Spinach

The spinach that I use for all the spinach recipes in this book is flat-leaf English spinach. Now, that is what it is called in Australia because many years ago in a century now gone we called silverbeet (Swiss chard), spinach. So when the real spinach turned up we had an issue on our hands, hence silverbeet is known as silverbeet or spinach, and the real spinach as English spinach. Sorry about that!

I’ve included three favourite spinach dishes here. The first, spinach purée, produces the most fantastic concentrated spinach flavour, and we love it at Rockpool with roast beef. There are two major things that can go wrong: one is to undercook the spinach, making it impossible to get a smooth finish, and the other is to overcook it, turning it grey. You also need to resist the temptation to squeeze lemon juice over the dish, as it will discolour it. With all these recipes, always make sure you give spinach a good wash before use, as it comes with lots of dirt and mud.