frozen spinach, thawed--------------2 packages
onion, chopped----------------------3T
baby bella muchrooms, sliced-------4-5 ea
butter------------------------------4T
flour--------------------------------4T
milk--------------------------------1/2 c
spinach juice------------------------1/2 c
celery seed-------------------------1/2 t
Tony Chachere's--------------------to taste
Crystal hot sauce--------------------to taste
worcestershire sauce----------------1t
pepper jack cheese, grated----------6 oz
chive cream cheese------------------schmear
large pot or pan
casserole or pie dish
oven, preheated to 350F
As every cajun knows: First, you make a roux.
(Well, technically, first you sauté the onions and mushrooms.)
After they get nice and soft and brown, add the flour. It's going to start looking a bit unappetizing here, but it's just a facade...
Now it's time to add the liquids. When squeezing out the spinach once it has thawed, remember to reserve some of the juice! But if it's too late, chicken broth or just some more milk will work too.
This part is actually a lot of fun:
After a little stirring, it comes together and gets nice and smooth. Add the cheeses.
I know, it's not really grated, but I'm too poor to buy a cheese grater. This is college, after all. The point is, stir it until all of the cheese melts into it.
Now it's time for all those seasonings. It will smell delicious! Add the spinach as well.
Now put it all into the pie dish, and top with slices of the pepper jack.
Put it in the oven, and bake it until the top and edges start to brown. This will take 10-20 minutes, depending on how much you enjoy nice crispy bits.
Wait for it to cool before digging in!
This recipe is much more satisfying than the "spinach casserole" recipe described on pg. 77 in the Book Lover's Cookbook (spinach, mushrooms, chive cream cheese, s+p. where's the flava in that?). I grew up with this at close to every family holiday gathering. It's a traditional New Orleans holiday dish; sometimes the grocery stores run out of frozen spinach around Thanksgiving.
While I was reading the passage from Open House by Elizabeth Berg, it gave me a strong impression that the characters were pretending to be more classy and rich than they were by having a special meal. Looking at the original recipe by the author, it is clear that the simple "spinach casserole" is something anyone can afford to make; however, it is so simple that I don't think anyone would be fooled into thinking it had a place in a fancy dinner. Another thing about the passage was that there was a great air of light celebration, and again, the recipe in the book was far too plain to really be a special occasion dish. However, the spinach madeleine recipe is a much better fit for the passage, if I do say so myself. It has rich depth of flavor, yet is still very easy to make, and I know from experience that it gets rave reviews every holiday season. So, although the recipe in the book didn't really go well with the passage, it provided a nice jumping-off point for a dish that does.
