The market: stumpy carrots, the prickle of frost, dark greens, the scent of wet soil. Here and there among the trestle tables are shallow baskets: Russian kale, tips of cavolo nero with their infant leaves, broccoli heads the size of a mushroom, and sprigs of purple and white sprouting so small you can hold ten in the palm of your hand. Each sprig of vegetable is so precious, so diminutive, as timid as a chanterelle. I pick them up with finger and thumb, which seems the way they must have been picked from their stems. These are shoots plucked from the stem after the growing heart of the plant has been removed. No smothering of cheese sauce, just a three-minute trip in the steamer and a classic hollandaise to dip them in, let down with a dash of cream and a grating of zest from a blood orange.

　　

Ingredients

enough for 3

　　purple sprouting – 4 large handfuls, steamed

　　egg yolks – 3

　　melted butter – 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (200g)

　　lemon juice

　　the finely grated zest of a blood orange

　　heavy cream or crème fraîche – 3 tablespoons

　　

Step 1

Bring a pan of water to a boil and find a heatproof glass or ceramic bowl that will fit neatly into it without actually touching the water. Drop the yolks—large, deep orange ones if you have them—into the bowl and then a splash of water. Whisk, pouring in almost all the melted butter, slowly at first as if you were making mayonnaise, then as the sauce thickens up, a little faster. The water in the pan should be simmering rather than boiling and if you stop whisking your sauce will fail (though I have occasionally brought it back to life with a splash of simmering water from the pan).

　　

Step 2

Once it is thick and creamy, squeeze in a little lemon juice and stir in a good pinch of salt. No pepper. The sauce can be used as it is.

　　

Step 3

One late-spring day last year, I got this far, then decided to add the finely grated zest of a blood orange and three tablespoons of thick cream, whisked in at the end. The idea of bright green vegetables and vivid blood oranges seemed right for a day that saw the garden freckled white with frost and the sky clear and pale gray. I spooned thick lines of the orange hollandaise over the tiny stems of steamed sprouting and ate it with rounds of grilled ciabatta.

　　Tender