Épinards au Beurre et à l'Ail
Chapter 3 — The Sides
Three pounds of raw leaves. Cooking spinach with line-cook discipline means abandoning the habit of tossing a plastic clamshell of baby leaves into a pan until it weeps into a watery puddle, instead applying a technique that purges the bitter liquid before introducing 83-percent cultured butter. This method demands an extra bowl, a clean towel, and the willingness to literally wring the life out of a mature vegetable to produce a side dish rich enough to rival the steak it accompanies, tasting exactly like a velvet banquette on Spring Street, executing the fast sequence in a cast-iron skillet with high heat, smashed garlic, and the discipline to kill the flame the exact second the leaves collapse.
Before you start
Wash the spinach to remove sandy grit.
Submerge the mature leaves in a massive bowl of cold water, swish aggressively with your hands, and let sit for a minute so the dirt sinks. Carefully lift the leaves out directly into another bowl, leaving the water clinging to them—do not spin dry.
Ingredients
- mature flat-leaf spinach2 lb
- premium cultured French butter4 tbsp
- garlic2 med
- whole nutmeg1 pinch
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
- black pepper1/4 tsp
- fresh lemon juice1 tsp
Method
- 01
Collapse the wet spinach in a large Dutch oven.
Place the pot over medium-high heat and add the wet spinach in batches, turning continuously with tongs. The water clinging to the leaves will create steam, wilting the massive pile down to a fraction of its size in 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat the second it turns entirely dark green.
- 02
Aggressively wring the water from the wilted greens.
Transfer the spinach to a colander and briefly run under cold water for exactly 10 seconds so it is safe to handle. Take handfuls of the spinach and squeeze with absolute conviction to extract as much dark green vegetation water (l'eau de végétation) as physically possible. Water is the enemy of butter; you must be left with incredibly dry, tight balls of spinach.
- 03
Roughly chop the squeezed spinach balls.
Place the dense green spheres on a cutting board and give them a coarse chop so they break into manageable, bite-sized ribbons.
- 04
Toast the garlic in browned cultured butter.
Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium. Add the cubed cultured butter, watching closely until it foams and begins to smell faintly of hazelnuts. Instantly add the sliced garlic, tossing for 30 seconds until aromatic but not fully browned.
- 05
Vigorously sauté the dry spinach in the fat.
Immediately add the chopped spinach to the skillet. Use tongs to vigorously break apart the ribbons, tossing them constantly so they instantly drink up the garlic butter. Unimpeded by excess water, the high-fat butter will properly coat the leaves with a brilliant, glossy sheen.
- 06
Season with fresh nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
Season the pan generously with kosher salt, black pepper, and exactly one or two light swipes of fresh nutmeg across a microplane. Toss once more, finish with a single drop of lemon juice to cut the richness, and serve immediately alongside steak frites or roast chicken.
Notes
Do not attempt this with standard supermarket baby spinach or basic butter.
Baby spinach lacks the cellular structure to survive the required squeeze and will turn into a mushy paste. Standard American butter contains too much water and will boil rather than coat the leaves. Seek out mature, bunched spinach and high-fat cultured butter like Isigny or Échiré.
The purging step can be done in advance.
You can wilt and squeeze the spinach up to two days ahead. Keep the tight, dry balls in an airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to execute the final high-heat sauté.