Cubicle Foraging – Spinach, part 2

Well, I got half a block from work on Thursday when I realized that I had left the spinach in the fridge at the office.  I dithered a few moments, then decided to walk back to work to get it.  I was actually excited to make something out of it and nothing else in my fridge at home was really calling to me.  I ended up making sautéed garlic spinach along side jasmine rice and a lovely french cheese.  I love the sweetness that you can get from garlic if it is sautéed but not browned.  The jasmine rice with a bit of butter and salt was aromatic.  The port salud cheese was a little reminiscent of Muenster.  It was on the softer side, rich, and salty.

Sautéed Spinach with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Butter

large bag of small spinach (perhaps roughly a pound)

6 – 8 medium cloves garlic

2 – 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 – 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

 

Peel the garlic and chop it up into medium pieces.  Rinse the spinach and discard any pieces that seem excessively wilted or slimy.

Put a large saute pan, with available lid, on the stove with medium-low heat and add the olive oil.  Let the oil heat a couple minutes, then stir in the garlic and butter.  Let it saute for 3 – 5 minutes.  You want to soften the garlic, but do not want to brown it.  After letting the garlic saute in the oil and butter for several minutes, add the spinach and turn the heat up to medium.  Stir and cover.  Let the spinach cook, stirring every few minutes until all the spinach has wilted.  Salt and pepper to taste either at the stove or at the table.

Note: If you notice that your garlic is starting to darken, quickly toss in your spinach and mix, the cover.  This will help prevent the flavor from shifting farther away from the sweet end.