Creamed Spinach – King of the Steakhouse Side Dishes

While in Vegas, I had a marvelous steak lunch at the Strip House, located in the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Along with the beautifully aged steaks, we enjoyed two stellar sides.

One was a potato dish called Potatoes Romanoff, which Executive Chef John Schenk says he learned from his mother back in Buffalo, NY. I've posted the written recipe for Potatoes Romanoff on my American Foods site, in case you want to give it a go.

The other was my favorite non-potato steakhouse side dish, creamed spinach. Since creamed spinach is one of the side dishes I have to do for the cookbook, and since I haven’t had a new video up in a while, I decided to film this recipe while its creamy deliciousness was still fresh in my mind.

There is only one real secret to great creamed spinach…you have to really squeeze out all the water after you wilt it. If you do, the buttery béchamel sauce coats the spinach to form a thick, satisfying pile of greens that you can almost stand a fork up in. If you don’t, you will be amazed at how the water from the spinach turns your thick, tasty sauce into a pool of pale green disappointment.

Creamed spinach is an easy recipe, but it used to require quite a commitment to make, since washing and picking spinach is tedious and really no fun at all. Nowadays, big bags of pre-washed, baby spinach are common at the supermarket, which makes this recipe a snap. Enjoy!




Ingredients:
1 stick butter
24 ounces baby spinach
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 whole clove
4 cloves garlic, very finely minced
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper, to taste
large pinch of freshly ground nutmeg