Jack’s Kitchen Journal: Prepping Spinach
In this week’s regular newsletter, I wrote about the idea of harvesting, washing and packing winter spinach from high tunnels by hand.
The long and the short of this is that January spinach from high tunnels in Minnesota is a completely different deal than spinach grown in the desert southwest. And one place that this difference shows up is in the level of washing and packing that happens to it in advance of you receiving it.
There may be a time (soon?) in which all winter greens arrive in CSA boxes in what I’m now calling “recipe ready” format (I discuss in newsletter). But for the time being, we are hand cutting and packing “crown cut” spinach for CSA boxes, that require a bit more work.
Here is how I deal with “crown cut spinach” in my kitchen:
1. I set aside 15 minutes within the first day of receiving the box, to get this simple processing done quickly and efficiently, so the spinach is truly recipe ready when I’m ready to prepare it (could be days later).
2. I clean a pair of large bowls or scrub a sink basin, and fill with fresh cold water. I get a salad spinner and a pair of scissors ready.
3. I pour the spinach out on the counter, just as it (no pre-washing) and pick up 2/3 plants at once by the crowns. I trim off the largest leaves close to the base of the leaf (leaving stems), letting leaves fall into cold water bath.
4. When I get to the growing top of the plant (smaller leaves tightly bunched at the base: I take care to cut out deliberately (this is the tastiest part of the spinach!), leaving longer empty stems for the compost.
5. I flush all spinach in the water quickly, spin dry in the salad spinner, then re-bag the clean spinach; it’s now completely “recipe ready” and should keep many days in the refrigerator, prepped in this way (WAY longer storage than “bathtub” style grocery store spinach!)
There is real work in prepping spinach like this way, I get it! But I truly think it’s worth doing this in advance, ideally the first day after you pick up your box. The spinach keeps better when cut and re-hydrated like this. And it really pays off later, when you can just grab that prepped bag for a salad or any other recipe.
Spinach on the menu in Jack’s Kitchen
In our household, we eat a certain amount of meat every week, particularly this time of year. We have longstanding relationships with neighbors and friends who raise livestock and sell for the freezer (some of which we’ve referred you to over the years).
Last week our good friend Doug Nopar delivered frozen lamb. What a treat! The following day I prepared braised lamb shanks served over spinach. I used an online recipe (there are many!) but substituted crops from the CSA box fairly freely (standard yellow onions for white pearl onions; thinly sliced celeriac for fresh celery). It turned out super tasty. And, in the 95% of what you see on the plate was produced within 30 miles of the kitchen. Not bad for the dead of winter, such as it is!!
Happy Cooking in your own kitchen this week!
Gratefully- Jack