Spinach Soup and Tamales

The Food Nanny
March 24&25 2009

Meal 1: Spinach Soup and Roasted Garlic Potato Rolls, Baby Lima Bean Salad
· Heat the soup in a saucepan or microwave until just hot. Try to not boil it.
· Warm the Roll and serve the bean salad at room temp.
Meal 2: Squash and Pepita Tamales with Refried Beans and Yellow Rice Salad
· Heat the tamales by either steaming them in a vegetable steamer basket or in the microwave. If you have neither simply place a small glass bowl in the bottom of a sauce pan. Next, place a ½ “ of water in the bottom of the pan. Now place a plate atop the glass dish and position the tamales on the plate. Cover the pot. Bring the water inside to a boil and steam the tamales for about 5 minutes.
· Stir a little water into the beans to thin them a bit. Warm the dish in the oven for about 10 minutes or use a microwave.
· Serve the rice salad at room temp or pan fry it with some oil to get it hot.

Miracle Max's Spinach Soup
Local Notes:
Kate thinks this soup is the epitome of March,, and with its Shamrock Shake appearance, I don't disagree. This soup features Jon's super spinach which has been coming in to us all winter too. But the real backbone to it is the tail end of the potatoes I put up from him. March cuisine is a tail-ends cuisine. The asparagus is not yet here, nor the seasons mushrooms etc. But the alliums and herbs are coming back along with the leafy greens. So we use them to embellish and brighten the last of the hearty roots that have so thankfully kept us nurtured this last cold winter. How lucky we are to have such quantity and quality of comestibles within our reach during the non-growing season: sweet turnips, vigorous onions and garlic bracing all subsequent flavors, rich potatoes - a new variety for each purpose, unparalleled carrots just ringing with the vital mineras of Earth. I imagine what hardship, war, and oppression bring to living, and I think of those whom I know this very day are enduring such, likely for no good reason, and I shiver at the tenuousness and shame of our precious good fortunes. When I think of justice I think of full bellies and lively homes, and the opportunity for us to make them so.

Technique:

What makes this soup so uniques is that it stays very green. Most green vegetables turn that military shade of green that is anything but appealing - except to some philistines who will sadly never know really how to eat. I do not know what makes is so...that Max just has a gift. Max Hanson, of Max & Me Catering was one of my mentors and I remember the day he told me how to make ths soup.

You just make a white mire poix, and add thinly sliced potatoes, and then stock. Let it simmer until the potatoes are cooked and brittle. Then puree in batches with handfulls of raw spinach. Voila! Brilliant green soup positively brimming with the sweet flavor of that beautiful fresh, local, sweet spinach and loaded with everything you need to brace you for the season ahead. Enjoy with the very aromatic roast garlic rolls and look out tastebuds.

The master wrapper at work.