KITCHENALIA

FOOD STEAMERS

THE OXFORD Symposium on Food and Cooking began its scholarly deliberations last autumn with a lively debate about nouvelle cuisine. Who originated it? And where, and why? We puzzled and argued, we declaimed and condemned, and at times - appropriately enough - we generated rather more heat than light on the subject.

What is clear, though, is that this century's nouvelle cuisine (earlier times witnessed similar revolutionary ideas) is a culinary movement based on a less rich style of cooking that influenced, in particular, the world of French haute cuisine from the mid-1970s to the present day. Inspired in part by oriental cooking, it is characterised by a highly stylised presentation and a respect for sparkling, fresh, high-quality ingredients prepared in relatively simple ways which do not mask their flavour.

For devotees of nouvelle cuisine, steaming therefore became a favoured method. High-profile chefs installed state-of-the-art steam ovens in their restaurants and lesser mortals bought in expensive Chinese steamers.

Of course, food has been steamed for decades in Britain, though the method was reserved for the cooking of "the sickroom and for invalids" - as the cookery books of the 20s and 30s put it - or for making substantial steamed puddings such as steak and kidney. In fact, this English method is more akin to baking in a bain-marie, because the food container is in contact with the simmering water, and devised for cooks with no oven.

Oriental steaming, though, is a beautifully simple method. One pan with holes is balanced upon or inside another containing simmering water. Food is placed in the top pan, covered with a lid, and fixed over the lower pan containing an inch or so of boiling water. The assembly is placed over moderate to high heat - so the water does not go off the boil - for as long as it takes the food to cook.

In China the steamer has been an important utensil since neolithic times, when it was made from fired clay. Yan-kit So, in her masterly book Classic Food of China (Macmillan pounds 25), writes that the steamer was known as the "zeng" and the three-legged base was the "li": "Sat over a fire, water was boiled or rice was cooked in the li, and the steam that rose up through the perforated bottom of the zeng cooked the food resting in there." Yan- kit So tells the story of the celebrated three-tier bronze zeng that was one of the burial artefacts of Lady Hao during the second half of the Shang dynasty. Excavated in 1976, this ancient pan is now in a Peking museum.

A modern Chinese bamboo steamer is a pleasing and inexpensive utensil. I use one for cooking vegetables and fish. When using a steamer, it is vital to retain as much flavour as possible in the food. This can easily be lost since, as the steam rises through the holes, moisture from the food percolates down through it, and flavour and nutrients end up in the simmering water. The old Chinese practice of cooking rice in the lower part of a steamer makes sense; the rice absorbs any flavour leached from the food above.

In the west we usually steam food over simmering water, so it's best to know how to do it properly. As in all cooking, the size and quantity of ingredients affect its cooking time. Some vegetables - such as those still in their skins, like baby carrots and small new potatoes - can be placed straight in the steaming basket. When steaming more delicate vegetables such as asparagus, fresh garden peas and mangetout peas, I usually line the basket with a few leaves of lettuce or make a bed of fresh bay leaves for the food to rest on.

To retain the flavour of the food, the lettuce leaves - spinach, vine or Chinese cabbage leaves also work well - can be used to wrap the food, such as a breast of chicken or a fillet of fish, before steaming. The leaves keep in place any seasoning such as grated ginger blended with crushed garlic, or ground spices, used to flavour the meat or fish. Whole fish, still in their skins, are best steamed by placing them on a plate; a bamboo steamer placed on a trivet in a Chinese wok can accommodate most sizes of plate.

As well as the traditional bamboo steamer, a good range of metal ones is also available. The inexpensive petal steamer has attractions since it fits into different sized saucepans, though those with a central handle can be limiting. Le Creuset makes a heavy-duty steamer that fits one of its medium-sized casseroles; I prefer a lightweight one which heats quickly, since oriental steaming should be a rapid cooking method.

Then there is a wide range of stainless-steel steamers, from the capacious couscousiere (these are often quite cheap in supermarkets in the south of France) where the grain is steamed above and the meat and vegetables simmered below, to the small, individual steamer complete with lid and pan that withstands heavy use. Specialised steamers for fish, or asparagus, also exist, but are only worth the outlay if they are going to be used regularly. A spherical metal rice steamer, though, is very useful for reheating rice.

The very pure flavour of steamed food is highly attractive - the Chinese particularly esteem its succulence - and a welcome change from other methods of cooking such as roasting, grilling and frying. For anyone on a low- fat diet, healthy steamed food is of particular interest. And for those who have to cook over a single heat source - like a solitary gas ring - cooking by steaming in one or more interlocking baskets can be a godsend.

RAINBOW TROUT WITH GINGER AND SPRING ONIONS

This dish, made with a steamer, is adapted from a recipe in Yan-kit So's Classic Chinese Cookbook (Dorling Kindersley pounds 10.99).

Serves 2

2 rainbow trout, ready to cook

salt

5cm/2in piece of fresh ginger, peeled

2 spring onions

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

a few drops of sesame oil

Place the fish on a heat-proof plate. Season inside and out with salt. Thinly slice the ginger and cut it into fine shreds. Discard the roots and outer leaves of the spring onions and cut across in slim rings. Make three diagonal cuts across each fish, and tuck some of the ginger and spring onions into each incision. Put the plate in the top half of a steamer set over simmering water. Cover with a lid and cook for 7-10 minutes or until the flesh is opaque and just coming free from the bone.

Measure the sunflower and sesame oil into a small pan. When the fish is cooked, remove the plate from the steamer (any condensed steam on the plate can be absorbed with a folded piece of kitchen paper). Sprinkle the remaining shredded ginger and onion over the fish. Heat the oil until almost smoking, pour over the fish - this slightly cooks the onion and ginger - and serve straight away.