Steamed or Boiled

[Onelife]

Don't ask me why we haven't done it before but we have just recently started steaming our vegetables as opposed to what we have always done which is boil them...My gawd what a difference in the taste and texture...

Steam or boiled...that is the question?

[towny44]

We mainly use a steamer, potatoes in the base in water, other veg in the steamer containers above. Like you we too notice the difference both in taste and texture.

[GillD46]

I have been using an electric steamer for years, plus we have a combined. steamer/microwave oven, which we use less often for steaming, much to my husband's distress as it cost a LOT. Certain root vegetables take forever in the steamer, so sometimes I still boil them, though things like carrots, parsnips, swede, squash etc I always roast anyway.

But for anything softer, I agree steaming is FAR nicer - and more nutritious too.

[Ranchi]

Golden Wonder must be steamed ( unless you want soup!). Having said that we often boil other types of potato.

What about rice?

[Stephen]

Microwave most of the time or boil.

[oldbluefox]

The steamer's great except for all the washing up - so many fiddly bits of plastic. My favourites are air-fried, when I can persuade SWMBO to have them.

[Onelife]

We mainly use a steamer, potatoes in the base in water, other veg in the steamer containers above. Like you we too notice the difference both in taste and texture.

Hi towny,

I hadn't thought about steaming my spuds in the bottom of the pan......l suppose its just a case of cutting them up a bit smaller?

Regards

keith

[Jan Rosser]

I have an electric steamer which has pride of place in the back of the cupboard Being on my own I find it too big and like Foxy hate washing up all those fiddly bits. I do however have a small steamer for the microwave and broccoli and cauliflower cook beautifully in it and I can put it in the dishwasher

[Manoverboard]

We've been steaming for years

As for cooking veges .... well, we started off with a plastic one ( electric ) but the carrots eventually turned it a sort of revolting orange colour so we upgraded to a rather expensive but excellent quality triple layer ( electric ) Prestige brand stainless steel version where the non stick base can be used as a deep frying pan if required.

We don't cook anything in the water, simply steam the different veges for different periods of time and add them with an additional layer as required.

[Romig1]

We always steam veg too - and I always use the residual water which has collected from the veg for making gravy...that way absolutely none of the goodness is lost.

[Romig1]

We also find that you can steam two items which take different cooking times together (in the same steaming layer) by putting , say broccolli on top of the carrots - which cuts down on the number of bits to wash up.

[Stephen]

You lot know how to live don't you

[Not so ancient mariner]

Anybody remember pressure cookers?

[Stephen]

Yes, and wooden pegs and line props

[Romig1]

Anybody remember pressure cookers?

Remember them, and still use one! Great for making steak n kidney pie filling.

[qbman1]

Are you Fray.....or Bentos ?

[Dark Knight]

bit of both
depends on what make of spud and what the end result is to be. for really top notch mash a potato ricer is a must

[Onelife]

Anybody remember pressure cookers?

Hi Not so

l remember as a child one exploding.....not sure if it was due to improper use but it didn't half make a mess of the ceiling.

We had a presure cooker some 20 years ago but only used it a couple of times other than when we used the base for jam and toffee apple making.

Regards

keith

[Frank Manning]

We have a steamer which fits on a matching saucepan with a glass lid, and we steam carrots, peas, beans and leaf veggies while the potatoes are cooking. We have a good slow cooker too. The pressure cooker was great but Sue threw it out a few years ago.

[qbman1]

Anybody remember pressure cookers?

If you need one, there is one on offer on nearly every stall at every car boot sale !

[Delboy]

We prefer to steam, our steamer has no plastic bits, it's stanless steel with a glass top.

We used to have a pressure cooker don't know whatever happened to that.

[Raybosailor]

We use the microwave for most veg including potatoes using a range of microwave bowls with vented lids and a couple of spoonfuls of water.
Carrots 3 minutes al dente or 4 for soft.
Large jacket potato 4/5 minutes in microwave then put in oven for a few minutes if you like the skin crispy.
We bought a microwave rice cooker from Denby Pottery and it cooks up to 4 portions of rice perfectly.
Talking about microwave ovens it's amazing how the price and quality of microwave ovens has changed since its advent, we were one of if not the first persons in Nottingham to buy a microwave when we went to an exhibition and being one for a bargain I chatted up the demonstrator about buying the promotional model. I finished up getting the microwave and a range of accessories at a knock down price but still paid hundreds of pounds for it and it took two strong men to carry it to the car (the magnetron's were huge back then).
Nowadays they can be bought for less than £30 and students carry them round in rucksacks and they all have turntables which were not an option in the early models.

[Manoverboard]

Ours ( integrated Neff ) doesn't have a turntable nor does it need one. It also uses a metallic rack to raise food from the base of the oven ..... don't ask, I have no idea how it works but it does.

[gfwgfw]

The Giant is steamer for veg/meat . . . the resulting liquor makes a half descent stock for soups/ju