Food Steamers

[RossiT]

Thinking about buying a steamer mainly for veg.

Can you actually cook a proper meal using only the steamer and the various baskets?

Any tips or suggestions................or best not to even bother?

Thanks

[Sticks.]

Fish steams well, not tried any meats.

[grumbledoak]

I do have something like this one:


They do work well and they are cheap but I eat a lot of meat and I don't steam that so I mostly use the microwave and a bowl with some cling film to steam the side dishes.

Edit - fix image.

Edited by grumbledoak on Saturday 15th February 09:23

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Rather than spending money on a dedicated steamer, years ago I made up my own one from existing kitchenware, and this method has served me well for years.

Just get a large saucepan, and hang a colander over it - put veg in colander, voila! Can even still put the saucepan lid back over the colander to seal the unit.

Give it a go!

[Digger]

Here's a tip from when I used to live in a house share.

I steam a lot theses days myself, but . . . . If you're going to steam fish and veggies, please open the extractor fan and windows and not fill the whole house / flat with such a rank smell!

[condor]

I use a bowl type microwave steamer which works well on veg and a flatter one for fish. Lids work well as microwave plate covers too

[DoubleSix]

Those little metal steamers that fan out and just sit in an ordinary sauce pan are very pratical.

£2.50 Ikea

http://m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/90112...

[dapprman]

I use steamer baskets from a Chinese supermarket and place on top of a pan. having said that, about the only non-dimsum thing I've cooked in this set up is haggis and for that I had to sacrifice once of my baskets (they do start to fall apart after time as the ties losen) to act as a riser for the lid.

[D1ngd0ng]

grumbledoak said:

I do have something like this one:


They do work well and they are cheap but I eat a lot of meat and I don't steam that so I mostly use the microwave and a bowl with some cling film to steam the side dishes.

Edit - fix image.

Edited by grumbledoak on Saturday 15th February 09:23

One of the best things money can buy, was a late comer to the steamer party but make good use of it now here.

[GreenDog]

I find veg tastes so much nicer when steamed, even the humble spud.

I've got one of the electric steamers and one benefit of these is that when cooking a large meal, such as at Christmas it leaves all of the hob free for other things.

[RizzoTheRat]

My veg consumption shot up when I got a steamer. Only use it for veg though, I don't really eat fish which the other main use people have for them. Makes sure you get one with a decent fitting lid though. I had an electric one (morphy Richards I think) which eventually broke and replaced it with one from Lakeland that's no where near as good as it's leaks load more steam. Cooks the veg just as well but dumps twice the amount of water in to the kitchen.

[Mobile Chicane]

GreenDog said:

I find veg tastes so much nicer when steamed, even the humble spud.

I've got one of the electric steamers and one benefit of these is that when cooking a large meal, such as at Christmas it leaves all of the hob free for other things.

This is what I have. It's pretty quick too compared with waiting for pans to heat up and boil on the hob.

£15 or so from Tesco.

[Digger]

RizzoTheRat said:

. . . . . and replaced it with one from Lakeland that's no where near as good as it's leaks load more steam. Cooks the veg just as well but dumps twice the amount of water in to the kitchen.

They're supposed to Rizzo. . . . if they didn't your postcode might explode with a mighty hissss!

My John Lewis hob style one seems to have a slightly ill-fitting lid for this very purpose

[RizzoTheRat]

They've got vents for that, but the lake land one uses double the amount of water as the old one, which isn't great.