Baked Chicken and Rosemary Potatoes

This is an easy elegant meal that is perfect for Sunday dinner.  Prep takes maybe 20 minutes, then throw it in the oven and in about an hour dinner is served.
This is what you need:  One baking chicken about 5 pounds
                                       5 rosemary sprigs
                                       2 garlic cloves
                                       2 pounds of potatoes
                                       Olive oil
                                        Kosher Salt
                                        Pepper

 First remove any giblets from inside the chicken.  Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  Place the chicken on the Wolf Steam Oven's solid pan lined with a silpat or tinfoil or use a roasting pan.  Then tuck back the wings, and put two cloves of garlic into the cavity along with two sprigs of fresh rosemary. 

 Tie the legs together with chicken twine. Chop the rest of the rosemary and set it aside. 

 Drizzle 1-2 TBS olive oil on the chicken then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and half the rosemary you chopped.  The chicken is ready to go.  Peel and chop the potatoes into cubes about 2 inches square. 

Place the potatoes into a ziplock bag.  Add 2 TBS olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and the rest of the rosemary.

 Mix them together in the bag then pour them around the chicken, tucking them as close to it as you can - if they are out, they get too brown.

Put it all in the steam oven.  Place one end of the oven probe into the chicken and the other into the chicken.  They say that it should be in the thigh, but sometimes I like to put it in the thickest part of the breast all the way to the bone, then pull back a bit so that it will read the meat and not the bone.  Cook it on the steam convection mode,  at 375°,

then set the probe temperature to 170°.  You do this by pressing the temperature button again, after setting it to 375°.  It will have three lines across and you can turn the temp to 170°.  This will be the probe setting.  Once it reads the chicken you will just see the lines across it until it reaches 85° then it will show you the temperature of the meat.  You will not see the 375° again. 

The oven will beep when the selected temperature is reached.  For a 5 pound chicken it generally takes a little over an hour.  You might want to stir your potatoes after about 45 minutes.  You could always do your potatoes in a separate pan, but I like them by the chicken so they soak up some of the chicken drippings.  Yummy. 

Easy Cream Cheese Apricot Danish

Normally I would just refer you to my other blog for the recipe, however, this one is a lot different.  You don't need to put an egg wash on it, you don't put the turbinado sugar on it or it will melt away in the steam phase.  You bake it a lot longer than you do in the regular oven because you steam it first - you also don't have to wait for the oven to preheat.  And just so you know, it turns out much better in the steam oven then it does the regular oven.  Don't believe me?  Try one of the puffed pastry sheets in the steam oven and the other in the regular oven.  No comparison.  The one in the steam oven is shinier and not in an egg washy kind of way.  It is flaker, moister...it is just better.  I use this as a demo at the store all the time simply because it comes out so great.

Cream Cheese Apricot Danish

1 puffed pastry sheet, thawed  (½ package)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
3 TBS apricot jam

In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese and the sugar together until smooth.  On a lightly floured surface unfold the puffed pastry sheet.  Using a sharp knife, cut the sides of the puffed pastry (first and third sections) on a 45 degree angle towards the middle of the pastry (the cuts should start at the top in the middle and point down toward the edge).  Spread the cream cheese mixture in the middle section of the pastry almost to the ends.  Spread a thin layer of the apricot jam over the cream cheese.  Braid the cuts starting at the top, across the middle section pinching at the ends to seal.  Line the solid baking pan with parchment paper.

 Place the danish on the parchment and bake in the steam oven using the Auto Steam Bake Mode set at 400° for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies

You can get the recipe for these cookies on my other blog cookingwithrachel101.com  but I just thought I would point out to you the reason why the steam oven is so great for these cookies.  The preheat time on this oven to 400° is only 6 minutes.  So toasting the coconut for these cookies is a breeze that won't slow you down at all.  I set the oven to convection 400°.

 I just spread them on the solid pan and put them in the oven.

I only cooked them for 5 minutes, stirring one time.

Then I washed off the solid pan and baked the cookies in the steam oven as well on convection mode at 325°.

You can easily convert any of your recipes to the steam oven.

Cinnamon Rolls

The recipe for the cinnamon rolls is on my other blog cookingwithrachel101.com and once you have the cinnamon rolls rolled and cut, you can proof them and cook them in the steam oven.  It usually takes only about 30 minutes to proof them and 15 to cook so in 45 minutes you are good to go.

 To proof, use the steam mode at 95°.  No need to cover them since they will stay moist because of the steam.

Once they are doubled in size, you can just switch the mode to Convection Steam at 350 °.  Bake the cinnamon rolls until they are golden brown 12-15 minutes.  They will be soft, fluffy and moist.  Frost them and eat them up!

Short Ribs

The recipe for this little beauty is on my other blog: cookingwithrachel101.com.  But the cooking instructions for the steam oven are right here.  After you have seared the short ribs, and I do that in the same enamel coated cast iron dutch oven that I am going to cook them in, I will make the sauce.

  When the sauce is finished, nest the short ribs into the sauce, then place them WITH OUT the lid into the steam oven.

 Using the convection humid mode at 250 degrees, cook the short ribs until they are fork tender - only about 3 hours. I use the convection humid mode because of the braising liquid that is with the ribs.  They don't need any more added steam, they just need to keep the liquid they have.  Convection humid seals the cavity so no steam escapes.  You don't need a lid because the cavity of the steam oven is small enough that they don't dry out.  Follow the rest of the directions to finish the ribs after they have cooked, and enjoy.  Having a steam oven is so nice!

Turkey and "time bake"

I made my Thanksgiving Turkey in my Steam Oven.  Of course it wasn't that big of a turkey - just 12 pounds.  It fit in just fine, with a little room to spare.  I was cooking it while I was away from the house so I used the "time bake".   All you have to do to set a start and stop time for something is:

 program the cooking mode you want, and the temperature you want,

 then instead of setting a timer push the time button and set the amount of time you want to cook your food,

then push the time button again and set the time you want it to turn off.  

 Push okay.  A clock icon with a octagon around it will appear.  You are all set.  

I hadn't cooked a turkey in my steam oven before so I looked at the chart on the package of the turkey and it said if it was stuffed to cook it for 3-4 hours.  I set my cook time for 3 hours.  When I got home after 3 hours the probe temperature in the stuffing said it was 191°.  Oops. Overcooked. Normally the stuffing should be 165°!  However we all thought it was the moistest turkey we had ever had.  I couldn't get over how tender it was.  Normally I put a bunch of butter and herbs under the skin to make sure the breast doesn't dry out but this time I just put olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper on it.  Oh my.  You have to try it.  It  is amazing - even at 191°

Apple Pie

Pie comes out fabulous in the steam oven.  It is flakier than in the regular oven and it also has a better shine than in the regular oven.  For my recipe for apple pie, see my blog: cookingwithrachel101.com.
But I am telling you that you will love the results with any pie, including the frozen pie that you buy in the super market.  The crust truly will be better than it normally is.  Simply set your Wolf steam oven to the Auto Steam bake mode and let it work its magic.

Bake your pie on the same temperature you would use for the regular oven. If you use my recipe, that is 375°.

 You will want to set your timer for slightly less than the time on the recipe so you can check it a little early.  If it needs more time then let it go.  For my pie I say it takes 45-60 minutes, I will check it after 40 and let it cook longer if I need to. You can tell if it is done if it is golden brown.

You will notice that once I hit start after setting my temperature and time it says 210°.  That is because it has a steam phase first, then it will raise the temperature and convection bake it at the 375° we set it at.  You will notice that the oven tells you what mode you are using and also what phase the oven is in.