We got Steam Cooking: 100 delicious and healthy food recipes for all steamers by Jenny Stacey forever and ever ago. I cooked one dish from it once, but never really touched it again, and the recipes I made from this this time reminded me why. Because we were eating with 2 vegetarians I steamed some vegetable dishes and roasted some lamb. I’m really happy I roasted the lamb, because the vegetable dishes did absolutely nothing for me.
There are options in this book to steam meat, all types of meat, but steamed meat (beyond some fish and some cuts of chicken) do nothing for me, so I wasn’t particularly interested in quarantining steamers to steam meat.
I won’t be keeping this book, the recipes were all wrong, the descriptions as to what type of steamer should be sued for each dish were non existent (I used a combination of metal steamers and bamboo steamers), and I’ll go back to steaming dumplings and the occasional vegetable in my own time. I give this book 1 out of 5 stars.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 8 large open-cap mushrooms, peeled and cleaned
- 4 tbsp wholmeal breadcrumbs
- 4 spring onions, chopped
- 1 ripe avocado, finely chopped
- 1 small red chilli, sliced
- 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 4 tbsp freshly grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
Method:
- Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and chop the stalks finely. Stir into the breadcrumbs, spring onions, avocado, chilli, tomato and lemon juice, mixing well.
- Spoon the mixture onto the mushroom caps, piling up, pressing and shaping with a spoon, so the moulds hold together. Sprinkle the cheese on top, then the coriander.
- Place the mushroom caps in the steamer top, cover with the lid, and steam for 10 minutes until tender. Serve with salad.
Notes on this recipe:
- Apparently these were very tasty. I don’t eat many mushrooms so I didn’t try these. They did at least hold together which made them easier to remove from the steamer.
Lentil Pilau
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp oil
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- 175g dry red lentils
- 250g basmati rice
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 1 medium red pepper, finely diced
- 2 tbsp saltanas
- 25g french beans, finely chopped
- 1 celery stick, finely diced
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
- 600ml vegetable stock
For the sauce
- 600ml passata
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Place all the pilau ingredients in the base of the steamer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the stock has been absorbeed
- Spoon the mixture into ramekins or moulds, and place in a steamer tier
- Wash out the base of the steamer and put in all of the sauce ingredients. Stack the tier with the pilau moulds on top and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
- Bring the sauce to the boil, reduce the heat slightly, and cook for 10 minutes.
- Turn the rice moulds out onto warm serving plates and spoon the sauce around the base. Garnish with coriander and serve.
Notes on this recipe:
- This ended up being quite dry. It was tasty, but the dryness of the pilau really took away from the entire experience. The stock we used was quickly absorbed by the pilau ingredients and we had to add extra water while cooking. Pay attention to that when you make this dish or you will burn the lentils.
Middle Eastern Aubergines
Ingredients:
- 4 small eggplants
- 4 tbsp couscous
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 2 tsp light brown sugar
- 1 medium tomato, roughly chopped
- 50g dried apricots, finely chopped
- 25g blanched almonds, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- slat and freshly ground black pepper
- tahini dip, to serve
Method:
- Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and sprinkle liberally with salt. Leave to stand in a sieve, flesh down, for 20 minutes, then rinse under cold water. Pat dry.
- Meanwhile, soak the couscous in boiling water for 20 minutes. Drain off any excess liquid.
- Scoop the flesh out of the eggplants, leaving a thin lining in the skin. Chop the flesh coarsely and mix with the couscous, garlic, sugar, tomato, apricots, almonds, fresh coriander, spring onions, and group coriander. Season well.
- Spoon the mixture into the aubergine shells and place in the steamer tiers. Cover with a tight fitting lid and steam for 15 – 20 minutes. Serve hot with tahini dip and salad.
Notes on this recipe:
- Unsurprisingly the entire eggplants collapsed, which made them hard to remove from the steamer.
- These were fairly boring and I wouldn’t make them again.
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