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 / 25 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 🙂
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Posted in: Baking, Combi Steamer

Asian Beef Cheeks

June 11, 2013 3:13 am / Leave a Comment /

This is my take on a few recipes that are around at the moment.  I love beef cheeks, the longer you cook them the better they are.  These just melted in your mouth after cooking for 6 hours and were still amazing re-heated in the Steam Oven the next day.  Drink your favourite red with this dish!

I prefer to cook this type of recipe in my traditional oven (or in the Combi on Oven only if the dish fits) as I want a covered casserole so the sauce is not altered by the steam condensation and also because I am cooking it for many hours I don’t have to refill the water container.

This is a very rich, spicy and aromatic dish.  Serves 6-8
Asian beef cheeks

Ingredients:

1.6kg trimmed Beef Cheeks, cut in half
Plain flour to coat
15 baby onions, peeled and base removed
2 long red chilli + 1 small birds eye chilli chopped with seeds remaining
1 large knob of ginger, peeled and grated
6 cloves garlic crushed
3-6 spring onions sliced depending on their size
2tsp five spice powder
1/4 dark soy
1/2 cup light, salt reduced soy
1/2 cup Chinese cooking wine
60g dark brown sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1 Beef stock cube, there are some good brands around at the moment.  I usually use fresh stock or make my own but sometimes you are just in a hurry
water to cover

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 130°C Fan Forced
  2. Toss beef cheeks in flour to coat. In large heavy pan with a well fitting lid heat 1tbsp vegetable oil and brown the meat in 2-3 batches adding more oil if necessary.
  3. Remove meat from pan, add a little more oil, garlic, ginger, chillies, spring onions, baby onions, star anise and five spice.  Stir until fragrant on low heat about 5 minutes.
  4. Add all the other ingredients and return the meat back into the pan.  Stir well so you get all the bits off the base.  Now adjust the water level so it sits just above the level of the meat.  Cover with a cartouche (circle of baking paper).
  5. Cook for 6 hours checking and turning the meat about half way.

Serve with steamed Jasmine rice from the Steam Oven and bok choy.
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Recipe adapted but mostly inspired by Hueys Kitchen.

 

Posted in: Main Courses

Old fashioned Apple Sponge Pudding

June 11, 2013 1:54 am / Leave a Comment /

One of my family favourite recipes.  I originally wrote this recipe in a book when I was just 12 years old.  It was even originally in Imperial measurements!

You can pre prepare this recipe up to the stage when you add the egg and milk so it takes just 2 minutes then to mix it together and pop into the oven.  SO easy the kids can do this one and it will become a family favourite just like it has in my family 🙂

Serves 4-6
Apple sponge pudding

Ingredients:

2 cups stewed fruit.  I used the Stewed Apples from the Steam oven recipe
1 cup Self-Raising Flour, sifted
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

  1. Grease a pie dish or baking dish, medium size about 4-6 cup capacity.  Pre heat oven to 160 o Fan Forced or 180 o Conventional
  2. Place fruit in dish.
  3. Sift flour, rub in butter with fingertips until flour resembles bread crumbs.
  4. Add sugar
  5. Mix egg and milk with a fork, add vanilla
  6. Stir into flour mixture, mix well and pour over fruit.
  7. Bake 30-40 minutes until browned.

Serve with cream or ice-cream. Yum 🙂
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Posted in: Desserts

My ‘other oven’ & Traditional baking

June 11, 2013 1:39 am / 5 Comments /

My ‘other’ oven is a whopping ILVE 90cm Upright Quadra with a Fish Burner which I love for using my char grill plate!
My traditional oven

The specs are identical to the Ilve P90WMP however I actually have the model called the ‘Siena’ which has two wok burners.  This is a model that is only available at Winning Appliances in NSW and maybe other NATA dealers.  Check with Ilve for more information.

It has a massive 110L capacity which is great for cooking large or multiple quantities.  I haven’t ever had a time where I couldn’t fit anything into it!  For my last dinner party I purchased one of those large commercial baking trays that chefs use in commercial kitchens and fitted about 12 lamb shanks in it (which if you have brought any shanks lately you would have struggled to fit 12 into any large dish!), covered it tightly with two layers of foil and cooked them for 8 hours.   I will add this recipe later, it was delicious so keep checking to see my updates.

It has a 10 function electric oven and gas top.  It is a great oven being both accurate and reliable.

Ilve do run regular cooking classes.  Contact them for details.

