Use the rice cooker as a steamer to get fish, vegetables and rice onto the table at the same time with this one pot recipe.

Time: 2/5
Everything cooks along with the rice, and everything is done when the rice is

Effort: 2/5
Prep as you go. A single-appliance meal with minimal cleanup.

Plenty of fish in the sea

Previously, I introduced the concept of the rice cooker Tower of Doom. To recap, the technique involves putting ingredients into the rice cooker in reverse order of the amount of time it takes to cook them. By making use of the steam-filled but otherwise empty space above the rice to cook the other components of the meal, the rice cooker becomes a one-pot wonder.

It seems like steaming is an underrated cooking method outside of East and Southeast Asia. Being a very gentle way to transfer heat to food, it works especially well with delicate ingredients like fresh fish. which can break up if stirred or flipped. It’s also a method that does not require any additional oil unlike sautéing or stir frying, which might be valuable for someone watching their calorie intake.

Here’s yet another variation of the Tower of Doom concept, with fish as the protein instead of chicken. While I’m still working on the second head of broccoli (I got four of them at once on sale at the market), you could absolutely steam any vegetable in the Tower that you would normally steam elsewhere.

Since the fish I have today is very lean and not very fresh (indeed, it was bottom-of-the-barrel merchandise from the bargain freezer bin), I’m jazzing it up by topping it with some XO sauce made by my aunt: essentially a big umami party of dried scallops, little anchovies, soy sauce, fermented black beans, chilli peppers, garlic and sugar which is sure to make most anything taste good.

As before, make sure you have some dishes that can stand the steam, and the equipment to stack them in the rice cooker. Steamer stands are more space-efficient for separating the layers, but an inverted ramekin works in a pinch. A set of steamer tongs is pretty indispensable though – I can’t imagine trying to shimmy a hot dish full of food out of a steaming-hot rice cooker with a pair of forks.

Dramatis Personae

Rice

Use, at most, roughly a sixth of what you usually would cook in the rice cooker. I went into detail why in the first Tower of Doom post, but basically it’s because all the steaming stands and plates take up space, and there’s more food to cook with the same amount of heat.

Make the equivalent volume of protein and vegetable as that sixth of rice, in cooked form. So for the roughly 20 cup monster of a rice cooker I have, I’m aiming to end up with 3 cups of cooked rice, 3 cups of fish and 3 cups of broccoli.

Fish

What I have this time is Panagsius. It’s a subtype of catfish that is remarkable for being lean and dirt-cheap. For the latter reason, it’s what often gets served in cafeterias, canteens and the like. Having grown up eating it in that context, seeing catfish on the menu doesn’t exactly inspire any gustatory excitement.

Which is fine, because I don’t need it to. Taste-wise, it’s the XO sauce that does the heavy lifting. I imagine preserved mustard greens would also work in this role. Regardless, it still needs a bit of salt and white pepper, just to make sure it’s evenly seasoned and not relying totally on the topping for salinity and savouriness.

Any white, firm-fleshed and lean fish would work well steamed. Panagsius is pretty bottom-tier (no pun intended, although catfish are technically bottom feeders) but there are plenty of higher-tier options like halibut, cod or grouper.

Broccoli

As before, cut into florets and sprinkled with salt. The stems also go in, once they’ve been trimmed of their woody exteriors and cut to size. XO sauce also works wonderfully as a topping for vegetables, but I’m keeping things simple today. Other options for seasoning might include soy or oyster sauce, or maybe a drizzle of sesame oil. Of course, you can fill in with any vegetable that is suitable for steaming like green beans, asparagus or cauliflower.

Executive summary

1. Begin by making the rice. Put rice and water into the rice cooker and start it.
2. Cut and season the fish. Arrange on a heat-resistant plate and top.
3. Once the water in the rice cooker is boiling, place the dish with the fish into the rice cooker.
4. Cut, season and arrange broccoli onto another heat-resistant plate.
5. With a few minutes left on the rice cooker’s timer, place the broccoli into the rice cooker as well.
6. Tower of Doom is complete; once rice is done, take each layer out and serve.

Play by Play

As before, begin with the rice. This will take the longest. It doesn’t matter if you set the steamer stand now or later. Switch on the rice cooker, and move on to preparing the protein. Don’t worry, you’ll have time – it takes quite a while for the water to boil and steam to be generated.

Catfish, cut into bite-sized chunks and seasoned with some salt, white pepper and corn starch. The little brown bits are the XO sauce. The corn starch marinade was my girlfriend’s mother’s idea, and supposedly keeps things juicy even after cooking. I’m not sure I can tell the difference, but I’m not sure I should tell her either.

I don’t have any more steaming racks, so an inverted ramekin will have to suffice. Granted, it’s less space efficient than a rack, but it works in a pinch. Fish goes on top of rice. Close the lid again, and go on to prepare the vegetables.

Broccoli, cut into florets and given a sprinkle of salt. There’s some breathing room now to start doing some cleanup, since the broccoli only takes a few minutes to steam. You could just chuck them in now if you can’t be bothered (I know sometimes I can’t), but understand the tradeoff you are making.

There’s only a few minutes left until the rice is done. See how the fish is almost done – although looking a little drab. I just so happened to have some cilantro, which both makes for a good garnish and complements the fish with its aroma. Leaving it until last helps preserve the vibrant green colour.

Broccoli goes in last. The astute viewer will note that the dish I put on top is slightly smaller than the one I placed in the middle. While the Tower of Doom will work as long as there is space between the rim of the dish and the sides of the rice cooker for steam to get through, it pleases me aesthetically to layer the dishes in order of size and it feels like it does something.

Another dinner for two, cooked entirely within a rice cooker and in little over half an hour. Served with a Korean-inspired side dish – a chilled spinach salad.

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