Steaming is one of the most popular methods to cook vegetables, because this cooking method is considered to be an healthy approach to cook food without the use of oil, salt, and added sugar. However, I had not done much steaming, because I did not have a steamer. It was not until several years ago, when I visited my friend Jim. He was recuperating from a major surgery and was in need to change his diet. He started to steam vegetables as his main daily diet. He showed me something that I should have known all along, steaming in a wok.
The wok turns out to be the best cooking utensil for steaming. It has several advantages over other forms of steamers. First and foremost is easy access, because of its wide opening. It makes it much easier to put and remove items that are being steam. I use my 14-inch wok for steaming, and I put a steaming rack at the bottom to hold a dinner plate for putting the food to be steamed. This is highly advantageous, because when the steaming is done, I can move the plate from the wok directly to the dinner table.
Another lesson that I learned from Jim is the inclusion of different vegetables for steaming, making the dish both more nutritious and flavorful. The different texture and flavor of the vegetables enhances the taste experience of the complex flavor of the vegetables. Since, different vegetables cook at different rates, the large opening of the wok makes adding the vegetables at designated stages of cooking simple and convenient.
This simple steaming technique using the wok has become an important template for my template repertoire. I now use this template often to provide a vegetable side dish for different meal settings. When combining with advanced prepping, this dish could be set up in just a few minutes with a variety of vegetables. I often use this dish at the end of my prepping week to sweep up remaining vegetables that I would like to use up.
This video has provided another example of the multi-functional aspect of a wok, which could perform many cooking tasks than stir-fry. The seasoning of the wok can be readily restored by my spot seasoning method after being used as a steamer, allowing me to use the wok in different capacities without the fear of removing the seasoning from its surface.
The wok turns out to be the best cooking utensil for steaming. It has several advantages over other forms of steamers. First and foremost is easy access, because of its wide opening. It makes it much easier to put and remove items that are being steam. I use my 14-inch wok for steaming, and I put a steaming rack at the bottom to hold a dinner plate for putting the food to be steamed. This is highly advantageous, because when the steaming is done, I can move the plate from the wok directly to the dinner table.
Another lesson that I learned from Jim is the inclusion of different vegetables for steaming, making the dish both more nutritious and flavorful. The different texture and flavor of the vegetables enhances the taste experience of the complex flavor of the vegetables. Since, different vegetables cook at different rates, the large opening of the wok makes adding the vegetables at designated stages of cooking simple and convenient.
This simple steaming technique using the wok has become an important template for my template repertoire. I now use this template often to provide a vegetable side dish for different meal settings. When combining with advanced prepping, this dish could be set up in just a few minutes with a variety of vegetables. I often use this dish at the end of my prepping week to sweep up remaining vegetables that I would like to use up.
This video has provided another example of the multi-functional aspect of a wok, which could perform many cooking tasks than stir-fry. The seasoning of the wok can be readily restored by my spot seasoning method after being used as a steamer, allowing me to use the wok in different capacities without the fear of removing the seasoning from its surface.