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Spring is here and there are some fresh-tasting vegetables in the garden and at the farmers markets – the first morels of the season, rhubarb, English peas, pea tendrils, baby spinach. All of this and more is on offer at our farmers markets here in California, which have been open with social distancing protocols in place: Staggered entrances of limited numbers of shoppers being allowed in and the vendors choosing the produce for you to limit interactions. There are tender greens and even lettuce newly flourishing in my spring garden and rhubarb is appearing on farmers’ stands if you know where to look for it (hothouse varieties are available seemingly all year round in the better supermarkets here). (Note: If you choose to use a bit of rhubarb in this concoction, you will have to sprinkle a small amount of sugar over it while it is being steamed as it is too astringent to serve unsweetened.)
At this time of year, these vegetables are all encouraging signs of spring and hope at my table – more than a year into this dark time on our planet. With it all, I’m hankering for a vegetarian tonic; something restorative yet easy to accomplish, which includes a complementary trio or quartet of vegetables and tea.
The hardest part is picking the vegetables that take well to steaming, and, foremost: That you enjoy cooked in that way. Perhaps baby vegetable varieties in the better stores, even small white turnips or red radishes would be good. Focus on what looks freshest and brightest in the market, perhaps a combination of some mild and others a bit more assertive for variety.
Here’s How To Do It (Kind of a No-Recipe Recipe)
After you have steamed the vegetables, just before serving the dish, brew up some of your favorite tea, (count about 1 cup of tea, 1 cup of the liquid used to steam the vegetables and 6 ounces of vegetables per person). Brew the tea a bit on the weak side, nothing tannic or bitter. Perhaps the second or third longer brews from a nice oolong would work well here, with some of its orchid-y floral presence still hauntingly there. Or if you prefer a black tea like Yunnan or Keemun – these, brewed lightly, would also work well as an earthier counterpoint to the fresh vegetables.
It’s simply a matter of quick-steaming the vegetables over as small an amount of water as possible – keep your eye on the water level to be sure that it has not evaporated.
Use a pot or pan that can fit a steamer basket in it (or lacking that, place a dinner plate or bowl set on a metal measuring cup that will allow the plate to be balanced over the water, but not touching it).
Cook the vegetables until just barely tender (be sure to save the steaming liquid to use as part of the tonic when serving).
After you have steamed the vegetables, just before serving the dish, brew up some of your favorite tea, (count about 1 cup of tea, 1 cup of the liquid used to steam the vegetables and 6 ounces of vegetables per person). Brew the tea a bit on the weak side, nothing tannic or bitter. Perhaps the second or third longer brews from a nice oolong would work well here, with some of its orchid-y floral presence still hauntingly there. Or if you prefer a black tea like Yunnan or Keemun – these, brewed lightly, would also work well as an earthier counterpoint to the fresh vegetables.
Array your choice of steamed vegetables attractively in wide, somewhat shallow bowls that you have rinsed with hot water to warm them up a bit. If you have some cooked rice on hand, steam it to reheat it, placing it in the bowl next to the vegetables. Next up is pouring the hot light infusion of tea combined with some of the still-hot liquid over which you steamed the vegetables. Season lightly with salt if desired. That’s all there is to it.
Rounding out the meal, I like to serve this with some good bread slathered with good, soft, unsalted butter sprinkled with a few granules of French fleur de sel or other good salt. This makes a nearly no-work meal which should be on the table in under a half hour. Here’s to something nourishing, invigorating, and warming on those cooler spring nights — oh, and healthful.
Photo “Spring” is copyright under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License to the photographers Karen and Brad Emerson and is being posted unaltered (source)
