Steaming is one of the best ways to keep the nutrients in, minimize fat, and produce light, moist, delicate results with minimal effort. Because steamed foods are too often under-seasoned and over-cooked, they've gained a reputation for being bland and mushy. Follow the tips below and you'll be producing bright, crisp, and delicious veggies, savory steamed fish and poultry, and even a few steamed desserts in no time!

Ways to Steam

Metal, Bamboo, and Electric Steamers
Steaming is simply cooking foods with moist, hot water vapor. You can steam at low pressure by adding a metal or bamboo steamer to a pot or wok with a little water below, covering it all, and allowing the steam to rise and circulate around your ingredients - they often have multiple layers which allow you to cook different foods at the same time. You can also buy electric steamers which do the same job, but with more bells and whistles. In a pinch, though, an upturned ramekin with a plate on top will do a great job of holding whatever you're cooking above the hot water so that the steam can do its job.

Recipes to try:
Steamed Vegetables with Mojo Sauce
Chicken Legs Steamed with Thyme
Momos
Whole Steamed Fish
Danny Chan's Steamed Salmon with Lemon
Steamed Mussels
Steamed Chocolate Pudding Cake
Persimmon Pudding

En Papillote
Another popular technique for steaming is to seal ingredients into a parchment paper or aluminum foil packet (referred to as "en papillote"). This keeps the steam inside while you heat the food in an oven or microwave. You can steam fish or chicken breasts along with vegetables and flavorful cooking liquid - a bit of soy sauce, mirin, ginger, and scallions produce a wonderful, mild Asian-style meal. It's a great, low-effort way to impress dinner guests as everyone can cut open their own individual packages and let the wonderful aromas pour out.

Recipes to try:

Red Snapper en Papillote
Chicken en Papillote with Spicy Carrot Jus
Salmon Filet en Papillote with Julienne Vegetables

Pressure Cookers
A pressure cooker is a steamer that lets no steam escape, building up the pressure and heat inside and cooking items at record times. You can use them for everything from whole grains to stews to beans - and they generally cut the time needed to cook by two-thirds!

Recipes to try:
Pressure Cooker Chili
Black Beans in a Pressure Cooker

Tips for Steaming
When you use a traditional bamboo or metal steamer, make sure that the food is at least one inch above the level of the water. Check occasionally to see if you need to replenish your liquid and always add boiling hot liquids so that you don't drop the temperature. And, be careful - steam is hotter than boiling water, so always lift the lid so the steam will pour away from you.

As with all cooking, it's best to cut foods to even sizes so that they will cook at roughly the same time. Keep a little space between items so that the steam has room to circulate. Strongly flavored vegetables such as mustard greens or turnips will overpower more delicate items, so you should steam or boil them separately.

Adding Flavor to Steamed Foods
Because basic steaming adds no flavor to whatever you're cooking - you don't get the fat and caramelization from sauteing, for example - you do need to think about how you want to boost the flavor. Marinating is a great idea for steamed foods, and you can try combinations of fresh or dried herbs, flavorful spices, soy sauce, ginger, scallions, citrus zest or juice, garlic, and olive or toasted sesame oil for just a few ideas.

You can add marinade to the cooking liquid to create even more flavor - or skip the marinade and use a flavored cooking liquid on its own with stock, wine, herbs, garlic, ginger, soy, etc. Because you don't need any fat to steam foods, you might want to drizzle on a little at the end for flavor and texture.

Cooking Times
Depending on how large your pieces are, most vegetables will be steamed between one to three minutes - they'll keep cooking after you remove them from the steam, so always err on the side of slightly underdone. Fish fillets or whole fish can take between seven to twelve minutes. You can place cleaned and debearded mussels directly in a pot with a flavorful cooking liquid (try white wine, parsley, and garlic), cover the pot, and they'll be cooked in about ten minutes - you'll know they're ready when they open. Chicken breasts will take about eight minutes to steam.