Pai Gwut - Steamed Spare Ribs

Winter is here with a vengeance and it makes me want to eat. The obvious - stews, roasts, toasts and mashed potato - are all featuring heavily but I also love chilli hot and ginger bright at the end of almost any kind of day. Robust flavours combined with interesting textures, both texture and flavour multilayered making every mouthful wonderful.

I was having a craving for black beans, was actually thinking beef and black bean, one of my favourite dishes when done well. Checked Steamy Kitchen and found, instead a recipe for spare ribs steamed with black beans. I know already that steaming pork is an unutterably fabulous thing to do so figured a new version could only be a bonus.

How right I was.

Though it was a Tuesday I fancied making a few dishes, the ribs were very quick to prep, and I already planned to steam the last of the cabbage I had in the fridge but even with rice I wanted one more dish. Aubergine because I love aubergine, thinking sea spiced but came across this on my own blog and the hit of chilli in it was the perfect addition for a seriously fab dinner. Man said he wasn't hungry when he got home, but still managed to eat the whole bowl full in no time.

Steamed Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce

You need to ask your butcher for spare ribs, maybe order them in advance if you are definitely planning this dish, otherwise you may be disappointed

Serves 4 with a couple of other dishes also great next day cold for lunch

500g (ish) pork spareribs
2 tablespoons black beans
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 teaspoons cornflour
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar

Cut the spareribs crosswise into 2-4cm sections or ask the butcher to do it for you. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Transfer spareribs and sauce into a shallow, heatproof pan and leave to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To cook in a steam oven set temperature to 100C and steam for 25 minutes.

Or set a steaming rack inside of your wok and fill with water almost up to height of rack. Turn the heat to high and when water is boiling, turn heat to medium-high. Set pan with spareribs on top of a steaming rack in wok. Steam on med-high heat for 18-20 minutes until ribs are no longer pink.

Serve with rice and one or two other dishes for perfect winter treat.

Aubergine Salad with Walnut & Yoghurt

This salad is a bit of a stunner - and definitely good for the transition from summer to autumn but I think it might enter the repertoire permanently.

It started with an aubergine. Actually it started a couple of weeks ago with a different aubergine. We were at the Canton Arms one Sunday for a quiet beer and the sharing of a couple of starters while we read the papers. I love those kind of Sundays! That day one of the dishes was a particularly awesome salad of cubed aubergine dressed with mint and yoghurt and maybe tahini. Seriously gorgeous with thick slices of warm bread. Didn't have the recipe - should have asked.

Usually I move on to new cravings but that salad stayed with me - the creamy freshness of the dressing worked so well I found myself wondering about it in idle moments. I had one attempt where I roasted the cubes in a little olive oil then dressed it cold with yoghurt and garlic, walnuts and mint which was good but not hanker after it memorable. Missed the spot.

Friday I had some lovely little lamb chops that needed an accompaniment to make them supper. Thought I'd have another shot at the salad but there was next to no mint in the garden. There was, however, loads of dill, my new herb of love. Added here and there it has been one of the flavours of our summer. Cut a generous amount then set about making a new dressing. Also decided to steam the aubergine just to see what it would be like.

Aubergine Salad with Walnuts & Yoghurt

Steaming the aubergine gave it a lovely delicacy of texture - like little pillows of joy - but roasting would also work well

Serves 2 generously as a side dish

1 medium sized aubergine

1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1/4 tspn salt

2 tbspns walnuts

1 tbspn chopped dill

100ml plain yoghurt

25ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

Cut the aubergine into 2cm cubes. Put them into a perforated steam tray, season lightly, then steam at 100C for 15 minutes. If roasting, put them into a roasting tin with a little olive oil, season then cook at Gas4/180C/350F for about 20 minutes until they are cooked through.

Using a pestle and mortar crush the clove of garlic with the salt to make a paste. Add the walnuts and dill and keep pounding until you have a rough paste. Add the yoghurt and mix well then drizzle in the oil, still mixing with the pestle till it is all combined. Taste a bit to check for seasoning then add the required salt and ground pepper.

Let the aubergine cool slightly then fold it into the dressing. The flavour develops if you let it sit for about half an hour.

It was perfect with grilled lamb but it would work well with chicken or fish or as part of a meze platter. Thoroughly addictive!

Steamed Crisped Aromatic Pork Shoulder

I think I have reached a perfection of pork.

I bought a piece of pork shoulder on the bone to roast last weekend, with cold for lunches in the week. Lovely bit of meat, huge expanse of skin, beautifully scored by the butcher at the Gigner Pig. Definite treat in the making.

