Twitter Chef Avatar Fun: Ghillie Basan's Spinach with Currants, Pine Nuts, and Yogurt

 

      We are having a bit of avatar fun over at Twitter, my baking/cooking pals and I, just to shake things up a bit and confuse everyone each month as to who is who and all.  Nancy came up with the great idea of each of us picking a different chef for each month, all of us making anything we each selected to make from that chef's recipes, taking a photo of our efforts, and using that photo as our avatar for that month. 

      November's avatar chef is Ghillie Basan, chosen by Andrea.  The recipe I chose was Spinach with Currants, Pine Nuts, and Yogurt. 

      I didn't know a thing about Ghillie Basan before this month, had never even heard of her, which is a shame because after doing a bit of research online, I see that she has a lovely assortment of cookbooks (click here to see them), all of them look wonderful!  If you would like to learn more about Ghillie Basan, click here where you will find information about her and a few more of her recipes. 

      I loved this spinach recipe...the only thing I changed was that I just barely wilted the spinach as that is how we like it, not cooked all the way down, etc.  The onions, currants, garlic, red pepper, toasted pine nuts, and yogurt all went really well with the spinach and gave it a lovely flavor, I could eat this for lunch every day for a week. 

      Delicious, healthy, and definitely a repeat, as a matter of fact, this one is going into our regular rotation of spinach recipes, it's that good.

Spinach with Currants, Pine Nuts and Yogurt

(Serves 3-4)

(Taken from Turkish Cooking and shared on Ghillie Basan site found here)

350g/12oz fresh spinach leaves, thoroughly washed and drained
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, cut in half lengthways, in half again crossways and sliced with the grain
1 teaspoon sugar
1-2 tablespoons currants, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes and drained
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1-2 teaspoons Turkish red pepper, or 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
roughly 200g/7oz thick, creamy, set yogurt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
ground paprika for the top

Place the spinach in a steamer, or in a colander placed in a large pot partially filled with water.
Steam the spinach until soft. Drain off any excess water and coarsely chop the steamed spinach.

In a bowl, beat the yogurt with the garlic. Season with salt and pepper and put aside.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan and stir in the onions and sugar, until they begin to color.
Toss in the currants, pine nuts and red pepper and fry until the nuts begin to color.
Add the spinach, tossing it around the pan until well mixed and pour in the lemon juice.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Serve the spinach from the pan with the yogurt spooned on top, or tip the mixture onto a serving dish.
Make a well in the middle and spoon the yogurt into it, drizzling some of it over the spinach.
Sprinkle a little paprika over the yogurt and serve while the spinach is still hot.

My note: I didn't do the spinach in a steamer, I just added it later into the pan with the ingredients and let it wilt down for a minute or two and it was delicious!