Category Archives: Steam Oven

Spicy chicken & quinoa salad

January 9, 2015 10:15 am / Leave a Comment /

Spicy chicken & quinoa salad

It’s been hot here in Sydney this week.  I have probably mentioned this before but I tend to use the steam oven more in Summer and the combi more in Winter.  It is so easy to create a new salad like this one, just by combining a few ingredients that you have in the fridge.

After a massive New Year’s Eve dinner party I am not really feeling like cooking much at the moment, but that is the beauty of a steam oven; you can produce a fantastic dinner without really trying too hard!

Feel free to change the ingredients to use what you have on hand, just remember to keep the Asian theme.  Green beans, broccoli and red capsicum would work.

I cooked everything in this recipe in the same stainless steel steamer tray at different times as you can see below.  I also managed to cook some rhubarb as well with the pumpkin.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

1 cup tri coloured quinoa
1 large chicken breast, kept whole, but cut to flatten to similar thickness
2 cups chicken stock
juice and rind 1 lemon
1 cup steamed pumpkin, cubed
1 bunch asparagus, cut into thirds
handful fresh mint
handful fresh Vietnamese mint
few cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup dressing from mango salad here
1 birdseye chilli, seeds removed and diced finely
¼ cup macadamia nuts, toasted

Method:

  1. Wash quinoa, place in solid tray and add stock.
  2. Set steam oven to 20 minutes @ 100°C.
  3. When the steam oven has 7 minutes to go, add the chicken breast on top of the quinoa and the diced pumpkin scattered around the chicken.
  4. Now when there is 2 minutes to go, add the asparagus.
  5. Remove, put the asparagus into a bowl of iced water and stir through the lemon rind and juice.
  6. Set aside for everything to cool.  If you want to cook more pumpkin than is needed then use another dish.
  7. Sprinkle the chicken breast with a little sea salt.
  8. Slice chicken into bite-sized pieces then stir through with all the other ingredients once everything is room temperature.
  9. Drizzle over the dressing which has been mixed with the fresh chilli and top with toasted nuts.
Posted in: Chicken, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Steam oven cheesecake

December 11, 2014 12:58 pm / 6 Comments /

Steam oven cheesecake

This is a cheesecake, totally cooked in the steam oven with Christmas flavours. Decorated with some fresh cherries this is a lovely festive dessert you can serve as part of a buffet or instead of a traditional steamed Christmas pudding here.

I have had lots of interest in the pudding over the last few weeks.  Everyone with a steam oven realises now just how much easier it is to cook a pudding without the hassle of boiling it on the stove top.  No excuse not to make your own!

I love a traditional, baked Italian ricotta cheesecake but in this recipe I have combined the different cheeses to make a smoother, creamy texture.  The steam oven works a treat for something like this which needs a moist oven environment and won’t dry out the biscuit base.  This can be a problem when baking a cheesecake in a traditional oven.  It also gives it a gorgeous texture.

Make sure you cover it really well with foil so it doesn’t get wet.  Of course, you can alter the fruit and nut selection or leave them out completely.  We do however love the texture of the nuts in this 🙂

Ingredients:  Serves 10-12

1½ cups sweet biscuit crumbs
100g butter, melted
½ tsp cinnamon

Filling:
250g cream cheese, at room temperature (a must)
250g smooth ricotta (in a tub)
¾ cup castor sugar
2 tbsp. cornflour
1/3 cup cream
3 eggs
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
¾ cup sultanas soaked in ¼ cup brandy for 30 minutes
¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted

Method:

