Quince & Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding

June 22, 2013 8:54 pm / Leave a Comment /

Years ago another family favourite was this old recipe for Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding.  The addition of orange rind and juice makes it special but now with quince it’s even better!

I used some quince left over from my previous recipe “Baked Quinces in Verjuice“.  You do need some already cooked for this recipe, if you haven’t got any then cook some in the Steam Oven earlier or the day before.  Remember quinces cooked for a shorter time don’t have quite the depth of colour as the long slow cooked version but because they are cooked again in the pudding the result will still be fabulous.

This is the first time I have done one giant pudding, usually I do small individual ones.  The timing on individual ones would be about 20-30 minutes. Check after 20 minutes as it depends on the size of the dishes.

Quince & golden syrup steamed pudding

1 pudding basin, about 6 cup size

Ingredients:

½ cup Golden Syrup
About ½ cooked quince, cut into thin slices
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup castor sugar
grated rind 1 orange
2 eggs
1½ cups Self Raising Flour
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup milk
½ cup extra finely diced cooked quince

Method:

  1. Grease pudding basin well.  Add Golden Syrup.  Slice quince thinly and fan around the base on top of the Golden Syrup.  Overlap the slices slightly so you will get a lovely pattern on the top when it’s turned out.
  2. Cream butter, sugar and orange rind.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well.
  3. Mix in sifted flour then orange juice and milk.
  4. Fold through diced, cooked quince and pour into prepared pudding basin.
  5. Cover with two layers of baking paper (or a lid if you have one) and secure well.

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6.     Steam on level 1 on the ordinary rack at 100°C for 90 minutes.
7.     Let it rest for at least 5 minutes.
8.     Turn out onto a large plate and serve with lots of cream or ice cream…. Yum 🙂

Now you have a Steam Oven you can cook this easily without the pot on the stove and messing around with all the boiling water, keeping an eye on it, topping it up and washing up afterwards!  Remember you have 90 minutes in the water chamber before it will ask you for more water so you can easily get on and do something else whilst it’s cooking.

*    If you don’t have a steam oven then bring a large pot of water to the boil with enough water so it comes half-way up the side of the pudding basin.

Lower the pudding in and reduce to a simmer.  Cook for 1½ hours making sure the water is topped up to it’s original level.

 

 

Posted in: Desserts, Steam Oven

French Sweet Short Pastry

June 21, 2013 1:41 pm / Leave a Comment /

Before children I lived in Melbourne and the first French cooking classes I attended were at the home of a lady in the Northern suburbs somewhere. She called herself ‘La Parisienne School of French Cooking’ but after a quick look on the internet I would say she has nothing to do with the current business in Carlton in Melbourne.

Unfortunately I can’t remember her name, and it’s not written on any of her recipes that I still use, but I recall she had trained at Cordon Bleu in Paris and had then moved back to live with her mum.  It was the 1980’s and people had just started getting into food.  The house was your average 1950’s suburban brick veneer, with original kitchen and I remember sitting in the bench seat in the kitchen whilst she taught us all the classic French methods of cooking (with her mum as her attentive assistant).

I gathered she had lived overseas for quite sometime and cooked for Prince Charles, along many other important people whose names I can’t remember.  She was I would say in her early 30’s then, loved cooking traditional French food and was an excellent teacher as she opened my eyes to how it all tasted so much better if it was done ‘properly’.  Browning the bones for brown stock, not browning the bones for white stock, the most fiddley and accurate chopping and garnishes.  It all made it so much better.  To be honest she was probably the reason that I decided to do formal cooking qualifications.  It wasn’t until I got to the soups, stocks & sauces module at TAFE that it all came back to me.  I wanted to be able to cook like that too.

There were several ‘courses’ but the ones I loved the most were the French Patisserie, Desserts and Gateau’s.  Perhaps because they were the most complicated!  It was also from these classes that I developed the love of ‘kitchen gadgets’ and purchased all sorts of French rings and things for baking her tarts.  I will do a section on these later.  In the meantime this is her recipe for Short Pastry, or as the French call it Pâté Sucré:

Makes 300g dough which is enough for a 26cm tart.  This is the perfect French pastry for a tart which gives you that really short, melt in the mouth pastry.

