Place the bamboo steamer into your wok (or another wide-rimmed, shallow pan, like a wide skillet), and fill it with enough water to come up above the bottom rim of the steamer by about a quarter inch to half an inch. Steaming food is easy enough with any pot and vented basket, but if your goal is pillowy mantou buns, juicy stuffed bao, flavorful whole fish, and tender-crisp vegetables family-style batches, a traditional Asian bamboo steamer is an affordable investment. A great value, Prime Home Direct 10-inch Two Tier Bamboo Steamer Baskets come with everything you need to start steaming but the food itself. After being used for 5,000 years, they're still made with skinned bamboo that's softened into pliability, shaped into a circle, and held permanently in place with bamboo nails or lashings. The bases are slatted to allow steam to rise and cook the food, the containers nestling into each other until you reach the top level — however high you choose to make it — where a domed, tightly woven lid seals the vapor in. Why should I use a bamboo steamer? Pros: Remains true to its heritage with regionally specific material and construction technique, available in nine sizes

Organic bamboo is only the start of Annie's Kitchen Premium 10-inch Handmade Bamboo Steamer Basket that comes with a dumpling maker, reusable liners, and more. Our metal steamer works well but it does sometimes suffer from the problems noted above. Another reason I want to get a bamboo steamer is purely aesthetical – they simply look so cool, and are much more authentic if you plan on steaming Asian foods such as dim sum, dumplings or bao buns. We also very much like bamboo on Kitchen and Cook Shop as you can read here and here!While there are many different ways to steam food , using a bamboo steamer is our preferred method for steaming just about anything! Line the steamer with a circle of lettuce leaves, oiled parchment or foil to prevent bamboo from absorbing flavours and odours. Leave at least 1.5cm space around the edges for the steam to enter. The water must come up high enough to submerge the bottom rim of the steamer in water and prevent it from scorching. But it must also be low enough so that the bubbling water does not touch the bottom of the inside bed of the steamer and the food sitting on it. A bamboo steamer absorbs some of the water so condensation is less likely to drip on the cooked food Steam cooking requires no fat, minimal time, and allows the ingredients' flavors to shine through while retaining maximal nutrients. This thousands-year-old technique works by enveloping your ingredients in a cloud of vapor and gently bringing it up to temperature in what is, essentially, a moist oven. This results in a faster cooking time without loss of tenderness.

In general, metal steamers get hotter than bamboo steamers and sometimes the bottom of the cooked items are a bit dry If you’d like to steam something in a bowl or plate, there is no need to line the steamer. You can place the heat-proof shallow bowl or plate directly in the steamer basket. Just be sure the lid still fits on top. Also make sure that there’s enough open space around the dish to allow the steam to rise up and circulate around the food. It’s also a good idea for the plate to have a rim, to collect any flavorful sauce that may accumulate in the dish. And as we talked about in our post about how to steam food in general, steaming is not only a great way to cook food, it’s also a great way to reheat it. Because steaming reintroduces moisture into food, it can be a great way to make your food fresh once again! Many people are looking for a fast and easy way of steaming food. Then they most likely will benefit from wholesale bamboo steamer 14 inch set. It will make cooking more joyous and easier like never before. Once the water in the wok/pan is simmering, it will start to evaporate. Allow the food to steam for as long as the recipe indicates, but keep an eye on it and add boiling water as needed. Make sure you’re not adding cold water, or it will stop simmering and interrupt the cooking process.For restaurant owners, we can offer the commercial steam table, it will help steam the food as well as increase the efficiency of your operations by keeping food fresh and warm. Users can also add variety to the usual menu with seafood steamers for seafood aficionados, or grab a steam burger, sandwich steamer, and much more. Our commercial steamers will be a great addition to business. Investing in a bamboo steamer may seem superfluous; it seems like one of those cooking tools you don’t really need. But you may find yourself using it more often that you imagined. Steaming, as a cooking method, is as ubiquitous and important in Asian cuisine as baking or roasting is in American or European cooking. It's not necessary to soak your steamer before use. However, if you're worried about scorching the bottom rim, you can soak it in lukewarm water before cooking with it. The most important thing is to make sure that the boiling water won't touch the steamer base. How should I care for my bamboo steamer?

With a bamboo steamer, you can steam not just buns and dumplings, but also breads, vegetables, rice, proteins, and cakes and other desserts. Do not put your bamboo steamer in the dishwasher. Do not soak it in water in the sink for more than 5 minutes. Now, you can either preheat your water so that it’s simmering when you place the bamboo steamer into the wok or pan, or you can place the steamer into the wok/pan when the water is still cold and then turn on the heat to gradually bring up the temperature. To clean your bamboo steamer, wash with a sponge and mild dish soap, and immediately rinse thoroughly. NOTE: A wok is the best tool to use in conjunction with a bamboo steamer, because the wok is thin, making it easier to boil water and regulate water temperature, and it has a wide rim that can accommodate bamboo steamers of different sizes. That said, our most often used bamboo steamer size is 10 inches in diameter, and it’s definitely the all-purpose size we’d recommend buying . If you have a large skillet that can accommodate a steamer of that size, that works too!Steam Broccoli Test: We set each steamer into a wok, filling a basket with six ounces of broccoli set on a perforated parchment paper round. We steamed the hardy vegetable for seven minutes to see how easy the bamboo steamer was to use. We cleaned the bamboo steamer afterward and inspected it to see if there was any warping or damage. Unless otherwise specified, our default is the latter––placing the steamer onto the wok or pan when the water is cold, and then turning on the heat. We hope this article has shed some light on how to use a bamboo steamer, and why it’s such a useful cooking tool in an Asian (or any) kitchen.