Mili misi steamed sea food and meat platter

One of my prized possessions in our kitchen is a momo maker that a friend got me from Calcutta. You don’t get to see this kind of a steamer very easily these days. Made from bamboo, it’s the perfect vessel for steaming. You put your momos — or anything else for that matter — in the bamboo basket, add water to a container that is right below, put the lid on and then light a fire under it. Your food comes out perfectly steamed.

These days, of course, you get steamers of all kinds — including some electric ones where you can regulate the temperature. Steamed food is also becoming more and more popular, as the young work out for long hours everyday and the middle-aged look at their middles with horror.

This is one method of cooking on which there is unanimity — steamed food is healthy, delicious and great to look at.

I recently discovered that it’s also the evolved chef’s favourite mode of cooking. Not just because the clients want steamed food, but because it’s good for the chef as well. My friend, Pradip Rozario of K.K.’s Fusion in Calcutta, points out that chefs are overworked people who have to be constantly on their toes. “Any chef will tell you that we lead the most unorthodox and unhealthy lifestyle and we have no time to exercise. Only on our days off we eat properly,” says Rozario.

Whole pomfret steamed with pickled plum.

So what do chefs do when they want to keep fit? They cook — and eat — steamed food. “Steamed food can be absolutely great after a good exercise,” says the chef, who adds that a good steamed dish almost works like a dose of medicine. He has given a new name to steamed food — he calls it medicated healthy food.

So, not surprisingly, he has been busy conjuring up new recipes of steamed food. He serves a mili misi steamed food platter consisting of seafood and meat. He steams a whole pomfret with pickled plum and puts steamed chicken and ham in a dish with some chicken consommé. He adds steamed tofu to crab meat and shrimp, and does a great steamed seafood curry.

Julienne chicken with yunnan ham in chicken consomme.

I like to steam food too — and have been doing so ever since I tasted success with a fish recipe that I once tried out. I rubbed some olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper on a fillet, wrapped it in aluminium foil and steamed it. Once it was done, I dabbed it with a bit of mayo and served it hot.

Somehow, many of us seem to associate steaming with European cuisine. It is actually a veritable part of Oriental cuisine. In India, for instance, we have a great many steamed dishes — from idlis and dhoklas to momos and dumplings. The much-loved paturi — where you wrap a piece of fish in a banana leaf — is steamed, as is bhapa doi, which is a wonderful Bengali sweet dish cooked with thickened milk and curd.

In our kitchen, the hilsa is almost always steamed with mustard paste and mustard oil, and large prawns with grated coconut, a bit of curd, mustard paste and mustard oil. And we use our rice cooker to steam pork chops.

Steamed tofu with minced crab meat and shrimp

Most chefs believe that when it comes to the taste of food, you can’t beat steaming. For one, it seals the natural juices and flavours of an ingredient, and ensures that you don’t lose its natural goodness. The moist heat cooks evenly, and there is no fear of scorching. I prefer to eat steamed food without added flavours or strong sauces. That way, you get the real taste of your fish or veggies.

And of course steaming is healthy. You can steam your food with no oil, or very little oil, and the method of cooking ensures that you don’t compromise on the nutritional value of a food item. To top it, it presents a beautiful picture. The sight of lightly steamed green spinach leaves, orange carrots, yellow cauliflower and red and yellow pepper can be a feast for the eyes.

Steamed food is the closest you can get to food in its natural state if you are not eating it raw. And Chef Rozario is right — it beats antibiotics.        

Recipe

Steamed seafood curry

Ingredients (serves two)

100gm shelled prawns
100gm bite-sized pieces of squid
100gm crabmeat
100gm bekti fillet
1tbs finely sliced kaffir lime leaf
3 cups coconut cream
2tsp fish sauce
2 cups sweet basil leaves
2 cups shredded Chinese cabbage
2 cups shredded cabbage
2tbs red spur chilli sliced diagonally

Ingredients for chilli paste

10 large dried chillies soaked in water with seeds removed
7 shallots
3 garlic bulbs
2tbs shredded galangal
2tbs thinly sliced lemon grass
1tsp thinly sliced kaffir lime rind
2tsp chopped coriander root
5 peppercorns
½ tsp salt
1tsp shrimp paste

Method

Pound the chilli paste ingredients in a mortar till they are finely ground. Add the chilli paste to 2½ cups of the coconut cream in a bowl and stir well. Add the prawn, squid, crabmeat, and bekti and stir gently to mix well, adding fish sauce to taste. Make a bed of sweet basil leaves, shredded cabbage and Chinese cabbage in the bottom of a large bowl and spoon the seafood mixture onto this. Pour the remaining half cup of coconut cream on top and sprinkle with slices of red chili and kaffir lime leaf. Place the bowl in a steamer in which the water is boiling and steam over high heat for about 15 minutes. Remove from the steamer and it is ready to eat.