Fall & Winter Steam Oven Meals
By Larissa Taboryski on Dec 02th,2015The Thermador Steam oven is so versatile it’s an ideal tool for all your cold weather cooking, whether preparing a slow cooking braise, a simple meal of roasted vegetables and fish or a favorite risotto cooking the meal in the Steam Oven will ensure great results.
Braised dishes – for a really flavorful warming meal braising is the way to go, the preparation of most braises is very simple they just take time to cook. Recipes for braising will instruct that the assembled dish should be cooked in a heavy oven-safe pan with a tight fitting lid, basically the tight fitting lid helps create steam in the pan so when you braise in the steam oven you can omit that step and cook your braise uncovered in a deep casserole dish. For Braising use the Combination Convection Steam Mode 300 degrees and use the recipe timing, usually 1 1/2 – 2 hours.
Roasting – Roasted vegetables make a wonderful side dish or even a complete meal and of course roasted in the Steam Oven they are especially moist and flavorful. Cut the vegetables in same size shapes, toss with a little olive oil, some kosher salt and your preferred seasoning, spread onto a rimmed jelly-roll pan or the oven solid pan and cook in the Combination Convection Steam Mode 320 degrees for 20 – 40 minutes (depending on the type of vegetables). You will notice a difference in texture when vegetables are roasted in the Steam Oven compared to the Convection Oven so it’s good to give both a try so you can determine which preparation suits your taste best. Meats and fish can be roasted at the same time as the vegetables just determine which item will take the longest to cook so you avoid overcooking one or the other.
Baking – while not strictly a baked dish we do find that cooking risotto in the Steam Oven is a wonderful alternative to standing at the stove and stirring and risotto style dishes can be made with a variety of different grains . We still prefer to saute the onions prior to adding in the grains and hot stock but once we have that done we scrape everything into a casserole dish and cook the risotto in the Steam Oven for 35 – 40 minutes in the Combination Convection Steam Mode 320 degrees.
There are many benefits to preparing meals in the Steam Oven, we find results to be exceptional, cleaning the oven is easy and because the cooking is controlled by a timer it’s hard to overcook the food, best of all once the food is cooking you have time to attend to other aspects of your busy life while your meal is being prepared.