Serendipity. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's column in the Guardian Saturday was for organic pork. There was a recipe for slow cooked spiced shoulder which sounded gorgeous right up to the point where he was describing the skin. I read 'you won't get any crackling, but you will get "chewling" – tender, chewable skin with a lovely, spicy flavour' and thought, can't be right. Read it again and, shockingly, that was what he was suggesting. Love pork. Love roast pork. Most of all love crackling. That incredible tasty shattering when you bite down, the lovely oily crunchy mouthful, the brilliant flavour of pig. There was no way I was settling for "chewling".

Have wondered for a while about steaming pork on the bone for the incredible moist tenderness that results but hesitated because I was worried there would be no crackling. Have tried it with lamb shoulder, steaming for a few hours, then finished with a quick blast in the oven which crisped the outside nicely. I have also slow roasted pork shoulder. Start hot, add liquid cover with foil and drop the temperature, then finish it uncovered on a very high heat which resulted in tender meat.

And lots of crackling :)

I figured I could translate this method to use the steam oven for the slow cook bookended by hot blasts in the gas oven. The result was wow! like you wouldn't believe.

Slow-cooked aromatic shoulder of pork

I did use HFW's spicing, which was lovely and dark and slightly sticky, but the method is mine. As was the crackling!

Serves six-plus

2.5kg piece of shoulder of pork, on the bone
5 large garlic cloves, peeled
5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp brown sugar
½ tbsp flaky sea salt
1 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp five-spice powder - I used ready made, HFW makes his own
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 glass white or red wine

Heat the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8. With a craft knife, score the pork rind in parallel lines about 1cm apart and to a depth of 0.5-1cm (or get the butcher to do it for you).

Grate the garlic and fresh ginger into a small bowl, and mix to a paste with the chilli, ground ginger, sugar, salt, oil and soy sauce. Mix a tablespoon of five spice into the paste.

Put the joint skin-side up into the steam oven roasting tin. Using your fingertips, rub just over half the spice rub into the scored rind. Rub the rest into the meat.

Roast the joint for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven.

Pour the glass of wine and a glass of water into the roasting tin, cover with foil and steam in the steam oven at 100C for 3 hours. When the steam runs out after a couple of hours baste the meat before refilling the water. Finish the three hours of steaming.

Heat the oven to 230C/420F/Gas 8.

Take the pork from the steam oven, remove the foil, and carefully drain the dark spicy liquid that has gathered in the bottom of the pan, leaving only a couple of tablespoons. (Keep it to use for stock in noodle soup or a rich pork stew.)

Put the roast back into the hot oven and firm up that crackling for 20-30 minutes. Take the pork out of the oven, put it onto a warmed plate, cover with foil and allow to rest for 20 minutes or so before carving.

Serve with lots of roast potatoes and we had a light cloud of spiced puréed parsnip and turnip for a great Sunday supper.

Steamed or Baked Whole Camembert

A few months ago I read on a website somewhere about the perfect way to serve hot camembert. I was intrigued as it is an occasional treat - definitely a dish for two and one that should be shared in a sensuous sort of way. You must eat with your hands, scooping runnels of cheese onto hunks of bread, adding sprigs of rocket at the moment you bite to add a prickle of heat and resistance against the rich buttery warmth of the cheese. A truly great Friday night treat.

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It is simplicity itself to make. First - and this is important - buy one that comes in a little box made with thin strips of wood (balsa wood I think but I'm not htat technically knowledgeable), rather than plastic coated board. You will avoid disaster before you have begun.

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Second, unwrap the cheese and make a number of little slits across the top with a sharp knife. Peel a small clove of garlic and cut into tiny slivers. Insert the slivers into the cheese via the tiny holes you have dotted across the top, being sure to push them in deep. Drizzle a tablespoon of white wine across the top, put the cheese back into the box and replace the lid.

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Place the cheese onto a flat baking tray - another potential disaster avoided - and cook in a moderate oven - 180C/350F for about fifteen minutes. The cheese is transformed into a decadent thing - thick hot creamy and subtly flavoured with garlic. I have made this a couple of times and it seemed impossible for it to be better.

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But I was wrong.

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Last Friday I had all the requisite elements assembled when I had a sudden urge to steam it rather than bake it. I am using the steam oven a lot, often for simple delights like beans fresh picked from the garden or an absolute favourite silken tofu but not for anything that should be baked. But why not?

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Into the steam oven for 15 minutes at 100C and the tray emerged bearing a positively molten cheese, undulating voluptuosly like a just abandoned water bed. Wow. It was subtly but definitely better than baking it, the heart of it more moist and the skin was softer, more tender to the bite.

