Steaming hot

Steaming is an ancient method of preparing food. But steaming is steaming hot again. Thanks in part to the dumpling.

For years, no restaurant could do without a Big Green Egg, Josper, or some other grilling facility with real flames. Wood-roasted meat and vegetables are especially popular. Smoke ovens have also become almost indispensable. For house-smoked butter, salt and even mayonnaise. Both techniques are centuries old and have only recently been rediscovered.

Gigantic steam baskets

Another ancient technique is also conquering professional kitchens: steaming. Preferably with gigantic steam baskets, like at Chinese restaurants. Or with a modern variant that doesn’t bake, smoke, grill or roast, but simply drives steam through the ingredients.

We know steaming from the ready-made meals in the supermarket. But above all from the dumplings we love to devour for breakfast every weekend. Using our chopsticks to rummage around in the steam basket at both old-school Chinese and trendy fusion restaurants such as Shanghai Bistro in Amsterdam and Yikou in Paris. But with this healthy cooking technique, which preserves all the flavor, color, vitamins and minerals, you can do much more than steam filled dough parcels. In fact: what can’t you steam?

In steam we trust

Amsterdam’s The Steam Room, for example, prepares all its takeaway meals – from pasta to fish and couscous – exclusively with steam. According to the five owners, that’s not only healthy and delicious. After a round of trial and error, steaming also proved to be the best way to prepare a dish that then has to survive a bumpy bike ride through town and countryside to the hungry online customer. In their words: ‘In steam we trust.’

Energy

And in The Hague, former Michelin-starred chef Han Ting is taking a new direction. His restaurant Zhēng, opening this spring on the site of HanTing Cuisine, has no BGE, Josper or charcoal grill. At Zhēng, steaming will be the main focus. According to Ting, it is an important Chinese cooking technique that not only ensures that flavors are better preserved in dishes, but also preserves the energy present in them. And that’s a nice bonus.

The Steam Room in Amsterdam is currently restructuring its kitchen to prepare even better steamed takeaway meals. Zhēng is opening this spring in The Hague.