IF you are reading this, have a combi steam oven and are wondering if you still need a ‘traditional oven’ the answer is ‘yes’.  Except if, as I mentioned in previous appliance posts, you have a tiny little one bedroom or studio apartment.  Then you don’t need a second oven but for general re-sale and family cooking in an apartment, house you do.

 

Posted in: Appliances, Traditional Ovens

Bread and the Combi Steam oven

June 9, 2013 5:56 am / 18 Comments /

The Combi Steam Oven is perfect for baking bread.  What bread needs is some steam at the start of the baking process to make that crust that we all love and to assist in the initial rise of the bread.  This is what the giant commercial baking ovens can do.  Now we can do this at home!

Bread baking needs three things: temperature, moisture and time.  In general my Miele combi steam oven book suggests you should start with a high moisture level and low temperature then dry out with a low moisture level and high temperature.

This is a different method to what bread bakers recommend.  I did a Sourdough class where the baker suggested a high oven temperature with a very hot, preheated pizza stone to develop the base crust, spraying your oven with water (ie to produce the steam that is needed) and baking at a high temperature for about 10-15 min then dropping the temperature a bit for the remaining baking time.  He was correct in advising just how to create the correct environment in your oven for baking bread at home.  We don’t know exactly what the commercial combi steam ovens do in the way they bake but I do know that the domestic combi steam oven is the closest appliance we have on the Australian market to what the chefs use in commercial kitchens.  To be honest I was a little surprised that they start for a few minutes with a lower temperature so next time I do bread I am going to try a higher temperature, then the moisture, then a little lower temperature like he said and see how it turns out.

I decided to try one of the Automatic programs in the combi steamer instead.  So from a COLD start I placed my sourdough loaf that had been resting overnight in the fridge and about 5 hours at room temperature, slashed the top as we had been shown with a sharp blade and put it onto the flat baking sheet which I covered in baking powder and a little rice flour as I didn’t have any Semolina.  I set the controls to Auto, Baking White Bread, filled the water container at the side and pressed ‘Start now’.  Within about 50 minutes I had a great Sourdough loaf.  The crust was crisp, the texture was fantastic, the taste even better.  I was pretty impressed and it was so easy.  The base could have been a bit darker so next time I will change the setting to a little darker which is a scale that appears on the controls and give it a few more minutes.  OR I can over-ride the Auto setting and put in the separate parts of the program myself.  This is called Combination mode.  I have the ability to add up to 6 Stages of cooking programs in this appliance and it is very easy to do.  I may also try next time pre-heating a pizza stone then adding the 4 stages of baking to see how the crust develops with this method as I mentioned above.  I will keep you posted.

This is a picture of my Sourdough.
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There are so many wonderful Auto programs that it is going to take me months to experiment with them all.  This is what is so great about these appliances.  You can test the programs and methods to see which one suits you the best.  Like everything, everyone has different likes and dislikes and you can adapt and change any setting or recipe to suit yourself.

Has anyone cooked any bread lately?  I would particularly like to hear from you if you have done so in a Combi Steamer and if so, what Brand and setting did you use?

See my post here with timings in the Bread baking table.

 

 

Posted in: Bread

Steamed Lemon & Coconut Delicious Pudding

June 8, 2013 10:46 am / 7 Comments /

I had heaps of desiccated coconut left after making lamingtons the other week so this is a different take on a classic favourite.   Perfect in the Steam oven without the need for a water bath!
Lemon & coconut delicious pudding

Ingredients:

30g soft butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup self-raising flour
Grated rind and juice of 1 large juicy lemon
2tbsp desiccated coconut
2 eggs, separated
2/3 cup milk
Icing sugar to dust

Method:

  1. Cream butter & sugar, blend in the flour, coconut, lemon rind and juice.  Stir well.
  2. Mix the egg yolks into the milk with a fork.  Add to lemon mixture.
  3. Whisk egg whites until stiff, these can now be gently folded into the lemon mix.  Break up any lumps of egg white so it is thoroughly mixed through.
  4. Spoon into 5 x 3/4 cup lightly greased ramekins or 6 smaller ones, cover tightly with foil that has been greased on the underside.  You don’t want the steam to leave condensation on the top.  Remember this is necessary with all types of puddings, custards etc
  5. Place into a solid steamer tray that comes with the oven.
  6. Steam 100oC for 15 minutes, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve immediately.   Yum… the coconut works really well and gives a little more structure to the pudding part with still plenty of sauce underneath.

You could also substitute limes for a change.  You may need 2, the lemon I used here was as I said large and juicy.

Posted in: Desserts, Steam Oven