Steam

Snow peas and water chestnuts add a fresh crunch to these tasty dumplings

Depending on your pho philosophy, you can go super simple or ornate with the tabletop pho garnishes.

These pillowy steamed buns are delicious in all the same ways as Parker House rolls, with the sweet flavor of cornmeal.

Rasam, as prepared in most homes in Southern India, uses either tamarind or tomatoes as the base. It is a piquant broth poured over steaming hot rice. In our home—both in Kerala and America—rasam was a staple part of everyday meals. One night when I was a teenager, I was out to dinner with my brother Tom in New York City’s Little Italy and ate mussels cooked in a light tomato broth very reminiscent of rasam. I couldn’t wait to get home, buy fresh mussels, and cook them in rasam. This dish has made its rounds in my kitchens for close to three decades now. Make sure to have some fresh crusty bread to soak up the tomato-mussel broth.

When you think of one-pot meals, hearty dishes like chili probably come to mind. Nothing wrong with chili, but this quick fish dinner is a great change of pace when you're in the mood for something that seems a bit fancier. Add a baguette to complete the meal.

Because the crème fraîche melts into the potatoes, this dish has the virtue of tasting lush without appearing overly so. For an even more sumptuous look, give the salad a generous dollop on top.

Mussels steam in the same saucepan as chili-and-fennel-spiced tomato sauce in this effortless supper.

A toasted bun and steamed lobster—tossed first in melted butter and then in a mayonnaise-based dressing—makes for a sandwich that no one will argue with.

This couscous salad is just right for a late summer barbecue.

The freshest corn is so delicious that you don’t need to bother cooking it. Simply toss the kernels with vinaigrette, tiny heirloom tomatoes, and steamed lobster. What’s not to love? It’s no question.

An elegant Mediterranean-inspired fish dinner with green beans, tomatoes, and olives is just a push of the microwave button away.

Juicy chicken cutlets with all the bright, briny flavors of classic piccata are possible without a stove—all you need is a microwave.

Light, creamy, warm, and slightly-sweet egg-based dressing is the perfect companion to zesty watercress. This is adapted from a recipe in "Valentine Dinner for Two" from the February 1977 issue of Glamour magazine, which we updated for our 2016 Epi Valentine's Menu.

The secret to juicy, tender, delicately steamed white-meat chicken and squash? Going slow.

This recipe comes from New York chef Deuki Hong's father and has origins in North Korea, the ancestral home of mandu. (Sharing a border with China, it is no coincidence that mandu sounds a lot like the Chinese word for steamed bread, mantou.) Unlike versions stuffed with finely chopped kimchi, Deuki grew up eating mandu with kimchi on the side. The star in this recipe is the very generous quantity of butter, which is mixed in with the pork, garlic and ginger and adds a real-deal richness to each bite. Not typically used in East Asian cooking, butter is a fully Americanized, fully awesome way to rethink the mandu.

When we added Earl Grey ice cream to our trucks' offerings in 2009, New Yorkers went mad for it. Not surprisingly—black tea, combined with bergamot oil, cuts through the summer heat about as well as anything. We use a high-quality loose tea from our favorite tea brand, Rishi, which uses pure Italian bergamot citrus oil (and not bergamot flavoring), to make the most intensely fragrant Earl Grey tea ice cream.

When I put these ingredients in my rice cooker, I knew the flavors would complement each other, but I wondered what the dish would look like. It was lovely! The soft, melting goat cheese mingled with the asparagus and creamy eggs. The frittata makes a great light supper or lunch dish; serve it with a fruit salad.

This risotto is dotted with beautiful green spring vegetables and makes a lovely vegetarian lunch or dinner. Delicious with a roasted beet and arugula salad, it's simple to make. There is no arduous stirring; the rice cooker takes care of everything.

(Baha) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's book Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. If you really love the taste of lamb, you will love this dish. It's a pity that we Americans know so little about steaming meats; just as steamed vegetables keep their original flavors, so do steamed chickens and lamb. If you don't have a steamer, use a couscousière or a colander with a tight-fitting lid that fits snugly over a kettle. Some people think that steamed lamb looks unattractive (though no one denies that it's incredibly good). If you feel this way you may brown the meat quickly in butter or oil at the end, or roast it at high heat until it browns. Steamed food should be eaten the moment it is ready, when it is at its peak: if left too long, it will dry out.