  1. Combine biscuit crumbs, cinnamon and butter and press into base of a lined 23cm springform tin.  See my tip here.  Don’t be tempted to use the whole packet of biscuits. Chill.
  2. Beat softened cream cheese, ricotta and cream together until smooth.  Do not over beat.
  3. Add sugar, lemon juice, eggs, cornflour and baking powder.  Mix well.
  4. Fold in sultanas and nuts and pour into prepared base.
  5. Cover tightly with foil.
  6. Steam @ 100°C for 55 minutes.  It should be just set around the edges and soft in the centre.
  7. Uncover and cool.  It will firm up on cooling.
  8. Chill until required.   Overnight is probably best.
  9. Remove from fridge 30 minutes prior to serving.  Top with fresh, pitted cherries and serve berry coulis to drizzle.  You can make this by heating half a cup of raspberries, ¼ cup water with 1-2 tablespoon of caster sugar and a dash of liquor or squeeze of lemon until dissolved.  Push through a fine sieve to remove the pips.

 

 

Posted in: Christmas cookery, Desserts, Dinner parties, Party Food, Steam Oven

Kale & salmon salad

November 13, 2014 9:51 am / Leave a Comment /

Kale & salmon salad

Had to join the health food craze and do a kale salad as it is really delicious with a Dijon mustard dressing and a bit of citrus.  A perfect excuse and another reason to have perfectly cooked salmon from the steam oven 🙂

You can alter the ingredients to what you have on hand.  I have used the baby kale leaves that you can buy now but if you use the large leaves, cut out the centre stem, wash well and slice thinly.

Of course, you can also substitute the lentils for cooked brown rice or quinoa.  This is really one of those delicious salads that is perfect for entertaining.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

2 pieces of salmon, skin and bones removed or 4 small pieces for individual serves
1 bag or bunch of kale, trimmed and sliced
2 blood oranges, rind removed from one and segmented
1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
1x 400g can lentils
large handful of green beans
½ cup roughly chopped dill
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted

Dressing:
3 tbsp. grape seed oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp honey
pinch salt and pepper

Method:

  1. Depending on the size of your salmon, steam @ 95°C for 2-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
  2. Put the green beans into the solid steamer tray, add the washed lentils and cook @ 100°C for 2 minutes.  Remove beans and drain any water from lentils.  Add the rind of one blood orange and stir through. Although the lentils are cooked they will absorb the flavours more if warmed.
  3. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small jar, taste and set aside.
  4. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a 140°C oven for about 10 minutes, they are so much nicer than straight from the packet.
  5. Mix most of the dressing through the salad, reserving a little for the top.
  6. Combine all the salad ingredients onto a large platter or individual plates depending on how you are serving.
  7. Flake or place the salmon on top, garnish with more dill, sprinkle over the seeds and serve.

Note:  This would be a delicious salad to serve for Christmas with its gorgeous colours!

 

 

Posted in: Christmas cookery, Fish, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Pomegranate & haloumi salad

November 3, 2014 1:39 pm / 3 Comments /

Pomegranate & haloumi salad

Time for some more healthy salads and this one has glorious flavours, lots of texture and is one of those salads that you really feel satisfied after eating.

As the weather heats up in Sydney the steam oven is the only appliance I am using at the moment.  Too hot for a conventional oven, this is the perfect appliance to use on a hot day as you can prepare all your base ingredients for a salad like this in just 20 minutes, anytime during the day.  If you want to serve it with a hot piece of salmon instead of the haloumi as we did on Saturday night then the steam oven was only on for 2 minutes for the fish.  With only that initial gush of steam at the end of cooking time, even on the hot 37°C day we had it didn’t heat up our kitchen at all.  To be honest, I use my combi as a steam oven more in the Summer than I do in the Winter.

