In season: Sonoma County savoy brightens cooked dishes

Back in February, farmers in the warmer parts of the Bay Area planted the savoy type of spinach, the kind with the large, crinkled leaves.

As soon as the average soil temperature reached just 50 degrees Fahrenheit, those seeds broke dormancy. Spinach loves the cold weather. It loves lots of water, which we've had in abundance lately. And it likes a rich soil full of spongy organic matter because it's a heavy feeder, meaning it pulls lots of nutrients from the soil in order to grow quickly to harvestable size in just six to eight weeks.

And sure enough, great-looking, fresh spinach is in the stores again, after a winter's worth of tired, small, bedraggled leaves. A second type of spinach also is looking fresh right now: Asian varieties with small, very tender and usually oval leaves sold individually.

The crinkled savoy types contain a lot of naturally-occurring oxalic acid, which binds up iron and calcium in the leaves so it's not absorbed by the human body.

Cooking it quickly reduces the oxalic acid content, so the best way to use the savoy types is in cooked dishes.

The Asian types have less oxalic acid and are best used raw in salads.

California farmers growing for the fresh market use heavy applications of ammonium nitrate fertilizer on 99 percent of conventional spinach acres to give spinach a nitrogen boost for rapid growth, according to the annual U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of chemical use on conventionally-grown crops.

About 60 percent of spinach acres are treated with two pesticides and an herbicide, while 40 percent of acres are treated with fungicides.

If you want to avoid possible exposure to these chemicals, choose organic spinach.

Spinach is a native of Iran, where it still grows wild in the countryside. Its name comes from Old Persian: aspanach, the root of which came into Greek as “span” and is found in such Greek dishes as spanakopita.

From its home in ancient Persia, it was taken on the Silk Road east to China. It went west to Arabia and North Africa, crossing into Spain when the Moors invaded, and from there into Europe and eventually, the Americas.

Today, it's a favored green around the world. As an added benefit, it's a nutritional powerhouse.

Although Popeye got his superpowers from canned spinach, canning it is a horrible idea. The process utterly ruins it and destroys some of its nutrients.

Just half a cup of cooked fresh savoy spinach provides two grams of fiber; 80 to 100 percent of our daily need for vitamin A; 32 percent of our folic acid; 40 percent of your iron if you're male and 20 percent if you're female; 20 percent of our daily need for magnesium, potassium, and riboflavin; 16 percent of vitamin B6, and 10 percent of our calcium.

Because spinach is a plant that grows low to the ground, spring rains can splash soil onto the leaves, so it's always a good idea to wash the savoy type before cooking.

The Asian varieties' leaves will most likely not need washing.

Wash and de-stem the spinach at the same time. Some folks chop the spinach, stems and all, but they coarsen cooked dishes.

Put enough cold water in a clean, stoppered sink to hold your spinach. Stir and toss the leaves through the water until clean.

Hold each leaf by the central rib in one hand, and with the fingers of the other hand, strip the green leafy parts off the rib.

Spinach has an uncanny ability to blend well with other ingredients, especially curry spices, vinegar, eggs, anchovies, cheese, garlic, mushrooms, olive oil, onions, tomatoes, yogurt and nutmeg.

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This recipe makes perfect creamed spinach. A dinner of garlic and rosemary roasted leg of lamb, lamb-fat browned and roasted potatoes, and creamed spinach may be retro, but it's still a foretaste of heaven.

Mom's Old-Fashioned Creamed Spinach

Serves 4

2 bunches fresh savoy spinach, washed and de-stemmed

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 clove garlic, smashed

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons minced shallots

2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt (if using unsalted butter)

1 cup half-and-half

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Wash and de-stem the spinach, then heat the leaves in a steamer until collapsed, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the steamed spinach in a bowl and add the lemon juice. Using two sharp knives, cut the spinach into tiny pieces half the size of your little fingernail.

Rub the cooking surface of a cast iron skillet with the smashed garlic clove, then set it over medium-low heat. Add the butter and let it melt.

Add the shallots, flour and salt (if needed) and stir, allowing the mixture to cook for one minute. Slowly stir in the half-and-half and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, until the mixture is smooth.

Add the spinach and any liquid in the bowl, and stir thoroughly, cooking it for 3 minutes. If it seems pasty, add a little milk.

It should have a thick consistency, neither pasty nor soupy. Add the nutmeg, stirring it thoroughly, and serve hot.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer. Contact him at jeffcox@sonic.net.