Dim sum in a Chinese Steamer Photo by Young |
Steaming
Chinese food is the least invasive to the ingredients of all methods of Chinese
Cooking. This is a method of cooking
with steam rather then by boiling water.
Steam is capable of cooking any food.
It starts with a wok full of boiling water and a set of nifty Chinese steamers. These are stacking circular baskets made of
bamboo or stainless steel that are available in most kitchen supply stores or Chinese supermarkets. They have woven bamboo bottoms to allow the
steam to pass through. It is important
though to place a paper towel over their bottoms so that the food will not
stick to the bamboo. Steamed food
whether it is vegetable, fruit, fish or meat is tender and because it is
steamed retains most of its nutrients.
Steaming can be used on portions of meals or can be made to create an
entire meal.
As in all techniques of Chinese cooking it is important that
you segregate the ingredients by density placing the more dense ingredients at
the bottom of a stack of steamers. At
the same time the ingredients have to be cut into uniform bite sized pieces so
that they will cook evenly.
Some modern micro-wave ovens include a way to cook food by
steaming providing a separate vessel to hold the water so that the water never
comes into contact with the food only steam.
This technique is perfectly suited to the traditional Chinese steaming
and may be substituted in its place. The
food that is steamed gives the dishes a moist texture, and for the health
conscious there is no oil involved giving added calories.
It is also the simplest technique to master as it is almost
impossible to either overcook or burn the ingredients when steaming them. Using the steaming method also gives a more
nutritious food because the vitamins and minerals are not leached away as they
are by boiling the food as is common with Western cooking methods. Steaming reduces vitamin C by 15% whereas
boiling will reduce it by 25%. All of
the other nutrients are reduced by the same amount whatever method is used for
cooking. The only real disadvantage to
steaming is that it is the least efficient of any of the cooking methods
because most of the energy is lost to the low-efficient water that is making
steam.
In Western cooking the steaming technique is usually reserved
for vegetables whereas in Chinese cooking it is usually the fish, shellfish or
meat that is steamed. A steamed meat dish
in most Chinese restaurants is a rarity though because it is more efficient to
stir fry them, besides that the Westerners won’t know the difference.
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