The Sage Risotto Plus Multi Cooker, Brushed Stainless Steel, BRC600UK

Product Information

Pay attention to any maximum capacity warnings and baking advice in your breadmaker’s manual. It’s sometimes recommended that you line your tin with baking paper and/or grease it before pouring in the cake batter – as you would when baking a cake in a normal tin in the oven. Although it’s called a rice cooker, this also has a facility for steaming, and it can cook a simple risotto, too. You can’t cook less than three cups of rice so it’s probably not a good choice for those on their own. Unless you have freezer space for Tupperware-filled cooked rice. It is, however, good for families or dinner parties. It will prepare up to 1200g of uncooked rice, which provides, on average 18-20 portions. I baked the meatloaf for 1hr 10mins. Half an hour before the end of the program, I added the following glaze. You can use this program to make items besides cake, too, for savoury bakes and non-yeast breads such as soda bread.

That said, we used the traditional one cup of rice to one cup of water method and that produced good results for both basmati and long grain rice. Brown rice needs more water – about a cup and a half to every cup of rice. We did have to try it a couple of times to get it right. There’s a 'keep warm' function but the manufacturers recommend not keeping that on for more than four hours. Sauté/Sear: for browning your meat and veg in the bowl, and softening your onions before slow cooking Even the simplest of microwave rice cookers will cook grains such as quinoa and sometimes pasta as well as rice. In electric models, look out for extra cooking settings. These may include ones for specialist rice, including risotto, brown and wild, porridge, pasta, yoghurt and even cake! Rice cookers that are essentially multi-cookers will have all this. Plus 'slow' and 'fast' cook functions.Perfect for cooking meals for the whole family, or a big batch of something for the freezer, the Risotto Plus multi and slow cooker from Sage is a slow cooker, rice cooker and steamer all in one compact machine. I used my breadmaker to bake Mary Berry’s banana loaf. While the cake turned out well, it’s worth keeping in mind that bread-maker cakes tend to have a slightly harder crust, particularly towards the bottom. Stirring while cooking is important for those two dishes, and this is where a bread maker’s jam program comes in handy. Just remember to set a timer – a jam program tends to be at least 1hr 30mins; you’re likely to need less time to make pudding or risotto.

For steaming, we added more water than necessary to the bowl below the steamer then manually turned it off once the food was cooked. However, over time we could easily have worked out the right amount of water needed to get the perfect result. That would mean that once the water had boiled away the cooker would switch to the keep warm function as for rice. Baking in a loaf tin, the fat has nowhere to go, so it simply sits on top of the meatloaf. Once out of the bread maker, I’d recommend that you pour out the fat – but be careful not to lose all of the glaze!

Add the rice and turn up the heat – the rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After 1 minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the vermouth or wine and keep stirring — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence. Cooking times are dependent on how powerful your microwave is. We used the guidelines based on an 800w microwave and it produced both basmati and long grain rice to a good standard. It cooks porridge oats, too. We loved the fact that you could cook portion sizes from one up to six. However, we felt they were a little on the small side for our big appetites, so would recommend cooking an extra portion just to be safe. Arborio rice is the traditional choice for risotto, and it's readily available in grocery stores and online. This medium-grain, high-starch rice becomes fantastically creamy when cooked, so it's ideal for risotto. The best Arborio substitutes are carnaroli and Vialone Nano. Both are high-starch varieties and commonly used in Italian kitchens for this dish. Farro and sushi rice will work in a pinch. But avoid long-grain rices, such as jasmine and basmati, because they won't become creamy when cooked. Why Restaurants Don't Use This Traditional Risotto Method For me, some of the above – such as making delicious jam by the touch of a few buttons and preparing rice pudding with minimal fuss – were genuine revelations. Others, such as meatloaf, cake and scrambled eggs, felt a little superfluous; they could have easily been prepared the traditional way in the oven – or in the latter case – on the stove. The first fundamental step in making risotto is toasting the rice, which serves to make the grain more compact to prevent it from breaking as it cooks. Heat a large saucepan and pour in all the rice. Continue stirring the rice with a wooden spoon and toast it for a few minutes. You’ll know it’s ready by touching it with your fingers and smelling it; the rice must be very hot and give off the scent of the grain. You can also toast the risotto with another fat like a sautéed onion (or shallot) and butter (or oil). Once toasted, add a glass of wine and let it evaporate for extra flavor. How to make risotto: cooking and ‘ mantecatura’

Sauces and soups are an easy leap to make from jam. The machine will simply mix the ingredients while heating them, so you may need to puree the final contents at the end of the process for a smooth consistency, but chances are you’d have to do that with a sauce or soup cooked on the stove anyway. A more unconventional way to make use of your “Bake” or “Cake” program is to bake a meatloaf. As with cake, you’re simply using your bread maker as an oven, so remember to remove the kneading blade. I used the following recipe, which originally comes from a Zojirushi bread maker manual. Crucially, if you’re a fan of fancy rice then this one isn’t for you as it only cooks white rice, but it does cook it very well and was one of the simples to use with the best results. There’s no fanciness with this machine, it does what it says on the pot. But if you want something that does the job and is small enough to store in a cupboard when you’re not using it, this is perfect. Unlike the electric machines, it’s all dishwasher safe, too.Pasta and risotto are the two first courses par excellence of Italian cuisine, both very versatile with many different ingredients. The main difference is that the second is a less popular dish, certainly more widespread in the culinary tradition of northern Italy and it’s a little more difficult to cook – because of its various stages of cooking that require attention and patience. That’s why we want to review the fundamental steps for a risotto with you, so you can make it the right way as we do in the Bel Paese. Which rice works best for risotto? This premium one-pot cooker saves on time and washing up. Superb, if you don’t mind the hefty price tag.