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Many people are not very enthusiastic about steamed food, and they can be understood: choosing between a juicy kebab straight from the barbecue and steamed broccoli, it is difficult to make a voluntary choice in favor of a green vegetable. Steaming silently is sometimes criticized even by supporters of healthy eating – they say that food cooked in a double boiler is, of course, healthy, but it would be great if it were also as tasty as fried. Meanwhile, a not-so-expressive taste – a common complaint about this cooking method – is far from the necessary result of steaming.
What is steam cooking?
Steam cooking is very close to conventional cooking, the only difference is that in this case, the temperature transmitter is not boiling water, but hot steam. This is where the fundamental difference between the two related methods lies: since steaming does not involve contact with liquid and the dish is cooked exclusively using steam, this allows you to preserve most of the substances contained in products – both useful and flavoring.
If we talk about the benefits, then the content of folic acid and vitamin C in products after steaming is reduced by 15%, while during conventional cooking it decreases by 35% and 25%, respectively – what can we say about other methods of heat treatment! I also said flavoring substances for a reason: if a piece of meat or fish is immersed in boiling water, in addition to the finished product, you will also get a broth, in most cases too light to be of serious culinary value.
Nevertheless, this broth is a sure sign that the taste and aroma compounds have passed into the water, which means that they are no longer in the product itself. Often they try to avoid this by using ready-made broth for boiling, but if there is an easier way: steaming. Without a doubt, steaming is the most delicate of the traditional culinary methods and is second only to the souvid method of the modern.
- container where water will boil;
- a stand for products that will let the rising steam through;
- and a lid so that the steam does not go outside, but circulates inside.
To steam food, bring the water to a boil, then place the food steamer over it and cover with a lid to circulate the steam and heat the food evenly. Originally, steaming, like most other health benefits, was invented in the east, which is why Chinese bamboo steamers are often used, which are installed in a wok over boiling water.
These steamers have several levels – the baskets are stacked one on top of the other, so you can cook different foods at the same time. I also use a bamboo steamer – in addition to the fact that it does its job perfectly, it also looks very stylish, so you can serve ready-made meals right in the steamer.
In addition, the store can buy an inexpensive metal steamer or look for a more modern device – electric pressure cookers, multicooker and other appliances usually have a built-in steaming function. There are also more exotic methods of steaming, such as: products that require a particularly delicate approach (say , swallow’s nests) are placed in a ceramic vessel with water, and this vessel, in turn, is placed in a double boiler, as a rule, for several hours.
Needless to say that this approach – in some ways, by the way, the predecessor of the modern suvid method – was also invented by the Chinese? ..
What can be steamed?
Oddly enough – almost anything! If you think that only fresh vegetables can be steamed, then you should know that rice, fish, various dumplings and buns and even meat are steamed in Chinese cuisine. As for dumplings, this type of cooking has spread throughout Central Asia, it is enough to recall the somewhat closer manti, for cooking which they use the mantle – in fact, the very same Chinese multi-storey double boiler, only slightly modified.
In China or Korea, you can try steamed buns, both regular and stuffed with vegetables, pork or beef: the dough turns out to be the most ordinary, except perhaps without a brown crust, for obvious reasons. In addition, Chinese cuisine offers us to steam pork ribs, duck, chicken, goose, eggs, as well as vegetables, rice and much more.
Fish, which is considered a healthy food in its own right, is also often steamed: in the recipe collection that concludes this article, you will find recipes for steaming whole fish as well as fillets. Of course, you can cook seafood in the same way, and steamed shrimp will have a richer taste than boiled in water. But what about Asia? Let’s take more understandable and familiar products, say, the same potatoes.
If we are all used to boiled potatoes, then European and American chefs and housewives mostly steam them. The reasons are the same as described above – more of their own taste and nutrients remain in the potatoes, which otherwise go into the water. The same goes for other vegetables: if you don’t cook broth, there is absolutely no reason to cook vegetables in water instead of steam. Apparently, in our country, until recently, no one was interested in steaming – there are no other clear reasons that we are used to cooking vegetables for vinaigrette or Olivier in water, I cannot imagine.
Steam cooking: not only healthy, but also delicious
I hope that steaming makes healthy dishes, I have already convinced you. But what about the main disadvantage of steaming – the pale taste of finished products? .. To begin with, its significance is somewhat exaggerated – steamed dishes have a richer taste than those boiled in water, for the reasons already described above. And if you take on board a few tips outlined in this article, your meals will not only be healthy, but also delicious.
- Experiment with spices and herbs. In such dishes, their taste comes to the fore, and in order to reveal the aroma of spices, they can be pre-calcined in a dry frying pan. This, of course, does not apply to salt, but you should not neglect it either: as you know, salt has the property of enhancing the taste of seasoned products.
- Marinate food before cooking. Adding wine vinegar, soy or Worcestershire sauce, or other flavorful herbal spices to your marinade will enrich the flavor of the foods you plan to steamer.
- Flavor the water. Of course, using a rich broth for steaming would be insane waste, but adding bay leaves or dried herbs to boiling water will cook food in fragrant steam, and this will affect the taste.
- Finishing touches. If you often eat steamed foods, don’t skip sauces. The sauce doesn’t have to be complicated – mix herbs, garlic, juice and lemon zest with olive oil, or make pesto by adding nuts and whisking in a blender until smooth.
- Cook in a sauce or marinade. This is also possible – put the fish in a deep plate, sprinkle it with soy sauce, season with ginger and green onions and put the plate in a double boiler: such a fish will have all the beneficial properties of a steamed product, but no one will reproach it for its expressionless taste.
Steamed recipes
- Delicious steamed shrimp
- Steamed pike perch fillet with brown rice
- Steamed fish in Thai
- Steamed shrimp with sweet chili sauce
- Steamed salmon