As someone whose home food is mostly coastal southern Chinese food, steaming is one of the cooking techniques I’m most familiar with. I feel I can steam anything (fish, meat, vegetables, tofu, eggs, even breads and dessert) and I don’t think of that food as ‘plain’.
Thinking I’d like to write about this. What would you like to learn about steaming food?
@skinnylatte I like the concept of "wok plus trivet" as it kind of implies "You don't need special equipment, anyone can do this". You might be able to spin that into the entire theme of the book.
@skinnylatte as others have suggested, a section on how, and a section on why at the start would be great for folks new to steaming. Is there any particular science involved, how does steaming affect the food differently from other cooking methods, etc. Does the water have to be a full 100c to make steam? Can you "flavor" steam? Can you "slow steam" vs "quick steam" based on water temp and how does that affect the texture?
@skinnylatte I'd like to read more about steaming fish! Over here the simplest version of a chicken curry that can be eaten in summer is chicken marinaded in ginger, onion, garlic, oil, salt, turmeric, and lime/yoghurt, and steamed with plenty of water in a pressure cooker. But I don't hear much about steamed fish that's as simple. Usually steamed fish recipes have a lot of mustard and poppy seed paste going in as well, and eating that much mustard in the summer is, um, not great for everyone.
Related: prepare yourself for a heart attack (steamed hilsa at S$218)
(Usually at these expensive steamed seafood Chinese restaurants they keep the fish in tanks, and also prepare them very lightly in ways that I don’t think I can replicate without training. I only have them when someone else pays)
Add comment