Lemon-Steamed Spinach
There’s not much to say about this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Lemon-Steamed Spinach. It is a very simple side dish of lightly scented steamed spinach.
The interesting thing about this recipe is the technique; it is quite ingenious. Instead of flavoring the spinach after it is steamed, Dorie has you do it first. Baby spinach leaves are tossed with olive oil, lemon zest, salt, and pepper, much like tossing a salad. Then it is steamed and served immediately.
The end result is a lovely, simple side dish. I served mine with Chicken Piccata and the two dishes went perfectly together.
Ispahan Loaf Cake
Last week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was a very unique cake called Ispahan Loaf Cake. The word “Ispahan” is the name of a type of rose, and indicates that the cake is rose-scented.
This is one of those dishes I would never have made if not for French Fridays with Dorie. I would not have taken the time or shelled out the money to buy rose syrup and rose extract. But, in the name of FFWD I did!
I did not make any altitude adjustments while making this cake. It already contained 4 eggs, including whipped egg whites, so I wasn’t sure I would need to add any more. There also wasn’t any baking soda or baking powder to reduce. It turns out I should have added an egg. This is what a cake without altitude adjustments looks like:
I should have adjusted for altitude…
It wasn’t pretty, but the cake still tasted good and was nice and moist.
I liked this cake! The rose flavor was very subtle. Perhaps it was the rose syrup I used, which wasn’t very strong. The cake is studded with raspberries. They aren’t a favorite of mine, and my favorite bites were the ones without raspberries in them.
I thought the rose tea cup was appropriate!
I would like to try making this cake again without the raspberries and with an extra egg. I may add a little extra rose extract to amp up the flavor. I also need to find other ways to use my bottle of rose extract. I have an idea for rose cupcakes…
From Scratch 
Well, maybe it wasn’t the prettiest cake on the outside, but it looks good on the inside! And your spinach looks delicious too! Nicely done!
Oooo….I love raspberries! Not sure about the rose part though….;)
I served my spinach with fried fish, but it’s funny, last night I made
some chicken piccata. As long as the cake tasted good that’s all that
matters. Happy Easter.
Beautiful job on both dishes. We loved the spinach. I still need to make the cake. Happy Easter.
Chicken piccata is my eldest daughter’s favorite 🙂 What a good choice to go with the spinach.
Nice job on the cake – I think a few of us are wondering what to do with our leftovers…especially the extract.
You did a great job on both! The cake slices look perfect, altitude problems or no.
I liked learning the preseasoning trick for the spinach. I’ll definitely be doing that again. Looks great with the chicken. As for the cake, sigh, I wasn’t a fan. I made it was strawberries because I didn’t have raspberries, but my syrup was VERY strong and VERY pink. Yours does look delicious though.
That chicken piccata looks fantastic. It’s one of my husbands favorite dishes, and I don’t make it as often as I should. I love recipes like this week’s where it is more of a technique that can be applied than an actual recipe.
You chicken piccata looks delicious and a good idea with the spinach. My Isaphan Cake didn’t turn out very well. Yours looks much better!