Creamed Spinach with Bacon (and fried fish)

I love to not drive whenever possible, and the long holiday weekend was a perfect time to just walk places and be very slow paced. One such walkable visit included my friends' new bookstore, Moon Palace Books (I did some shelving - check out the alphabetized fantasy section!) behind Peace Coffee on Minnehaha. The creamed spinach recipe I made is from the Smitten Kitchen blog - and she actually just published a cookbook. They have it at Moon Palace Books if you want to take a peak - it looks really good.

Another local visit for the weekend was Everett's grocery store (38th and Cedar) for some fish. Everett's sells frozen Pike filets (and walleye) - as well as lots of other sort of Scandinavian fish varieties that are just not all that common elsewhere. The Pike is pretty cheap at $6 a pound, and the walleye is about twice that. Both are caught in Canada.

So, those two adventures lead us to today's post of fried Pike and Creamed Spinach! I have never had creamed spinach before, and I am not sure what quite possessed me to suddenly want some, except that I had a package of frozen spinach in the freezer and the cold weather usually makes me want more cream whenever possible. My Charming Companion made the Pike exactly as if the pike were fresh and we were camping as outlined here. Meanwhile, I was sauteing onions in butter and stirring in creamy substances to make this tasty side dish. I modified the Smitten Kitchen recipe below:

Creamed Spinach (serves 2 large portions or 4 very small ones!)
1 10 oz package frozen spinach
1/4 + c heavy cream
1/4 c coconut cream (the thick part of the coconut milk when it is separated - regular coconut milk would work too)
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 T butter
1 t coconut flour
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and Pepper

1. Cook your spinach as instructed: mine was to add the spinach to a cup of boiling water and simmer, covered, for 8 minutes. Drain the cooked spinach when finished, pressing it through a sieve to get as much liquid out as you can.

My very poor quality photo of lunch!

2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter, then add onion and saute on med-low heat until translucent (about 5 minutes). Whisk in the coconut flour, stirring constantly to thicken the butter/onion mix just a bit. Add cream and coconut milk/cream slowly, whisking while you go. Add spinach, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Stir while the mixture thickens and cooks down a bit - just a few minutes. Serve right away, or reheat when ready. It's very tasty topped with some chopped bacon!

*For a VEGAN version of this dish, just use all coconut milk, omit the coconut flour, and instead of nutmeg, use 1/2 t ginger, and  a dash of cumin. It tastes delicious.