Ingredients:

90g Butter
30g or 2 tablespoons castor sugar or 3 tbsp. icing sugar
¼ tsp vanilla sugar
Scant 125g Plain Flour
30g (3 tbsp. ground almonds)
½ beaten egg

Method:

Using a food processor is so much easier for making pastry.  If you don’t have one you will have to rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips then fold through the other dry ingredients, then the egg and work into a dough.  I have always had a Magimix because it has the stronger, French motor.  Originally I had a small one which I gave my mother before I invested in this larger model.  It must be 20 years old now and is still going strong.

  1. If you have a processor cut the butter into small pieces and put everything into the bowl except the egg.
  2. Process until it looks like breadcrumbs.
  3. Finally add the half egg (sometimes you may need a teaspoon of chilled water with this as it depends on how fresh the almonds are).  It should be a soft, not sticky dough.
  4. Don’t over mix this dough.  As soon as it comes together take it out of the processor, pat it into a flat disc and wrap in Glad Wrap.

The original recipe said to rest for 24 hours!  That’s not going to happen these days but you must let it rest for at least 2-3 hours.

Apologies for not remembering your name, if you happen to come across this recipe one day I would love to hear from you!

 

 

 

Posted in: Baking

Red Thai Curry

June 20, 2013 7:55 pm / 2 Comments /

No need to wash all those pans, now you can cook a delicious Thai Curry in your Steam Oven with the rice and vegetables at the same time!  Well you do end up with 3 steamer trays to wash but they really only need a rinse out in hot soapy water.

Sometimes I try to make my red Thai paste but that is more time consuming.  This is a quick mid-week version.  Traditionally Thai people put pineapple and cherry tomatoes in this dish and that is fantastic, particularly with duck but for mid-week I often cook this with whatever I have in the fridge at the time.  Tonight is kumara and green beans but if you can manage to get some Thai basil it certainly makes the dish so much better.  I didn’t have any tonight, the garnish is Vietnamese mint just for colour.

Red Thai curry

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1½ cups jasmine rice, washed
2 cups water
600g chicken thigh fillet, trimmed of any fat and cubed
3 generous tablespoons of Thai Red Curry Paste (I used 1/2 x 195g jar of Ayam Red Curry Paste) OR to taste
2 tablespoons of palm sugar, grated
1 tsp of fish sauce
4 very finely sliced kaffir lime leaves with the stems removed
140ml can coconut cream
1 medium size kumara thinly sliced then cut into bite size pieces
handful of green beans, trimmed
few cherry tomatoes cut in half
Fresh Thai basil or coriander to serve

Method:

  1. Mix the Red Thai Paste, sugar and fish sauce into chicken and let it marinate for a few minutes while you put on the rice and kumara.
  2. Place rice and water into a solid stainless steel tray on the bottom level of the steamer,  at the same time peel and cut kumara and place in the small perforated tray on the top level.  Steam both uncovered 100°C for 6 minutes.
  3. Remove kumara and set aside.
  4. Now add the chicken to the middle level and cook uncovered for 8 more minutes 100°C.  Leave the rice, it will continue to cook.
  5. Remove the chicken and stir in the coconut cream.  It will be quite runny.  If you like you could thicken it with 1tsp cornflour mixed with 1tablespoon of water and mix in well before it goes back into the steamer.
  6. Add the beans on top of the cooked kumara and put it back into the top level.  You now have the rice on the bottom, the chicken in the middle and the vegetables on the top.  Cook for another 2 minutes at the same 100% power.
  7. Stir in vegetables and thai basil or coriander and serve with the fluffed steamed rice.

 

Posted in: Main Courses, Steam Oven, Thai

Old fashioned Egg, Bacon and Tomato Pie

June 18, 2013 5:43 pm / Leave a Comment /

I nearly didn’t put this on as I thought it would be too boring.  But then I thought, my grown up children love it and if we don’t add recipes such as this to blogs then how will young up and coming foodies know how to cook it?  So easy the little kids can make this one and it may also become your family favourite.

This is the perfect Sunday night family dinner, served with a bowl of hot soup.

