Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking have been found dating back about 5,000 years. Steaming is considered a healthy cooking technique that can be used for many kinds of foods.
Compared to full immersion in boiling water, steaming can be faster and more energy-efficient because it requires less water and takes advantage of the excellent thermodynamic heat transfer properties of steam.
Some of the world's earliest examples of steam cooking were found in China's Yellow River Valley; early steam cookers made of stoneware have been found dating back as far as 5,000 BCE. [1] And also in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, created during the Stone Age. [2] [3] Some of the earliest examples of steam cooking have been found in Italy and Sardinia, created during the Bronze Age, [4] and in Cochise County, Arizona, where steam pits were used for cooking about 10,000 years ago. [5] From the eighth century CE,[ citation needed ] thin cypress strips were used to make steamers; today, their slatted bases are constructed from bamboo. The classic steamer has a chimney in the center, which distributes the steam among the tiers.[ citation needed ]
While steaming has not caught up in the west for assorted dishes, the technique has been heavily popularized worldwide by Chinese and East Asian cuisine. [6] The two main classic steamers feature the ancient bamboo steamer as well as the modern metal (aluminium or stainless steel) steamer, with the difference being that the bamboo lid takes longer to heat up but absorbs excess moisture and allows heat to condense again over the delicate food. [7] Other developments were the creation of microwaveable silicone steamers and plastic-hybrid steamers. [7]
Steaming works by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. This differs from double boiling, in which food is not directly exposed to steam, or pressure cooking, which uses a sealed vessel but is capable of pressure steaming or submerging.[ citation needed ]
Such cooking is most often done by placing the food in a food steamer, typically a circular container made of metal, wood, or bamboo. The steamer usually has a lid that is placed on top of the container during cooking to allow the steam to cook through the food. When a steamer is unavailable, food can be steamed inside a wok, supported over boiling water in the bottom of the wok by a metal frame. Some modern home microwave ovens include a structure to cook food with steam vapor produced in a separate water container, providing a similar result to being cooked on a stove. There are also specialized steam ovens available.[ citation needed ]
In Japan, glutinous rice is steamed to prepare mochi rice cakes. Traditional Japanese sweets or wagashi making involves steaming rice or wheat dough for making mochigashi and manju.[ citation needed ]
In Western cooking, steaming is most often used to cook vegetables—it is rarely used to cook meats. However, steamed clams are prepared by steaming. With Chinese cuisine, vegetables are usually stir fried or blanched and seldom steamed. Seafood and meat dishes are steamed. For example: Steamed whole fish, steamed crab, steamed pork spare ribs, steamed ground pork or beef, steamed chicken and steamed goose.[ citation needed ]
Rice can be steamed too, although in Chinese cooking this is simply referred to as "cooking" rather than "steaming". In Thailand steaming is the definition of minimalist cooking. [8] Wheat foods are steamed as well. Examples include buns and Chinese steamed cakes. Similarly, in Mexican and Central American cuisine, tamales are made by steaming a dough made from nixtamalized maize (called masa) in wrappers made from corn husks or banana leaves; the dough can be stuffed or left plain.[ citation needed ]
Steamed meat dishes (except fish and some dim sum) are less common in Chinese restaurants than in traditional home cooking, [9] because meats usually require longer cooking times to steam than to stir fry. Commercially sold frozen foods (such as dim sum) formerly had instructions to reheat by steaming, until the rise in popularity of home microwave ovens, which have considerably shorter cooking times.[ citation needed ]
Staple foods
Rice
Seafood
Soup
Sweets
Others
There are recipes where sauce is added to the main ingredients, aiming to control smell or aroma, or keep moisture to the ingredients.
Recipes named after the container.
Sweets: steaming is an important process in Japanese sweets making such as manjū, yōkan, uirō, karukan or suama.
Overcooking or burning food is easily avoided when steaming it. Individuals preferring to avoid additional fat intake may prefer steaming to methods which require cooking oil.[ citation needed ]
A 2007 USDA comparison between steaming and boiling vegetables shows the most affected nutrients are folic acid and vitamin C. When compared to raw consumption, steaming reduces folic acid by 15%, and boiling reduces it by 35%. Steaming reduces vitamin C by 15%, and boiling reduces it by 25%. [14]
Steaming, compared to boiling, showed 42% higher amount of glucosinolates in broccoli cooked for medium firmness. [15] Phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties have been found to retain significantly better through steaming than through boiling or microwaving. [16] Steaming compared to boiling retained β-carotene in carrots. [17] The effect of cooking food may increase or decrease the nutrients. [14] [18]
Shanghai cuisine, also known as Hu cuisine, is a popular style of Chinese food. In a narrow sense, Shanghai cuisine refers only to what is traditionally called Benbang cuisine which originated in Shanghai. In a broader sense, it refers to complex styles of cooking developed under the influence of neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes : sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more elements, which are also based around a five-pronged philosophy. Vietnamese recipes use ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chili, lime, and Thai basil leaves. Traditional Vietnamese cooking has often been characterised as using fresh ingredients, not using much dairy or oil, having interesting textures, and making use of herbs and vegetables. The cuisine is also low in sugar and is almost always naturally gluten-free, as many of the dishes are rice-based instead of wheat-based, made with rice noodles, papers and flour.
