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Hello!
Today is a mixed bag of content, but in a very good way.
We’ve got a new and amazing steamed omelette recipe (something I touched on in issue 16 but didn’t provide a dedicated recipe and method for). Plus a couple of great ideas for the Season Flip, and a cracking cookbook recommendation. Then we’re finishing up with some brilliant ask-me-anything Q and A’s, including one all about easy crowd entertaining that we can all take something from.
Let’s get on with it!
Emily x
New to Cook: Steamed Omelette
I must confess to this not being ‘my’ recipe, but rather the invention of Scott Heimendinger, who I was fortunate enough to work kind-of-alongside during the development of the Anova Precision Oven a few years back. The man is a sous vide guru and a technical/scientific genius who’s worked on a lot of high-tech cooking appliance projects, and he is also a Very Nice Human who is Very Good at Cooking (one of my favorite kinds of people, obviously!). If you don’t follow his adventures on Instagram you really should; he’s been working on a knife robot of late that blows my mind.
Anyway, Scott’s omelette, as I think of it, is a feat of beautiful simplicity that if you own a steam oven, you should really have in your repertoire. The texture is soft and creamy and perfectly set, and it’s a great speedy and filling meal at any time of the day.
The Season Flip
Often, I tie in the cooking suggestions in this section to the featured new recipe of the issue. But giving you seasonal omelette filling ideas just felt a bit…boring? So instead, here are two recipes I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks that I’m just really enthused by.
Southern Hemisphere
Because two out of my three kids love spinach and ricotta ravioli, and one loves lasagna, I thought there was a chance they’d enjoy these giant stuffed pasta shells too. They’re filled with ricotta and topped with bechamel and tomato sauces, so they hit all the comfort food points as far as I’m concerned. They were moderately successful with kids and very successful with the adults in our house, so I call it a win!
I baked this dish in my steam oven, using a combi steam setting at 350°F/180°C and 30% humidity (low steam). They’re not a fast meal but I enjoy the process and I made double so I can feel smug about the frozen tray I’ve got ready for another meal. I recommend doing the same!
Northern Hemisphere
I can’t remember how I happened upon this brilliant recipe as it’s several years old, but it was enticing enough to make me buy out-of-season corn a few weeks ago just so I could make it. Even with bad, not-sweet corn it was fantastic, so if you’re actually in corn season it’ll be even better. It is absolutely perfect as a take-along salad to a backyard barbecue or picnic during the height of summer.
To convert the salad to a combi steam recipe you can skip the skillet directions in step 2. Instead, preheat your oven to Combi Steam, 400°F/200°C, 50% (med) humidity. Put the corn, butter, garlic, salt and pepper into a shallow pan and cook, stirring once the butter has melted, for about 10 minutes or until the corn is tender. It won’t be very browned but the flavor is excellent and for me it’s a worthwhile trade-off in terms of both taste and effort. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as written and pat yourself on the back for making it.
A Thing I'm Loving
A couple of years ago I bought Lucy Tweed’s outstanding book, Every Night of the Week, from the clearance book bin at a big-box department store. I’ve no idea why it was in there because it turns out it’s an international bestseller, and is easily one of my favorite books of the past five years. I’ve recommended and gifted it to several friends, and it’s no stretch to say they all love it as much as I do.
That’s not the thing I’m loving today, though (although you definitely should buy it, it’s great!). No, the thing I’m loving is this: browsing in a small holiday-town bookshop a few weeks back, I discovered that there’s a follow-up book! Bookshop browsing is a rarity in my life of dragging small humans around everywhere I go, so I missed the release of Every Night of the Week Veg about a year ago, it seems. This is everything the first book was, except without meat products. The layout, design and Lucy’s borderline-snarky, very funny commentary sprinkled throughout are a joy, and the recipes are flexible and utterly delicious. Plenty of them are combi-steam friendly too. Supergreens gnudi and the snipped pasta in vodka sauce are favorites so far; I can report that the gnudi is perfect when steamed instead of boiled or fried.