Excellent with Tomato Sauce (especially a home made one), or a favourite chutney and a tossed salad 🙂
Egg, bacon & tomato pie

Ingredients:

1 x 375g packet frozen Puff Pastry
2 large onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
4 large Bacon rashes, chopped
2 ripe tomatoes, thickly sliced
Handful of baby spinach
6-8 eggs
Salt & pepper and a little fresh parsley

Method:

  1. Sauté the onions and bacon in a frying pan, with a lid, on a low heat until soft.  Increase the heat a little, remove the lid and let them start to caramelise and get some colour.  Turn off the heat and let them cool in the pan.
  2. Preheat your oven to 160°C Fan Forced.
  3. Cut the block of pastry into one third for the top and 2/3rds for the base.  Spray a large 26-28cm pie dish with an oil spray or grease well.
  4. Roll out the base first making sure you don’t have any breaks or holes in it and lay into pie dish.  Press around the edges well. Add the cooled onion and bacon.
  5. Now cut the tomatoes into thick slices and lay them over the bacon and onion mix.  Season well with salt and pepper.
  6. Top with the baby spinach and eggs that should be carefully broken straight onto the spinach layer.  Place them evenly around so that each slice should receive a bit of everything.
  7. Salt and pepper the eggs, top with a few bits of torn up parsley.
  8. Roll out the remaining pastry you have left for the top.  Brush the edges of the base with milk and now layer the top over the bottom, pressing down well to seal.
    Brush the whole thing well with milk, add a few steam holes and bake for about 45 min until puffed and golden brown.
    image

Yum – comfort food at it’s best!

Posted in: Main Courses

Gluten Free Winter Dinner Party

June 16, 2013 7:12 pm / 2 Comments /

Well my first dinner party since I started this site just happened to be a Gluten Free event.  To be honest it’s not that difficult – just think fresh food and as long as you make everything yourself then you know exactly what is going in it.  I will list the menu then recipes to follow but not in any particular order.

Nuts and Olives to start

Entrée – Roasted Capsicum, tomato and cumin soup

Main Course – Osso Buco with Stephanie’s Gremolata, soft polenta and green beans

Assorted Cheese and Fruit

Dessert – Buttermilk Panna cotta, Slow baked Quinces in Verjuice and Almond Tuile

I have now done separate categories for each of these recipes so hopefully they will be easier to find.

We all had a great evening, the food and wines worked well together as did the mix of guests.  All the feedback was that the menu was ideal for a Winter dinner party and was enjoyed by all.

Thank you everyone for making it a special night 🙂

 

 

Posted in: Dinner parties

Menu planning – Dinner parties

June 14, 2013 5:11 pm / Leave a Comment /

Ever since I started cooking as a teenager I loved having dinner parties.  I still remember my very first, in the little flat I lived in Ballarat in country Victoria with my sister.  I was about 18.  I also still remember what I cooked!

  • Avocado seafood – you know, the 80’s version with prawns in the centre covered in thousand island dressing!
  • Apricot chicken casserole with the packet soup mixed with a tin of apricot nectar with rice and 3 veg (you had to have your vegetables!)
  • New York baked cheesecake!  Just in case you were still hungry….

I still remember that we all overate and felt sick as.  That was my lesson in serving three high fat & heavy courses.  Somehow that occasion always remained with me and I have always spent a LOT of time carefully planning my dinners so that my guests didn’t go home feeling over fed and sick in the stomach!  So that was and still is my biggest fear today.  Now we have all the other food allergies and intolerances to deal with.  What ever happened to the good old days when sometimes someone was ‘Vegetarian’? (and usually we didn’t invite them anyway!!)  Now at this stage in my life a lot of the women I know don’t eat wheat, we all prefer a lighter and healthier meal when we eat out and I am convinced that this is the way it’s going to stay.  Simon and I actually prefer an Asian diet so you will see lot’s of Asian recipes on this site and usually the only reason I don’t serve something Asian is that someone doesn’t like chilli which is painful as I refuse to cook Asian that hasn’t got a kick to it.  So when you read my menu from time to time you can get a feel for who is coming to dinner.  I am extremely fortunate to have encouraged and developed a love and passion of food into my children.  When you see the most tantalising, spicy food it’s usually for a family dinner with them.  My daughter has just returned from 4 years living in London and Paris so there are plenty of catch up dinners to be had.  My son also living either in the UK or Canberra, now they are both back in Sydney it is wonderful.  They are and always will be my greatest joy and the most appreciative dinner guests 🙂