I actually used a combination of cooked brown rice and red quinoa this time.  It is so easy to prepare a salad like this if you already have the main ingredient pre-cooked.  Remember, cooked rice can harbor bugs so only keep it for a maximum of three days.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

1 cup red quinoa, washed
2 cups vegetable stock
rind 1 lemon
½ cup mint leaves, chopped
½ cup parsley leaves, chopped
2 cups broccoli florets
½ cup chickpeas, washed and drained
1 x 250g block of Haloumi cheese, sliced
¼ cup mixed seeds & pine nuts
Olive oil to lightly fry

Dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ pomegranate, seeded and juice retained
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
ground black pepper

Method:

  1. Cook quinoa in stock for 20 minutes @ 100°C.
  2. While this is cooking, pop in your broccoli for 2 minutes then refresh in icy cold water.  Drain.
  3. Remove the quinoa from the steam oven, add the lemon rind, stir and set aside to cool and absorb any remaining stock.
  4. Mix all the ingredients, except the Haloumi together and set aside.
  5. For the dressing:  Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and catch all the juice into a container.  Pick out any pith that may have fallen into the juice.  Mix in the other ingredients, stir well and pour over salad.
  6. Mix well together, ensuring that the seeds and nuts are well amalgamated.
  7. Heat a shallow non-stick frypan over medium heat.  Add a splash of olive oil and when hot fry the Haloumi slices until golden brown.

Serve over salad as a complete meal.  Delicious also with a piece of salmon here.

Just a REMINDER, have you cooked your Christmas Pudding yet?  See my steam oven Best ever Christmas pudding here or a Gluten-free option here.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Healthy eating, Main Courses, Salads, Side dishes, Steam Oven, Vegetarian

Creme caramel

October 30, 2014 11:49 am / 12 Comments /

Creme caramel

The steam oven is perfect for cooking custards because you have low, accurate temperature control.  I mentioned this in the post on the Crème brulee here.  The worst thing that can happen when your cooking a custard is to cook it at too high a temperature so that the custard overcooks.  You may have had this before, the texture is not smooth and can be ‘grainy’ or ‘rubbery’.  Without the worry of this, the only thing you need to ensure is that you cover your dishes so that you don’t get any water forming on the top.  One large piece of foil is fine.

With no need for a bain-marie or water bath in the steam oven, how did we ever bother cooking custards before in a conventional oven!

This is a lighter Crème caramel than usual, using only milk and less sugar.  A good option for this time of the year when we are all trying to lose those Winter kilograms!  You can alter the recipe to half milk, half cream if you wish but only heat and infuse the vanilla into the milk.

Cooking times will vary on the size and type of the dish.  A large custard will take approximately 35-50 minutes.  It should be set around the edges and be ‘wobbly’ in the centre.  They should firm up on cooling.

Ingredients:  Serves 8:

700ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds removed or 1 tsp vanilla paste (not essence)
1/4 cup castor sugar
4 large, 800g eggs, beaten

Caramel: 1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water

Method:

  1. For the caramel combine sugar and water in a small saucepan.  Stir on moderate heat until sugar has completely dissolved.
  2. Increase heat and boil steadily, without stirring until a deep golden colour.  Watch it, it will continue to darken so don’t take it too far.
  3. Pour into base of 8 small, half cup size ramekin dishes, swirl around so that caramel covers each base.
  4. In a medium saucepan combine milk, vanilla bean or paste and sugar.
  5. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes.  This will give you better flavour.
  6. Remove and scrape out vanilla seeds.
  7. Lightly whisk eggs in a bowl and then whisk again into hot milk mixture.
  8. Pour over caramel in each individual ramekin and cover with foil.
  9. Steam @ 90°C for 30 minutes or until set when tested.
  10. Uncover so that condensation doesn’t form on the top.
  11. Chill at least 4 hours or overnight and revert onto dessert plates to serve.

Note:  Adapted from Miele, you can omit the caramel to make this into a plain baked custard. Use the same recipe and add freshly grated nutmeg to the top prior to cooking.

 

 

Posted in: Desserts, Dinner parties, Eggs, Gluten free, Steam Oven

Pappardelle with chicken & asparagus

October 27, 2014 9:25 am / Leave a Comment /

Pappardelle with chicken & asparagus

Except for my Ricotta & spinach cannelloni here I haven’t cooked much pasta on the blog before.  I certainly haven’t cooked it in the steam oven, although you can.  Great for cooking fresh ravioli as it needs very little water so will not ‘break up’ in a large pot, I just haven’t got around to experimenting much with pasta.  I must do some fresh ravioli soon.

