A steamy evening with Silvana Franco and Miele

Swanky German kitchen appliance giant Miele recently invited me to an evening for mummy bloggers at their shiny gallery with celebrity chef Silvana Franco.

Miele’s kit is mega impressive and Silvana’s task for the evening was to put the steam oven through its paces and demonstrate how we could use it to prepare simple and nutritious family meals.

Silvana has a young daughter who she’s currently weaning, so all the recipes she prepared were suitable for babies but also looked tasty enough for the rest of the family.

She showed us how to prepare four dishes and made it all look very effortless. I’d never seen a steam oven in action and was very impressed with how rapidly they cook, yet how moist the food remains. It’s a really healthy approach to cooking.

I’ve only ever used a Tefal steamer that I don’t have room to keep on my worktop – therefore it doesn’t really get used very often. I love the idea of cooking with steam, especially the health and taste benefits, but I guess I’d got sick of getting the steamer in and out of its box.

I imagine having a steam oven as part of your kitchen set-up would change things. Oven technology seems to have moved on pretty rapidly since I last chose a cooker. Oh the fun I could have designing my own kitchen – ho hum! Maybe one day!

Anyway back to the Miele evening. This tasty looking dish is chicken couscous with fresh pesto. The chicken was juicy and the vegetables kept their colour. Freshly whizzed up pesto is so simple to make and kids really love the flavours.

I find that as long as the sauce is yum, kids are much more likely to eat the meat and vegetables. While I don’t have a steam oven, this is a combo I’d definitely try and recreate at home for a simple supper.

Silvana also cooked up a butternut squash risotto, salmon, leek and mascarpone parcels and vanilla poached pears. Delicious.

I felt quite inspired the next day and had a bash at making the butternut risotto as we’d been given the ingredients to take home. I made it in a pan on my decidedly ordinary hob and it turned out okay.

Arlo and I wolfed it down, but sadly Sam wouldn’t even touch it. It was too ‘orange-looking’ apparently. Ah well, you win some you lose some!