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Possibly the ultimate dinner à deux.

Apple & Blackberry Duff

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot

Seamus Heaney - Blackberry Picking

Love blackberries, the mix of sharp and sweet and the extraordinary depth of shiny blackness, the tiny bursts of liquid released from their myriad of tiny dimples, the juice stains face and fingers and clothes. Food to make you smile.

With absolute certainty I associate them with autumn. How wrong I can be? Turns out that cultivated varieties ripen mid July and they are abundant through August and much of September. Then comes Devil Spit Day - I kid you not - on September 29th, which is when Satan spits on all the unpicked fruit. Really no putting them in your mouth after that!

Last week I bought a pudding sleeve with which to make steamed puddings. It may still be lovely and warm in London but one of the myriad joys of a steam oven is the fact it doesn't heat the kitchen, only the food, so it's great to use any time. The pudding sleeve is a funny little metal contraption in two parts that slot together and clip shut which comes with a tiny booklet of suggested recipes. Very pleased with my purchase I asked the man to choose what he'd like as the inaugural delight. Being the cakey pig in our relationship, with a particular fondness for trad Brit, he is far more qualified than me to take such decisions - and I was certain he would choose spotted dick. No. He liked the sound of apple and blackberry duff.

No problem. Except it's not autumn and I was sure there would be no blackberries. At my local fruit shop on Brixton Road on Saturday I discovered tiny boxes of well past it berries, from Kent. They smelt like they'd been kept in the dark since last autumn so wasn't tempted. Talk about not making the connection! In Jellied Eel, a magazine from Sustain that I flick through but don't warm to, there was a list of what's in season this month. Top of the fruit list? Blackberries. You really can learn something every day.

The main display at the entrance of the local Waitrose when I went in Monday afternoon? Blackberries. So I grabbed a punnet, a big Bramley apple and a packet of suet. Duff it would be.

Apple & Blackberry Duff

6 servings - with lashings of cream!

150g self raising flour
1/2 level tspn baking powder
25g caster sugar
75g shredded suet - ask your butcher or buy Atori from a shop
5-6 tbspns (fridge) cold water
1 large Bramley apple - peeled, cored and diced
1/2 level tspn ground cinnamon
1 tbspn caster sugar
100-150g fresh blackberries

If you have a pudding sleeve grease it lightly but thoroughly. If not, dampen and then flour one side of a cloth or tea towel.

Combine the flour, baking powder, 25g caster sugar and the suet in a bowl. Add the cold water and mix to a soft, but not sticky, dough.

Lightly flour the bench top and roll the dough out to a rectangle roughly 18 x 30 cms.

Arrange the diced apple over the dough, leaving a clear 1-2 cm border all the way round. Sprinkle the apple with cinnamon and the tablespoon of caster sugar. Dot the blackberries over the top.

Turn the clear edges of the long sides in over the beginning of the fruit, so that the filling is secured. Then, from the short edge closest to you, swiftly roll the dough to encase the filling.

Place the duff in the base (the slotted part) of the greased pudding sleeve. Engage the top part of the sleeve in the slots and secure the clip.

If you are using a cloth, put the rolled duff onto the short edge of the cloth and roll tightly, then sucure the ends with string.

Either way, steam for 90 minutes.

Serve immediately with thick cream or a dollop of crème fraiche.

Steamed Spicy Beef Tendon

A couple of months ago the man and I had tickets to the Soho Theatre which, apart from the anticipation of what was billed as a delightful show, gave us a reason to go again to Bar Shu, one of my absolute favourite restaurants in London which had been shut for a while due to fire and rebuilding. Marina O'Loughlin's review in the Metro opened 'I am so far outside my comfort zone that I think my gums are bleeding'. And she eats for a living. On our first visit I was simply blown away - we ate food that I had never come across before and all of it variations on extraordinary. With Fuchsia Dunlop as consulting chef, Bar Shu specialises in the authentic flavours of Sichuan Province. This cuisine is famous for its fiery spiciness - and wow is some of it hot! but also for the sheer variety of its tastes and textures, often served in a lip-tingling pile of chillies and Sichuan pepper. It has great depth of flavour and, done as well as it is at Bar Shu, enormous subtlety. Genuinely exciting food.

