Steaming

Most rice cookers come with a steaming basket so that way you can steam your vegetables while making your rice. I would use it to warm up leftover potstickers while I made rice for them and then just pan fry them shortly before the rice was done.

Steaming is nice for some vegetables that have a lot of natural crunch like broccoli and carrots. As long as you don't over cook them and make them too soft, they're nice and warm and still have good texture.

I'm not too experienced with steamed meats, but I do like Chinese dumplings a lot, which are often steamed in bamboo baskets, so you can always try that.

Steamed steak strips are good

>>8921103
>Is it the ultimately healthy way to cook food?
Not really. People say that steamed food is healthy because you're not using any fat like you would when you fry or saute food. But that's somewhat misleading:
1) there's nothing unhealthy about fat
2) even if you are frying food in a lot of fat the majority of it stays behind in the pan when you're done--you only eat a small fraction of the fat that you "use"
3) There are plenty of other no-fat cooking methods, like broiling, roasting, grilling, baking...

>Can you cook anything that way?
Most foods, yes. I'm not sure why you'd want to though. Steaming doesn't get hot enough to create the malliard reaction, therefore steaming doesn't add any flavor to what you're cooking. Pan frying or roasting would make the food taste better. Steaming also leaves foods soggy. You can't get a crispy texture with steaming.

>How do you know the food was really thermally processed?
Same as with any other food. You look at it an observe a color change. You can also use a thermometer if you are unsure.

>>8921293
And another comment about the "health" angle:

Steaming does leach nutrients from the food. This is obvious because if you look in the bottom of your steamer the water will have picked up the color and flavor of the food you steamed. Therefore some of the nutrients got into the steam and dripped back down into the bottom of the steamer.

Is this enough to actually matter? I seriously doubt it. But it is something that doesn't happen with pan-frying, roasting, baking, etc.

Of course you could mitigate that issue by drinking the steaming water, but I don't think many people actually do that.

>>8921301
Rather than drink it, you could reuse it. Free broth! Steam a couple batches of different vegetables into the same water, then cook a pot of rice with that water or whatever.

>>8921312

It's not very good broth, but your point certainly stands.

One handy trick is that you can put some food on top of the rice when you cook it. As the rice cooks the other ingredients steam, and their juices drip down and flavor the rice. I've often done this with a whole small trout or other "single serving" size fish. Stuff the cavity with aromatics, stick it in the rice cooker and let it run as normal. As long as you don't go nuts and add too much extra food (or too thick) it will be cooked through at the same time the rice is done.

>>8921301
>But it is something that doesn't happen with pan-frying, roasting, baking, etc.
Yes it is, in general steaming retains the most nutrients. Of course it's different with every vegetable but most of the time it's the most "gentle" way to prepare veggies.

File: D_NQ_NP_292801-MLB20418816994_092015-F.jpg (138KB, 960x564px) Image search: [Google]

138KB, 960x564px

the ultimate steam cooking utensil

>>8922349
those things are a meme

>>8921103
Get the fuck out of here until you learn hoe to greentext you shithead