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Hello!
Today we’re talking about using your steam oven in place of your stovetop. It’s something I’ve touched on in the past but I’ve never really gone into detail about, and it’s a great way to shift your thinking around using your steam oven.
We’ll talk about how and why (and when!) I use my steam oven instead of my cooktop, and I’m sharing a savory ground beef/mince recipe that dovetails into the topic nicely to help explain it in practical terms.
There are quite a few new Insiders joining us for this issue; welcome if that’s you! I hope you enjoy being part of the membership, and don’t forget to go through the deep-dive topics we’ve already covered here by visiting the newsletter archive.
If ever you have questions about content, or subjects/recipes you’d like covered in future newsletters, please send me an email with AMA (ask me anything) in the subject line and I’ll get onto answering it in a future newsletter as best I can.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you again in a couple of weeks.
Emily x
PS. If you’re ‘onto it’, you’ll remember I promised you a gluten free baking topic for this newsletter, but I have to confess defeat and let you know that I’m still testing a couple of things for inclusion! Any of you who are dedicated to gluten free cooking and baking will know it can be a minefield of trying out different recipes to get one that works well. I don’t want to present you with something I’m not happy with myself, so I’ll keep working on it and that topic will come back around very soon.
There are lots of ways you can use your steam oven to replace a saucepan on the stove, and a few reasons you might want to do such a thing!
Today’s Topic of Interest article goes through how I think about using my steam oven for cooking that used to be the domain of my stovetop. Jump in and get reading, for ideas and examples to show you how I approach converting from stovetop to steam oven.
Savory beef, or savoury mince, is an Aussie classic. Think of it as a multifunctional dinner that’s endlessly changeable to include different vegetables and types of meat (or lentils, or even tofu). I know a lot of people who just spoon it over toast, but I love it best tucked under a lid of mashed potatoes for a simple Cottage Pie. You can also put it into puff pastry to make pasties and pies.
The Season Flip
We are definitely between seasons in many parts of the world right now (though I’m certain Summer has arrived with a bang and skipped Spring altogether here). In the spirit of shoulder-season cooking, though, here are a couple of seasonal recipe ideas which make the most of the steam oven stovetop approach.
Southern Hemisphere
I cooked a batch of dried chickpeas in my steam oven a few days ago, and I have heaps of them hanging around! A good amount will go into one of my favorite salads, this Moroccan-inspired vegetarian delight with couscous, spices and dates that makes me excited for work lunches.
Northern Hemisphere
Stewed or poached fruit is, for me, an all-year round kind of thing. But I especially love making it with the fall bounty of apples and pears.
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?
I’m not sure if it’s available everywhere, but Costco in my corner of the world had this amazing Pisti pistachio cream (paste?) when I was there a few weeks back. If you can find it (and you like pistachio nuts!), I highly recommend buying a jar. I’ve been spreading the stuff on toast, over the top of ice cream, and I’ve even made a batch of my Nutella blondies using chopped pistachios and the pistachio paste in place of the chocolate stuff.
*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.
I have had a couple of queries about whether prior AMA questions and answers can be collated somewhere on the Insiders website (not just inside the newsletters). It’s a great idea; bear with me while I figure out the best way to format it and make that happen!
This edition’s questions:
From Julie:
Q: My question is very similar to the one just answered in last newsletter’s AMA about finding replacement pans for a Gaggenau oven. I was able to find great deal on a used Miele XL 24” CSO (but without the accessories).
I am having a hard time finding pans that fit- the traditional jelly roll pan that I buy here does not have enough of a lip to fit on the rails.
Wondering if you have a known solution? Really missing the universal pan as it was my most used in my last home’s CSO.
A: Miele makes the insides of their ovens to a custom size that does not fit standard gastronorm pans (you’ve probably figured this out already). And I’m not sure I do have a solution, unfortunately, or at least not a cheap one!
If you are truly missing the Miele universal pan and have the budget, there’s nothing wrong with buying a new one. I often fall victim to thinking that I should find the cheapest solution, when the one which would give me the best ease of use is better in the long run!
If it were me, I’d also purchase a wire shelf/rack from Miele, to fit the oven (if you don’t have these already). And then I’d make do with the universal pan plus my own collection of pans which almost fit and can sit on the wire racks.
From Jenni:
Q: I have a V-Zug combination steam oven. It has three bread settings (four if you count proving). I just saw a mention in a V-Zug email about using the food probe to check when your bread is done, but there’s no instruction about how to do that. I’ve never actually used the food probe, let alone for bread, so I was wondering if you had any information about how to do that, and what temperature you would set it at anyway. I’ve always just tapped the base for the hollow sound, but of course you have to open the door for that!
A: Oooh, I wonder if we need a whole newsletter on using the food/temperature probes in our steam ovens?! You’re not the only person who’s got one sitting in a drawer untouched.
You can definitely bake your bread with the probe in, and you’re looking for an internal temperature of around 190°F/88°C for optimal doneness (that temp holds true for almost all breads, though this very helpful article gives excellent detail on more precise temps for rye, gluten free and a couple of other types of ‘unusual’ breads).
Here are the drawbacks of baking with a probe inserted into your loaf, though: firstly, if you bake from preheated like I do, you have to get that probe in as you put the bread in the oven, which means mucking around with trying to plug one end of a probe into a blazing hot oven, as quickly as humanly possible so you don’t lose all the heat and steam when you put your loaf in. The other thing is that your bread doesn’t look great at the end.
If you’re baking a big freeform loaf you could stick the probe into the side of the bread where it’s less visible (though it will still pull the loaf out of shape a little). But if you’re baking in a pan, you’ll have to insert the probe into the top of the loaf, where the outside of the probe will lean and rest on the surface of the dough, and then you have to carefully remove the probe after cooking without ripping the bread.
I am all for cooking to temperature, but I think I’d prefer to stick to using the probe for proteins, and testing my bread with an instant-read thermometer. Or, as you mentioned, the good old ‘hollow tap’!