Creamed Spinach

Ingredients

• 800 g spinach
• 40 g butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 200 ml double cream
• 40 g parmesan, grated
• a good grating of nutmeg

Method

1. Wilt and wring

   Wilt the spinach in batches in a dry hot pan, then cool it and squeeze it out hard in a tea towel. Eight hundred grams collapses to a ball the size of a fist — and every drop you leave in thins the cream to soup.

   8 min

2. Soften the aromatics

   Cook the shallots in the butter until soft and translucent, then add the garlic for a minute. Keep the heat gentle; browned shallot would show as dark specks in a pale dish.

   7 min

3. Reduce the cream first

   Pour in the cream and simmer until it has thickened noticeably before the spinach goes in. Reducing it now means you do not have to boil the spinach for ten minutes to thicken it later.

   5 min

4. Fold in and season

   Chop the squeezed spinach roughly, fold it through with the parmesan and nutmeg, and warm for two minutes. Season generously — spinach absorbs a startling amount of salt.

   2 min