As a cooking technique, steaming is over 5, 000 years old, with ancient stoneware and steam pits being found in both China and America dating back thousands of years. Managed to snag some super fresh seafood or vegetables from the market? Steaming will allow the best of your ingredients’ natural flavors to come through in the final dish, on top of preserving its vitamins, minerals and enzymes. It’s also a popular way to prepare certain sweet treats in Asia, so you can literally make dinner and dessert with just one steamer!

1. Teochew Style Steamed Pomfret

Among the huge variety of Asian – particularly Chinese cuisine – Teochew food stands out as being clean and minimalist. It’s all about delicate flavors in Teochew cooking, and the popular Teochew Style Steamed Pomfret is a testament to that. White or golden pomfret is more suitable for preparation of this classic dish, as compared to black pomfret as its flesh is sweeter. The gentle  heat of ginger and sourish taste of plums compliment the sweetness of the fish, and provide light aromatics while you tuck into this dish. 

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2. Steamed Herbal Chicken

When it’s chilly outside or you’re feeling under the weather, Steamed Herbal Chicken is a super comforting dish to indulge slowly in. Herbs such as yu zhu (solomon's sealrhizome) and dang gui (angelica root) are added for bittersweet flavors and pungent aromatics, and give you a much needed energy boost and helps reduce inflammation. The most beautiful part of this dish is that extra tender chicken flesh that has been immersed in a variety of herbs for hours.

3. Beautiful Fragrant Purple Sweet Potato Kueh Lapis

This Beautiful Fragrant Purple Sweet Potato Kueh Lapis is the healthier cousin of the famous nine-layer Nyonya Kueh Lapis as its made with no oil. Layers of this bright Kueh Lapis are steamed bit by bit, giving you that finished look that’s so delicately pretty. Out of purple sweet potato? Try it with some Ube (purple yam).

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4. Steamed Garlic Prawns

A fresh, juicy prawn deserves to be steamed to keep all those tasty ocean-brine sweet juices in, and this Steamed Garlic Prawns recipe allows you to do just that. This dish is easy to whip up if you have access to fresh prawns, and can be ready in under half an hour. Garlic and ginger add sweet, pungent aromatics, while the spring onion garnish adds a nice refreshing crunch at the end.

5. Silky Steamed Eggs

In a rush and running out of ingredients to make your family dinner with? This simple yet fulfilling Silky Steamed Eggs are perfect for those busy weeknights, when you need to cook a few dishes to pair with steamed rice in a hurry. It’s so straightforward that within a few times of cooking it, you’ll probably know this recipe by heart!

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6. Steamed Ginger Milk Pudding

Steamed Ginger Milk Pudding are for those days that you can’t fit a decadent chocolate cake in anymore, or just need a simple sweet ending to offset that spicy curry. Ginger helps with that digestion, and this warm pudding will slide right down easily after a big dinner.

7. Steamed Fish with Lime and Chili Dressing

Steaming your fish or seafood doesn’t mean compromising tastes and smells, as this Steamed Fish with Lime and Chili Dressing goes to show. Fresh sea bass is coated with a typical Asian mix of spices and herbs, before being steamed on a banana leaf to maximize those pleasant aromatics. Kaffir lime juice and leaves give this dish a nice zing that will surely awaken your senses.

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8. Chwee Kueh

Chwee Kueh or water cake is a popular breakfast item in Singapore and Malaysia, and is served warm with a generous topping of chai po (Chinese radish) and a side of chili for spice lovers. Recreate your own version of this hawker dish at home easily with a few key ingredients and enjoy piping hot cakes out of the steamer!

9. Delightful Chewy Rose Sago Kuih

Steaming is not commonly associated with desserts, but its used so often in the preparation of many colorful Nyonya kuehs like this Delightful Chewy Rose Sago Kuih. Soft, chewy, with a nice bite thanks to the desiccated coconut coating, these bright kuehs make for the perfect tea time indulgence.

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10. Siew Mai

Think of dim sum, and a wide array of exquisitely crafted dumpling dishes come to mind, typically served from a pushcart in traditional Cantonese dim sum restaurants. Making Siew Mai at home is a fun cooking activity at home that even the kids can partake in, and if you have multiple bamboo steamers, how about whipping up a dim sum feast with har gao (prawn dumplings), steamed pork ribs, leek dumplings and other goodies?

11. Steamed Cod with Soy Sauce

Steamed Cod with Soy Sauce is one of the classic ways of serving up cod in Asia. Enjoy the subtle taste of the sea and sweetness of cod at its prime by steaming it with ginger, garlic, soya sauce and a dash of rice wine.

• Related page: Deliciously Healthy Eats

12. Cantonese Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage

Fancy claypot chicken rice by don’t have the right equipment or just want something less oily? Cantonese Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage gives you the same umami flavors without the hassle of cooking with heavy and hard-to-clean claypots. Marinating your chicken for long enough (overnight is great) is key to unlocking those sweet, savory flavors of this dish.

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