At the center of South Beach is the world-famous Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant, one of America’s finest eateries.  If you’ve never had stone crabs, this is the restaurant you  need to get to before you die.  There is no finer restaurant meal in the universe.  And while stone crabs are the featured centerpiece, no meal at Joe’s is complete without the cottage fries and the creamed spinach.  There is no other way to order there.  If you only get there once in your life, your meal of stone crabs, cottage fries, and creamed spinach will be the restaurant highlight of your life.

While you cannot get the stone crabs easily (you can order them from Joe’s to be shipped, and they are fabulous, you can make their creamed spinach at home, and rather simply.  Here’s the recipe, and if you don’t like this one, you don’t like food.

Period.

Joe’s Stone Crab Creamed Spinach

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons salted butter

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

¾ cup half-and-half

2        ½-pound bags baby spinach, washed, rinsed, and chopped

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic and saute’ for 30 seconds.  Whisk in flour and heat for about 1 minute.  Whisk in half-and-half.
2. Squeeze the spinach as dry as possible and add to the saucepan.  Add the salt, nutmeg, and black pepper and simmer for 20 minutes on medium-low heat.