A New Wave 6-in-1 Cooker Review. As Usual, There Was 'Excitement'.

I have a love hate relationship with fancy, electric cooking appliances.  Initially, I'm seduced by their promise of convenience and ease of cleaning and then the reality of finding space to store the new piece of equipment sets in.  Over the last few months I've been on the verge of buying a thermomix (which I put off because it sounded too complicated), an air fryer (which was vetoed because it would have enabled my fried food obsession) and a Nespresso (though the Aldi version is looking rather tempting).

The universe clearly intended me to own a new, multipurpose cooking appliance because Kitchenware Direct asked me to review the New Wave 6-in-1 Multi Cooker for them.  The cooker currently retails for $179 on their site and there is a 5-in1 version that retails for $149.

The six functions my cooker performs are: slow cooking, pressure cooking, browning, steaming, rice cooking and deep frying.  The cooking capacity is 6 litres and it's fully electric.

On paper, it all sounded very promising but how easy would it be to use?  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's take a look at the unit itself first.

Out of the box

The exterior is an easy to wipe down shiny, black plastic.  None of the internal components are dishwasher safe.

One of the compromises of a multi purpose cooking appliance is that the lid is a bit tricky.  It doesn't open like the conventional lid of a slow cooker and it's also not as easy to use as a straight rice cooker.  To open, you need to rotate the lid to one side for the seal to release.  The lid does come off completely for deep frying but you need to be able to manipulate a complicated hinge release to do this.

The internal non stick cooking pot is removable and has volume markings etched in the side for easy reference.  For most cooking methods, the manufacturer states that the cooker should only be filled to 4/5 maximum.

Included with the cooker are a rice scoop and measuring cup as well as a steamer plate and attachments for deep frying.

Whilst the instruction manual was comprehensive and included an impressive range of recipes and technique hints to make use of all 6 cooker functions, I felt that it could have been more descriptive about how to engage each function.  The unit's display panel has each function portrayed as a touch pad option but there's also a Multifunction key that the manual didn't really explain.  Similarly, there is also a timer function for delayed starts but no clear instructions on how to get this going.  Googleing did not clarify the situation either.

My testing of the 6-in-1 cooker involved making 2 dinners over the last week using the following functions - slow cooking, browning and pressure cooking.  I attempted to use the timer function on both occasions but have yet to figure it out.

Slow cooking with the 6-in-1 Cooker

I made a slow cooker Spicy Lentil Soup, the recipe was from The AWW June 2012 issue but can also be found in AWW's Slow Cooker 2 recipe book.

Preparation was as usual (wouldn't it be cool if there was a seventh function on the cooker - chopping and peeling?) with vegetables to be diced and the other ingredients assembled.  There was no need to pre soak the red lentils, they only needed rinsing.

I think this is how you get the slow cooker function going.  You press the slow cooker button and then manipulate the time using the left and right arrows.  I might have pressed the Multifunction button a few times as well.  At the end of the cooking time, the manual states that there is a default 'keep warm' kind of function that kicks in.

The slow cooker function doesn't have low or high options like a conventional slow cooker.  I used the time suggested in the recipe for a low setting and the soup turned out well with the vegetables fully cooked and no burning at the base.  Surprisingly, the cooker was as easy to clean as the advertising suggested.  I only  had to wipe down the electric base and hand wash the pot, steam catcher (at the back of the cooker) and the insulating rubber coil in the lid (which fully separates from the lid).

As a slow cooker, the 6-in-1 performed well however it is a little harder to use than a conventional slow cooker in that opening the lid is not a simple matter of lifting it off.  This could be a minor inconvenience if you like to taste or check on cooking during the day.

Browning and pressure cooking with the 6-in-1 Cooker

The next recipe I tried was one featured in the cooker's manual - a mushroom risotto.

Inspired by Jamie Oliver's technique, I whipped out my Braun stick blender and processed a brown onion, half a stick of celery and a few dried mushrooms (as is, not pre soaked) for browning in the 6-in-1.

To my surprise, the browning function really did work!  The oil got to a frying temperature really quickly and the heat was even.

It took 4 minutes to get the blended onion mix browned and then I added the rice and white wine as instructed.  The browning function has a default time of 30 minutes so I counted off the display as I followed the recipe.

The dramas (because there's always dramas in my reviews) started when it came time to pressure cook the risotto.  The method suggested this would take only 7 minutes.

Which is what I thought I'd set the cooker to do.  There were flashing digits (which I thought meant the pressure cooker function was engaged) but the timer wasn't counting down as it did with the other functions.

I couldn't hear pressure cooker hissing sounds but steam was escaping from the sides for the cooker.  In hindsight, this probably meant that an adequate seal in the lid had not developed because though I'd moved the weight to the pressure function, it didn't 'click in' like it was supposed to.  So I stood there trying to reposition the pressure cooker weight in the lid whilst having visions of the exploding mess of half cooked risotto when I ventured to lift the lid.  Again, minimal instructions about the pressure cooker function in the manual was an annoyance.  The pictures and brief text on the lid didn't really help me at all.  

Fortunately, I hadn't burned the risotto and nor did it explode up to the ceiling when I finally opened the cooker lid.  The rice was partially cooked and was saved by a few minutes on the gas stove top in an old fashioned non stick Anolon saucepan.  Just like how chefs make risotto.....

I also got a little old school with the chicken we had with the risotto by browning the chicken in a fry pan.

And making a vegetable and porcini mushroom based sauce to accompany it.

My DIY Masterchef pressure test ended well.  I had the chicken and risotto cooking simultaneously using old and new technologies and they both got to the plating stage within minutes of each other.  They also tasted pretty good as well.

My general impressions of the New Wave 6-in-1 cooker

Pros:

• worth considering if you don't already own a stand alone slow cooker or rice cooker
• did each stated function that I tested adequately
• easy to clean
• reasonable capacity of up to 6 litres
• doesn't take up too much bench space
• isn't too heavy so can be easily put away, off the kitchen bench top if you wish
• reasonable value even if you don't see yourself using all 6 functions (for me, deep frying at home is a rarity but if I needed to in the future, I would use this appliance)
• easy to read (but perhaps not that easy to use display)
• multiple safety measures to make using the appliance safe, the lid will not open unless the pressure inside the cooker is low, for example.

Cons:

• complexity of trying to get each function to work coupled with the instruction manual not addressing actual 'how to use' issues in enough detail
• internal parts not dishwasher safe
• complicated lid mechanism which may be annoying when slow cooking and other situations where opening the cooker at intervals may be required
• I really, really hope I can get the pressure cooker valve to work one day.

Once again, I'd like to thank Brad and Kitchenware Direct for sponsoring this post and tolerating the dramas that inevitably ensue whenever I test a product for them!

UPDATE!!

If you're looking for more pressure cooker recipe ideas, check out this link.  It's got a huge array of recipes and is Australia's biggest website for things pressure cooker related.