Onigiri, also known as omusubi (お結び) or nigirimeshi (握り飯), is a Japanese rice ball made from white rice. It is usually formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes, and wrapped in nori (seaweed). Onigiri traditionally have sour or salty fillings such as umeboshi, salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako or mentaiko, or takanazuke. Because it is easily portable and eaten by hand, onigiri has been used as portable food or bento from ancient times to the present day. Originally, it was used as a way to use and store left-over rice, but it later became a regular meal. Many Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets stock onigiri with various fillings and flavors. It has become so mainstream that it is even served in izakayas and sit-down restaurants. There are even specialized shops which only sell onigiri to take out. Due to the popularity of this trend in Japan, onigiri has become a popular staple in Japanese restaurants worldwide.
Glutinous rice is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast East Asia, the northeastern regions of India and Bhutan which has opaque grains, very low amylose content, and is especially sticky when cooked. It is widely consumed across Asia.
Malaysian cuisine consists of cooking traditions and practices found in Malaysia, and reflects the multi-ethnic makeup of its population. The vast majority of Malaysia's population can roughly be divided among three major ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians. The remainder consists of the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, the Peranakan and Eurasian creole communities, as well as a significant number of foreign workers and expatriates.
Lion's Head or stewed meatball is a dish from the Huaiyang cuisine of eastern China, consisting of large pork meatballs or beef meatballs stewed with vegetables. There are two varieties: white, and red. The plain variety is usually stewed or steamed with napa cabbage. The red variety can be stewed with cabbage or cooked with bamboo shoots and tofu derivatives. The minced meat rich in fat is more likely to bring better texture, addition of chopped water chestnut also works.
Penang cuisine is the cuisine of the multicultural society of Penang, Malaysia. Most of these cuisine are sold at road-side stalls, known as "hawker food" and colloquially as "muckan carts". Local Penangites typically find these hawker fares cheaper and easier to eat out at due to the ubiquitousness of the hawker stalls and that they are open for much of the day and night. Penang island. On February 22, 2013, Penang was ranked by CNN Travel as one of the top ten street food cities in Asia. Penang has also been voted by Lonely Planet as the top culinary destination in 2014.
Noodle soup refers to a variety of soups with noodles and other ingredients served in a light broth. Noodle soup is a common dish across East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Himalayan states of South Asia. Various types of noodles are used, such as rice noodles, wheat noodles and egg noodles.
Chinese Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Chinese with local Indonesian style. Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis, palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine. Some of the dishes and cakes share the same style as in Malaysia and Singapore, known as Nyonya cuisine by the Peranakan.
Japanese Chinese cuisine, also known as chūka, represents a unique fusion of Japanese and Chinese culinary traditions that have evolved over the late 19th century and more recent times. This style, served predominantly by Chinese restaurants in Japan, stands distinct from the "authentic Chinese food" found in areas such as Yokohama Chinatown. Despite this difference, the cuisine retains strong influences from various Chinese culinary styles, as seen in the shippoku cooking style.
Shumai is a type of traditional Chinese dumpling made of ground pork. In Cantonese cuisine, it is usually served as a dim sum snack. In addition to accompanying the Chinese diaspora, variations of shumai are found in Japan and Southeast Asia, such as the Indonesian siomay. In Australia, it developed into dim sim.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
A meatball is ground meat (mince) rolled into a ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce. There are many types of meatballs using different types of meats and spices. The term is sometimes extended to meatless versions based on legumes, vegetables, mushrooms, fish or other seafood.
Chinese regional cuisines are amongst the many different cuisines found in different provinces and prefectures of China as well as from larger overseas Chinese communities.
Okowa おこわ (御強) is a Japanese steamed rice dish made with glutinous rice mixed with meat or vegetables. It is sometimes combined with wild herbs and vessel chestnuts. It is generally boiled glutinous rice blended with azuki beans to give it red color for festive look, made by boiling regular rice with azuki beans. Since okowa is meant to be eaten at room temperature, it is used to make onigiri for its capacity to be frozen well.