Helen Chen's Silicone Steamer Liners

There are many and various Asian food dishes that must be served hot, from a steamer: under the general rubric of Dim Sum, all manner of meat, fish, shellfish, and vegetables can be discovered, wrapped in different packages. And many of these can be found, in varying degrees of flavor and quality, in your local grocery store and, in 43 of the Lower 48 states, a local Trader Joe’s. Go shopping!

But to prepare your dim sum, you need a proper steamer setup: a steamer basket - in metal or classic bamboo - set over a hot, simmering water bath, in which your dim sum has been cooked and carefully spaced for service. You may have more than one steamer - one stacked over another, just like in the dim sum restaurants where we learned to love these delicious small bites. But the final detail on the ‘prep’ side is a steamer liner: to be placed in the bottom of each steamer, to assure even flow-through of the steam beneath and avoid two potential problems. First, you don’t want your pork buns to stick to the steamer basket when you serve them. And second, you don’t want any delays in cleanup, so you can promptly reuse the steamer for the next course.