*A Thing I’m Loving sometimes includes affiliate links, but only ever for products I actually use and enjoy.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I really encourage you to submit questions, and will do my best to answer as many as possible. I may not be able to get to every single question, but 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]. Include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
From Connie
Q: How would you prepare frozen soup dumplings in a steam oven? Thank you!
A: I have done soup dumplings several times, using store bought frozen dumplings from my local Asian grocery store, and they’re great! They’re also very easy to prepare. Preheat your oven using the steam setting at 212°F/100°C and line a perforated stainless steel pan with parchment or baking paper. Don’t skip this; they will stick to the pan if you don’t line it! I suspect a solid lightweight stainless pan will work just as well if that’s all you have. Pop the dumplings into the pan, making sure you leave some space around each one, because they do spread a little as they thaw and the soup starts to melt inside. Steam for 10-15 minutes depending on size, then serve.
From Laura (Laura’s email subject was titled ‘accidental party’, which is still making me laugh as I write)
Q: I’m accidentally having 20(!) people over, on a week where I’m really busy…please could you recommend a one pot/tray batch cook I can scale up and make ahead?
A: This is my favorite kind of question! My brain loves exactly this sort of challenge and I actually find it fun coming up with the right balance of dishes for a large crowd (the right balance that doesn’t send the host into the fetal position, that is!). I very often turn to either tacos, lasagne or a large pasta bake. If there are lots of kids, tacos work well because they’re DIY – even if all some of them eat is a plain tortilla, at least they’ll fill their bellies!
If tacos appeal, you can very easily scale up my sweet potato tacos recipe, and cook the sweet potato filling ahead of time so all it needs is a quick reheat before serving. If you want to make it easier on yourself, skip the mashed black beans and just stir the drained whole beans straight into the sweet potato mixture when it’s almost finished cooking (or when you reheat the sweet potatoes). Put the sweet potatoes on the table with cheese, salads, hot sauce, herbs and an array of soft tortillas and crunchy taco shells. Add steamed rice and tortilla chips if you want to make taco bowls. It’s such a colorful feast, plus meat free and simple to make gluten free if you buy corn tortillas instead of wheat ones. I guarantee everyone will have a brilliant time building their plates.
For pasta, if you want to keep things meat free I’d go for spinach and ricotta cannelloni (too hard? Skip the rolling pasta sheets into tubes and just layer everything to make a lasagne with the same ingredients). You can assemble the dish way ahead of time and freeze, just remember to put the frozen tray/s in the fridge 24 hours before you want to cook and serve, or they’ll take hours in the oven! If you’re happy with a meat option, meatballs and a huge pot of pasta are almost always welcome. The meatballs freeze and reheat perfectly. Or try the one-pan bolognese dish from last month’s Insiders journal. That won’t freeze but it does reheat almost like fresh the next day, especially if you underdo it when cooking the first time.
One last option: make a veggie version of savory mince using lentils or plant based mince, and serve it with baked potatoes, sour cream, cheese and coleslaw.
I hope that sparks your menu planning! Good luck; you already know that ‘make ahead’ is the key phrase here so I’m sure you’ll have a great event.
From Clair
Q: Is meat roasted in a combi-steam oven suitable for mincing? I have tried mincing leftover lamb that I have cooked using both your roast lamb recipes (shoulder and leg) and both times it has turned to mush. Is that because steaming makes the meat so tender that it doesn’t mince well, or am I doing something wrong?
Also, can you bake a homemade French baguette in a steam oven and do you have a recipe? I’ve never made one but would love to try!
A: Do you know, I’ve never thought about the issue of mincing combi steam roasted meat, but I think you’re right – it’ll turn to mush because the meat is softer and more tender, and more full of moisture, than conventionally cooked. If you really want it to work (you may already have tried this), put the meat into the freezer for a while before mincing. You don’t want it frozen, but very very cold and a touch icy is perfect. That might be enough to make it mince into more distinct pieces.
Baguettes! I have been asked about these a few times so I definitely have them marked for a future Insiders recipe/discussion. It’s years since I’ve made any so I need to do some experimenting with methods and dough ratios before I can comfortably say I’ve nailed it.