Menu Planning tips:

Try to remember when you are planning a menu the following (and most important things)

  • The Season.  This will tell you what style of food to cook.  Lighter in the warmer months, Warming, comfort food in the Winter.  Try to balance your meal, not all light nor all heavy. 
  • What foods are in season?  Think fresh and use what is readily available.   Look at SBS site http://www.sbs.com.au/food/season
  • The time of day and duration of event – A quick or light lunch or brunch is vastly different to a long evening dinner.
  • Don’t over feed them, remember the old portion control!  By all means offer more but that means they have enjoyed it if they want seconds, so much better then being bogged down with a huge plate!
  • What would you like to be served if you went out for dinner?
  • Try to chose a menu that you can cook at least one course beforehand.   Out of the other courses try to make at least one of the components before as well, ie a dressing for a salad, the garnish prepared or anything  that will make for an easier plating and assembly.  This also makes for a more enjoyable dinner for you! 
  • Keep it simple your guests will appreciate a beautiful, well cooked meal with fresh ingredients more than a tizzy meal that you are struggling with!  Always remember a plate shouldn’t look too fussy, that means that it’s been touched too much.

If you stick to these 7 tips you can’t go wrong.  A lot of people struggle with the amount of protein they should serve.  The general rule is more for men but usually it’s only about 2 palm size serves and 1 for women.  My biggest gripe at the moment is the size of the servings of pre cut salmon in the fish shop.  They are too large for a dinner party if you have had a entrée beforehand.  Pick out smaller pieces, cut them yourself or ask them to do it for you.  You only need about 120g per person and some of the fillets I have seen cut recently where at least 200g.

So drop me a note if you would like some help planning your next dinner.  I am going to try to put all my dinners on here now, some may and some may not have recipes but you could easily find one if you search for the name.  I will also try to include some information to fit into the boundaries of the 7 tips above.

Remember food is meant to be shared, it is such a wonderful way to socialise and enjoy the company of others 🙂

Posted in: Dinner parties

Reheating & Defrosting in the Steam Oven

June 13, 2013 9:05 pm / 2 Comments /

Reheating in the Steam Oven is absolutely fantastic!  You don’t get that terrible ‘re-cooked’ taste that you get with reheating in the Microwave.

The time is a bit longer, however it’s worth the wait.  A plate of food, about 5 minutes plus the time it takes to reach 100% steam which is about 3 min so total 8 minutes.  Try to remember that if you are reheating a pie or pizza slice etc then you would need to cover the plate so that the food doesn’t get wet from the steam.  If you are reheating things like spaghetti, rice, Asian food, casseroles, vegetables or whatever then the addition of the moisture is what is needed for successful reheating as it rehydrates the food and makes it exceptionally moist.  Especially with rice and pasta the results are outstanding, you can honestly not tell that the dish wasn’t just freshly cooked!  My first experience of this was a Spaghetti Marinara where even the mussels were soft and flavoursome after reheating.  Try doing that in a Microwave !

Reheating & defrosting

This is a pic of the reheated Asian Beef Cheeks that I cooked the other night that I have put into a solid Steamer tray on the centre level.  On the bottom level is some fresh rice that I am cooking to serve with the Beef but I could have just put pre cooked rice in a separate tray to reheat.  Remember to not keep old rice longer than about 2 days as it is prone to bacteria developing.  On the top you will see some Bok Choy that I am cooking to serve as well.  Below is a list of your timings with a reheat/cook like this:-

3/4 cup washed rice (Serves 2) with 1 cup water and a pinch salt on the bottom level

Beef Cheeks in the centre to reheat in a solid tray

Steam 100% 15 minutes, open door then add Bok Choy 1 minute

That’s it – all ready together!  IF I had only been reheating the rice then add the cooked rice with the Beef, both for 5 min, open add Bok Choy for 1 extra minute and that’s all you would need to do.

You can also reheat from frozen but the time would be much longer.

