Steamed Food

I don’t know about you but I prefer my food steamed than boiled. Steaming is a very healthy cooking method and capable of cooking all kinds of food. Steaming food is a preferred method compares to other as it doesn’t require cooking oil, thus, low in fat content.  Steamed food also retains more of its natural vitamins and minerals than food that is roasted, baked, or boiled, and has a stronger, more flavorful taste.

There are a few options to choose from to steam food. The simplest and cheapest is an expandable metal insert that can be placed inside one of your existing pots. Fill the bottom of the pot with water, fill the insert with food and cook until tender. Bamboo steamer is very common in Asian/Chinese kitchen. You can stack individual bamboo racks depending on how many different types of food you are preparing. Another option is electric steamer that is very common nowadays too. Most of these appliances come with dividers to let you steam different food individually.

So, the above mentioned are the options that I knew about before I was introduced to Miele steam oven through Steph from Forever Better. I was excited when Steph approached me asking if I was interested to have a trial of Miele steam oven. I know what oven is but had no idea about steam oven! Then, I checked out the appliance on Miele website. I accepted the trial use of the steam oven. Not only I had a 3 weeks trial on the steam oven, I also had a chance to host a dinner party! I was very excited about it and really want to thank Steph from Forever Better for this great opportunity!

Now that I have used the steam oven and hosted my dinner party, I thought I would share my thoughts with you all about the steam oven. First of all, I just have to admit how easy it is to use steam oven. It’s nothing complicated at all! There are 3 shelves in the oven and it comes with 2 cooking container, 1 condensate tray and a rack that allows to cook different food at the same time. There are also other accessories that can be purchased. An operating instruction booklet comes with the oven. In the booklet, it tells you all you need to know from how to operate the oven to how long you need to steam each type of food for!

Miele’s steam ovens let you prepare foods you might not have thought of as candidates for steaming. Omelets, pasta, and risotto were all listed, which surprised me. I tried to use the oven a few times and I am very happy with the result! I have summed up my experience of using steam oven as below:

• It cooks food real quick – cooks perfect vegetables and other food.
• Reheating food becomes really easy and food doesn’t lose its taste.
• If you have a big family or a love of entertaining, you’ll appreciate this.
• Very easy to use.

Well, it does sound pretty good, isn’t it? The only drawbacks of the steam oven are (i) it is slightly pricey, and (ii) it will take a little bit of space unless you have a very big kitchen. The size is probably the same as a microwave oven. So, you would be considering to have this built-in.

Back to my dinner party – it went really well. All my guests really enjoyed the food that I cooked with the steam oven. It was pretty unbelievable all 3 courses were all cooked in the steam oven! Apart from preparation time, the rest was taken care by the steam oven! Everyone was amazed on how easy it was to use the steam oven and how tasty the food turned out to be!

Overall, I was very happy that I go hands-on experience in using Miele steam oven and to be able to share the delicious food that use only steaming method. Steam seems to be the next big thing in ovens and other appliances, and Miele’s offering has some useful extras, so it may be worth checking out.

You must be wondering what I made with the steam oven? The following are what I had chosen to serve.

Starter – Gyoza, Main – Thai Spiced Steamed Salmon Filet Parcels, Dessert – White Wine Poached Pears