Adventures in cooking: Let there be steam!
The latest in my Rouxbe lessons involved steaming. Today in particular was steamed lemon-garlic chicken with thyme and steamed broccoli with soy and sesame oil.
Since the steamer basket I have is actually kind of dangerous to use -- it's the kind that opens up like a flower, but there's no easy way of removing it from the steaming pot without risk of burn -- I decided to buy myself a present of a new steamer insert for my pots. This involved a bit of running around and a mishap at the store where they'd set aside the wrong thing for me (steamer basket =/= double boiler), but it all worked out in the end. Conveniently, the "universal" steamer basket from Lagostina actually fits two of my pots. This means that I could, say, make rice in my big saucepan and steam the meal in a smaller saucepan. Except that I need the same lid for both jobs. So... pasta it is! Pasta doesn't need a lid! Yay!
Surprisingly, this was a remarkably simple meal. Prep everything in the steamer basket, put over the water, cover, wait for a while, eat. I put the chicken breasts on top of sliced pieces of lemon (a trick I learned from the Rouxbe lesson on steaming) and then did the shorter broccoli after the chicken was done. I lost quite a bit of steam as it was going, but the steamer basket sits very high above the water, so I could put a lot in and not worry about it all boiling off.
I was worried about the timing for this, but in the end it all worked out. I turned on the burner for the pasta water the same time the chicken started steaming. It boiled around the time the chicken was done (remember how I needed the lid for the steamer?) and the pasta was done right around the same time as the broccoli. I was able to do the broccoli prep while the chicken was steaming and the plating while the broccoli was steaming. Yay for timing!
In this end this was a very tasty meal. Marc and I both enjoyed it very much. Definitely a keeper.
Since the steamer basket I have is actually kind of dangerous to use -- it's the kind that opens up like a flower, but there's no easy way of removing it from the steaming pot without risk of burn -- I decided to buy myself a present of a new steamer insert for my pots. This involved a bit of running around and a mishap at the store where they'd set aside the wrong thing for me (steamer basket =/= double boiler), but it all worked out in the end. Conveniently, the "universal" steamer basket from Lagostina actually fits two of my pots. This means that I could, say, make rice in my big saucepan and steam the meal in a smaller saucepan. Except that I need the same lid for both jobs. So... pasta it is! Pasta doesn't need a lid! Yay!
Surprisingly, this was a remarkably simple meal. Prep everything in the steamer basket, put over the water, cover, wait for a while, eat. I put the chicken breasts on top of sliced pieces of lemon (a trick I learned from the Rouxbe lesson on steaming) and then did the shorter broccoli after the chicken was done. I lost quite a bit of steam as it was going, but the steamer basket sits very high above the water, so I could put a lot in and not worry about it all boiling off.
I was worried about the timing for this, but in the end it all worked out. I turned on the burner for the pasta water the same time the chicken started steaming. It boiled around the time the chicken was done (remember how I needed the lid for the steamer?) and the pasta was done right around the same time as the broccoli. I was able to do the broccoli prep while the chicken was steaming and the plating while the broccoli was steaming. Yay for timing!
In this end this was a very tasty meal. Marc and I both enjoyed it very much. Definitely a keeper.