Perfect Spinach Everytime

From the plant-based kitchen dept.

One part of making life easier with the plant-based lifestyle is to avail yourself of appropriate kitchen technology. For me, induction heat is one of the must-haves.
First came my Induction Heat Rice Cooker, and then came an induction heat cook top from CopperChef, which works fine, different from their pans, which do not hold up very well in daily use.

So, as I reported in that last post about CopperChef, I have since moved on to both a Demeyere Silvinox stainless steel Dutch oven, and a frying pan as well as a 4-Qt Sauce pan from ScanPan, which do everything I need. The CopperChef pans are relegated to steaming, as they are not very useful for cooking without oil, even though they claim to be. Their non-stick becomes increasingly sticky after the first half dozen uses.

ScanPan 4Qt Sauce Pan in Action

Perfect Spinach (for one)

Ingredients:

• One medium onion chopped fine
• One jalapeno pepper, seeded
• Two green chilis
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• One bunch of spinach, washed

Preparation

• Chop up the onion fine, along with the chilis and the jalapeno
• Dry-fry it on medium heat (275F) for 5 minutes
• Chop up the garlic cloves
• Add 2 ice cubes of veggie broth, and the chopped garlic and heat for another 5 minutes at 275F
• Add the washed spinach. Cook for 7 minutes at 275F.
• Drain the remaining cooking liquid, and freeze it in your ice-cube tray.

Besides anything else, here is where the advantages of IH cooking show. If I just set my onions for 5 minutes, it no longer matters if I get a phonecall, the plate just turns itself off after 5 minutes. When you put it all together, the above gives you perfectly cooked spinach in 20 minutes (assuming 3 mins for chopping the onion and the chilis and jalapeno).
Also, you are now cooking your spinach with spices, not with salt, which is an essential piece of the Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet. NO ADDED, Sugar, Oil, or Salt.

The ScanPan cookware holds up very well, in exactly 5 minutes the onions just begin to turn brown, and, in the ScanPan, there is no sign of sticking. For ScanPan, non-stick means what it says.

Making a meal as opposed to a recipe

With the above, I can cook a meal in no time. Usually, I cook various sauces for 6-8 servings and freeze the left overs. You can easily boil pasta, or a potato, or rice (which I usually also cook in batches for 2-3 days). So, while I am making the spinach, I can re-heat the sauce in a double boiler (I do not have a microwave). This type of a meal can be ready in a half hour.

It all becomes a system, and by using your freezer effectively, you can make your kitchen very effective, by leveraging frozen foods you prepared in batches, and fresh foods you make that day. And making a salad is always easy - and I usually throw in a half a cup or a cup of quinoa and/or some beans, such as black beans or one-eyed peas, or whatever is around.

CopperChef Reviewed

In a recent post, I shared some experiences and opinions about cookware for your plant-based kitchen. One comment pertained to CopperChef cookware, which has been heavily promoted in recent years, but I came to the conclusion that you're better off saving your money for something better.

CopperChef's Sticky "Non-Stick" Coating

In the interest of fairness, by buying a set of CopperChef pans, I did end up with an induction cooktop, which was major progress. Besides the cooktop, their set included both the 9.5" and 11" "Deep Square Pan," with lids and steamer baskets and some pretty useless utensils.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I will offer you some pictures:

CopperChefXL 9.5" Deep Square Pan, Looking good

The ceramic coating comes off on the bottom, just from the cook top

Non-stick coating showing wear and tear in the middle

So for me this stuff was a learning tool to get going with induction cooking. I love the induction cooking experience, but these pans are not worth whatever I paid for them. Here is what it says on their website:

Copper Chef is the world’s first non-stick all-round square pan with Cerami-Tech coating, a new generation of healthy ceramic non-stick technology. That means nothing will stick to your pan. Copper Chef, with extra deep sides replaces a roasting pan, a rice cooker, a steamer, a stock pot, a wok and a baking dish. Even cook mac and cheese from dry right in its own sauce. Delicious! No more boiling and straining ever again!
What’s the secret? Copper Chef’s induction plate channels heat quickly and evenly with no hot spots, so you can sear meat in a flash!

And because you’re cooking with ceramic non-stick, you don’t have to add all that extra fat and butter. Air pop popcorn without any oil or butter. And no added calories.

 The truth is different, in my experience, so,  even though the website for the product claims expressly that you can cook in it without oil or grease, it did not work out that way in practice. For me cooking vegetables like spinach, poi leaf (Malabar spinach), or callaloo, begins with searing some onions and chilis at medium heat, dry for a few minutes until  the onions begin to caramelize. Then I add some 2 ice cubes of frozen vegetable broth and add some chopped garlic, and cook that for another five minutes, before I add the vegetable. Sometimes I may first add some beans and/or some split lentils or chick peas (and more water) to make a sauce. It all depends.

In the CopperChef pan, in the center area, where the induction heat transfer occurs, the onions started baking on to the "non stick surface" right away, even the first time, and it got progressively worse. The picture above is after about 6 months of regular use. Cleaning up is becoming progressively worse. Effectively, I cannot brown the onions in this pan, I have to stop just before they caramelize, which happens to be 4 minutes on 275F and even then they start to stick. It has become a major annoyance.

Meanwhile I have to say, the 11" Deep Square Pan is very useful to me for steaming my daily bunch of kale, because the steaming tray is huge. Of course for steaming the problem with anything sticking on the non-stick coating is a non-issue. The wear and tear on the corners of the square bottom are the same - it really does seem the cooktop is that abrasive. In short, the CopperChef pans are great for boiling water, but would not count on them for challenging tasks like seriously cooking without oil... never mind what they claim.

Besides these usability problems, we had endless problems with this company just to get the shipment right. The first order had pieces missing and it took something like 10 follow-up orders to correct the first one, during which time they kept sending us the wrong replacements. It took about six months before our first shipment was complete, and by that time the 9.5" Deep Square Pan was essentially worn out.

Enter Scanpan

Scanpan 4Qt Sauce Pan

On the recommendation of some of my plant-based friends, I then tried a Scanpan sauce pan, and it is brilliant. It has now taken the place of the 9.5" Deep Square Pan from CopperChef. Now, in fairness, the Scanpan sauce pan cost as much as the cooktop plus the two pans from CopperChef, and the cooktop definitely does work just fine. Using the timer for cooking is so much easier! Plus the 11" pan is proving very useful to me.

Scanpan has proven itself to me as being the non-stick ceramic cookware that truly performs. It says non-stick and it is non-stick. It feels very solid and the thick, multi-layer bottom does a masterful job at very even heat distribution, making this pan truly a joy to cook in.

OK, that's the latest on my adventures in plant-based cooking. Remember, the tools do make a difference in your daily routine, so while you may not necessarily need anything special to go plant-based, still, having great tools does pay dividends and make cooking more rewarding.

Some Notes on Cookware for your #WFPB kitchen

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