Twenty-two years when I first began cooking with a Steam oven there were very few guidelines so every time I cooked in the oven it was an experiment. It was easy to adapt to steaming food in the oven, instead of steaming vegetables, grains, fish, shellfish, and even hard-cooking eggs we just began to cook everything in the Steam mode instead of in a saucepan on the cooktop. In no time it was our appliance of choice for much of our cooking.
Paying Attention to the Science of Cooking
In those early days, the question everyone asked when purchasing a Steam oven was, “is there is recipe book?” While there were guidelines in the User Manuals, it was more the fact that cooking in the Steam oven was an unfamiliar process and it took a little practice to get used to using the oven.
The more I experimented with cooking in the oven, I began to understand that if you paid attention to the science that was involved with each method of cooking it would guide you to choosing the best combination of Heat + Steam.
Steaming is easy, you bring water to a boil and place the food in the water or over the water in a perforated pan, and the steam gently cooks the food through. If you think about the method for poaching eggs they are either cracked directly into boiling water or into a metal pan placed over simmering water.
The cooking science is exactly the same in the Steam oven except you place the eggs in a ramekin, that has previously coated with oil, and cook them in the Steam mode.
What are the Benefits of Poaching Eggs in the Steam Oven?
There are so many benefits to poaching eggs in the steam oven.
Let’s start with clean-up, there are no saucepans involved, and the ramekin used to poach your egg can go directly into the dishwasher. Also, when you cook in the Steam oven there is no risk of boil-overs, so no cooktop to clean.
One of my favorite features when cooking with the Steam oven is using the timer. The timer can be set to alert you that the cooking time has elapsed or you can program it to turn the oven off when the time has elapsed.
My next favorite feature is convenience. Imagine you are planning a brunch menu; you can place some cooked vegetables in each ramekin and add in some cheese, then add the eggs just before serving. In approximately 5 minutes each guest will be able to enjoy a freshly cooked delicious poached egg or several.
Another amazing feature is that poached eggs that don’t get eaten the first time around actually reheat beautifully in the Steam oven. And remember you can cook multiple dishes at one time so you can also cook a bowl of oatmeal in the oven at the same time as poaching an egg.
The Steam oven is an ideal environment for cooking all egg dishes, we have recipes to guide you with cooking, sweet and savory custard and flan, cheesecake, as well as dishes normally cooked in a water bath such as bread pudding.
If you are planning a feast to celebrate the Lunar New Year then my next Blog Post will take you through the steps of steaming whole fish in the Steam oven.
Larissa, Your Convection Enthusiast