Cooking with steam is better for taste and for health
• The experts agree: Steam is a healthier and tastier way to cook
• Steam cooking softens cell structure of food while retaining nutrients
• Miele's cooking range includes built in and benchtop steam ovens
Chefs, nutritionists, even skin gurus agree, steaming is the optimum way to ensure that food is full of flavour, colour and nutrition.
Chef Kim Taylor believes in the healing power of steam. As a private chef Taylor spends her days devising and cooking meals for the health conscious family that she works for.
An average day might run to several different breakfast dishes, a lunchtime meal that includes a range of high protein salads and a multi-course dinner, often with extra guests.
"There is a lot of cooking on any one day," she says. "Each meal will include several dishes to meet the dietary requirements of everyone in the family. I steam everything, vegetables, proteins, even grains."
In addition to her work as a private chef, Kim also designs menus and cooks for a health and well-ness retreat, Fernleigh, in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Clients check in to Fernleigh to undertake celebrity-physiotherapist Sarah Keys' Back-in-A-Week program. "Sarah's philosophy is that food is a great comforter and healer," says Taylor.
"As a chef I agree, and so we work together to design menus that nurture both the body and the soul."
Much of Taylor's menu at Fernleigh is comfort food - braises including slow cooked lamb shoulders and beef cheeks in winter, to steamed puddings and desserts. "The joy and ease of a steam oven is that you can make wonderful baked custard desserts like creme brûlée or a bread and butter pudding without using a water-bath, and you can slow cook meats and retain moisture and flavour," she says.
Miele's steam cooking range, which includes built-in and benchtop ovens, cooks fresh foods ex-tremely gently, which is proven to deliver superior results in appearance, taste, aroma and texture.
Skin guru Jade Wieland of Skin Body Health Clinics in Sydney's Woollahra and Mosman, echoes these thoughts. Weiland believes that steaming is the best way to get the most nutrients out of vegetables.
"Steaming gently softens the cell structure of the food whilst retaining most of the nutrients and also makes many of these vegetables easier to digest," she says.
Weiland lists broccoli, rich in vitamin A and B, as being particularly important for clear skin, and dark leafy greens including kale, spinach and chard as good sources of iron which can help to reduce the appearance of dark circles under the eyes.
This skin guru practices what she preaches. "I am a vegetarian and I run two very busy skin practices, so I need to maximise the iron and trace minerals in my diet." she says.
Discover Miele's innovative range here: www.miele.co.nz