in cooking it. It must be washed several times in a great quantity of water. Then boil some water in a vessel large enough for the spinach to float with ease. Put a great deal of salt, that it may preserve its green colour, and press it down frequently, that it may be done equally. When it has had a few boils, try whether it can be squeezed easily, then without loss of time put it into a cullender to drain the water. Next throw it into a great quantity of cold water to keep it green. When it is quite cold, make it into balls and squeeze it well. Then spread it on the table with your knife, to ascertain that no improper substance is left among it. Chop it very fine; put a good piece of butter into a stew-pan, and lay the spinach over the butter. Let it dry over a gentle fire, and next dredge it with a handful of flour. Moisten with a few spoonfuls of consomme, and let it stew briskly, that it may not turn yellow. Make it rich with a small piece of glaze. If you intend to send it up as an entree with a ham, or a tongue, etc. you must mix a few spoonfuls of Espagnole, and let it be well seasoned. Some People like nutmeg; in that case,you may gr a little into it.

Spinach thus, prepared may be used with a fricandeau, sweetbreads of veal, and breasts of veal or of mutton.

How To Cook Endive

Endive With Gravy Of Veal

Wash and clean twelve heads of endive, and beware of the worms, which generally are found in the heart. After having taken off all the green part of the leaves, wash the endive again in two or three different waters, and blanch them to take off the bitter taste. Then throw them into cold water, and when quite cold, squeeze them till there is no water left in them, then chop them very fine. Next stew them in a sufficient quantity of gravy to cover them entirely, to which add a little salt, and a very small lump of sugar to qualify the bitter tart taste of the endive. Ascertain if they are done enough, by squeezing a bit between two fingers; if very tender, they are done. Then add two spoonfuls of Espagnole reduced, and use them either for entremets under poached eggs, or fox entrees, such as minces of mutton, muzettes of mutton, carbonades, fricandeaux, sweetbreads, fillets of fowl, etc. etc.

Endive Au Veloute

The same preparation as above, but instead of gravy, use consomme, and in lieu of Espagnole, take veloute. Endive must always be stewed in broth, or gravy, or consomme. The sauce must not boil when you pour it over the endive, especially if it is cream sauce. If you wish the sauce to be white, add some thick cream to it.