Hello everyone, Jess here.
How about that gargantuan heirloom spinach!??!? Seemed almost a shame to cook it down. However, since it will be the star of tonight’s dish, I won’t feel too to bad about it.
Photo by Farmer Jamie of Springdell Farm!
This one was adapted from William Rice’s Steak Lover’s CookBook. Along with some great advice on cooking steaks of all shapes and sizes, his cookbook includes some hearty seasonal side dishes perfect for sopping up all the beefy goodness on your plate. Rather than a one-pot side dish, I made individual dinner portions in ramekins for Meatless Monday.
Here are the ingredients:
- 1 bag of fresh Spinach (such as the bag of the aforementioned giant heirloom spinach)
- 2 tablespoons of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of cornmeal (preferably from Four Star Farms)
- 4 tablespoons of butter, softened (preferably Amish Roll Butter)
- 2 eggs, whites and yolks separated
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- dash of ground nutmeg
- dash of white pepper
After washing the spinach and removing the large stems, put the leaves into a medium saucepan. Cover and cook until wilted (be sure to toss the large stems on top of the wilting spinach and remove as a quick snack while cooking the rest of this dish).
After just 3 minutes of wilting. The trick is to catch the spinach when it’s lost it’s loft, but hasn’t lost it’s vibrant color (read: nutrients). Run the spinach under cool water to cease cooking, drain and chop. (I find the easiest method for chopping wilted spinach is to use a fork and a knife situated between the tines)
Use some of the butter to grease your ramekins and then divvy up the cheese to form a very thin crust around the inside of the ramekins.
After setting aside the spinach, use the same pan to heat the milk and the cornmeal with a constant whisk (note the spinach stuck to the side of the pan in this shot).
Things will start to bubble and thicken after a few minutes, when this happens, bring the temp down to a simmer for another minute. then stir in the butter.
Next, stir in the egg yolks, baking powder and spices (salt, nutmeg, white pepper). This is also a good time to preheat your oven to 350.
Add the chopped spinach to the mix.
Beat the egg whites separately until stiff peaks form, like so.
Geeeently fold the egg whites and spinach mixture together.
Place in the ramekins (a small casserole dish would work too) leaving room near the rim for these babies to puff up. Top with another sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano! (This recipe makes 4 ramekins, give or take).
Place them directly on your preheated oven rack. If you’re concerned about drips, you can put a little square of foil on the bottom rack to catch any drips.
Check at about 25-30 minutes, if they are puffed up and golden brown, you’re good to go!
This was an example of one that I filled too much. It made a soufflé cascade over the side of the ramekin.
For Meatless Monday I served the soufflé with tomato cilantro crema and Galuska.
There you have it! It’s like a savory bread pudding and the spinach just puts it over the top. Aside from the Tomato Cilantro Crema, I found dijon mustard to be a complimentary condiment as well. Had I not snacked on the spinach stems, I might have saved them to dice and garnish. If you’re going for presentation on these, it’s nice to serve soufflé immediately, as it can lose its loft after a few minutes (as evidenced by this photo… That’s what I get for not plating the sides first).
I hope you enjoy this one, and again, thanks to William Rice for planting the seed for this recipe!