On our first visit I was so eager to try everything I ordered about three times as much as we could eat, which gave us a great sampling of some of the menu and a collection of takeaway boxes that made the best lunches for the next two days. Soon after it closed for the longest time and this was our second trip back after its return. I ordered much more circumspectly, figuring I couldn't really take half a dozen tubs of spicy food to the theatre, but couldn't resist ordering the ox tendon. It was like nothing else - unctuous and rich, melt in the mouth with a tiny resistance to the bite, small pieces of almost transparent tendon floating in a mindblowing chilli and pepper sauce. Alongside the other dishes the richness of it defeated us but I couldn't let it go. Without consulting the man I asked the waitress to box up the rest of it to take away. As their is no such place as 'away' what I was intending was to take my box of spicy ox tendon to the theatre then home later on the bus. The man grinned complicity. After all it was Friday night.

By chance a few weeks later there was a piece on serious eats about beef tendon, and I suddenly realised I could try and recreate a little piece of this magic in my very own kitchen. I was aware that it might need a few goes, but if I don't start now then when? The next Saturday at the Ginger Pig at Borough I asked Charlie if he could butcher me up some beef tendon (I figured ox was unlikely and probably generic on the menu at Bar Shu). He looked a touch bemused and said another guy had asked him for it once, chinese guy. But the answer was still no, not really.

Vaguely disappointed but, hey, the world is full of recipes. Then a few weeks later Iwas in one of the big food shops in chinatown and, hey presto, they were selling fresh beef tendon at the butchers counter. Perhaps this was meant to be.

So I googled and read what little I could find on techniques and recipes and decided to start by steaming the tendon in soy for a long time then let it cool. Refrigerated for a couple of days, the tendon was a little chewy still, and not entirely easy to slice. I decided I'd aim for a bowl of hot - both temperature and spice - sauce with lovely gobbets of melting tendon. Served over rice and briefly steamed bean sprouts (for a crunch in your mouth) it was good. But not great - which is where I'd like it to be. For now it is a work in progress.

Steamed Spicy Beef Tendon with Beansprouts

250g beef tendons (from an asian butcher)

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/2 cup water

3 tbspoons chilli oil, with sediment

2 tspns sugar

1 tspn sesame oil

1 tspn toasted groung sichuan peppercorns

100g fresh beansprouts, washed and with their squiggly tails removed

Wash the tendons well then put them into a bowl soy sauce and enough water to partially cover the tendons. Set the steam oven to 100C and cook for 4 hours.

Remove the tendons from the bowl and put onto a plate. Pour the soy/water liquid from the steaming into a bowl and refrigerate it to use in the next step of the cooking. It will split into a firm dark soy 'jelly' with a creamy white cap of beef fat.

Let the tendons cool to room temperature; then refrigerate until they are completely firm.

Slice the tendons into bite size pieces and put into a bowl. Take the fat off the set jelly from the previous steaming and keep for another use. Dice the jelly and scatter over the tendon then add the chilli oil and sugar.

Steam in the oven at 100C for 40 minutes till the tendon is meltingly tender. Scatter with the ground sichuan pepper. Return the bowl to the oven, along with the beansprouts in a perforated tray, and steam for a further 1 m inute to just take the raw edge off the sprouts.

Serve over plain rice.

Steamed spiced lamb

Celebrate! Spring is officially here now that the vernal equinox has passed and it feels like it too, with the temperature finally making it into double figures. After the winter we've had 12 degrees and overcast is positively balmy. The clocks will change imminently and everything will be brighter.

It is also Noruz, Persian New Year, another reason to celebrate, particularly for Iranians all over the world. In the Zoroastrian belief system, at the beginning of the cycle of life, the plant produced seeds; the bull produced all animals and from the human came the first male and female. The rest of the humanity was created from their union. This was called the first No Ruz, meaning new day, and it repeats every spring. I like the idea of formally celebrating the return of spring, particularly this year.

Celebrations should always include feasting and it was on this basis that I decided dinner Sunday should have a slightly Persian feel, with delicately spiced lamb, butterbean purée, fresh spinach with onions and yoghurt all offset with a crunchy sweet carrrot and dill salad. Had been thinking about slow roasting a half shoulder of lamb but I was curious to see what would happen if I steamed it for a couple of hours instead then blasted it in a hot oven for the last 20 minutes or so to crispy up the edges. I was brought up to understand you shouldn't play with your food and all that, but the need to know what would happen was too strong to resist.

Carrot sandwiches all round was the back up plan.

Total triumph. Adapting a recipe from the Moro cookbook. I marinated the meat for a couple of hours, then steamed it for 4 hours. The meat came out slightly shrunken - but that happens in the gas oven too - with a fair amount of spiced liquid in the pan - which doesn't happen cooked the other way. Some of it is juice from the meat and some is the marrow from the bones and all of it provided a wonderful bath to steam/braise the lamb, so the final result after a quick browning, was a most succulent joint, the intensely flavoured meat really did melt in the mouth.

