CASDON 3-Tier Electric Steamer 11.6L | 304 Stainless, Three Dishes at Once

There is no Western equivalent of this machine, which is the whole problem. A steamer basket over a pan does one dish and ties up a hob ring. A combi oven steams one shelf at a time, expensively. A Chinese kitchen assumes a tall stacked steamer running three dishes together, because that is how a Chinese meal is built: several dishes arriving hot at the same moment, not one after another.

Three tiers, 11.6 litres. A whole sea bass with ginger and spring onion on the top, ribs in black bean sauce underneath, a bowl of steamed egg custard below that, and all of it done in the same twenty minutes with the hob still free for the wok. Twin heating rings bring the steam up quickly, so it gets to work rather than sitting there warming up.

It stews and boils as well as steams, which opens up the long jobs: zongzi (glutinous rice parcels wrapped in bamboo leaf), lo mai gai (lotus-leaf sticky rice with chicken), a tray of baozi straight from frozen, or a week's mantou reheated in one go.

The body is 304 stainless throughout. No plastic tiers going cloudy and warped, no coating to flake off, and it takes a scouring pad when something boils over.

Specifications

About the control panel

The labels on this steamer are in Chinese. That is normal for an appliance built for the Chinese market, and in this case unavoidable, because no British manufacturer makes this category of machine at all. An English guide to the controls is below.