As an example I reheat frozen Chinese dumplings for 12 minutes in the perforated tray on a piece of baking paper.  The results are outstanding, the perfect, quick in house dumpling restaurant without the parking and queues!

People wanting to reheat enough for a whole family meal I would suggest putting the separate ingredients into separate steamer trays and reheat in this way rather than putting the sauce on the pasta etc and reheating in one dish.  If you can remember to remove items from the freezer and put into the fridge in the morning before you go to work then that would be ideal 🙂

Remember there is no need to cover food that is not affected by the condensation from the steam.

Defrosting:

I actually recommend that a Steam Oven can replace a Microwave in certain circumstances.  As above it does take longer to reheat but it’s worth it.  Defrosting also takes longer but there are no danger zone temperatures and meat and chicken come out cold as defrosting is best done at 40°. The Defrosting setting in my appliance brings the Defrost up 60°.  Adjust that down, I think it is too hot.

As an example a Whole 1.2kg chicken takes about 40/50 minutes but you don’t need to turn it or be around to stop it cooking on the edge of the wings etc. This is longer than perhaps a Microwave but quicker than defrosting at room temperature which isn’t really recommended for food safety reasons.  The best way to defrost is still in the refrigerator.

IF your family defrosts on a daily basis I would recommend a Steam oven as well as a cheap microwave (or you may just retain your old microwave and not ‘build it in’ a new kitchen!)

Please read your manufacturers instructions in regard to Defrosting programs and times.

 

 

Posted in: Combi Steamer, Steam Oven

Cleaning the Steamer and Combi Steamer

June 13, 2013 7:21 pm / 19 Comments /

Cleaning the Steam Oven:

Most Steam ovens are easy to clean, basically they only ever get wet so there isn’t any baked on grime.  Steam ovens that have the bottle need fresh tap water every day, this bottle should be emptied and the inside of the oven cavity wiped dry after every use.  The easiest way to cope with this is to put a large fat sponge in the bottom where the water pools as soon as you remove the food and leave the door ajar.  While you are eating the cavity fan will continue to run and by the time your finished and ready to clean up most of the oven would have dried off anyway.  Remove the racks if necessary, wipe out any remaining water residue and empty the rest of the water from the jug into the washing up water.  The beauty about a steam oven is that you now only have the Stainless trays to wash up or put in the dishwasher – no piles of saucepans!

Before going on holidays ensure that the water container is empty and leave the door ajar.
Cleaning the steam oven

Please read your instruction manuals for your specific brand and follow the Manufacturers’ advice on how to care and clean your appliance.

Cleaning a Combi Steam Oven:

A Combi Steam oven usually comes with a Soak or Cleaning Program.  There is only one brand I know of that has a Pyrolitic cleaning system.  I think eventually they will all go in this direction as this is definitely the preferred cleaning method in ovens.  So for the rest of us that have a normal Combi Steamer that has to be cleaned you can use the Soak program after you have been roasting and wipe it after with a non abrasive sponge to remove any baked on dirt.  Remember to always roast with the cover on the fan if your model has one as this protects the fan from getting fatty.  Yes it does work – when I went to a customers home once, I opened the oven and couldn’t even see the fan it was so filthy!  This is what can happen if you roast a lot without having a pyro or fan cover.  The Miele products have a special easy to clean coating that is applied to all exposed surfaces even including the racks so most of the time any grime can be wiped off with warm water and washing up liquid but if the back wall is dirty it can be sprayed with a Non Caustic Oven Spray such as Mr Muscle.  

There is also a Drying Program built into the Maintenance section in Auto Programs this is great, I use it all the time.  It does take about 30 minutes so to be honest I could have wiped it out in 5 minutes.  I tend to use it as my oven is installed under the bench so access is not as easy as in the wall which I mentioned on the Combi Steamer 101 page.

These items are also on that fixed page for easy reference.

Posted in: Combi Steamer, Steam Oven

Roast Pumpkin, Pea and Goat’s Fetta Risotto

June 11, 2013 8:10 pm / 3 Comments /

Pumpkin & fetta risotto

One of the quickest and most amazing dishes to come out of the Steam Oven is a Risotto.  No you don’t have to open it and stir it at all and you end up with a creamy, perfectly cooked risotto which you don’t have to labour over on the cooktop!