Steamed spiced lamb

Half shoulder of lamb

4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed with salt to a paste

1 tbspn thyme leaves

1 tbspn chopped rosemary leaves

2 tbspns red wine vinegar

2 tbpsns lemon juice

1 small onion, finely grated

1 tspn hot smoked paprika

2 tbspn olive oil

Mix everything from the garlic down to the paprika and season with salt and pepper. Lightly score the flesh of the meat then rub the marinade in all over, very thoroughly. Lay the meat in the pan you will cook in then drizzle the oil over the top. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours.

Steam the meat, uncovered, for 4 hours at 100C. If you don't have a steam oven, slow roast it at Gas mark 1/120C/200F for the same amount of time.

Take the meat out of the oven and drain most of the liquid from the base of the pan, then put it into a conventional oven at Gas 7/450F/230C for 25 minutes.

Allow to rest for 15 minutes under foil, then carve and wonder at its succulent delight.

I really love the flavour of lamb and this was the lambiest lamb I think I've ever eaten. Spring is most definitely welcomed.

Bowl Steamed Aubergines with Black Beans

This is a spectacularly fabulous way to cook aubergine from The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. A light frying precedes seasoning and steaming resulting in a decadently rich and silky bowl of food. The black beans add a definite umami hit, their creamy saltiness released by the initial frying of the topping. The preserved mustard rounds out the savouriness - if there is such a word! - and the chilli flakes add a dimension of heat. I tend to be light handed with the chilli flakes so that the topping is balanced against the delicacy of the aubergine.

Steaming the lot for 20 minutes melds the elements and creates a gloriously tantalizing texture. If you like aubergine, you will love this.

Bowl Steamed Aubergines

600g aubergines - long pale oriental ones or ordinary deep purple both work

salt

125 ml groundnut oil

50g preserved mustard greens

1 tbspn black beans, rinsed

1/2 tspn chili flakes

1 spring onion, green part only, finely sliced

Cut off and discard the stems of the aubergines. Cut each one in half lengthwise, and then in half again lengthwise, then each long quarter into 1cm slices. Put the aubergine into a colander.

Sprinkle liberally with salt and leave to drain for 30-60 minutes.

Give the preserved mustard greens a thorough rinse under the cold tap, shake them dry and then fry them in a tablespoon of peanut oil with the black beans in a wok to lose their moisture. When they are fragrant add chilli flakes to taste.

Heat the remaining oil in a wok until it reaches 180C/350F. Add the aubergine slices, a few at a time, and fry until soft and tinged with gold. Drain on a plate covered with kitchen paper.

Lay the neatest slices of aubergine, skin side down, in a heatproof bowl, then add the rest of the aubergine on top of the tidy ones. Scatter the black bean/ mustard green mix over the top.

Steam for 20 minutes.

To serve you can turn it out onto a serving plate if it's one dish among many to display a glossy black jigsaw but for us it's simpler to serve straight from the bowl, simply scattered with spring onions.

This week we had it with a bowl of steamed tofu, last time I made steamed chicken with salted chillies and the first time there was ma po and every time it was great.

A Steamy Month

The steam oven was meant to go back to Miele this week. At dinner Saturday night Jaey and Marie were adamant we should keep it, it was obviously a good thing. 'But there's no proper space for it!' I cried. It has lived on the end of the kitchen table most of the month and on the bench where the dishes normally pile up when there were guests which is fine as a short term solution but not one you could live with. Can't afford to refit the kitchen so I had resigned myself to its return.

We played a game for a while, choosing places - 'a shelf above the clock?' 'but you'd hit your head when you stand up' 'top of the fridge?' ' too high to get food in and out' and then, suddenly, there was an answer. 'Make a shelf under the plate cupboard, it'll fit there.' 'Whatever, the chocolate puddings are ready!' Made them in teacups for a pretty presentation but sadly I thought they were a bit overcooked. And more of a disaster, when I warmed the lovingly made ultra decadent chocolate sauce, it split. I am still not great at making sweet things...

Next morning I snuck a look to see if it really would fit on a shelf under the crockery cupboard, and it could. Asked the man what he thought about keeping it. Didn't mind. Which meant that I now had my heart set...

When I was first offered the oven trial I called my mother to ask for her baked custard recipe, thinking that as she always cooked it in a bain marie, it would probably steam well. She was much intrigued by the notion of a steam oven and, without much hesitation started listing things she'd try. One of which was a pork and veal terrine that she frequently makes. Though I've yet to try the custard, I did steam the terrine and it was a total success, and stayed beautifully moist the whole week.

I was surprised that the top browned lightly but, upon eating it, it is the colours of the cooked meat, and just look at that juicy bacon...

