Help - cooking with steamer

wigginsmum

Skinless chicken breasts do beautifully in the steamer - about 40 mins, plus a bit more if you think they need it. They come out so soft and tender and pure-tasting. Salmon fillets/steaks are good too.

ka7e

tootles wrote:

Mine is a double so I cook a steamed sponge pudding in the top.

I'm thinking of using mine to replace my pressure cooker (at least temporarily until I can source some new seals!) and would really like to try a steamed pud. Any tips on timings etc? Do you have to use a muslin or greaseproof paper/foil lid?

Zziggi

ka7e wrote:

I'm thinking of using mine to replace my pressure cooker (at least temporarily until I can source some new seals!) and would really like to try a steamed pud. Any tips on timings etc? Do you have to use a muslin or greaseproof paper/foil lid?

I saw the round seals on sale in a large asda recently. I have also seen them in Wilkos.

HTH

maxamos

I've just bought a "you are what you eat" steamer for a tenner which I thought was a good bargain but I need some ideas for things to cook.

I know that there are loads of great culinary experts out there as I've tried lots of your recipes so help me please

troll35

This may not go with the "you are what you eat' style food but the other week I created a really tasty and easy chicken dish using my steamer. I sliced some chicken breast horizontally to get 2 large pieces. I put them on a chopping board, covered them with clingfilm and bashed them with a rolling pin to make them quite thin. I spread some pate onto the chicken breasts, rolled them up and wrapped them in some greaseproof paper to keep everything in. They were cooked in the steamer alongside some new potatoes and veg (about 20 mins in mine). I served them with a creamy chive sauce drizzled over- melt a small knob of butter in a pan, add a couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped chives. Stir for about a minute for the chives to "wilt" and then add some cream (I only used 3 or 4 tablespoons).

The finished dish was really tasty. DH said it looked like a masterchef masterpiece and it took only 5 mins to prepare (if that).:D

I've also cooked fish in greaseproof packets with a bit of butter, squeeze of lemon and a few herbs etc.

pboae

I've acquired a 3 tier electric steamer thing, it has a rice bit too. I'm trying to find some recipes that will let me cook a whole meal for two in the steamer. It came with a recipe book but it's pretty useless, and the only whole meal included is fish, which we don't eat.

I can't see it being cost effective to use the steamer, if I can't cook the whole lot in it at once.

Any suggestions?

newleaf

The only 'whole' meal I've cooked in my steamer was a thai style salmon dish with rice, which I saw on Anthony Worrall Thompson's Saturday Kitchen. It was nice, but no good if you don't eat fish .
Your steamer will be great for cooking veggies on their own though, so much nicer, and quicker, than boiling the life out of them, so don't despair.

shell2001

Chicken breast are nice done in a steamer, I also steam new potatoes and veg too. With 3 tiers you could do the chicken, potatoes and veg, mabe make a sauce for the chicken.

pboae

I already have a metal steamer, and I use that for veg when I am doing potatoes or rice, so I feel like I should be able to go this last step to a whole meal quite easily, but I seem to have total block on it! D'oh!

Shell2001, how would you actually do that? Chicken at the bottom, potatoes and veg next? Or would they be seperate? Rice on top I guess. Do they all go in at the same time or do you stagger the start times? How long does it take to cook a chicken breast (or 2!) in a steamer?

Addiscomber

I did a meal for 4 in a small steamer on the hob last night - bit of a squeeze but managed. I wrapped fish fillets in foil packets with chopped red onion, tomato slices and a sprinkling of herbs and had potatoes in the bottom layer with frozen peas in the middle layer and the fish on the top. It would have been better if the fish could have been in the middle but there wasn't enough depth in the middle llayer.

There are some recipes on Tefal's website http://www.tefal.co.uk/tefal/magazine/recipe_results.asp?mscssid=1TQFF8MJ3WT08NDUJGJNLCN3JBKB291Eand information about steaming in general on the Waitrose website
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/wfi/cooking/techniques/0501098.asp