This recipe calls for fresh lasagne sheets that you can cut yourself into wide pappardelle.  A great choice of pasta when you want it to soak up a rich ragu or creamy sauce like this.   Use a fresh pasta that is very thin as it only takes only a few minutes to cook in the sauce.  This saves the need to pre-cook it and showcases how you can do a quick, one pot dish like this in the steam oven.  A very quick, family dinner 🙂

If you want to substitute dried short pasta then cook in first, covered with water at 100C for the time stated on the packet, less a couple of minutes.

Ingredients: Serves 4

Half a packet of thin, fresh lasagne sheets, cut into wide pappardelle strips
1 large clove garlic, crushed
½ onion, sliced thinly
300g chicken tenderloins, trimmed and sliced into strips
1 cup sliced, swiss brown mushrooms
½ cup frozen peas
1 bunch of asparagus, cut into thirds
1 x 250g tub of Philly ‘Light cooking cream’
¾ cup chicken stock
½ cup chopped parsley or basil
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated parmesan to serve

Method:

  1. Heat a deep frying pan that will fit into the steam oven on medium heat.  Add a small amount of olive oil.
  2. Add onion, garlic and mushrooms and saute until softened.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes on low heat.
  3. Add the cooking cream and stir until it softens then the stock.  Add the fresh pasta strips and separate them if you can so that each one is covered with some sauce.
  4. Thin with a little milk if necessary.  This will depend on the type of cream you have used.
  5. Now stir in the frozen peas and cook in the steam oven @ 100°C for 5 minutes.
  6. Open steam oven and add the chicken slices and asparagus.  I sprinkled the chicken with a little sea salt.  Cook a further 3 minutes.
  7. Stir in herbs, add a grind of black pepper and some grated parmesan.

Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.

Note:  I actually had to cook it in the solid steamer tray as I was also cooking my Christmas pudding at the same time!  Remember, there is no transfer of flavours when doing things like this.  So perhaps it’s time to cook your Christmas pudding now too?

 

 

 

Posted in: Pasta, Steam Oven

Thai seafood soup

October 24, 2014 8:28 am / Leave a Comment /

Thai seafood soup

This is the first soup I have cooked in the steam oven and is a great example of how you can cook multi levels, with different ingredients all at different times.

I did do the Steamed salmon in ginger broth here where the other ingredients were cooked in the steam oven but the stock was boiled to reduce on the stove top.

This is a quicker version of the classic Tom yum goong without making a paste or your own stock, however fish or prawn stock is very easy to make and only takes 20 minutes to cook.  If you would like to make it, make sure you fry the prawn heads and shells until they turn red before you add the water and other flavourings.  You then need to pound out the shells in a sieve to extract as much flavour as possible.

If you have the smaller, narrow depth steam oven then you will need to cook your soup in a larger, deeper dish of your choice as your solid steamer tray is too small for this quantity.  Increase your time to 8 minutes as cooking time is increased compared to cooking in stainless steel.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

4 cups fish or prawn stock
2-3 bird’s eye chillies, seeds removed or to your taste
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2 slices of ginger
4 spring onions, finely sliced
3 tbsp lime juice
1-2 tbsp. palm sugar or to taste
1-2 tbsp fish sauce or to taste (start with 1)
1 stick lemongrass, white part only smashed a little to ‘bruise it’
4 kaffir lime leaves, broken
500g fresh seafood of your choice (eg white fish, green prawns, salmon fillet etc)
Medium size packet (200g) thin bean thread or rice noodles (quantity is approx. a large handful each person)
Bunch of spinach, Asian bok choy or other greens
handful chopped coriander leaves
handful bean shoots (optional)
extra chilli to garnish (optional)

Method:

