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Hello, my Insiders!
Today’s feature recipe is a really good example of what a steam oven does best: making simple food taste brighter, fresher, and more like itself. Corn and bacon chowder made using combi steam helps keep the corn flavor and color vivid, and it’s easy to make by using your oven instead of the cooktop (plus, no catching on the bottom of the pot).
I love soup all year round, so I hope the chowder will be popular no matter your season – although, those of you in or near Europe the past couple of weeks, goodness, the heat!! That’s a normal summer where I live but I know it’s not for you, and there’s no cooking to be done at all in that weather. Salads and outdoor grilling are life in those temperatures.
Unless you’re in a heatwave area, there’s more soup inspiration in From the Archives. And I have an exciting kitchen renovation update to share, the appliance decisions for my new kitchen are finally made! I’ll tell you what I chose below. If you’re interested in the granular details behind those choices, email me and let me know. I’m happy to do a more detailed explanation of the why behind each appliance.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you in mid July!
Emily x
Corn and Bacon Chowder
This corn and bacon chowder is quick, comforting, and full of bright, fresh corn flavor thanks to the steam oven. It has the balance I want in a soup like this: creamy and substantial, but still fresh-tasting enough that you notice the sweetness of the corn rather than losing it under richer ingredients.
Bacon gives the chowder its savory backbone (or use pancetta for something same-but-different), while the combi steam helps the vegetables cook gently and evenly without dulling their flavor. Overall, think hearty but not heavy. It’s easy comfort food that keeps you coming back for another spoonful.
From the Archives:
If the chowder has put you in a soup mood, here are other great ones for the steam oven.
A nourishing, satisfying soup with plenty of flavor and a lovely comforting feel.
A great cooler-weather soup that makes excellent use of the steam oven’s gentle cooking.
A useful guide for soup making in general, plus a green veggie soup recipe.
Big Kitchen Decisions:
I can finally share the appliance choices I’ve made for my new kitchen, and I’m very relieved to have those decisions done. I’ve gone with Miele, and I’m excited to use them! I have never had Miele appliances (my last two oven purchases were Neff) but I know plenty of you love yours and I hope I’ll enjoy them too.
My husband and I bought these appliances, none of them were gifted or sponsored. I want to be able to talk about them honestly and in detail once I’ve actually lived with them, and I also wanted to be free to choose any brand or model I like (and can afford!).
Here’s what I selected – links to Miele Australia website, model names may vary in other regions):
I’ve also chosen an Australian brand (Qasair) rangehood, which will be integrated into my upper cabinets. And a Fisher and Paykel fridge, with a beautiful matte black glass finish.
Are you interested in all the granular details of why I chose what I chose? If that’s something you’d like me to unpack, please email and let me know. If there’s enough interest, I’ll write more about the decision-making process here in the next couple of issues of Insiders.
A Thing I'm Loving
Along with those appliance selections, I’ve been deep in kitchen design mode the past couple of weeks, refining and finalizing how I want everything to be in our new space. One of the more interesting things I came across was this Apartment Therapy article about AI tools for kitchen design: I Tried 10+ AI Design Tools to Make Over My Kitchen.
I tried a few of the tools myself while working out the design of my new kitchen space, just to see what my choices might look like all together. None of them are perfect, but I found HomeVisualizer useful, even though I had to create an account to use the free parts (you get your first few renders for free once you’ve signed up). These tools are not a replacement for a builder or a kitchen designer — and I absolutely would not forgo either — but if you’re renovating or building and want quick visual ideas, it’s a very interesting new layer of support, and kind of fun to play around with.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
This is your best opportunity to ask me anything you like about steam oven cooking.
I continue to answer some AMA questions via email, but my goal is to respond to more of them as articles on the Steam & Bake website. This makes the answers easier to search and refer back to if the same questions come up again. Whenever a new article is published in response to an AMA question, I’ll let you know here in our Insiders journals.
If you have a question, big or small, please email it to [email protected]. Be sure to include INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can easily collect and review all submissions.