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To Stew Spinach
676. Wash your spinach in several waters, put it in a colander, and throw it into a large pan of boiling water, with a handful of salt; boil it two minutes to take off the earthy taste, squeeze it well in a sieve, put about a quarter of a pound of butter into a tossing pan, put in your spinach, keep turning and chopping it with a knife till quite dry and green; lay it upon a plate, press it with another, cut it in the shape of diamonds, and pour round it some good melted butter. It will eat exceedingly mild, far better than when cooked in the common way. CAULIFLOWERS. 677. TO BOIL. - Choose those that are close and white, cut off the green leaves, and look carefully that there are no caterpillars about the stalk. Soak an hour in cold water, then boil them in milk and water, and take care to skim the saucepan, that not the least foulness may fall on the flower. They must be served very white, and rather crisp, but still sufficiently done. Time, twenty-five minutes or more. 678. IN WHITE SAUCE. - Half boil it, then cut it into handsome pieces, and lay them in a stewpan with a little broth, a bit of mace. a little salt, and a dust of white pepper; simmer half an hour, then put a little cream, butter, and flour; shake and simmer a few minutes, and serve. 679. CAULIFLOWER OMELET (AMERICAN). - Take the white part of a boiled cauliflower after it is cold, and chop it very small, and mix with it a sufficient quantity of well-beaten egg, to make a very thick batter, then fry it in fresh butter in a small pan, and send it to table hot. 680. FRIED (AMERICAN). - Having laid a fine cauliflower in cold water for an hour, put it into a pot of hot water that has been slightly salted (milk and water will be still better), and boil it twenty-five minutes, or till the large stalk is perfectly tender, then divide it equally into small tuffs, and spread it on a dish to cool. Prepare a sufficient quantity of batter, made in the proportion of a table-spoonful of flour, and two table-spoonsful of milk to each egg; beat the eggs very light, then stir into them the flour and milk alternately, a spoonful of flour and two spoonsful of milk at a time. When the cauliflower is cold, have ready some fresh butter in a frying-pan over a clear fire. When it has come to a boil, and has done bubbling, dip each tuft of cauliflower twice into the batter, and fry them a light brown; send them to table hot. Brocoli may be fried in this manner.
BROCOLI. 681. Cut the heads with short stalks, and pare the tough skin off them. Tie the small shoots into bunches, and boil them a shorter time than the heads. Some salt must be put into the water. Serve with or without toast.
A dry-chopped spinach purée of the sort Victorian cooks pressed into shapes and surrounded with butter sauce. The technique is sound and takes about ten minutes.
- The hinge: drive off the waterEverything depends on turning and chopping the spinach in the butter until it is genuinely dry. Wet spinach will bleed into the melted butter and refuse to hold a shape when pressed.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound of butter is 4 oz (115 g). The recipe gives no quantity of spinach, but that much butter implies a large panful of leaves rather than a small one; with a supermarket bag of baby spinach, scale the butter down sharply or you will have soup.
- Tossing panGenerally a wide pan shallow enough to toss the contents; a modern saute pan or a large frying pan does the job. Wide is what matters, since evaporation is the point.
- The two-minute blanchTwo minutes in heavily salted boiling water suits mature leaf spinach; young spinach needs no more than thirty seconds. The 'earthy taste' the writer objects to is probably the chalky astringency often attributed to oxalic acid, which a brief blanch reduces.
- Squeeze harder than you thinkPressing in a sieve is a start; wringing the cooled spinach in a clean towel gets far more water out and shortens the time in the pan.
- Chopping in the panA knife in a metal pan is awkward today. Chop the squeezed spinach on a board before it goes into the butter, then finish with a wooden spatula.
- Pressing and cuttingSpread the hot spinach on a warm plate, press flat with a second plate, and cut the diamonds while it is still hot and pliable.
- Melted butterIn this period "good melted butter" is a thickened butter sauce — butter worked with a little flour and water or stock until smooth, not simply clarified butter.