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recommend that you marinate the food before steam cooking. As examples, lemon
juice, olive oil, white wine or soya sauce all add plenty of taste to your fish dish.
Cooking meat using steam
Only the most tender pieces such as fillets of veal, pork or beef, or white chicken
meat (perfect for this type of preparation) can be steam cooked. They remain
particularly juicy when rolled in leaves (for example spinach) or cooked on a bed of
vegetables. Where meat is concerned, it is particularly important to avoid
overcooking it, which will lead to it becoming dry and hard. It is better to reduce the
cooking time indicated and check if the meat has already cooked sufficiently. It is
always possible to continue cooking for a little longer if you find the meat isn't done
enough but it is never possible to improve the quality when the meat is overcooked!
Steam cooked meat always requires a spicy seasoning to avoid it becoming bland.
For this reason, we recommend that you add a sauce.
Poaching food in the steam oven
Steam cooking (which will be new to many of you) can in certain cases also replace
the use of a double boiler. Preparing food using steam cooking is ideal for flans and
terrines. However, the ingredients should never be added directly into the cooking
dish but instead cooked in moulds. Porcelain and glass moulds resist heat well and
are particularly well suited, unlike plastic moulds. The cooking times can vary slightly
according to the size and material used for the moulds and/or their ability to conduct
heat.
Sterilisation in the steam oven
You can also use your steam oven to sterilise all the fruit and vegetables that you
have conserved up until now using classic methods in a sterilisation recipient or the
oven. You can simultaneously conserve the contents of 4 x 750 ml jars (height:
14 cm). Wash the jars carefully and use new elastic rings.
Vegetables:
wash, prepare and blanch in the steam oven for around 10 to
15 minutes. Cool using ice cold water and place immediately in the glass jars (to a
level of 3 cm below the rim) and fill with a solution of salt (1 litre of water +
1 tablespoon of salt brought to boiling point) up to three quarters of the jar's height.
Fit a damp rubber ring and close using the cover and hook. Tomatoes should be
inserted raw. Add fresh herbs to carrots. Add a little lemon juice to apples and pears.
Fruit:
wash, prepare and fill the jars up to a level of 3 cm below the rim. Fill using
a sugary solution (1 litre of water + 150 - 250 g of sugar, brought to boiling point)
up to two-thirds of the jars height. Fit a damp rubber ring and close using the cover
and hook. Once the sterilisation time is up, you should turn off the steam oven, open
the door for approximately 10 seconds and then leave to stand for around
30 minutes in the closed steam oven.
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