Now that we live together in the same country, we have rekindled our joint love of thinking about how to cook supermarket food tastily and healthily. It’s a bit like the problem of early Japan days (when we had no idea what half of the stuff in the supermarkets was and even less of an idea of what to do with it), except we don’t have the easy out of sacking it all off and walking to Musashi Koyama for an inexpensive midweek dinner. Well, actually, we do have the option of going down the road to Lao Dao or Seoul Tokyo or something, but for some reason that feels more of a Friday night thing here than a spontaneous Tuesday night when we can’t be arsed to cook.
The answer, as we know, is always Asia, and somewhere in between two Asian influencers you like, Dr Michelle Davenport and Made With Lau, we stumbled on a few ways to make delicious weeknight food from a few cupboard staples and the steadfastly unchanging selection at the local Sainsburys.
A bit like when I learnt we could freeze stuff (grapes, cooked sweet potato etc) to make them more delicious, steaming stuff has proved a revelation. So here’s to steaming stuff in our giant steamer tower thing and perfectly sized plates bought to fit it, and to delicious, simple weeknight dinners together at home.
A&A’s Steamed Things
Shopping List
Quantities are important for steamed egg (to get the right texture), but for the chicken/pork, it can be done to eye/taste, depending on how much you’re prepping. Quantities below serve about 3 or 4 people although you may have to adjust the quantities of the chicken/pork marinade to taste.
The only other thing is to make sure you have the right steamer setup to do this. If making both at once you likely need a multi layered steamer and the right plates (for meats) and shallow bowl (for egg) to make it work. Timings below are for steaming over boiling hot water, not on a steam function of a rice cooker or whatever (which will take longer).
MUST HAVES
Steamed Chicken/Pork
- 500g Chicken thighs or pork spare ribs
- Chunk ginger, julienned
- 2 spring onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 or 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
- 1.5 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1.5 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
Steamed Egg
- 3 medium eggs
- 1 packet dashi or stock
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
OPTIONAL
Steamed Chicken/Pork
Probably don’t use all of these at once, but making different combos changes the flavour radically. I think black beans is the one that is most hard to pair with other optional ingredients, but the others are pretty easy to mix and match.
- 1 Chinese sausage
- 4 shitake mushrooms
- Small handful goji berries
- Small handful Chinese dried black beans
- Chinese red dates
Steamed Egg
- Dried scallops
How to Make
Steamed Chicken/Pork
1. If using chicken, de-bone and cut into large chunks (I like them a little larger than bitesize so they stay bouncy when steaming). If using pork spare ribs, wash thoroughly.
2. If using, wash/rehydrate in a little water the Chinese sausage, shitake mushrooms, goji berries and/or dried black beans. If using Chinese sausage or shitake mushrooms, slice up into pieces. Discard any water from the black beans and goji berries. You can use the water used to rehydrate the shitake mushrooms in the marinade (or in the steamed egg).
3. Combine the ingredients from (1) and (2).
4. Marinade everything with all the other ingredients (and a little salt) and leave for up to 24 hours (although even ½ hours is fine). Add the red dates to the marinade mixture (if using).
5. Leave out to get to room temperature, then steam for 14-16 minutes or until the protein is cooked through and serve with lashings of rice.
Steamed Egg
1. Whisk 3 eggs in a measuring cup. This should give you about 1-1.5 cups of beaten egg.
2. In a separate bowl, rehydrate the dried scallop (if using) in a little warm water. Once soft, break into small pieces and scatter in the bottom of the steaming bowl. Keep the liquid.
3. To the beaten egg, add the oil and dashi packet. Salt heavily.
4. Right before cooking, add warm (not hot) water to the beaten egg so you have about 2.25-2.5 total cups of combined liquid. Whisk vigorously to create bubbles on the top if you can and fully mix everything.
5. Pour the beaten egg mixture into the steamer bowl, on top of the broken up scallop.
6. Steam for 8 minutes (or longer if needed). When cooked the mixture should be set and not runny in the middle.
7. If desired, you can garnish the top with artfully drizzled sesame oil, chilli oil or chopped spring onions.
8. Serve immediately with lashings of rice.