Steaming vegetables in sea water.

[thinwater]

I thought soggy vegetables had been left behind in the 1970s. . So....Mr D's thermal cooker would suit you perfectly, though we use the original a Shuttle Chef marketed by Thermos. The latter comes with a steamer basket.

Boiled we left behind. Yup, I had English relatives. It took me a while to learn to like vegetables again! I had to expereince them cooked properly.

But if they are soggy after steaming it was way too long.

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The other problem with seawater is corrosion in the galley. When it dries out, it is quite corrosive even to stainless. Your boat. I've pitted holes in stainless cook tops, where the salt dries out under the burner. Just keep it neater than I did.

 

[Sea Change]

For a while, we were using sea water to wash the dishes, and then rinsing off with a spray bottle of fresh.
We kept a dedicated stainless steel kettle for heating up the sea water. It rusted through after about six months, which more or less put an end to the practise.

 

[ducked]

Or given the unfettered enthusiasm with which our water companies pump raw sewage into our rivers and seas at every opportunity they can get away with I'd extend that advice to anywhere in UK waters.

Shouldn't be a serious problem with steaming, though I suppose there is a possibility of volatile off-flavours carrying over.

Also shouldnt be a serious problem on most of Scotlands NW coast.

I've wondered about this as a rinsing method for clothes, which otherwise requires huge amounts of clean water.

The corrosion problem could perhaps be partly addressed by heating the water in an enamel or teflon-coated vessel. I've decided to stop eating from teflon (the domestic conflict is about to start) but steaming should be relatively low temperature so less dodgy, and if it got wrecked I could then throw it away.

 

[Neeves]

We would never add salt to rice. It destroys the flavour, if you have steamed rice in any Asian restaurant it has nothing added.

Of vegetables

if we sliced and steamed potatoes we would parboil and the fry with garlic.

For greens normally we would blanche in fresh boiling water, then stir fry with garlic and add salt and sugar. If you blanche in boiling seawater - no need to add salt, just a pinch of sugar. Blanching enhances the colour of greens, and kills most organisms

If you were steaming using salt water then some of the salt water will splash onto the bottom of the steamer, and be absorbed by the vegetables - this would negate the need for a generous teaspoon of salt when simply steaming with fresh water.

Most people over salt their food, its decidedly unhealthy.

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

For a while, we were using sea water to wash the dishes, and then rinsing off with a spray bottle of fresh.
We kept a dedicated stainless steel kettle for heating up the sea water. It rusted through after about six months, which more or less put an end to the practise.

An answer to that issue is a silicone kettle with a stainless, saucer like, bottom, The water is retained by the silicone the silicone is protect from the flame by the saucer.

Which makes me wonder - you can source flat stainless plates made from a magnetic variant of stainless. These plates are marketed to allow non induction compatible kitchen wear to be heated on an induction hob. I wonder where silicone, kettles specifically, might fit into this.

I like the idea of silicone kitchen devices as they don't break, or not as easily (or they fail due to other mechanisms) they collapse, fold up, and don't make much noise.

Jonathan

 

[Mister E]

If you use one of the steamers that has a container that sits on top of the pan that contains the water. Plus never get the bottom pan boiling over then the salts will remain in the bottom pan.
Thus the vegetables will not get the salt on them.

Not certain about other nasty chemicals that may be in the sea water but the water should be sterile from bugs and viruses.

 

[Roberto]

We use salt water in different proportions with fresh water for a lot of cooking (mainly pasta), taste is ok though I reckon the smell of boiling water is different, not sure I would want to steam cook vegetables in that, of maybe to add some evocative magnesium/sulphur/iodine flavour.

 

[Neeves]

If you local or coastal sail - Plan and then carry enough fresh water, if you cross oceans invest in a desalinator (and more solar panels). And in all situations ration, economise the fresh water.

If you are coastal sailing and do not carry enough fresh water to steam vegetables - then wonder how others survive crossing oceans, or sailing the coast.

Its not rocket science

Jonathan

 

[Blue Seas]

I'm no climate change denier, but I would have thought that the ability to steam in sea water was still some way off yet.