Set of 8 Small Bamboo Steamers

"I used to steam things — you can steam dumplings — and my students from Texas would say, 'Oh, Patricia!'" when we used these. Patricia discovered them in Paris for her cooking school studio, and they were a genuine discovery — she had never seen individual-portion steamers like these before. They appear in The French Kitchen Cookbook, with a recipe for Steamed Yuzu Scallops on a Bed of Sesame Sea Greens. There are eight of them, each a compact cylindrical basket woven from pale split bamboo in a close herringbone pattern. The sides are smooth and straight, bound at the rim with a thin strip of bamboo, and each lid is topped with a small loop handle. They work just as well today steaming fish, vegetables or dumplings as they do arranged on a kitchen shelf.