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Hello!
I don’t know about you, but this is around the week every year where I still have what feels like a million ‘December things’ to do.
Because I’m a sucker for punishment, many of the things I have to do revolve around homemade or handmade gifts. It’s a practice I refuse to give up, even though (or especially because?!) the rest of the world seems to have stopped doing them years ago. Although making a gift often takes longer than buying one, I want to encourage this practice, and show you that it doesn’t have to be difficult!
To that end, today we’re talking about a handful of last minute food gifts you can make using your steam oven. Most of them are very simple, and I guarantee you’ll want to keep as much as you give away (the mark of a good food gift). The other benefit of making food gifts is that oftentimes, one batch of something makes enough to gift to multiple people.
This is our last newsletter before Christmas, though I will be back in your inboxes on December 30 with a short and sweet New Year’s edition. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a very merry one, and that you get to spend it eating and enjoying time with loved ones.
Emily x
Some of the ideas and recipes in this article will be familiar to those of you who’ve followed me for a long time. Others are fun and interesting takes on food gifts that you can whip up at the last minute, using the amazing capabilities of your steam oven.
And just because they’re food gifts, that doesn’t mean you can’t make them for yourself. In fact, I hope you will. We all love a good homemade treat, and it’s very much ok to treat yourself along with others in your life!
If you need a luxurious, grown up and special gift over the holidays, I really want to encourage you to try this! One batch makes easily enough to gift 2 or 3 people (or some to give and some to keep!), and it’s super easy to make, taking all of about a half hour in hands-on time, including bottling.
The Season Flip
A couple of alternate (or additional!) side dish ideas to grace your Christmas table.
Southern Hemisphere
This recipe is perfect for combi steam cooks; skip the grilling of the peaches and haloumi, and blast them in a hot combi steam oven instead! You won’t get the pretty grill marks but what they lose in appearance will be more than made up for in ease and taste. Set your oven to Combi Steam, 400°F/200°C, 30% humidity and cook the cheese and peaches on a tray together, before assembling the rest of the salad. The recipe calls for ham; I don’t bother, making this a gorgeous vegetarian side instead.
Northern Hemisphere
These little stuffing balls are super cute and I just know if I served them up all the kids would make off with them before the adults even get to the table! Make them exactly as written but to cook, set your oven to Combi Steam, 350°F/180°C, 50% humidity. They’ll take somewhere between 20-25 minutes to cook through; if you’re making ahead they can be reheated from frozen at the same temperature and will only take about 10 minutes.
A Thing I'm Loving
There are lots of things I use, eat, read about and enjoy in the kitchen that aren’t specifically related to steam ovens! Perhaps you’d like to know about some of them?
A thing I’m loving for my husband, this time! A personalized coffee scoop and bag clip in one. It’s a little self-serving, because he makes me coffee every morning, but I know he’ll love it all the same.
I feel like this is a great gift for a coffee-loving someone who has ‘all the things’. If you want to order one for a Christmas gift, get onto it straightaway! Last I checked, they were still in line for pre-Christmas shipping depending on where in the world you live.
*note: some of the links to A Thing I’m Loving are affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission if you make a purchase from that business. But rest assured I will never, ever share something I don’t personally recommend.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I encourage you to submit questions, and will do my best to answer as many as possible. Though I may not be able to get to every single question, I carefully curate ones which are relevant and represent a variety of topics. We all learn from each other, and I often learn new things based on questions from all of you!
If you have an AMA question, please email it to [email protected]. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
This edition’s questions:
From Carolyn
Q: Would you please recommend what size and brand of baking steel works best in a Wolf CSO?
A: Size will depend on the model you have (older models have different internal dimensions from newer ones, and 24″ vs 30″ models obviously differ as well). I did find this helpful internal measurements guide on the Wolf website though.
If you’re in the USA, I recommend bakingsteel.com; I have several foodie friends in the US with the brand and they all love their steels. For Australia, try rocbakingsteel.com.au; I have one and find it excellent.
For all baking steels, I recommend that you lightly oil them every so often; I’ve found in my drafty old kitchen that even a hint of moisture during storage will create a layer of rust on the outside if it’s not kept well-seasoned.
From Barbara
Q: I have your book, Steam Oven Baking. I’m making the Creme Brulee on Monday on individual dishes. Do I cover the dishes with foil, or leave uncovered?
A: If your oven has a tendency to drip from the top, I’d cover (some are worse for this than others!). One big sheet of foil over a pan containing all the little dishes is just fine; that’s what I usually do.