Steamed | Sybaritica

There really is nothing like fresh Mussels. Sadly, we can usually only by them frozen in these parts so when our local stores do have a supply of the fresh article on hand, my signature Steamed Mussels always follows.

I never follow a precise recipe when I steam mussels… each version is just slightly different than the one before… but, essentially, I steam them whole in butter, garlic, onion, white wine and parsley.  I also occasionally add lemon zest, or even chopped tomato to the blend. Basically, my dish is pretty much a version of the famous ‘Moules Mariniere ’, and goes great with crusty bread to sop up the delicious broth that is created by the steaming process… Read more

Today’s post is not really a recipe, as such. Rather, I just thought I’d show you a little experiment I conducted with some of the leftover Roast Pork with Crackling I featured recently. Rather than scarf down all the crackling in one sitting, my wife and I exercised considerable restraint and I managed to save a strip along with about two inches or so of the fat and meat underneath. I had in mind a little appetizer idea and wanted to see how it would turn out.

Basically, I made a sauce by pureeing a tomato and some red bell pepper along with Sichuan Chili Bean Paste, sugar, and vinegar. After reducing and cooling the sauce, I marinated the chunk of pork in the sauce for about an hour and then I made a bed of celery sticks (which were first quickly flash-fried) and placed the pork on top. I steamed it, with the sauce poured over, for about ten minutes and served it right away.

Basically, this method is sort of a cockeyed reversal of the Chinese dish Hui Guo Rou (回鍋肉), also known as ‘twice-cooked pork’, in which a chunk of pork with the rind attached is moist-cooked by simmering, and then fried, with sauce later added, so that the pork becomes crisp. Here, I started with crisp pork and then moist-cooked it with steam.

Anyway, I was curious to see if the very crunchy crackling on top of the meat would remain crispy after steaming. As it turned out, it doesn’t but the new texture that resulted is almost as delectable. The meat was nicely tender, while the fat gave a lovely, unctuous contrast to the slight chewiness of the skin. The sauce also worked even better than I hoped (it is something I am working on for another dish) and, in all, I have to declare this little experiment a success…

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I have a done a couple of lamb dumpling posts since I began my blog, notably Boiled Lamb Dumplings and Xian Market Dumplings with Lamb. Since I was planning to make steamed dumplings using some cooked lamb I had leftover in the fridge, I thought I would share the recipe with you as it illustrates not only a different filling mixture from my previous posts, but also another cooking and folding method for the dough… Read more

I have published quite a number of posts featuring the Chinese dumplings commonly known as ‘Jiaozi’, all of which are comprised of fillings of one sort or another wrapped in a dough made simply of flour and water. The similar sounding ‘Baozi’, on the other hand, are formed with a leavened dough and are more ‘bun-like’ generally, although the steamed variety (as opposed to baked), are very like steamed or boiled jiaozi except in the texture of the skin.

I wanted to try using some of my Tienjin Pickled Vegetable in some sort of ‘bao’ after having used it with some pleasing results in jiaozi and I discovered, while doing a little research, that Tientsin is actually famous as the birthplace of a particular class of bao known as ‘Goubuli baozi’ (狗不理). The name has an interesting origin, which you can read at in more depth if you follow the preceding link, but it is commonly translated as ‘Dogs-will-ignore Dumplings’, and typically contains pork. For this experiment, I am not actually trying to reproduce any of the many varieties that exist (chiefly as I have never eaten them anywhere), and so I am simply calling this experiment ‘Tienjin Baozi’… Read more

When I featured Chinese Preserved Pork-Belly  in a recent ‘Foodstuffs’ post, I said that I planned to use some of it in a very common way by steaming it over rice. This dish, which permits of countless variations, is a very ‘homey’ sort of preparation and many people add the pork, along with other ingredients, to rice in electric steamers to make a quick, simple meal. I am using a clay-pot to steam my rice and I am departing from the more standard method by using pre-cooked rice, thus necessitating a fairly short cooking time. In addition to the pork, I will be adding some greens and other flavorful ingredients… Read more

A decade ago, I wouldn’t have thanked you for steamed or poached chicken in any fashion as I really disliked the texture of the finished product, especially the skin. Nowadays, after persisting with trying various Chinese recipes I have come to love it and I find that the wings are especially delectable treated in this manner.

For this experiment, I took as my inspiration a Cantonese recipe I came across in a book my wife bought me for my birthday. It steams a whole cut up chicken with a variety of ingredients, including mushrooms, white fungus, and Chinese Sausage, and it also includes pickled radish from Sichuan and some pickled Cabbage from Tientsin. I am just going to use some chicken ‘drumettes’ for this dish (the portion of the wing that looks like a little drumstick) and steam them with dried black mushrooms, a little scallion, and some of the very interesting Sichuan pickled vegetable I featured in my recent Korean-Style Beef Ribs post… Read more

Steaming Oysters with a sauce made from Salted Black Beans is a favorite Cantonese preparation, and one I have enjoyed many times. Unfortunately, fresh oysters are just about impossible to come by in this part of the world and so, for this experiment, I  am going to improvise using some lovely New Zealand Mussels I happen to have in my freezer. The variety, somewhat erroneously sold as ‘Kiwi Clams’, is the same type I used (and photographed) for my Bouillabaisse experiment over the Christmas holidays and they should work very nicely with the rich, umami flavor of black beans paired with garlic and chili… Read more

I have posted quite a few recipes using pickled mustard greens, both my own homemade variety and commercial products, and, today, I am going to use the Thai Fermented Mustard Greens I featured yesterday. Steamed pork ribs with a little chili sounded like a nice way to try it out, so here it is… Read more

This will be my first real experiment with Curry Leaves , other than cooking them with rice for the ‘Spices’ post they featured in some time ago ago. After considering a number of possibilities, I decided on a dish that was fairly simple in its flavorings, as I really wanted to be able to experience the full effect of the curry leaves without a lot of interference. The dish I came up with, Steamed ribs, is obviously quite Chinese in spirit, but the flavor palate is definitely East-Indian… Read more

I have three bags of the Mirabel Brand Frozen Clams I featured in a recent ‘Foodstuffs’ post and I thought I would use a couple to make a nice light meal for me and the wife. The first time I used this product, which was only a few weeks before I started writing this blog, I steamed a bag of the clams in a rich liquor made up of soy, ginger, garlic, sugar and rice wine, along with a small bunch of fresh basil. For this experiment, I wanted to use Basil again (as I still have some which needs to be used up) and I thought I might try something a little more delicate using white wine…  Read more