The steam oven means I finally get to try a whole series of chinese recipes that I've fancied. This chicken and chillies is just about to go in for a 10 minute steaming. That quantity of chillies looks severe but they are ones I made recently, preserving them in salt. They are hot but not outrageous, and they add a brilliant bite to this dish.

That very same meal, a repeat of an earlier dinner, I also made this bowl steamed aubergine, which was creamy and salty with black beans and decadently delicious. The aubergine is fried first then steamed with aromatics, and it's that cleverness in technique that characterises a lot of the asian use of steaming as a cooking method. It is intriguing.

This stew is a whole other story, really. I had read that steaming curries was a good thing to do so, given that it is still definitely winter in London whatever the calendar says, I decided I would test the theory with a lamb and barley stew. I don't (yet) know why, but it made this really intensely flavoured, all the richness of the meat was there, the juices were divine, it was a totally stand out meal.

One (more) of my favourites are these little rice covered pork balls. It's the first time I have ever used glutinous rice, which must always be steamed. Boil it and it becomes porridge. The insides of these balls are an interesting mix of meat, ginger, chopped water chestnuts for a surprising crunch which is then rolled in rice mixed with shitaki mushrooms and tiny pieces of diced ham. Fabulous mouthful.

I could not possibly have had the steam oven without making a steamed pudding. I sincerely wanted this ginger syrup version to be the nicest thing I made, but I lack the requisite sweet tooth to vote this my favourite. But it is very pretty! I will experiment more with sweets and find some things that respond to the method.

Steamed eggs, on the other hand, are definitely on my favourites list. I really wanted set whites, runny yolks and creamy underneaths. And that's what I got! These eggs had parma ham, a dollop of cream, a shave of Parmesan and a tiny sprig of thyme in the base. I made another version on the weekend with a spoonful of cooked leeks and smoked bacon, a dollop of cream and a little Parmesan for probably the nicest lunch I've had this year.

This extraordinary bowl of food is probably the most interesting thing I made this month. It is smoked trout and smoked bacon, half and half in a shallow bowl, then topped with blackbeans, chilli flakes and a spoonful of rendered pork fat, all of it steamed for about 15 minutes. It was a wildly fabulous thing to put in my mouth, such an astonishing combination of things I would not have dreamed to put together if I'd never read Fuchsia Dunlop.

This may look like a visit from outer space but is my very first steamed savoury pudding. It is full of leeks and bacon and cream and that casing is lovingly constructed with suet for silky joy. It is a Bristish classic and a good example of the utterly different way steam is used in western cooking.

We had it with roast, so didn't finish it all, but the pastry doesn't hold up eaten cold next day. So, the obvious solution the next time was to have a whole one as dinner for two! I am not miss greedy pants for nothing.

This burnished beauty is a pork hock that has been boned, simmered in a red stock then steamed with black beans and chillies to finish. Delicate and toothsome.

This steamed savoury custard is already part of my repertoire, having made it three times in the last month. It is such a delicate thing, eating it is like a tender caress. I cannot imagine ever getting enough.

Pork and steam are a marriage made in heaven. This incarnation is made by blanching the meat briefly then steaming it with black beans and chilli and shaoxing. With rice and stirfried peppers, a delight.

I loathed this. The man thought he'd died and gone to heaven. It is a luxury rice pudding, made with cream and orange zest and syrup. When I was a kid, I hated rice pudding with a passion. That was then and I thought that now being an adult and with tastes expanded exponentially since then, and loving rice particularly, that it would be different. Ha! It only took the first tiny spoonful to bring all that disgust flooding back, the awful smell, the horrible texture, the globs on my tongue, euuuuugh. If the man hadn't been there I swear I would have spat.

I made little pots each morning for the man to take to work to have with his lunch. He loved it.

A seriously interesting month of cooking. I loved the extra scope the steam oven gave me and was surprised at just how much use I made of my new toy. I used it pretty much every day, steaming vegetables which made them taste perfectly of themselves, reheating things so they never dry out or catch on the bottom of the pan as well as making all these lovely things here.

I had thought I'd do some fish dishes, but no. Someh0w there simply wasn't time.

Lucky it's not going any time soon!

Steamed Ginger Syrup Pudding

One of the things I've been contemplating making since the arrival of the Miele steam oven is steamed pudding of the sweet variety. Used to eat them as a kid for 'special' dessert after Sunday lunch - always the full roast sitting at the dining - as opposed to the kitchen - table, pretty much the only time it was used unless there were guests. It was part of the whole magic of Sunday, growing up, using chrystal wine glasses and silver cutlery, all of it kept separate to the every day stuff. Always the event of the week!

