Steam cooking
General remarks
Used in accordance with the instructions, steam cooking has many advantages over other methods. Healthy and natural, steam cooking preserves the true taste of your food. A fine sauce flavoured with aromatic herbs can make all the difference in the world.
Steam cooking is odourless. There is no need to flavour the cooking water with herbs or spices, though - fish, for example, can be flavoured by placing it on a bed of seaweed, or EN
chicken on a bunch of rosemary or tarragon.
Meat, fish and vegetables can be cooked simultaneously.
Pasta, rice and purees can be reheated without drying out or sticking to the pan.
Cooking custards, flans, or milky rice dishes is facilitated by steam cookery. Covered in aluminium foil, the condensation will not reach the food.
There is no need to season prior to cooking, not even the cooking water. Meat can browned by a quick searing in hot butter on each side.
In comparison to boiling, steam cookery wins hands down.
It is quick: cooking starts immediately, whereas the cooking time of food in boiling water is only counted from the return of the water to the boil.
It is healthy: the hydro soluble vitamins and minerals are conserved because they barely dissolve in the condensed water that surrounds the food.
In addition, no fat is used in cooking.
Steam respects the food's own flavour. It adds neither flavour, nor the grilled or fried taste. It doesn't remove any flavour either, because there is no dilution in water.
The other side of the coin: it is not worth cooking a fish that isn't fresh, or vegetables that
have been forgotten at the back of the refrigerator for a week: in this way - the results will be catastrophic !
Steam does not transfer tastes or odours, so you can save both time and money by cooking - side by side but not touching - a fish and a dessert, for example.
Steam is also highly suitable for blanching, defrosting and reheating, as well as keeping warm - especially sauces.
Meats such as poultry, veal, and pork should be lightly browned in very little oil prior to cooking, to render them appetisingly golden.
Then finish their cooking by steam.
Foods will cook more quickly and evenly if they are cut into pieces than if they are left whole.
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