  1. Combine stock, chillies, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, white part of spring onions only and palm sugar and steam @ 100°C 6 minutes on the bottom shelf.
  2. If using rice noodles, soak them in boiling water.
  3. In the soup, add the fish sauce & lime juice, taste the stock and adjust flavour.  It should have that Thai salty, sweet & sour hit.  Add the bean thread noodles if using and stir to soften in the stock.
  4. Peel and devein the prawns, cut the fish into bite size pieces and place on perforated tray above the stock.  No need to add baking paper.  Cook @ 85°C for 2 minutes.
  5. Slice your bok choy or spinach into bit size pieces and add in another tray for a further 2 minutes @ 85°C.  If using baby spinach there is no need to pre-cook.  Just place into the bottom of the bowl.  If your prawns are already cooked, add them now to warm through.
  6. Ladle the soup into four bowls, removing the lemongrass, ginger and kaffir lime leaves and add the seafood and vegetables.

Garnish with the bean shoots, fresh herbs, spring onion tops, extra chilli and a wedge of lime.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Dinner parties, Fish, Gluten free, Soups, Steam Oven, Thai

Steamed prawns with lime mayonnaise

October 20, 2014 10:46 am / 3 Comments /

Steamed prawns with lime mayonnaise

Everyone loves fresh prawns and now it’s even easier to serve them warm, steamed in the steam oven in just 4 minutes for medium size or 5 minutes for the larger ones.  Impossible to overcook they would be a great finger food to cook at the same time as perhaps fresh mussels in the shell or some beautiful fresh scallops.  All these different shellfish would be cooked at the same temperature so it can open up a whole lot of different recipe ideas!

Dipped into this lime mayonnaise they are absolutely delicious,  you can add some crushed garlic to the mayonnaise to taste to turn it into a garlic aioli if you wish.  The combined oils in the mayonnaise works well, it isn’t as strong as using all olive oil.  You can use whatever other oil you have on hand, although I wouldn’t use peanut oil.

Ingredients:

24 green prawns, peeled with tails left in tact
Lime wedges

Lime mayonnaise:
2 large egg yolks
pinch sea salt to taste
rind 2 limes plus juice of 1 lime
½ cup olive oil
½ cup rice bran oil

Method:

  1. Curl prawns and arrange in a single layer in the perforated tray.
  2. Steam @ 85°C for 4-5 minutes until cooked depending on the size of the prawns.
  3. For mayonnaise beat egg yolks, salt and juice from half a lime in a medium size bowl with a whisk until combined.
  4. Slowly add the oil starting with single drops and gradually increasing, whisking continuously until thick and all the oil has been incorporated.
  5. Thin a little with the juice from the rest of the lime, now add the rind, mix well and taste for extra salt.
  6. It should be thick enough to dip and stay on the prawn.

Serve with extra fresh lime on the side – enjoy 🙂

 

Posted in: Dinner parties, Gluten free, Party Food, Steam Oven

Steamed snapper with black bean & garlic sauce

October 13, 2014 6:17 am / Leave a Comment /

Steamed snapper with black bean & garlic

This is my version of a recipe from China Doll, using the commercial black bean and garlic paste that you can buy from a Chinese grocery store and adding to the paste with chilli, lemon and soy to give the fish a delicious flavour.

Perfectly and easily cooked in the steam oven, you wonder if you would bother trying to steam a whole snapper on a plate in a Chinese basket?  I think I did it once for a small fish and it was really difficult to remove.  You wouldn’t be able to fit this size snapper into a steamer basket in any case.  It is impossible to overcook the fish in a steam oven which makes cooking whole fish just a whole lot easier, not to mention healthier!

To finish, you can if you wish, heat some peanut oil until smoking and pour it over the fish at the table put personally I prefer to cut out the extra fat content as there is plenty of flavour in this dish already.

