Spinach Turnover Recipe
15 Dec
Recently, I’ve been watching old Julia Child cooking videos from her TV show “The French Chef”. I came across this recipe for Spinach Turnover, and instantly wanted to make one. Now, I don’t own any of Julia Child’s cookbooks, something I intend on fixing soon, so I had to write down this recipe straight from the video. It is kind of a long recipe, but it’s not too complicated to make, and it tastes delicious! If you should have any questions about the recipe, you can easily search for Julia Child’s cooking videos. This one in particular is found on PBS.com and is called “The Spinach Twins”. The video should help clear up anything I did not make clear in the recipe.
Something that is great about Spinach Turnover is that you can make and assemble the night before, and pop in the over the next day for dinner. This helps make cooking so much easier, especially on busy nights. Spinach Turnover is flavorful, healthy, and well worth the effort. My husband was not too sure about this at first, and was requesting a “back-up” dinner. It was not needed. He loved this recipe and couldn’t get enough.
I’ll give you a helpful short cut, if you don’t want to, or don’t know how to make your own pastry dough, you can buy pre-made pie crust. You can take one package (two 9″ pie crusts) and roll them together to make the amount of dough you need for the Spinach Turnover. This is actually the method I use and it works out very well.
Recipe: Spinach Turnover
Summary: Something that is great about Spinach Turnover is that you can make and assemble the night before, and pop in the over the next day for dinner. This helps make cooking so much easier, especially on busy nights.
Ingredients
- Pastry for 2 – 9” pie crusts (unbleached pastry flour)
- 9 ounces fresh spinach, washed (yield 2 cups blanched, drained-squeezed dry, chopped)
- 4 ounces fresh small white mushrooms, quartered
- ½ cup diced ham
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 eggs, 1 separated
- 1 teaspoon water
- For Sauce Bouillee:
- 1 medium onion, diced (1 cup)
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup flour
- 1 2/3 cup hot milk
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Pinch of nutmeg
- For Cream Sauce:
- Remaining Sauce Bouillee
- ½ cup or more of heavy cream or milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
Instructions
- Wash spinach well and plunge into a large pot of salted boiling water for about 2 minutes. Immediately remove spinach from boiling water and shock in cold water (blanch). Drain well, squeeze dry and chop. Return spinach to pot.
- Wipe mushrooms with clean damp rag. Quarter mushrooms and sauté with diced ham in 1 tablespoon butter, set aside.
- In a heavy bottomed 2 quart sauce pan, sauté onion over low heat in ¼ cup butter until translucent. Put half the onion in the pot with the spinach.
- For Sauce Bouillee:
- Add the flour to the remaining onion and cook the roux over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Whisk in the hot milk a little at a time. This sauce is going to be thick, like a paste. Take the pan off the heat and beat in an egg. Salt and pepper to taste and add a pinch of nutmeg (just a small pinch, you don’t really want to be able to taste it). Put about a ½ cup of the sauce in with the spinach.
- For Cream Sauce:
- Stir ½ cup or more of heavy cream or milk into remaining Sauce Bouillee until it is thinned a bit. Simmer slowly, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to finish cooking the flour. Remove from heat. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with cheese, to let it melt and keep a skin from forming. Set aside. When ready to serve, warm it over low heat and stir in the cheese.
- To assemble the pastry:
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll the dough into a 10” by 15” rectangle, ¼ inch thick. Trim the edges so that it is even and square. Lay the dough 2/3 over parchment or wax paper, to simplify rolling over the top. Paint the pastry with egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water.
- Spread half the spinach mixture on the lower 1/3 of the pastry that is NOT on the paper, keeping a ½” edge bare for sealing. Place all of the mushrooms and ham on top. Spread remaining spinach over ham and mushrooms.
- Grabbing the paper, fold the pastry up and over. Seal the edges with fingers, then press with tines of fork.
- Place on a greased baking sheet. Paint turnover with an egg glaze of 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until nicely browned and crisp.
- Slide it onto a board to cut diagonally and serve with warmed Cream Sauce.
- This can be made ahead of time, without glazing, and refrigerated. Glaze just before baking. If baking cold, it will need a little more baking time.
Quick notes
If you should have any questions about the recipe, you can easily search for Julia Child’s cooking videos. This one in particular is found on PBS.com and is called “The Spinach Twins”. The video should help clear up anything I did not make clear in the recipe.
Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Culinary tradition: USA (Traditional)
Rating
Copyright © The Hungry Wife.
Omy, I think I just found what I’ve been looking for!
For months I have been cooking a very similar family recipe. I am excited to try this one.