I tend to like my risotto a little more ‘soupy’ than some, especially as there are usually left overs that a perfectly re heating in the Steam Oven (a bit more on that topic in the Combi Steamer 101 page) and I cook mine for a little less time than Miele recommends in their recipes.

I will add some other recipes but this one is tasty and SO quick and easy.  We usually have a risotto similar to this at least once a week.  Served with a salad it is a great weeknight or emergency meal.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1/2 Butternut Pumpkin cut into cubes, tossed in olive oil and roasted in the oven on 180°C for 30 min.  You can steam the pumpkin for 5-8 minutes but the flavour is better with it roasted.
1 leek white part only, finely sliced and washed well
2 cloves garlic, crushed or 1 large one
1 cup Arborio rice
Splash good white wine
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. butter cubed
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
50g Goat’s Fetta, crumbled
Black pepper

Method:

1.      Although you can simply put the leek, garlic, onion and wine into the dish that comes with the Combi Steamer I still like to do this part of the risotto in the more traditional way as I think, in particular, the boiling off of the alcohol in the wine is necessary so you don’t have that unpleasant taste.

2.      In a heated frypan add a splash of olive oil and sauté your leek and garlic for a few minutes.  Add the rice and stir to coat as you would with making any risotto so that the grains are covered in the mixture for a couple of minutes.  Now add the chicken stock and immediately place all the contents of the pan into the combi steamer dish and place in the oven on 100% steam for 15 minutes.
image

3.      Now open the steam oven, add the pumpkin, peas and a couple of serving bowls on the floor of the oven (so these are pre heating for you at the same time) Cook for a further 2 min 100% steam.

4.      Remove from steamer, stir through butter, parmesan, herbs and some cracked pepper.  It will still be a little wet but the rice will continue to soak up the remaining stock and it is much nicer like this than too dry or claggy.  Plate up and top with crumbled Goat’s fetta which lifts the dish.

You can also substitute Baby Spinach for the peas and in that case you would add at the final step.  Enjoy….

Posted in: Main Courses, Rice, Steam Oven, Vegetarian

Cream Scones

June 11, 2013 3:58 am / 2 Comments /

I have been using this recipe, without fail since I discovered it in the 1980’s.  The addition of Cream instead of butter makes a light, fluffy and more tender scone without that soda taste you can get sometimes. It makes about 9 large scones or 12 regular.

Basically the rule with Scones is to make the dough as soft as you can and then bake as quickly as you can.
I am currently testing this recipe to adapt it to the Combi Steamer but for now this is baked in a normal oven.

Combi Steamer test update:

Using the Combi Steamer produced a much lighter scone but took a couple of extra minutes.

I cooked them in Combination mode 190°C + 30% steam for 12 minutes on a pre-heated oven tray.
Cream scones

Preheat Oven Fan Forced 180 o or Conventional 210 o  I could use the Oven only in the Combi for this and the flat baking tray that comes with the oven.

Put a baking tray in the oven as it pre heats so you get extra heat from the base

Ingredients:

2 cups Self Raising flour, sometimes you need a touch more.
1 egg
1 tbsp. castor sugar
1/2 cup cream
1/3 cup milk
small pinch of salt

Method:

  1. In a large bowl beat egg and sugar together until light and creamy.
  2. Add cream and milk, mix well.
  3. Add sifted flour and salt to quickly mix to a soft dough with a table knife.  You just want to bring it all together.
  4. Turn onto floured surface, bring it all together then gently ‘pat’ into a slab about 2cm thick.  Don’t roll it out or knead it too much, you just need to pat it together and be gentle!
  5. Cut with a cutter that has been dipped in extra flour.  Bring together the left over bits and pat those together so all the dough is used.
  6. Place the scones so they are just touching each other on a piece of baking paper large enough to fit and be lifted onto the hot tray.
  7. Carefully remove tray from oven and working quickly and carefully slide the baking paper with the cut scones onto it. The scones just touching each other gives them all support to rise together.
    image

8.      Brush quickly with a little milk and cook for 10 minutes.

Delicious served with jam and cream 🙂
image

Posted in: Baking, Combi Steamer