Local cookbook gives appliance other uses

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Teresa Taylor talks to Mary Geer Di Raddo, author of "Steaming in Charleston." Watch »

Ashley Garner
The Post and Courier

Mary Geer DiRaddo

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Like the way she crafts "angels" from oyster shells, nuts and other bits of nature, Mary Geer DiRaddo looks at a rice steamer and sees something more.

Besides rice, which the pot can do to Charleston perfection, she's put the steamer to many other uses with great success. She steams salmon and shrimp, makes applesauce and even cooks a whole chicken in the insert ("Just jam it in," she says), which produces a very concentrated broth as a bonus.

Okra won't be slimy "if it's not overcooked," she says. The steamer can help people "discover" onions and celery as flavorful vegetables that can stand on their own, DiRaddo maintains. Reheated leftovers are moist and "reinvigorated" with flavor.

Now, she's trying to spread the word.

DiRaddo, a Charleston native called Goodie by family and friends, has self-published a cookbook, "Steaming in Charleston: Cooking With a Charleston Rice Steamer, New Ideas for an Old Favorite." Its 91 pages are filled with recipes from soups to desserts and contains hints for the cook, as well as a dash of history.

"It's very adapted to today when you don't want to use oil or lots of butter. You get very tasty results," says DiRaddo, 80, who lives at Bishop Gadsden with her husband, Joe, a retired Episcopal priest.

Rice steamers have been popular bridal gifts in the Lowcountry for generations, she says, and DiRaddo herself began using the pot as a newlywed cooking for her own family. But rather than using it only for rice, she found more and more opportunities to cook in it as years went by.

Locals call the traditional three-piece pot a Charleston Rice Steamer. The way it works is this: The food to be cooked rests in a shallow pan known as the "insert," which has steam holes around its circumference. The insert sits inside the top third of a larger pot (like a double boiler), to which water is added a few inches deep. The lid contains the steam that rises from the bottom of the big pot through the holes in the insert and cooks the food.

For rice, the method will cook the grains in the prized "Charleston" way — meaning moist and tender yet separate, not clumped together and sticky. "Very few Charleston ladies could cook rice in a saucepan," DiRaddo explains, because they had the tendency to peek inside. "It's a guaranteed good result in a steamer but kind of tricky in a saucepan."

DiRaddo also likes the idea of one-pot meals in the steamer. Different vegetables, for example, may be cooked at the same time "and the flavors don't meld," she says. "The flavor in a steamer is enhanced."

The book includes more than 50 recipes and sells for $13-$15 at Charleston Collections west of the Ashley, Royall Ace Hardware in Mount Pleasant, the Preservation Society of Charleston downtown and Newton Farms on Johns Island.

Teresa Taylor is the food editor. Reach her at food@postandcourier.com or 937-4886.