The most essential Kitchen Gadget for lazy cooks! (Tefal RK701115 4 in 1 Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer)

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	Tefal RK701115 4 in 1 Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer
Date:	11/11/08 (422 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use; perfect fluffy rice, easy to clean

Disadvantages: None

Who needs a rice cooker? Well, I used to be firmly in the camp that viewed it as a useless kitchen gadget - but how wrong could I have been! Let's face it: rice can be tricky to cook, and the usual method of just chucking some in a saucepan with some water and covering to boil can be a bit hit and miss, often leaving you with a somewhat mushy mess. A far cry from the lovely fluffy rice you get served in a good Chinese restaurant.

I was first introduced to rice cookers by my boyfriend, whose extended family lived in Hong Kong for years and wouldn't live without one. Our first rice cooker was something of a joke - cheap, small (could only cook 3 portions of rice), white, and covered in pictures of rainbows and koala bears - yes, the rice cooker couldn't have been more camp! But after about 10 months, this decided to give up the ghost and begin leaking water everywhere so we decided to opt for the Tefal RK700015.
Compared to our old rice cooker, the Tefal is a monster of a contraption, capable of cooking rice for 10 people. Fairly big, the size of a large saucepan, it looks pretty stylish in silver and black. It comes in 2 parts, the outer container which contains the heating device and has a smart click-shut lid, and the non-stick pan, which is where the rice goes into and just fits inside the cooker.

*Price*

We bought ours from Amazon.co.uk for £39.99 and it comes with a free 12 month warranty.

*How to use*

The best thing about the rice cooker is the ease of use - it really is designed for those who struggle to boil an egg! It can cook every type of rice I've ever heard of - plain, brown, basmati, jasmine. Everything is done from the snazzy but simple control panel on the front of the cooker, and they even help you out when it comes to measuring the amount of rice you need by providing a measuring cup (1 cup = 1 portion, what could be easier!) and a chart instructing how much water to use depending on how many cups you've used or the different types of rice you're cooking with. Simply measure the amount of rice you need and put into the pan, add the required amount of water, click the lid shut, press the rice cooking mode button and a red light next to rice cooking comes on, then press the start button, and you're away! It automatically calculates the time required for the quantity of rice and once it's cooked it will click onto the Keep Warm setting so that you don't have to stand over it waiting for it to finish cooking. For my two person portion of rice it's normally ready in half an hour, so you can press start and just walk off and do something else - no stirring, no checking, nothing!

*Tips for Use*

Do let the rice stand on the Keep Warm setting for a few minutes so that the final steam can be properly absorbed into the rice and then when you open the lid there won't be a huge gush of water rolling down the side (though Tefal have thoughtfully attached a "dew collector" on the side to prevent this kind of spillage). Give the rice a stir with the black plastic rice spoon included (don't use your own as it will remove the non-stick coating from the pan) and serve! I have been genuinely delighted with the rice we have made using this: it's light, fluffy, slightly sticky, and such a huge improvement on the rather mushy rice I used to make in a saucepan, and so much easier! Occasionally you may find that the rice at the bottom of the pan is not as good as the top, but this is very occasionally and we always have more than enough rice anyway so it's not a big issue for me. Once you've got to grips with how it works (really shouldn't take too long!) you can start experimenting to get the rice exactly how you like it. More water gives you softer, more sticky rice and less will give you firmer - I'm a big softie with mine! We've perfected our rice cooking technique by allowing the rice to soak for about 10 minutes and then rinsing before starting the cooking as this seems to remove a lot of the starch. Another tip is not to open the lid while cooking to check on it - this will let all the steam out and your rice won't be as fluffy! Now our rice is even better than when we go out for Chinese and we now have rice with everything - fish, chilli, chicken - you name it, rice will go with it!

Another great feature is the delayed start function - if you're off out but want your rice to be cooked when you get back, simply program the amount of time until you want to eat and it will let the rice soak until it needs to start cooking and then automatically start cooking at the right time. Genius! Me being me, and not always being particularly technological or possessing a huge amount of common sense, thought this would be very complicated, but it couldn't be simpler. There is a TIME button on the control panel and after selecting the rice cooking function, simply press the TIME button until your required time is shown, then START and you're done. This function is particularly great as the extra soaking time means that the rice comes out even fluffier and with very minimal bits stuck together at the bottom of the pan.

*Cleaning*

The usual problem I have with kitchen gadgets is that they create so much more washing up than the traditional method of cooking, but the rice cooker is also so easy to clean - the non-stick pan is the only part of the cooker that requires real cleaning (though of course you will need to wipe over the rest of it occasionally!) and this is made easy by the fact that rice never burns or sticks to the bottom. It's also dishwasher safe.

*Other functions*

It's not just good for rice cooking, but can also be used as a slow cooker or a steamer. Slow cooking works much the same as rice, just select the Slow Cooking mode rather than rice, and for steaming, you are provided with a little black plastic bowl to put your veggies in which goes in and then just select the Steaming mode. Not being a huge fan of slow cooking or steaming veg myself, I can't say I'm all that impressed with either of these functions, but they work fine for what they are. The bowl for steaming the veg is on the small side, but if the veg is only a side dish it should contain enough for 4 people.

All in all, this is one of the best buys I've made and is a must-have for the kitchen - easy to use, easy to clean, and makes rice just absolutely perfectly!

Summary: An excellent rice cooker/steamer/slow cooker