"I'm strong to the finish"

Ok, there has GOT to be someone out there reading this, who is as old as I am, and remembers how that ends:

"Cause I eat me spinach, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man"

Remember those cartoons? In every episode, Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto got into various situations. Popeye inevitably had to rescue Miss Oyl from the clutches of Bluto, and was himself in trouble. How many future afficianados of the fine art of bondage got their first taste by seeing this muscular cartoon character tied in various positions? Hmmmm. Ok, did I make some of you blush? It isn't the first time, and it isn't the last either. Trust me.

Whatever the predicament, somehow, Popeye managed to pop open a can of spinach, eat it down, and then rescue the fair Miss Oyl from whatever travails she was involved in.

Popeye must have been desperately in love to eat that canned stuff. I have talked about noxious, disgusting foods before, but as I think about it nothing, and I mean NOTHING is as disgusting as canned spinach. It's not green. It's BLACK. And it smells. And the texture is, well, gross. There's no other way to put it. While no one will 'fess up to it, I believe that the Popeye cartoons were, in part, an attempt to get kids to get over their revulsion to this food, and eat it, because it IS good for you. Even when it's been ruined the way canning does, there are so many minerals in spinach that if you can get it down, you've done a good thing.

Kids cannot be fooled. It didn't work. And meanwhile, as they so often do, Europeans were laughing at us.

There is no excuse, especially this time of year, for not using fresh spinach, or frozen spinach in a pinch. It is very easy to cook, so much tastier than the canned stuff (which, honestly isn't saying much), and at this time of the year, it's available. Spinach does not like the heat. You get it in the spring, and then in the fall. It doesn't take long to come to crop size and it's easy to grow. In fact, when I lived in a house with a garden, I grew this myself.

One thing about fresh spinach is that, once you buy it, you have to use it quickly. It does NOT keep well, and after three days, you will have the equivalent of a science experiment in your fridge, or something that looks as bad as what is in the can. You don't want that, do you?

What I'm going to be talking about here is "spinach" as compared to "baby spinach." The latter is delicious, more expensive, less work, and great in salads. We can come back to that if you like, but for now, let's work with the full grown stuff.

If you buy it fresh, you'll be getting it on the stem. Essentially, the whole plant is pulled up, the roots are cut off, and this is what you will get. There are thick, THICK stems. They take up a lot of space, so buy more fresh spinach than you will need. There are a few steps that you need to take to prep it. First, you have to "stem" it . (I never really understood why this step is called "stemming"). What this means is you have to get the leaf off of the plant. It's easy to do. Take a stem of spinach in one hand, and put the fingers of your other hand just at the place where the leaf hits the stem. Pull firmly. The edible stuff will come away in your hand. You have to go through the whole bunch of stuff to do this. And now, you have to wash it.

Now, here's a warning. You CAN buy "pre-washed" spinach in a farmers market, from time to time. If you do this to save time, make sure you're going to cook the greens that day. Nothing will harm the integrity of spinach more than water. So try NOT to get the washed stuff, and wash it yourself.

When you wash it, avoid a temptation, which you learned from Mom. You will want, very much, to put the leaves in a colander and wash them, with the water running through the holes. Yes, that will happen; however, you will leave the dirt and sand behind , on your spinach. Spinach needs very loose, sandy soil, and it is inevitably there on fresh spinach - way more than dirt in leeks. The only way to get this clean, is to put your spinach in a big bowl that does NOT drain. FIll that bowl with water, and let the spinach rest for a few minutes. Then, pull it out and check what's at the bottom. If there is grit, of course, pour out the water and repeat the process, until you have no more grit. Usually, two rinsings are enough.

So, what do you do with this raw, cleaned spinach? Well, I'm going to tell you my favorite way of cooking it, which I'm told is Spinach in the Roman style. Frankly, I think of it as more Sicilian, but what do I know? I actually do it a bit differently than the classic recipe. In the classic recipe, you have olive oil, raisins and pine nuts ready, and you cook the fresh spinach in hot olive oil until it collapses (and it will collapse a LOT). Then, you stir in toasted pine nuts and the raisins, add a bit more olive oil and some salt, and serve it forth.

I find it just a bit easier to do it this way. After the spinach was washed, there is some residual water on it. And that's enough to cook it. I put it in a pot, cover it, turn the heat to medium, and then come back in five minutes. It usually has not collapsed completely, but a quick stir, and it is. I drain it, and let the spinach cool. Sometimes I chop it, sometimes not. I use this, rather than the raw spinach, and I proceed as with the classic "Roman" or "Sicilan" style

I see recipes that say one large bunch of spinach will feed six people. One large bunch of spinach makes an adequate serving for TWO adults, but not a big one. If you like it, you're going to need more. And it will take a little time to wash and to cook all those greens. But do it. At this time of year, there aren't many "tender" greens around, as we move off to things like kale, collards and other "tougher" or "hardier" greens, that require more cooking.

I think we're going to explore this subject of spinach a bit more. For many people, going to a steak house is not complete without a side order of creamed spinach (and I MUST admit, it IS one of my favorite things). And for others, especially vegetarians, the apotheosis of spinach eating is that wonderful Greek dish, spanokopita. We'll look at both in days to come, but we will NOT be making phyllo dough from scratch. I must leave you to more technically trained people to do that one.