Want to cook like a pro? Then you need the right equipment.
Serious home cooks like to produce restaurant-style food and our kitchens are becoming increasingly equipped with professional-level appliances.
How we prepare our food also determines the level of vitamins, minerals and nutrients retained – and a combi-steam oven, combined with a vacuum drawer, is the way forward for health-conscious foodies.
Producing better-looking and tastier food, the gentle heat action of steaming not only preserves the flavour, colour and aroma of the food, but also allows it to maintain form and texture. Food retains its natural juices and remains moist; even reheating is termed regeneration.
Perfect for vegetables, fish, pasta and rice, the steam-only oven can almost make your hob redundant. Meat cooks beautifully and stays succulent, and bread has that perfect crust when combining an oven function with the moisture of the steam in a combi-steam oven.
The original sous vide style of cooking involved slow-cooking, in vacuum pouches, via a temperature-controlled water bath – now, with the aid of a built-in vacuum drawer, the steam oven can recreate this method, resulting in more tender textures and intense flavours. If you don’t have room for a vacuum drawer, the Bora QVac can be built into your worktop instead: a hand-held vacuum sealer for food you want to store or steam.
For those who love to entertain, a teppanyaki griddle can be integrated into your worktop. Based on the free-standing, iron hotplate used for Japanese grilling, it is perfect for centrepiece cooking whilst entertaining – to prepare barbecue-style meals, stir-fries or even a full English on a Sunday morning!
Venting hobs are now a huge part of many kitchens. Instead of a wall-mounted or overhead extractor, the extractor sits in the middle of the hob, just where you need it. Pulling steam and cooking smells downwards, it either cleans the air and returns it to the room or, in some kitchens, is ducted outside. Venting hobs are perfect for an island, putting the cook in the middle of the conversation rather than squirrelled away facing the wall.
Bora produces three versions of its hob extractor combo and it’s fascinating to see the arc of steam as it disappears down through the vent. The Basic includes a central circular extractor whilst the Classic and Professional allow the combinations of separate induction, ceramic, gas, tepan or wok hobs.
Using new technologies, Siemens has introduced a suite of wifi-enabled appliances that offer some really cool innovations.
How many times have you been to the supermarket without a shopping list (because you’ll remember what you need, of course) and returned without a crucial ingredient? Or forgotten to switch on the washing machine or dishwasher – and now you’re out for the day?
Your life is about to be transformed – by technology which allows you to control your kitchen from your smartphone.
The free Home Connect app allows your smartphone or tablet to connect to appliances which have the integrated chip and you can then access or remotely control them. So in the supermarket you can call up photos of the interior of your fridge, taken every time you shut the fridge door, just to see if you need to buy milk.
The Home Connect app even has an integrated recipe book which can create the shopping list as well as tell you how to cook it with the right oven function.
Home Connect is also available on Siemens’ built-in coffee machine, allowing you to take the order for your dinner party guests at the table, then the coffee machine can get on with the job.
It’s the perfect addition for those with busy lifestyles: dinner can be ready when you come through the door… but you will still have to serve although someday soon there may well be an app for that too!
