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Hello!
It’s a short and sweet little missive from me today, complete with a very easy dinner that I bet you have almost all the ingredients for in your fridge already. I’m under the weather (hence the shorter than normal email) and we can only order in for so long, so I’m sharing today’s little number because sick or not, we all need super easy and healthy dinners on repeat.
Perfect for speedy combi steam cooking, packed with protein and adaptable to the many vagaries of my family’s tastebuds, this tortilla quiche, or maybe it’s a tortilla omelette – you decide – is a huge winner for very minimal effort.
Thanks to all of you who voted in the Should I Make It poll about croissants a couple of weeks ago. I’m pleased (and maybe a little daunted) that a good margin of you voted yes for a combi steam croissants recipe, so you’ll see that in March or April, as soon as I’m satisfied with my method.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you in mid-March with a favorite new baking recipe.
Emily x
New To Cook
Flour tortillas make a fantastic base for a very fast quiche, and if you keep a package of the shelf-stable ones in your pantry for dinner emergencies, like I do, you probably have everything else you need for this meal. I suspect if you’re GF and have access to decent GF tortillas, it’ll work well with those too.
Healthy, full of protein and veggies and on the table in under half an hour, this is the kind of midweek meal I adore.
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 do my best to answer as many as possible. I can’t always get to every 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]. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
From Carolyn
Q: Do you recommend boiling pasta in the steam oven? Specifically, I want to put spaghetti in a shallow long pan, covered with ample water, cook until almost done, then add some veggies. Then drain. Seems easier than fooling with a large pot.
A: This is a question that doesn’t have a clear answer, I’m afraid! I have tried steaming pasta multiple times, following exactly the method you describe above. What I’ve found is that spaghetti which normally takes about 8 minutes to boil in a pot will take around 20 minutes if steamed under water. So there’s definitely no time saving.
The ease of popping it into the pan and walking away, and not worrying about a pot boiling over, is tempting, and I know there are plenty of people who do it and enjoy the results. For me, I find the texture of steam cooked dried pasta a bit glue-ish and starchy, and I have reverted to my pot on the cooktop for this job. In this case I think you’re going to have to try it out and see which side you come down on!
Where I really do recommend steaming pasta is for filled pasta like ravioli and tortellini, and for gnocchi (which is, I guess, pasta-adjacent!). Those can be popped into a tray, in a single layer, and steamed until tender.
One Response
This tortilla quiche was a hit with my family! It was also a great learning tool as I used its settings (350 degrees combi steam 30% ) to bake the highest soufflé ever in my combi steam oven vs. conventional oven. Hooray!