You are reading a paid Steam Oven Insiders member journal. Journals drop into your inbox on the 15th and 30th of each month.
Would you like to view all previous journals? You can find those in the journal archive.
Hello, my Insiders!
Today’s new feature recipe takes a beloved classic and gives it a little extra polish: caramelized apple and pork sausage rolls, a more luxurious take on the sausage rolls you’d find in any Australian or British bakery. Sweet, caramelized apple against savory pork is one of those pairings that just works, and I think you’re going to love it.
There’s plenty more pastry-wrapped goodness in From the Archives if this recipe puts you in the mood. I’m also following up on last issue’s kitchen chat. Plenty of you asked for more details, so I’m sharing the reasoning behind my appliance choices for my new kitchen.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you at the end of the month!
Emily x
Caramelized Apple and Pork Sausage Rolls
These sausage rolls take a classic and dress it up a little: caramelized apple and onions folded through the pork filling for pockets of sweetness against the meat, all wrapped in crisp, golden, flaky pastry. It’s the kind of upgrade that feels completely familiar, just better.
The steam oven makes puff pastry super flaky and golden while keeping the filling juicy rather than dried out, which can be quite the challenge with sausage rolls.
From the Archives:
If pastry and sausage-y fillings are calling your name, here’s more from the archives to explore:
All the comfort of the original, no meat required.
Kind of a sausage roll of a different kind! A feature on many holiday tables, my kids will tell you these should, in fact, be eaten at all times of the year.
For when you want that fabulous apple-and-flaky-pastry combination but in dessert form.
Essential reading if you want to understand why your pastry is better done in the steam oven than anywhere else.
New Kitchen Appliances - why I chose what I chose
Last issue I shared what appliances I’d picked for my soon-to-be new kitchen. I told you about the Miele models I ended up choosing, and asked if you’d like to know more about why. Turns out lots of you are very curious, so here you go!
First, I want to talk about the decision on oven sizes and configuration – it’s not so much about the brand here, more about general usability. You might expect me to have gone all-in on all-combi-steam, and the maximum number of largest ovens possible. Instead, I’ve gone with a regular sized wall oven that has added steam capability (a ‘moisture plus’ oven rather than a full combi steam), paired with a compact combi steam oven. This is the exact setup, albeit a different brand, that I had in a previous kitchen. It worked brilliantly for my family then, so I’m not fixing what isn’t broken. Generally, I bake and slow cook in a larger oven, and do all my steaming and quicker combi steam dishes in the smaller one. You’d be amazed at the amount of food you can cook in a compact oven! This setup also saves several thousand dollars over two full-sized combi steam ovens – we all have a budget.
Water tank functionality was another deliberate choice. I haven’t opted for plumbed ovens, so I wanted the most practical water tank setup I could find. Miele’s is the one that won me over for ease of filling and operation. The interface of their ovens sealed the deal; the layout and buttons made more sense to my brain than any other brand I looked at. Ease of use matters as much to me as how an oven looks, and different systems click differently for different people.
For the cooktop, I also went smaller than you might expect: an induction hob that can take four pots or pans rather than six, but with a flexi-zone arrangement so I can still fit a large griddle pan or link zones together for larger pots when needed. Truthfully, I don’t use a cooktop as much as some people; much of what others would boil, steam, or sauté in a pot, I do in the steam oven instead.
And the dishwasher. Probably the least glamorous decision of the lot, but it’s a critical component of the kitchen! It came down to practicality more than anything. With three hungry, not-always-careful boys in the house, I wanted something hardy and reliable, and I trust Miele on that front. Their dishwashers aren’t cheap, but because I was buying multiple appliances from the brand, I qualified for a spend-and-save offer that gave me a discount across all four appliances and made the dishwasher affordable enough to include.
We’re still a few months from installation, but I’ll keep you posted on how everything performs once it’s actually up and running. In the meantime, if I haven’t answered something you’d like to know about these choices, let me know!
A Thing I’m Loving:
This isn’t kitchen related — in fact it’s headed for my new bathroom — but given how many of you seem keen on renovation news, I can’t resist sharing it. I have ordered this gorgeous oyster sconce light from Robert Gordon, a well-known Australian ceramics and homewares brand (I have plenty of their crockery and ceramic kitchen paraphernalia and it’s beautiful). I’ve loved this light since well before we’d properly planned the renovation, and I genuinely can’t wait to see it in real life.
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.