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Chinese soup making technique:
Steaming soup

Steaming cooks the soup via the heat from steam. Steaming is a little bit like double-boiling except it does not need a double-boiler and the soup is not half-submerged in the water of the bigger pot.

The ingredients and the soup is placed in a soup bowl which can be ceramic or enamel. The bowl is then placed in a steamer to be steamed. The steamer can be a big wok or a big pot. It could also be a special steamer. Bring water to the boil in the steamer and place the soup bowl in.

Steaming is not as common as the other soup making techniques like simmering and quick soup. But it is a good technique for ingredients that are quite delicate and may disintegrate at the slightest boiling, for instance, fish as it does not create agitation.

How do you position the soup bowl inside the bigger pot or wok?

Use a plate as a base. Invert the plate and place it at the bottom of the wok or pot. Place the soup bowl on top of the plate.
Use a a metal tripod. A metal structure with 3 legs (hence the name tripod). If you do a lot of steaming, a tripod is a more convenient and safer tool than a plate. Chinese grocery shops or supermarkets should stock these.

Soup recipes using steaming

Black chicken soup
Black chicken soup with he shou wu (fo-ti) and ginseng

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Chinese soup making technique:Steaming soup

How do you position the soup bowl inside the bigger pot or wok?

Soup recipes using steaming

Chinese soup making technique:
Steaming soup