When I told my friend David about the trial his instant reaction was oooh, puddings! Charlie at the Ginger Pig thought it would be the best use for the oven too! The man, of course, loves sweet things and trad Brit things and so, with David joining us for dinner Saturday night it was definitely time to take the plunge. I planned an asian menu - lots of steaming, lots of flavours, and the best dessert I could imagine was ginger syrup steamed pudding. With custard. Actually, when I thought it up I planned to use dollops of thick cream but on informing the man he looked a bit askance. 'Oh' he said. 'That might work. I've only ever had it with custard'. Being as he's much more of an expert than I in such matters, custard it was, St Delia's recipe producing a delightfully rich golden confection and peace was restored to the world.

Ginger syrup steamed pudding

175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
50g stem ginger from a jar, chopped plus 2 tbsp of the ginger syrup
2 tbsp golden syrup,
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk

Generously butter a large pudding bowl and line the base with a circle of baking paper.

Scatter the chopped ginger over the base of the pudding bowl, drizzle with both the golden and the ginger syrup. Set aside.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the butter, sugar, eggs and milk and mix with electric beaters until smooth. Spoon into the basin and level the top.

Butter a large sheet of foil then fold 2 pleats in the centre. Place, buttered-side down, on top of the pudding basin and secure with string around the rim. Trim off any excess foil.

Place the pudding into the steam oven and cook at 100C for about 2 hours.

Remove the foil, loosen the sides of the pudding with a knife and carefully turn out onto a plate.

Serve with custard! The guys both loved it, proclaiming it utterly, correctly, perfectly British.

The man had leftovers as a cakey treat with his lunch for a couple of days.

Slow cooked ham & eggs

This simple and lovely supper was a delight. I wanted to steam whole eggs, not a custard, like the traditional en cocotte but not baked - obviously. And they had to be runny yolks if at all possible. I am gaining in confidence with the steam oven and fancied seeing if I could make this work.

Perused various bits of the web and discovered that egg yolks set at 65C and yolks at 63C and the alchemist chefs like Joel Rubuchon cook them at these kind of temperatures for 20-30 minutes, or more. I'm loving this idea - slow cooked egg. I'd been out and bought some parma ham at lunch time, thinking it would make a good lining for the ramekins. I had a little cream left from making the leek pudding and could see how that would be good. But it needed something to make it meld in my imagination. Checked the fridge and spied a block of Parmesan. The man cut me some curls using the vegetable peeler and I was good to go.

The Miele steam oven can be set at different temperatures, in increments of 5C. So I started with 65C - hoping it would err on the side of 63C - and set the clock for 15 minutes. The buzzer went and, oooh, not good. Warm but still an entirely liquid egg. Another 12 minutes, same temperature. The buzzer went and, oooh, still not good. Still warm but still liquid. So, with a decisive stroke, the temperature went up to 100C and the clock to a mere 2 minutes. Voila! Creamy whites, liquid gold yolks. Utterly perfect.

Slow cooked ham & eggs

4 slices parma ham

4 teaspoons thick cream

the leaves from a sprig of thyme

4 curls of Parmesan

4 fresh eggs

Black pepper

Set out 4 ramekins. Line each one with a thin slice parma ham, top it with a spoon of cream. sprinkle that with the thyme leaves, add a curl of Parmesan and a grind of pepper and then break an egg into each dish. Cover each ramekin with a sheet of clingfilm to stop the tops going rubbery.

Heat the steam oven to 65C, cook the ramekins for 25 minutes. Increase the heat to 100C and cook for 2 more minutes.

Eat with a teaspoon!

We had 2 each, with a simple fennel salad and crusty bread on the side and it was perfect. Would also make a great lunch for ladies!

Steamed Leek Pudding

Still very winter in London so craving comfort food as February plods on. Seriously fancied roast beef Sunday with all the trimmings. Found a recipe from HFW in the Guardian for a steamed leek pudding and I was intrigued. Actually it would be fair to say I was utterly intent on making one because a) I love leeks and smoked bacon b) most of Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's recipes work out a treat and c) I am undeniably a greedy cow and I could imagine how wonderful it might be!

According to ham and pease pudding leek puddings are the traditional accompaniment to stewed meat in the north east. It makes perfect sense for anyone who's ever seen the intensity with which leeks are cultivated, the care lavished daily, the night time vigils to prevent skulduggery, all determined to be the prize winner in local shows. All that attention produces ENORMOUS leeks, the big beasts of the vegetable world, but probably not entirely naturally. Obviously a leek that is over 8cm in diameter would be so tough and stringy it will be inedible, steamed or otherwise. For eating, smaller is sweeter.

