Question
Mark Rappaport
Is it appropriate to add herbs & spices to it veggies while steaming and if a mixture of vegetables, potatoes and beets at the same time is doable?
Answer
Adding herbs and spices to it while steaming. So you can do that, you can definitely add spices and herbs to it as you're steaming. It will absorb a lot of that flavor. So like, say if you're doing potatoes in particular, right? So if you have, um, potatoes that you're steaming, you can, you know, salt them and maybe put like dill fronds on top of them and they will absorb some of that flavor as well. It's definitely gonna get a little bit more flavor after you've steamed and you've diced that dill basically and toss the potatoes into it 'cause you're actually eating the dill and not just steaming it with. So if you're looking to eat a big flavor, definitely dice it and toss the herbs and spices, um, you know, after steaming, although it could absorb a little bit as you're going. Now, if you're looking to be mixing vegetables, potatoes, and beets at the same time, you have to worry about cooking time and how dense the vegetable is. And it, and beets you have to worry about touching other things and turning things purple. So you have to have a lot of room, um, if you're going to do that. And you need to make sure that the beet and juice doesn't drip down on the other ingredients. Turning the colors, uh, different, uh, different colors. Um, so depending on how dense the vegetables are that you're steaming and the potatoes, if they're, you know, cut up or if they're just whole or however you're doing them, those are all things that you have to consider is, are they going to take the same amount of time to cook? And if they're not, then you need to be able to add things into your steamer at the appropriate time. It's kind of like a stir fry, right? So when you're making a stir fry, you put the ingredients you want cooked the most in first and the ones that you want least at the end, right? So you start with your onions and your ginger and your garlic and your mushrooms and maybe your tofu. Um, and then some of the lighter ingredients like maybe snow peas, um, you know, would kind of go in towards the end because they don't need to be cooked down as much 'cause you want them to have a little Christmas to them. You do the same thing with the steaming. If you're gonna be doing a lot of different vegetables, you kind of add them as you go. So you might put your potatoes in your carrots and to be able to start on the steam, but something that you don't want is, uh, you know, cooked all the way through or something less dense you would put it in towards the end.
