Close your eyes and think 'STEAM'. What do you see? Do you see a chugging locomotive? Or a hooting steamer disappearing into

the horizon? How about lissome bodies shimmering in a sauna, or if you have a comic bent of mind, the portly Obelix walking around

the steaming Roman hot bath covered in an itsy-bitsy towel? Do you hear the whistle of a kettle and anticipate a steaming cup of

coffee? How about the vision of a pressure cooker with all the associated memories of mother's cooking?

A Fascination for Steam

Man's fascination with steam has been a long one. Heron of Alexandria, in his book called Pneumatica published in the first century

AD, describes steam-driven devices like aeolipile - a turbine steam engine! This idea was refined and it heralded the industrial age

centuries later. However, it was probably prehistoric man who had initially fallen in love with steam, when even before he had mastered his control over fire, he had learnt to cook his food over steam from hot springs.

History of Steaming

Steaming has played a major role in oriental cooking methods as their staple - rice - is best suited for steaming. The Chinese have

been using steaming devices for more than three thousand years as can be seen from archeological finds of stone steamers from the

province of Yunnan. By the eighth century AD, the Chinese had mastered the art of making steamers from thin cypress strips which

have been replaced by bamboo today. In India, the modak, an ancient ritualistic food offering to the elephant-headed deity -

Ganesha, is a steam-cooked preparation of rice flour dumplings filled with grated coconut and jaggery¹. Couscous, an African dish

made of steamed semolina, finds reference in the works of Ibn Battuta (AD 1304-1368?) said to be the greatest traveller and travel

writer of his era. Today it is a popular dish in many North African countries.

Steaming Today

In the world of microwaves and deep fries, steam cooking has been relegated to the background and labelled as 'bland' - the

unkindest cut of all. Steam is best for preserving the texture, flavour and nutrition of the ingredients. A study published in the Journal

of the Science of Food and Nutrition mentions that the level of antioxidants lost after steaming fresh broccoli was 11 percent as

compared to a 47 percent loss when pressure cooked, a 66 percent loss when boiled, and a whopping 97 percent loss when

microwaved. The biggest casualties of boiling are vitamins C and B1, and mineral salts which readily dissolve in water and are lost

when the water is thrown away.

Steaming lets the food cook in its own juice and thus minimizes loss of nutrients. Moreover, the food retains its texture simply because

heat from the steam is gentle and slowly diffuses through the ingredients to create a uniform heating environment. Unlike the agitating,

bubbling, boiling water, steam does not 'roughen up' the cellular structure of the food tissues or their aromatic compositions.

Steaming allows for an interesting way of adding flavours to the food too. Spices such as ginger, pepper, cumin and coriander can be

added to the water flavoured with bouillon cube, fresh stock or wine. As the water boils, the essence rises with the steam and

flavours the food. For example, couscous is cooked in a couscoussiere - a double layered boiler - where the spices, onions and

vegetables/meat are added to water in the lower compartment and the semolina is placed in the perforated upper compartment. The

simmering ruddy stew in the lower compartment steams the couscous and "renders it as downy and ether-light as any carb could dare

to be!"

Okay! So What Exactly is Steaming?

Steam cooking should not be confused with pressure cooking. The differentiating factor is that boiling water never comes in contact

with the food in steam cooking whereas in ordinary pressure cooking the food is immersed in water. Though a pressure cooker or a specialised steam cooker is desirable for reducing cooking time, food can be steam cooked even in an ordinary closed vessel.

Steaming can be classified into the following categories :

• The easiest and most popular method is to suspend the food over boiling water. This is the all-purpose steaming procedure for
  
  cooking meat, vegetables, fruits etc.
• A longer procedure is to seal the food in pleated wax paper or in bamboo leaves (traditional Chinese method) or in jackfruit or plantain leaves (traditional Indian method), secure it with string and
  
  place on a perforated vessel over boiling water. This allows the food to cook in its own juice and is useful for recipes involving
  
  marinated food.
• Finally, the traditional oriental method of steaming rice where the rice is immersed in water or stock and cooked over steam till
  
  the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked.

So What's so Great About Steaming?

• Preserves Nutrients: As discussed above, steam is especially useful for preserving water soluble vitamins like Vitamin B1, Vitamin C and mineral salts.
• Retains Texture: Steamed fruits and vegetables retain their texture
• Ideal for juicing: An easy method for making delicious juices and syrups from grapes, cherries plums and currants doing away with the messy squeezing and straining.
• Sophisticated method for adding flavours: By adding spices to the water below, the food on the upper layer gets a suggestion of
  
  the aroma and flavours without coming in direct contact with the spices.
• Energy saving: By simultaneously placing various food items on different perforated tiers the same steam can be used to cook
  
  them all and save precious energy, time and effort. Indian housewives are adept in cooking dal (pulses) and chawal (rice) on different
  
  layers inside the same pressure cooker!

Now close your eyes again and think 'Steam'! Does your mouth start watering as steak and pudding and dumplings and fish and couscous dance about in the swirling mist of aromatic steam? So why not try steaming right away? Who knows? You may end up showing a trick or two about cooking boar to the greatest connoisseur of food - Obelix!