Ruth Chris Steakhouse Creamed Spinach -- For Less

Up until now, the best places to get creamed spinach -- the one spinach that you can get your children to eat and the one substance that you can indulge your own craving for comfort food in that isn't white or orange -- has been pricey take out at Koo Koo Roo or pricey eat in at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Now, you can have the latter in your own home for less.

My riff on the Ruth Chris Steakhouse Creamed Spinach recipe is twofold: 1. Use fresh spinach not frozen as the original recipe calls for, and 2. At the end of the recipe, bake it. This recipe is good for four side portions of spinach. I triple and even quadruple this recipe for my hungry family. It's a big hit for winter holidays and a wonderful variation on greens at dinner and lunch.

If you've never purchased fresh spinach before, buy it pre-washed in a plastic bag. Fresh spinach that is not pre-washed is very, very dirty, and almost impossible to clean well. Buy a lot. The spinach shrinks monumentally when you cook it. Fresh vegetables cooked at home beat frozen vegetables any day. I buy mine fresh at Costco. Last week a 2.5 pound bag of fresh, pre-washed spinach cost $3.79.

Ingredients

10 ounces of spinach

2 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 Tbsp flour

1/2 Cup heavy cream

1/4 Tsp salt

Pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Saute spinach and when cooked, drain liquid.

Melt butter then add flour and stir. Add cream to thicken and stir for several minutes over medium to low flame.

Combine spinach and cream sauce, season.

Tips

You can serve it now, or do as I do, which is pour the mixture into a glass pyrex container (square brownie sized glass for less spinach, rectangular 11x17 size for more) and bake in the oven. You can toss a mixture of grated cheese and breadcrumbs over the top before heating in the oven if you'd like.

A nice touch is to scoop and serve in small ramekins for elegance and structure to the otherwise mushy consistency.

This nutritious (yes, there's heavy cream, so you've got your fat and dairy in here, too) dish is MUCH cheaper than restaurant food and pre made frozen creamed spinach in a box, and it tastes glorious. I keep leftovers in my fridge and microwave as needed throughout the week.