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Hello!
We’ve got a lot to cover today.
First up, I’d like to let you all know that the new Steam Oven Insiders website is live, functional and ready for your perusing pleasure. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know it’s been a long haul to get there, and I’m grateful for your patience and understanding, especially so to those who’ve had login and access issues in the changeover from the old site to the new one. I think (hope, so very much!) that the major kinks have now been ironed out, however please let me know if you’re still having any trouble logging into your Insiders dashboard.
Many of you have logged in and browsed around already; if you haven’t, there’s a little intro below to my favorite features of the new site for Insiders.
Next, and always: food! Today’s topic is a long-requested one, all about canning, bottling and preserving using your steam oven. It’s a big topic and I will always have things to learn about it, but I’m sharing a big overview plus my recipe for pickled vegetables. I hope it encourages you to ‘put up’ some jars in the pantry, using the magic of your steam oven and the bounty of whatever season you’re in.
See you in a couple of weeks,
Emily x
New at Insiders
Would you like a quick walkthrough of the new Steam & Bake, including the features of your Insiders experience? I made you a little screenshare to show where to find everything, and talk about a couple of my favorite new things!
New to Learn: Canning, bottling and preserving in your steam oven
Canning, bottling and preserving in a steam oven is a great way to make use of your appliance, but it can be daunting if you’re not already experienced at making preserved and bottled foods. I want to change that, and show you how easy the steam oven makes it to preserve food in jars, even if you’ve never done it before.
I’ve been playing with preserving different foods in my steam oven for a few years now, and though I’ve still got plenty to learn, I want to share some basics so you too can reap the benefits of home preserving.
Read the article and grab the linked downloadable pdf chart for a quick reference to preserving using your steam oven.
New to Cook: Simple Steam Oven Pickled Vegetables
These pickled vegetables are easy to make and will keep in a cool pantry for months. They taste good after a few days but best after a couple of weeks, and they’re an excellent gift.
Pickling by this method does double duty, so you don’t have to first simmer the pickling liquid and then process your jars. Using the steam oven will lightly cook the vegetables straight in the jar, while retaining as much color and texture as possible.
Different vegetables will give different textures and flavors. My favorite steam oven pickled vegetables are cucumbers, beans, cauliflower and carrots but I encourage you to try a variety of vegetables the first time you make the recipe, to see what you enjoy.
The Season Flip
I think we tend to consider that preserving foods is the domain of summertime produce, but it’s a method that’s good year-round! Some seasonal inspiration for all…
Southern Hemisphere
Pickled cauliflower, using this issue’s pickled veg recipe, is one of my favorite wintery things to make. I frequently have half a head of cauliflower left over from other cooking, and pickling it means I not only use it up, but I have bright, crunchy jars of goodness to serve with salads, cheese and meat whenever I want a textural or vinegary lift.
Northern Hemisphere
Tomatoes, because if you’re in peak summer you’re also in peak tomato season. I mentioned in my preserving article linked above that I love this YouTube video where the very personable and very Aussie John Steed goes through his process for bottling tomatoesfresh from his garden. If you follow his methods, swapping the water bath for your steam oven, you’ll be able to bottle as many summer season tomatoes as you like, and enjoy them all year round.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
This space is your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking, and for the first time since the inception of Insiders, I haven’t received a single AMA question this fortnight! I hope that means you’re all busy cooking up a storm already or (in the Northern hemisphere) enjoying a summer break.
I really want to encourage you to submit questions, no matter how small. I do my best to answer as many as possible. When I get a lot of questions I carefully curate ones which are most relevant and represent a variety of topics. We all learn from each other, and I often go off and learn new things based on you questions.
If you have an AMA question, please email it to [email protected]. Include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.