Cooking with Steam: Spectacular Full-Flavored Low-Fat Dishes from Your Electric Steamer

Popular in Europe, cooking with steam is on the verge of take-off here in the States. Modern equipment has vastly improved the homemaker's options! While this reference was written with some of the older steaming units, the recipes are proving easily adaptable to our unit. A great resource overall!

So- you're trying to get healthy, and you just bought an electric steamer. There are instructions included for a few things, but aside from the basics, you have no clue where to go with your new gadget. Is it destined to live in the "Rarely Used Appliance" cabinet, along with the waffle iron and the Slap Chop? In a word: NO! Cooking With Steam is a class act. It's small and compact, and every page is packed with information. I do wish it had pictures (that's why it's a 4 star review). What it does have: time charts for different vegetables, meats, fish and poultry- and recipes so you can sally forth into the world of steaming with confidence. Steaming is not just for veggies anymore! Yeah, there are a ton of vegetable recipes- and they sound delicious. But wait! How do Cornish Game Hens stuffed with Provencal Herbs sound? Barbecued Baby Back Ribs? Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Cake? As someone who bought a steamer on a whim, thinking it would be great for veggie sides and the occasional plain old boring chicken breast, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of steam. Fantastic cookbook!

This is by far the best steaming cookbook I've used, and one of my favorite overall cookbooks. If you can buy only one steaming cookbook, this should be it. Everything I've tried has been good, and most recipes are very simple, made with healthy, whole foods. The book also lists cooking times for various foods, so it's good as a reference even if you aren't making one of the recipes. I love the simple green beans with lemon, and the coffee custard. It's helpful that it's written specifically for electric steamers (I have the Black & Decker and love it), but it would be useful even for non-electric steamers.

Stephanie Lyness' book explains how long you should cook every vegetable, fish, rice, meat and desserts. How much water to put in the container and when to add more. Whether to use salt before or after steaming.The ingredients for the recipes are extremely simple and healthy as well. Although it was published in 1996 and describes 4 electric steamers which I haven't seen where I live, one of them is very similar to the one I've just bought, so, no problem at all.The book also gives you tips that I have never found in any other book of the sort. The recipes serve 2 or 4. I recommend: Rice pilaf with peas and mushrooms,Red snapper with lemon and ginger and Lemon cheesecake. I didn't rate it 5 stars because I was disappointed not to find any pictures.

Not only is this the best steaming cookbook I've read but it is the best cookbook I've read and most important, used....and I use one or another of the recipes from this book almost every dinner (for five years now). The cabbage with bacon sauce is as simple as it is tasty. The recipe for steamed carrots with cilantro is brilliant. I, formerly never known as much of a cook, now have a reputation as a gourmet with some of my friends who have tasted these recipes. This cookbook has made cooking so much fun!....and easy too! I cannot recommend this book eneogh.