Speciality Appliances

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Astonishing
By Mr. Leslie J. Moore
I read a newspaper article about this appliance (and several others in the same range) and after some deliberating,decided to give it a go. £99 is quite a lump of money to me,but I do quite a bit of rice based cooking,and use a slow cooker at least weekly,albeit mainly in the autumn/winter months.First off was basic straight forward boiled rice, that was fine and fluffy as it should be.Secondly I tried a mushroom risotto from Heston's recipes. Now,I make a lot of risotto,always using the same organic Arborio rice, and I consider that my efforts are quite good. I have to say that this machine put even my best efforts in the shade. Quite astonishing,the texture of the rice was superb. Really amazed that this could be produced using ingredients that I regularly use.Next, I decided to "go for broke" and went for a Lamb Biryani. I used one of my own recipes for this,and adapted it to suit the functions on my new Multi-cooker.The result exceeded even the previously mentioned Risotto Absolutely Outstanding. I marinaded the Lamb overnight in yoghurt and spices. Next evening I began by choosing the "sear" setting and put in more spices for 3/4 minutes,next,the onoins,followed by the Lamb and marinade mixture.When the meat was nicely browned,I put some lamb stock into the pot and switched the "slow cooking setting" on high. After a couple of hours, I put the rice into the mix,and switched to "rice" setting. Approximately 20 minutes later,the beeping told me it was ready. My oh my. This was a restaurant quality Biryani,and easily surpassed a good many restaurant meals.If you are considering whether or not to purchase one of these,then I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending the Multi-cooker. Please understand that I am not given to over-enthusing about about things, and not given to buying "boys toys" for the sake of it. This is a machine that will be well used over the foreseeable future,and I am quite excited at the prospect of adapting my existing recipes for a whole range of meals. It's worth the money just to get that amount of enthusiasm. Love it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
great for slow cooking
By light
You can make risotto, saute and sear, make and keep rice warm and do a fast slow cook (2-3 hours) or a long slow cook (6-8 hours) in this multi purpose pot.It comes with quite sparse instructions - and no recipe leaflet but it was very easy to use - just select the mode you want e.g. rice/stem press the button and then press start - and the unit gets to work and beeps when the rice is cooked and then keeps it warm automatically.The inner cooking pot, which you remove to clean is very light and coated with a non stick layer. It is very thin so I have some concerns about the longevity of this layer. There is also a steam hole in the glass lid and when cooking rice lots of steam comes out and I found that the rice was actually very dry because of this (when I cook rice on the hob I always use a lid from which no steam can escape)and I needed to use more water than the recommended i cup of rice to 1 cup of water. My family (bless them) all think my hob cooked rice is much fluffier and nice than from this pot and I sadly have to agree.I found it much, much better for slow cooking. You can fry off all your meat and onions etc on the sear/saute settings and then add the stock and start on the slow cook. I made some really delicious lamb stew and didn't have to worry about someone turning the gas off on the hob etc.So I think it is a good gadget, but is very expensive. I can do everything it does on my hob and it does take up a good bit of room on the worktop. I think if I put it in the cupboard I would only use it for stews in the winter. So it is not an essential piece of kit for me. However, if you always burn your rice or make sloppy rice or can never get your meat soft in a casserole then I think this product would be great for you. Also if you have a 4 burner hob and many people to cook for then being able to cook rice and stews or even cook tir frys etc in the pot as an extra burner would be really useful - think it should really cost about 1/2 the price though

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
I love it (with a few minor reservations)
By J Hutch
I've been using this for a couple of months now and thought I should update my review. So here goes:At first I was dubious -I wondered if it could be as good as it claimed to be and I wondered how good a slow cooker could be. I have respect for Heston but thought it could be gimmicky.So here's what I think:It's great (mostly).I have had it for a couple of months now and have cooked many meals in it, all of them good. I have used all of the functions except the steam and have found them to be reliable and effective. (I have now used the steam function and it was fine - I thought it would switch off when the cauliflower was done but it didn't or rather I stopped waiting for it as the cauliflower was clearly near to being overdone. I would set a timer if I steamed again.)The plain rice was perfectly cooked and kept warm for over an hour while I faffed about putting the kids to bed. I think the rice needs a little bit more water than is suggested but that could just be preference (it has also overcooked the rice once or twice esp if something extra is added eg stock). The risotto was made so much easier by being able to sear in the machine first and not having to stir. I meant to stir once as recommended and rinse the rice but I forgot both and it was still plenty good enough. I made a one pot curried-veggie rice for the whole family and that was well cooked and tasty. I have also used it to slow cook which it did very satisfactorily.I can see that I will use this machine again and again for many, many family meals and the automatic keep-warm is a god send. I can set something going in the morning and it will cook until it is ready and then keep warm until we are ready. I am also hugely pleased with the sear function which means fewer pots to wash up and all the flavours kept in the pan.So, why the star off?There are already some small niggles that keep it from being perfect. I'm hoping Sage fix them before I need to replace this one from overuse.The pan is non-stick, that is fine but the steamer is metal. This means that even in transit the steamer has scratched off some of the non-stick coating on the pan before I ever used either. It doesn't really matter as it doesn't affect performance but it is a niggle. Sage have replaced the bowl for me but I am still a bit concerned over the durability of the non-stickThe slow cooker has a minimum liquid level, which is sensible, but it is way too much liquid. (Sage have fed-back that the minimum is a guidance but it would have to be watched when cooking to check it doesn't boil dry)It can't go in the dishwasher. BOOOOOO! (Sage have now informed me the bowl and lid are dish-washer safe although the manual says it is not recommended)Having used it in the dishwasher I have noticed some minor damage and am now hand washing it.Finally if you are only cooking for one or two this is likely to be too big to be useful. Having said that it has been brilliant for family cooking.NB - after leaving this review Sage got in contact with me through Amazon to thank me for my feedback and that they would pass my comments on to the design team. That is what I call commitment to customer service. They also offered to replace the bowl, they almost earn another star for that! If you contact Sage they will email you a downloadable booklet with some recipes in.