South East Asian Style Spinach

This is a quick and easy side dish that goes well with Thai, Vietnamese and other South East Asian dishes. A more authentic way of making it is to use fish sauce instead of timari, but due to the very high salt content of fish sauce I personally use it sparingly.  The original recipe this was based off of comes from Quick and Easy Thai:  70 Everyday Recipes by Nancy McDermott. 

Serving Size:  2 people as a vegetable side dish.

Ingredients:

*One bundle of fresh spinach, about x oz's.

*2 tbsp of coarsely chopped garlic, about 3 cloves

*2 tbsp of low sodium timari or fish sauce

*1/2 tsp or more black pepper

*2 tbsp veg or sesame oil or a mix of the two

Preparation:

1)  Wash spinach and trim off most of the stems, allow to drip dry.  Peel and chop the garlic.

2)  Heat oil in a wok or large a large, deep frying pan on medium-high heat.

3)  When a bit of garlic sizzles, add the rest of the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant and barely browned.  You want the garlic cooked and tender but not burnt by the time the dish is finished cooking, so be sure not to brown or over-cook it at this point.

4)  Add spinach, timari and black pepper.  As the spinach cooks down, begin to stir and mix it.

5)  Cook for a few more minutes until the spinach is lightly wilted and remove from heat.  It should only take 1-3 minutes at this point to finish cooking.  Drain any excess liquid out of pan.  Adjust timari and black pepper to taste and serve while hot.