When I was growing up in Taiwan, steaming was the cooking technique I was most familiar with. Just like how nearly every American household has a microwave, nearly every home kitchen in Taiwan has a Tatung steamer. We use it daily to cook rice, steam buns, and even reheat leftovers. Itโs considered the most basic piece of cooking equipmentโthe appliance everyone needs to own in order to โsurviveโ college. Until I moved to the U.S., I didnโt think I could live without one in my kitchen.
But as I became more familiar with cooking on a gas stove, I learned to steam dishes using a wok setup, which allows me to steam bigger items and control the heat better than I could in my Tatungโan amazing appliance I would recommend to anyone who wants consistently perfect rice but thatโs limited to what can fit inside it. Once you learn how to rig a steamer with a few pieces of common kitchen equipment, on the other hand, thereโs nothing you canโt steamโfrom fresh crabs to silky steamed eggs to whole fishโand you donโt need a special machine to do it.
Here are a few tips I learned from Taiwanese home kitchens for building and using a simple setup so you can steam pretty much anything you want without relying on steaming baskets or an electronic steamer.
Hereโs how to steam:
To make a simple DIY steamer, you only need three items (and you might already have them in your kitchen). The first is a deep vessel to cook in, be it a wok, a pot, or a deep pan. The size of the vessel depends on the size of the food and/or the cooking container. If youโre steaming in a bowl or on top of a plate, that bowl or plate needs to fit completely inside the vessel.
The next thing is a lid to trap the steam. When covered, the lid should not be touching the food. (Imagine your dumplingโs skin sticking on the lid, breaking and losing all the juiceโyou donโt want that.) Itโs helpful to have a dome lid, which provides more overhead room for steam to collect and prevents your food from getting smashed.
Finally, you need something to keep the food from touching the waterโotherwise, youโll just be boiling. You can use any heat-proof item, like an inverted wide bowl that can act as a stand in the boiling waterโeven three aluminum foil balls would work in a pinch. But my preference is a round cooking rack. Found in most Asian grocery stores and also available online, theyโre reusable, sturdy, and just the right size, height, and shape for the job.
To steam, place the rack in the center of the pot. Add about an inch of waterโit shouldnโt be touching the highest part of the rack. Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium. When you hear the water boiling or see steam coming out, youโre ready to start. Add your food, re-cover the pot, and let it cook according to the recipe (or your liking).
A tip for removing handling hot dishes (and avoiding painful steam burns): Use a hot dish clip. Yes, dry towels or mitts are chefsโ best friends in the kitchen when handling burning hot pans. But itโs much easier to use the clip to retrieve the dish, especially when towels tend to get wet from steam or boiling water. From Taipei to New York, I always keep a hot dish clip in my kitchen.
As soon as youโve mastered this basic setup, you can steam almost anything you want at home with what you already have available in the kitchen. All thatโs left to do is decide what to steam first. I think these jiggly, custardy steamed eggs are a great place to start.
