Double steaming, sometimes called double boiling, is a Chinese cooking technique to prepare delicate food such as bird's nest soup and shark fin soup. The food is covered with water and put in a covered ceramic jar and the jar is then steamed for several hours. This technique ensures there is no loss of liquid or moisture (its essences) from the food being cooked, hence it is often used with expensive ingredients like Chinese herbal medicines.
In Cantonese, double steaming is called dun (simplified Chinese: 炖; traditional Chinese: 燉; pinyin: dùn). The meaning of the Chinese character for dun in Cantonese is different from that in Mandarin, because dun means to simmer or stew in Mandarin. This technique is also common in Fujian, a neighbouring province of Guangdong (Canton).
Read more about Double Steaming: Famous Examples
Famous quotes containing the words double and/or steaming:
“...the shiny-cheeked merchant bankers from London with eighties striped blue ties and white collars and double-barreled names and double chins and double-breasted suits, who said “ears” when they meant “yes” and “hice” when they meant “house” and “school” when they meant “Eton”...”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)
“her rocking horse was pain
with vomit steaming from her mouth.
Her belly was big with another child,
cancer’s baby, big as a football.
I could not soothe.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)