Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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145 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whole meal steaming!, 24 Sep 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I have used an ordinary pan steamer for years so I didn't really see how an electric one would be any great advantage...
But I was wrong...
This steamer consists of three separate compartments, all of which are separately programmable. You pour water into the base, put the drip tray on top, and then put the food containers on top of that. You put the food directly into the containers, programme in the cooking time (there are many pre-set cooking times such as 'fish' and 'rice') and then press 'start'. The machine steams the food in time order so that it all finishes cooking at the same time - and then it beeps to let you know that dinner is ready!
My first meal cooked in the steamer, on the day it arrived, was a what-have-I-got-in-the-fridge hotch-potch of basmati rice, corn on the cob, and already cooked beef mince in gravy (which I just wanted heating up). I assembled it in the various containers, set the times, and walked away. The instructions were easy enough to follow, and it was a novelty to sit down and watch TV knowing that dinner was being prepared!
Within half an hour it was all ready. The rice was cooked to fluffy perfection, the cobs were tender and the mince was bubbling hot. Unfortunately, I had not thought to cover the mince and so the condensation from the steam had thinned the gravy: I should have put tin foil over the container. It didn't matter to me because I'm a vegetarian: the mince was for my husband!
This steamer will cook all kinds of meat, fish, root vegetables, pasta, rice - even sausages! In fact, I think there's not much you can't steam. The recipe book included with it offers a menu for a week: Salmon and noodles, Glazed chicken wirh butternut squash, Stuffed red peppers with couscous, Chicken Tikka Masala with rice, Steamed halibut, Hoisin duck with egg noodles, lamb with baby potatoes, and even - ginger and banana sponge pudding with sticky toffee sauce!
I think my student son would find this a useful addition to his kitchen (but if you're reading this - no, you can't have it). You can pretty much put anything in there and it will cook it and have it ready for you within the hour. I like it very much and unlike a lot of kitchen equipment, I won't be putting it in the cupboard and forgetting about it. (But if I did want to put it in the cupboard, it has been designed to fit neatly inside a standard kitchen cupboard).
So why only 4 stars? Well, when using the containers to cook food, I've found it a bit awkward to get them out once the food is cooked, given that the contents are hot and the environment is hot and steamy. The containers sit well below the top rim of the steamer.
I was considering buying one of these for my elderly aunt because I thought it would be useful for her to cook a whole meal in one go - but I changed my mind. I think long detachable handles on the containers would have been useful. So for that reason, this otherwise excellent steamer has dropped a star.
But it's superb in every other way: build quality seems good and it's easy to clean (dishwasher safe). Right, I'm off to have some steamed veggies with baby potatoes, and my husband's having chicken....
Addendum: I've now cooked several meals in this steamer and I have to say, it is really excellent. If you've never had meals cooked in a steamer before, you're in for a treat because the food tastes 'clean' and light. I've cooked potatoes, chicken, sausages (pale but interesting!), all manner of vegetables (I tried to cook a whole courgette but got the timimg wrong and it was still rather hard - next time I'll give it ten more minutes), rices and pasta. All have turned out very well.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great steamer but could do better?, 4 Jan 2009
Most of the other reviews here tell you just how good this steamer is - and I don't wish to challenge them. It is a good product that helps you cook a whole meal in seperately controlled compartments. It certainly gets used in our kitchen more often than its predecessor. However (and you knew this was coming didn't you!) a few facts to make you hesitate:
1. I agree that, for the money, the product should be better made. Stainless steel would really help to make this a premium product. As it is I think that the unit will easily get damaged or start to look tatty. I also think that the plastic compartments are not very durable and will need replacing because of the sort of cracks that plague cheaper steamers!
2. One area where the steamer just isn't intelligent enough is in cooking times. Carrots, and other veg, vary considerably in how much steaming they need - and if, like me, you are often finding that some veggies need just a few more minutes of steam, then you will find changing the cooking times, mid-steaming, quite difficult. A really intelligent 'Intellisteam' steamer would allow you to add extra minutes to the undercooked veg and put the others on 'keep warm' for the duration when they finished earlier than the others. It doesn't seem possible to do this - and its an obvious point of improvement for the next model.
3. Finally. The thing that annoys me most of all about this steamer is that it doesn't have a power switch! If, like me, you have to have the plug in a difficult to reach socket stuck behind something else then you will regularly be cursing the false economy of leaving a simple on/off switch off the unit.
Of course you may be able to live with these shortcomings - and it is essentially a good steamer that helps you steam whole meals (almost) to perfection! Now that the price is falling its certainly not a bad buy - until a Mark II in stainless steel comes along!
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top notch, 15 Oct 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
As this gift was for my daughter, it's only fitting I give her the last word (and all the others you'll see below) for this review...
I have to say, I really like it!
I'm one of those people who's proud of the time they spend slaving away over a hot stove to bring together a huge meal for twelve all made from scratch. So, it's a bit of a weird feeling just putting the food in and leaving it! I mean, I don't even have to check it - which is nice, cos my glasses always get cloudy when opening the oven door.
It's very convenient, even more so if you're utilising the whole space and cooking a couple of meals, perhaps even different meals. So, if I want one chicken dish and another salmon it doesn't matter; no dashing between two pans, the oven and so on, it all goes in there, and there's plenty of space particularly with the extra black compartment boxes you can put in for sauces, rice etc.
I feel almost as though I'm not cooking, yet it's healthy, tasty, and doesn't involve a microwave (for me, these should only be used for some reheating, milk and popcorn).
The only thing that can be said against it (not so much against, just not as much for) is that when, like me, you're cooking for one and you don't always eat a lot, so you just feel like some steamed salmon and salad for example, the piece of salmon does look a little sad in that big machine on its own and it feels like a bit of a waste of water too. Maybe they could invent a mini version. But, but but but, I stress that this isn't really a downside as I do cook for other people too so I'm glad for it's extra space.
I am particularly impressed by being able to prepare sauces in it; I've never seen that function before on a steamer. In fact, I didn't know I could steam half the stuff that this thing can! It's a good machine, much more attractive than I've previously seen with steamers and more practical, easy to look after, easy to store away or would fit in on any work surface, and easy to use.
I mean, you just need to click the picture and go! It's very straightforward; I normally set five different alarms for the different components of my meals to try and get them all ready at once and there's still always one that's too early or a bit late, so I was both surprised and pleased to find how the Intellisteam completely eradicates that issue.
Thumbs up from me, a good investment, even if you're not time-strapped - you'll discover even more time, take up a hobby! Take a nap! Ooh, that reminds me - the icing on the cake; if you oversleep with your nap, maybe get too engrossed in your new hobby... s'all good, it keeps it warm for 40 minutes! That's pretty good in my books.
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