Whereas I am using my steamer for all manner of fish and
meat, it is seeing a lot of vegetation, too, and here, in the
spirit of virtuous February, is a vegetarian main course
which is popular both at home and with my customers in
Hong Kong.
soft as the rain
and sweet as the end of pain
a star gleaming
bright as fire in the night
a theme
whenever I think of Steam
Archie Shepp, Attica Blues
54
STEAMED BEETROOT AND TURNIPS WITH BELUGA
LENTILS, PICKLED GARLIC AND LEMON
I used red, golden and candy stripe (a.k.a. Chioggia) on this
occasion, but all good beets may apply. Pickled garlic can
be bought, though you can easily pickle your own, as below.
Enough for six.
1kg (2lb 4oz) mixed beetroot
(with leaves if possible)
200g (7oz) small turnips
200g (7oz) black beluga
lentils, green if not available
1 red chilli
a few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 lemons, plus extra juice
for seasoning
olive oil, for seasoning
30g (1oz) golden caster sugar
200–300g (7–10½oz) beet
tops or purple sprouting
broccoli
sea salt
1 red chilli, deseeded and
sliced into very thin rings,
to garnish
FOR THE PICKLED
GARLIC
30 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons sea salt
250ml (9fl oz) cider vinegar
100g (3½oz) golden caster
sugar
½ cinnamon stick
10 cloves
First, pickle the garlic. Sprinkle the garlic with the salt and
leave for 4 hours. Bring all the other ingredients to the boil
in a saucepan, then simmer for 10 minutes. Rinse the garlic
and pour over the pickling juice. Bottle in a clean 500ml
(18fl oz) jar and refrigerate, ideally for 2 weeks. Pickled
garlic should last a year in the fridge.
Wash the beetroot and turnips well, cutting off any
stalks and leaves. Half-fill the bottom of a steamer with
boiling water and place the vegetables in the top with
a sprinkling of sea salt. Steam gently for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, rinse the lentils in cold water, then bring
to a simmer in a pan with fresh cold water. Add the chilli,
thyme and bay leaves and, without seasoning at this
juncture, continue to simmer very gently without letting
the lentils dry out. Once tender, remove from the heat and
dress with sea salt, lemon juice and olive oil.
Peel the lemons, paring off the zest without any pith.
Cut this zest into very fine matchsticks and place in a
small pan of cold water. Bring to the boil, then drain and
refresh in cold water. In another pan, dissolve the sugar in
100ml (31⁄2fl oz) water over a low heat, then add the lemon
zest and simmer slowly until glossy and translucent. Lift
out the zest and reserve.
Rub the cooked beetroot and turnips with kitchen
paper to remove the skins, then cut them into segments.
Put the beet tops or broccoli in the steamer, with the
beetroot and turnips on top just long enough to wilt them.
Place the lentils in a serving dish and arrange the
steamer’s contents on top. Slice 3 or 4 pickled garlic as
thinly as possible and sprinkle over. Add some very thin
rings of chilli, lemon juice, sea salt and olive oil to taste.
WINE: Despite the vibrant flavours, it is the rich earthy
taste of the beets that will win through. A full-bodied white
with a little oak treatment will work very well – nothing
like a glass of Meursault in the depths of February.
55
February
Pretty as a Picture
Castelfranco Salad with Pears and Blue Cheese
We have become familiar not just with the deep maroon
colours of radicchio but also with the asperity of its taste.
While there are even more bitter members of the endive
family (cicoria and puntarella come to mind) radicchio is
still quite a shock to the novice palate and used sparingly
in those salad mixes so beloved of supermarkets.
I am not a fan of those bags of salad. Unless we are
talking about mesclun – the Niçoise mix of various leaves
picked in infancy, with an intense, herby flavour – I am a
one-leaf sort of man. I do not want a salad to be a marriage
of texture and dressing; I want to acknowledge the delicate
flavour of a buttery lettuce heart, or a crisp, mildly bitter
Cos (a.k.a. Romaine) or the full-on milky bitterness of
an endive. I use a fresh head of lettuce and prepare it –
washing and spinning – for the occasion and the dish. No
leaf incarcerated in a plastic bag for several days can
possibly compare.
There is also an aesthetic involved. No one could ignore
the splendour of a whole curly endive with a snow -white
core, radiating out to primrose yellow, then a deep, coarse
green exterior, all splayed out like an unruly mop.
However, the most beautiful salad, the real looker, must
be the radicchio di Castelfranco, more prosaically entitled
the Castelfrank, or speckled endive.
The varieties of radicchio are named