What do idlis, Kozhakattais and dimsums have in common? They’re all made using the same technique — steam cooking. It is one of the easiest and an all-purpose method for cooking meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits and even pasta. Heat from the steam is considered to be gentle and uniform as it slowly diffuses through the food and let the food cook in its own juice, minimising loss of nutrients and retaining its texture, colour and flavour.
Most of the cuisines use this method and it features across cuisines, namely French and Mediterranean cuisines, and it is highly prevalent in South East Asian and Indian cuisines also.
Today, innumerable cuisines adopt this style, perhaps owing to easy techniques.
A few famous Asian steamed dishes are Hargaw, Char Shu Bao (barbeque pork bun), egg tart, Thai fish steamed with chilli and lime (Plah Neung Manao), steamed cabbage roll, banana leave sticky rice (khao tom mud). There are also some Indian Classics like idlis, kozhakattai, dhokla, modak and patra ni macchchi. There is a popular Mexican steamed dish called tamales, while French and Italian cuisines feature dishes such as steamed mussels, steamed broccoli, steamed artichokes and asparagus, cous cous, fish en papilote.
One of the cuisines that use steam-cooking techniques is Cantonese, but it is not very popular in the city because most of the Cantonese dishes are little bland. This style of cooking uses steaming and stirs fry cooking.
Spices are used sparingly to avoid used overwhelming the flavours of primary ingredients.
Some well-known Cantonese dishes are all kinds of dimsums, stir fry greens, sweet and sour pork, char shu prok, wonton soup, Yeung chow fried rice, steamed egg custard, etc.
— Chef Tenzin Namkha, Chef de Cuisine - Chap Chay, Rain Tree
Steamed Baby Pok choy with Sesame garlic tossed Shitake
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Steamed Jumbo Prawn with Spicy Xo sauce
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