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Hello, lovely Insiders!
I hope you’re faring well as we run headlong towards the end of the year, and that if you’re entertaining more than usual, you’re enjoying cooking and using your steam oven to help out.
Here, we’ve been navigating extensive house renovations which will continue through to Christmas. I’m going to lose my kitchen for a couple of weeks come Monday, so I’m trying to be VERY organized with my pre-Christmas baking and food-gift-giving this year! Some things have already been made and frozen, ready for the no-kitchen weeks. And my tiny studio kitchen is going to get a big workout, here’s hoping it’s up to the task.
On the Thanksgiving front, I know many of you are a mere couple of weeks out from your biggest holiday meal of the year.
Rather than share another new recipe, I’m highlighting the wealth of ‘steam oven Thanksgiving’ info and recipes already here. I love old favorites as much as I love discovering new recipes, and I wanted to collect all my Thanksgiving love in one spot for you! I hope this format helps you find something new-to-you, or that you’ll rediscover a dish you’ve tried and enjoyed before.
If you still need a full menu for the big day, I made you a brand new visual menu guide, with recipe links for three different styles of Thanksgiving menu.
Happy cooking, and happy Thanksgiving. I’ll be back on the 30th with the first of two Christmas newsletters and a lovely new recipe.
Emily x
PS there are lots of ask-me-anything questions in today’s newsletter! Keep them coming, I’ll answer as many as I can in the next issue or two, so we can keep your festive cooking stress at bay.
The giant Thanksgiving run-down
I’m throwing our usual journal format to the wind today, in favor of this, a rundown of Thanksgiving info and recipes.
If you haven’t planned a menu yet, or you need to fill in a few gaps, you’ll find more than enough recipe ideas here! And if you’re already set with recipes I hope you’ll use the Thanksgiving time plan I created last year; it lists out all the prep details you need for smooth running of a big (or small) holiday meal, starting from 2 weeks out (so right now).
3 different Thanksgiving menus
This (brand new) document is for those of you who need help with a complete menu for Thanksgiving day. In it, you’ll find recipe links for a traditional menu, a more modern take, and a smaller-scale menu for those who want a lovely Thanksgiving meal but aren’t serving grand numbers!
Helpful articles and info
Thanksgiving Prep and Planning for Steam Oven Cooks (includes my printable Thanksgiving Plan mentioned above, that you can scribble on and carry around with you).
For all you sous vide enthusiasts; my roundup of 15 beautiful sous vide Thanksgiving recipes.
Thanksgiving Recipes by menu category
I’ve included a big selection of popular recipes below; many are Thanksgiving classics but I’ve also thrown in several more modern ideas for anyone wanting to mix things up. Pick and choose as you see fit, creating an entire steam oven menu or just adding in a few recipes to complement your family’s favorites.
Breakfast
Chocolate Buns with Chocolate Glaze
Appetizers
Puff Pastry with Ham and Cheese
Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip)
Breads
Turkey
How to roast turkey in a steam oven (includes my steamed and roasted whole turkey)
Sous Vide Turkey Breast with Herbs and Garlic
Rolled Turkey Breast with Cranberry Pecan Stuffing (last Insider issue’s feature recipe!)
Other Main Dishes (these make good sides, too!)
Vegan Brussels Sprouts Salad with Cranberries and Pecans
One-Pan Tomato and Herb Baked Halloumi Cheese
Side Dishes (meaty sides, veggie sides, all the sides)
Green Beans with Almonds and Balsamic Dressing
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Simple Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan
Crispy Roasted Potatoes (in my humble opinion, the best roasted potatoes)
Steam Oven Mashed Potatoes with Butter and Chives
Fancy and Pretty Hasselback Potatoes
Desserts
Perfect Sous Vide Cheesecake (this one includes directions for mini jar-cheesecakes, perfect for a big crowd)
Burnt Basque Cheesecake (super easy, no crust, and if you sub in gluten free flour for the wheat flour, it’ll also be gluten free!)
Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
A couple of great leftover turkey things
The Season Flip
Not all of us are doing Thanksgiving this month! Here are a couple of lovely finds for other parts of the world. They both happen to contain oats, which was unintentional but I’m not sad about it because I love them.
Southern Hemisphere
My friend Alex, who is a veteran blogger and a generous, warm human of the highest order, posted this gorgeous mash-up between an Anzac biscuit and a fruit mince pie, and now it’s all I can think about making. I’m pretty sure these are going to feature in my end-of-year teacher gift boxes as well as on my table in the coming weeks. I’ll bake them exactly as written, but on a combi steam setting with 30% (low) humidity so the fruit mince stays nice and plump.
