After over a month without an oven I finally decided to treat myself to a new Tefal Activfry, while simultaneously satisfying my craving for Sweet potato fries! After using it for 3 days in a row for a variety of meals and being very satisfied with the results, I started to consider the other essential small kitchen appliances I am dependant on.
Realising that I spent a considerable amount of time researching each appliance before purchasing them, I thought it would be helpful to friends, families and complete strangers to share with you my findings and my overall contentment with each item.
So here is a list of my top five must have small kitchen appliances:
Number 5: George Foreman Family Grill
My particular model is a 6 portion family edition, and where I would highly recommended getting any grill in the extension range, I have to say the bigger the better! The grill is incredible versatile with quick and easy cooking for any meat that takes your fancy. The product line is designed to be healthy and convenient. It has a sloped grill design to channel the fat and run off away cleanly into a drip tray. The only downside is that is can be a little annoying to clean and occasionally gets overcrowded when trying to do a full English breakfast following a heavy night!
Number 4: Nescafe Dolce Gusto Melody
I’ve never really been into Coffee, but when visiting a Starbucks I always felt like I was missing out. In order to try and embrace the fancy coffee culture I decided to invest in this Dolce Gusto and have never looked back. This convenient appliance is easy to use and can create a wide range of drinks including Latte Macchiato’s and my personal favourite the Café Mocha. All I need now is a machine that makes a Starbuck Grande Mocha Frappuccino and I’m laughing!
Number 3: Russell Hobbs Quick-2-Boil Kettle
So we’ve talked about the fancy occasional coffee, but more importantly we need our regular cup of Tetley tea. Previously I had a Tefal Quick Cup deluxe to deliver almost instant boiling hot water, however when this broke I was very disappointed to discuss the product was discontinued by Tefal (possibly due to them exploding maybe). So a new search was begun to find the quickest way to make a single cup up tea. During the search I came across the Quick-2-Boil kettle and was instantly intrigued. Although not as quick as the Quick Cup Deluxe the kettle does have the ability to make a single cup of tea in less than 45 seconds, but has the additional benefit of a fully functioning kettle in the same appliance. Water in the kettle can be used for either purpose and even when boiling a full kettle you still only have to wait around 2 minutes. The only downside is that the amount of water dispersed by the single cup function cannot be adjusted to fit your particular cup size, although it does seem to be the exact amount of water need for my Bisto gravy on a Sunday lunch!
Number 2: Morphy Richards Intellisteam
Now this was clearly the number one small appliance before my latest acquisition. I have been steaming vegetables for several years now and due to almost daily use most traditional steamers have just not been up to the job, generally breaking and needing to be replaced every couple of years. If you have never used a steamer for your vegetables then you are clearly missing out, as the natural flavour of the vegetable cannot compare if cooked by any other method. A traditional steamer uses a single heating element with tiered cooking trays in a tower. This means that everything has to be steamed for the same length of time with the top tier not cooking as well as the bottom one. You also get dripping from the top tier down through the others, so never put the sprouts on top! With the Intellisteam you have a far more sophisticate cooking system. It has three heating elements which effect the different cooking department combined with the ability to set varying cooking times for each section. The appliance will simply start steaming each section when required in order to complete each one at the same time ready for serving. The only small downside to the appliance is that it is pretty bulky and doesn’t easily fit in my sink or on my kitchen drainer.
Number 1: Tefal Activfry
Now this appliance really is a revolution. Until now I have always considered Frying food, especially the deep fat frying of Chips as being not only unhealthy but also messy and a little dangerous. Now Tefal have worked hard at this and created a frying system that combines several elements of cooking into a single device. There is a traditional heating system for the pan, but also a secondary heating system that warms the whole pan. There is also a rotary mechanism that gently stirs the food to help it cook more evenly. The result is an incredibly versatile system that is more like stir-frying than deep fat frying. It will cook a variety of foods including meats, vegetables and fish, without forgetting its primary purpose to make the best chips you’ve ever tasted. The ActivFry comes with a small cook book to advise you how to prepare food, which included details of how to make the prefect Sweet Potato fries. So far I can’t find a single thing wrong with the appliance and look forward to enjoying its creations for many years!