I have certainly never made a steamed pudding before and I'm not convinced I have ever eaten from one either. If I have it wasn't memorable. I loved the idea of making suet pastry having previously fallen in love, in winter, with suet dumplings. Suet makes for such a silky mouthful it is irresistable though possibly not entirely good for you.

I am thoroughly enjoying playing with the steam oven from Miele and have used it nearly every day since it arrived. Have mostly made Chinese dishes, it being a cuisine that has a lot of time for steaming but there is a strong tradition too in Britain for steamed puddings, mostly sweet but occasionally savoury too.

The recipe is very simple but I would double the quantities for the filling next time or at the very least use bigger leeks, especially if I was planning to serve it to six. It had a great flavour but there could have been a lot more of it. See c) above.

Leek pudding

HFW sasys 'A north country favourite. Serve it alongside a roast, so the ­tender ­pastry can soak up the meat juices. Serves six as a side dish'.

200g self-raising flour

100g shredded suet (beef or vegetable)

1 tsp English mustard powder (I omitted the mustard as I don't like it)

Salt and pepper

50g butter, plus more for greasing

6 slices unsmoked bacon, cut into 2cm pieces - use 12

3 leeks, white and pale green part only, washed and finely chopped - use 6

70ml double cream - double that to 140ml

Mix the flour and suet with the ­mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper. Combine with just enough water – about 140ml or so – to make a ­stiffish dough.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the bacon until just golden. ­Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pan, gently sauté the leeks in the same fat until soft, move the pan from the heat and stir in the cream.

Roll out the dough into a large ­circle. Cut a quarter out of the circle. Generously butter a one-and-a-half-litre pudding basin and line it by dropping the larger piece of pastry into it, drawing together the cut sides to make a firm join. I didn't know this trick but it worked flawlessly!

Fill with alternating layers of leeks and ­bacon.

Roll out the remaining ­quarter of pastry into a circle and lay it on top. Press together the edges of the pastry lid and casing to seal. Put a double layer of ­buttered, pleated foil over the top and tie in place with string.

Put a large pan of water on to boil (fill the pan with enough water to come a ­little more than halfway up the side of the basin), and place a pan lid or upturned tart tin in the bottom to act as a trivet. Lower the pudding on to the makeshift trivet, cover the pot and leave bubbling away for two hours. If the water gets low, top up with boiling water. I obviously used the steam oven which simply heats to 100C then cooks, with no requirement for more water, for the requisite two hours but if I am to make it again these instructions will come in handy.

Once cooked, remove the foil, run a knife around the edge of the pudding, turn out on to a plate and serve hot.

Sadly this was not great next day cold - the filling remained toothsome but once cold the pastry reverts, like the ugly sisters after the ball, to undesirable stodge.

Steamed Pork and Blackbeans

There is a whole series of recipes, mostly in various Chinese cookbooks that I love the sound of but have never made simply because they rely on steaming as the main method of cooking. I have a largish saucepan with a steamer that sits on the top that I have used sporadically but the steamer section is not very big and so works for, say, fish fillets but not much else. So when I am riffling through I tend to stop and think, mmmmm that sounds good and then I turn the page till I find something I can stirfry or simmer on the hob. I'm aware I'm missing out but till now I've not realised quite how much.

Miele very kindly offered to let me trial their steam oven for a couple of weeks and suddenly I had the opportunity to try some of these recipes. I am already a serious fan of Fuschia Dunlop and cook regularly from her books. The steamed recipes probably make close to a fifth of her work so I was expecting good results but, in the same way that following her instructions I finally learned how to make tofu great, trying out the first few steamed recipes have shown me the delight of steaming.

The major discovery for me has been the way steaming creates an extraordinary delicacy of flavour and a new succulent texture, just a complete wow! in every mouthful. Crisp veg stays crispier and the pork in this dish took juicy to a new level. And all so very simple.

Steamed Pork and Blackbeans

500g pork spare rib chops, diced into large cubes

2 tspn light soy sauce

1 tbspn shaoxing wine

2 tspns finely chopped ginger

2 tbspn blackbeans, rinsed

1/2 tspn chilli flakes

2 tspn lard - optional

Bring a pan of water to the boil and blanch the pork for a minute. Drain.

Put the meat into a heat proof bowl and mix with the soy, shaioxing and ginger. Top with the black beans, chilli and lard if using (I did and it added a lovely mouth feel to the final dish).

Steam any which way for about 40 minutes.

I served it simply with basmati rice and steamed cabbage with ginger for a bowl of food that was richly flavoured and very light at the same time.

Seriously good.