Northern Hemisphere
Lauren at Athlete Lunchbox is the queen of meal prep cooking, and I love her baked oats recipes for breakfast. They’re easy to make, freeze well in single portions and have really helped my breakfast-on-the-run habit to be more nourishing and protein-y than a store bought granola bar or a piece of fruit. Baked oats also happen to be excellent in a steam oven. Make Lauren’s recipe as written, but use a combi steam setting with 50% (med) humidity and drop your cooking time down to about 20-25 minutes.
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. Though I may not be able to get to every single question, I will 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 emily@steamandbake.com. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
From Celia
Q: If I am using my CSO for a second dish, but it is at a lower temperature than the first one I get a warning that the oven needs to cool down. If I set the new temperature/humidity will the oven pick this up once it has cooled sufficiently or do I need to turn off and come back later?
Also, I make a 36 hour fermented yogurt that needs to be at precisely 38 C. Is there a way of doing this in the CSO?
A: Celia, you mentioned having a Gaggenau oven in your email; I expect you’ll need to let the oven cool down to your ‘target temp’ for the second recipe before coming back and setting the temp/humidity.
As far as the yogurt goes, yes, technically you can do this in your steam oven. I use a 38°C temperature for yogurt, too, and I would recommend you do it on the sous vide setting, if your model has that. The issue you may run across is the 36 hour cook time. In a plumbed model I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but if your oven is not plumbed you’ll need to stay on top of keeping the water tank refilled so the oven doesn’t shut off partway through the fermentation.
From Mary
Q: I just made a recipe for a regular oven that puts a pan of water on the bottom shelf to help keep the meatloaf moist. I want to use the steam oven for this next time I make it. It calls for 350 degrees for 30 mins. Would 30% humidity work?
There’s only two of us and I find myself always having a lot of leftovers. How would I defrost a pot roast and then reheat?
A: Yes, if you’re converting a recipe which originally called for a pan of water in the oven, 30% is a great approximation of the same cooking environment. You may also want to look at the settings I use for meatloaf in this recipe.
For the pot roast, you can reheat single serve portions of cooked meat using the following settings: From cold; Combi Steam, 175°F/80°C, 50%/med steam; OR Steam, 175°F/80°C. Allow 10 min once the oven comes to temperature, depending on thickness of meat. If your meat is in a larger piece, I’d recommend using the settings listed in my reheating chart – you can find that here if you haven’t got it already.
From Marlene
Q: I am going to start experimenting with puff pastry recipes. I noted that you recommend 375 degrees and 60% steam. My oven also has a setting for fan speed. (Anywhere from 0 to 100%}. What fan speed would you recommend?
A: Great question! This isn’t a feature which exists in many steam ovens, and you may need to experiment a little to find your preferred fan speed. If it were me, I’d start out with 100% as I expect that would mimic a ‘regular’ convection oven fan speed. If it’s browning your puff pastry well before it’s cooked in the middle, perhaps drop it down to 60 or 80%.
From Clair
Q: We are travelling all over the UK for the Christmas period, taking food to friends/holiday cottages therefore not able to use my steam oven. So my questions are about things that can be cooked at home in my steam oven in advance, frozen and then cooked/warmed in a standard oven at someone else’s house:
1) a fabulous cake or dessert for around 10 to celebrate a 50th birthday (this could be a cold dessert or one to reheat in a standard oven, but it just needs to be able to be frozen as we only have a 12hr turnaround overnight at home so I need something I can prepare weeks in advance and easily grab!)
2) a large vegetarian main course without nuts, onions, garlic or leeks (due to allergies).
A: The cake is an easy one – I’d do a Basque cheesecake, which is easy to make, freezes well and pleases almost everyone. It’s rich so you’ll comfortably get 10 serves from it, too. You can take it frozen and let it thaw overnight in the fridge, and serve it cold or at room temperature. Dress it up as a birthday cake with a generous pile of fresh fruit and/or whipped cream on top.
The vegetarian main course stumped me for a bit! Generally with a vegetarian main I’d use onions/garlic as base flavours to get umami depth and savoriness in there. In the end, I’d not worry about using your steam oven for this at all if you won’t be making it at home. Buy a beautiful head of cauliflower (or two), and make whole roasted cauliflower in a regular oven (same temp, obviously no steam, and it’ll take a bit longer to cook). It’s not difficult to execute, even in someone else’s kitchen, especially if you prepare the spices and hummus ahead of time.
Skip the garlic in the recipe and bump up the salt or add other spices. Sumac would be a lovely addition to the listed ones, and give a sour-ish tangy note. Bought hummus, as the recipe specifies, will have garlic in it. But you could make your own without garlic (extra salt and lemon to make up for it!). It freezes well so can be made in advance; just give it a good stir when you thaw it and loosen with a little salted water if need be. Use loads of fresh herbs to garnish the cauliflower, and some fresh sliced red chilli for those who don’t mind it spicy.
