#multicooker

I’m definitely not an expert, but I did do a lot of research before buying mine, and my first choice was the famous Instant Pot. I liked that it comes with different features and sizes (and prices), and overall it seemed the most practical multicooker on the market.

Unfortunately, getting it in Europe is a bit of a hassle. After another round of research, I bought a Tefal and I’m very happy with it. The only problem is the recipe book, which features only a handful of absurd things like coq au vin and steamed shark or whatever else, so you pretty much need to fend for yourself.

On the plus side, it comes with an appealingly witchy, cauldron-shaped cooking bowl, so there’s that.

The functions I use the most are ‘cereal’ (which cooks rice to perfection; for other cereals and beans, you might need to add a bit less or a bit more water), ‘bake’ (amazing baked potatoes and other root vegetables, but also good for apples and pears), ‘soup’ and ‘crust fry’ (a badly chosen name if you ask me, but it cooks good stir-frys). Over the last couple of months I started to experiment with ‘yoghurt’ (I make soy yoghurt, so it took me a couple of tries to get it right, but I heard good things about cow milk’s yoghurt; the machine doesn’t come with pots, though, so you’ll need those as well) and ‘bread raise’ (again, you’ll need a bit of guesswork depending on your dough because the instructions are unhelpful). The four-portion size is perfect for us, as my normal routine is to cook double of what we need and then store or freeze the rest. I might use it four times a day or so: to raise bread in the morning, to make a stew for lunch, to prepare rice or lentils for dinner, and to make yoghurt overnight. The bowl is very easy to clean and there’s no smell leftover from dish to dish (although I have to admit I do not cook with strong spices).

If you already know how to cook or are willing to experiment a bit, I think a product like that is the way to go. But: I have a couple of friends who don’t know anything about cooking and fell in love with their Bimby, so that’s an option too.

Just a warning: everybody is always complaining about how much a Bimby costs (more than a thousand euros; I paid my multicooker around 70), but to me the main issue is that the Bimby guides you through recipes instead of cooking for you. Like - sure, you can make perfect lasagne with a Bimby. But you’ll need to stay there and hold its robotic hand every step of the way. Think stuff like ‘Please insert chopped onion and oil and press 5′, then two minutes later ‘Please add meat and press 3′ and then ten minutes later ‘Please add tomato sauce and select program 21′ and on and on. I’m sure there are recipes you can just toss into the thing and forget about, but what I hear from my friends is that a Bimby is much more a cooking assistant than it is a kitchen help. My multicooker can’t do béchamelle or vanilla custard (probably; I don’t know), but my goal was to make normal, daily cooking much quicker, not to make things I wouldn’t know how to make by hand. In this sense, it’s been great. As I said, I normally cook a batch of rice, lentils or beans, and then a batch of veggie stew or stir-fry or baked things - it takes ten minutes to wash the produce and chop it up, and the machine does everything else. It’s really a life-saver.

I know it’s a mistake to be surprised by anything or anyone on the internet, but these are Youtube comments left for a British woman reviewing a multicooker.

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