Steaming

In most situations, steamed fish cannot be served with an integral sauce because a steamer is usually filled with a relatively large amount of water or aromatic liquid such as court-bouillon. The natural juices from the fish drip into this liquid and can never be retrieved. There are, however, methods that can be used to steam fish and at the same time capture the liquid released by the fish during cooking for an integral sauce. The first and most obvious method is simply to put a very small amount of liquid in the steamer and then convert the liquid into a sauce at the end of cooking. This is the method used for steaming mussels marinière. One disadvantage to this method is that it is easy to let the steamer run dry, ruining both the steaming liquid and the fish.