A nice change from the traditional ginger and garlic snapper here.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-5

1 whole 1.3kg snapper, cleaned and scaled
½ tsp sesame oil
1-2 garlic cloves
1 long red chilli, chopped + 1/2 for garnish
2 tbsp. black bean & garlic paste
1 tbsp. soy sauce
½ lemon, rind and juice
handful of coriander leaves
2-3 whole spring onions

Method:

  1. In a mortar and pestle pound the garlic, chopped chilli and its seeds with the lemon rind and a little sea salt until smooth.
  2. Add the black bean and garlic paste, soy and sesame oil and mix together.
  3. Score the fish into diamond shapes through the skin on both sides.
  4. Rub the paste into the fish, making sure that it penetrates into the cuts.
  5. Place fish into the large steamer tray on top of the whole spring onions.  This will stop it from sticking.
  6. Cook @ 90°C for 15 minutes.
  7. Pour over the juice of half a lemon and move onto a large serving platter.
  8. Top with the chopped coriander and sliced chilli.
  9. Serve with steamed jasmine rice that you can put into the steam oven first for 10 minutes @ 100°C then drop the temperature back to 90°C for the cooking time with the fish as above.

Note:  Cooking time for a smaller, say 700g snapper would be 10-12 minutes.

 

Posted in: Fish, Gluten free, Main Courses, Steam Oven

Steamed vegetables

October 6, 2014 9:32 am / 9 Comments /

Steamed vegetables

It occurred to me, when meeting a lovely lady from Santa Barbara on our recent trip to France, that I haven’t added to the blog a simple table with suggested cooking times and temperatures for vegetables.

Vegetables are so much better cooked in the steam oven as they retain their nutrients.  When I was selling appliances, people trying to chose their new kitchen just couldn’t understand why the cooking methods they had used in the past needed changing.  It’s not so much about trying to change the way you cook but looking forward, as technology improves, to buy and utilise a better cooking medium.  You know that green water that sits in the bottom of your saucepan when you steam your vegetables on the cooktop?  That contains all the nutrients from your vegetables and most people will throw that out with the washing up!  Microwaves? Well they are good to help you cook or to reheat a muffin but not great for vegetables, especially if you overcook them.

Not only are vegetables better for you from the steam oven, but they taste better too and don’t need salt!

(I do understand from all your feedback and comments that there are a whole lot of people still out there who are only using their steam ovens for cooking vegetables.  While this is a great place to start, it’s time to move on 🙂 )

To get the most out of your steam oven, try to multi-cook, ie cook your quinoa or rice, vegetables, eggs and fish at the same time.  It is okay if they all have different cooking times, you will soon get the hang of opening up and changing your trays around.   Start with the longest cooked item eg: brown rice and say pumpkin or eggs on another level.  When the pumpkin is cooked, remove and add your beans or broccoli.  Let them cook for another few minutes according to the list below.  Although it takes a few minutes for the steam oven to get back to temperature, it won’t affect something that cooks for a  long time, like rice.  It is especially easy to prepare some of the fantastic salad recipes like this – have a look at my Superfoods salad as an example of how you can easily cook healthy, delicious salads.

Zucchini slices                                 100°C                                   2-3 minutes
Asparagus                                        100°C                                   1-2 minutes
Pumpkin – cut small                       100°C                                   5-8 minutes
Potatoes – cut small                       100°C                                   10-15 minutes
Beetroot – small cut in half          100°C                                    20 minutes
Carrots, sliced                                 100°C                                   4-6 minutes
Cauliflower, florets                         100°C                                   4-6 minutes
Corn on the cob                              100°C                                   3-5 minutes
Beans                                               100°C                                   2-3 minutes
Bok choy                                          100°C                                   1 minute
Snow peas                                       100°C                                   1 minute

Another good thing to remember is that apart from some Asian vegetables, such as Bok choy, it is difficult to overcook vegetables in a steam oven.  Sure beats those overcooked, olive green vegetables that I was given as a child!

Posted in: Side dishes, Steam Oven, Vegetarian