Morphy Richards Intellichef Multi Cooker

System

janeym wrote: »

thought I'd order a spare bowl....currently out of stock!

Oops! That might be my fault ;-) because I bought two spare bowls from them before Christmas and probably cleared out their entire stock!

Missouri_girl

Hello, I am interested in purchasing an Intellichef but am trying to decide between it or a 'normal' slow cooker. Through research and trawling the internet I found this site, so I thought I would ask opinions of Intellichef users themselves. Having never used a slow cooker or an Intellichef, I am flying a little blind, so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

How does the Intellichef compare to a slow cooker? My main interest is throwing ingredients in a pot, turning it on and having a hot meal waiting when I come home from work 8 - 10 hours later. Judging from the reviews, with a slow cooker I could do just that. Is this possible with an Intellichef? How does cooking time compare to a slow cooker? Slower? Longer? I read one review where someone cooked stew for 10 hours and it still wasn't done. Anyone else have problems like that? I do like the idea of being able to brown meat, etc, and slow cook in the same container, but I don't want to come home and find an undercooked meal or one that finished cooking hours before! Do joints of meat come out falling apart tender (like you read on slow cooker reviews) and with a nice flavor?

Also, can I use normal slow cooker recipes for the Intellichef, such as ones that say 'cook on low for so many hours' or 'cook on high for so many hours' or they harder to adapt than that?

I have also found the JML Chef N Go which is much cheaper than the Intellichef. Anyone out there have any experience with those or know how the two compare?

Sorry for the very long post and all the questions! Thanks in advance!

System

Missouri_girl wrote: »

How does the Intellichef compare to a slow cooker?

Well, I have both a slow cooker and an Intellichef. The slow cooker hasn't come out of the cupboard since the Intellichef entered the house, whereas the Intellichef seems to have become a permanent fixture on the kitchen counter.

I only used my old slow cooker for casserole-type things, because I find that slow-cooked things tend to have a "sameness" of texture that doesn't appeal to me on an everyday basis. So while I am a moderate fan of slow-cooking, it is something I do once a week at most (and that only in winter). I still do casseroles with the Intellichef, but use its other functions the rest of the time -- cooking rice, steaming vegetables, making soup, and generally cooking things.

I haven't had any problems with slow-cooked food not being cooked in the Intellichef. I suspect that it runs at a lower temperature on that setting than other slow-cookers, though, because after 8 hours, the carrots still have a bit of texture to them, whereas after that length of time in my slow-cooker they would have softened into barely-held-together mush. Meat cooks quicker than vegetables in a slow cooker, but if you did come home and find your veg still crunchy, you could always switch the Intellichef to another setting (such as Stew) to finish it off quickly. This is the Intellichef's major strength -- you are not tied to a single cooking method.

Another bonus with the Intellichef is that you can use the Stew setting instead of Slow Cook (on the same menu option, but hotter and shorter), but use the delay timer to say when you want the cooking cycle to finish. That way you still get hot food when you come home, but you don't have to put up with endless slow-cooked things.

I tend not to cook joints of meat in either machine, but the Intellichef has proved to be great at doing a plain chicken, and at cooking a lump of lamb or pork on top of a bed of vegetables.

I imagine you could use any slow-cooker recipe, but although I read recipes constantly I don't often follow them, so I couldn't say for certain. The Intellichef's "Slow Cook" function certainly corresponds to a "low" slow-cooker setting, but I am not sure about a direct correspondence for the "high" setting (I'm guessing at Stew, but haven't tried a recipe to verify this).

Can't comment on the JML thing as I have never seen it.

Personally, I am still delighted with my Intellichef after several months. I use it nearly every day. We love the way it cooks rice (at least, we do now that I have experimented to find out exactly how much water to add for the type of rice we use). It is very handy for cooking soup or softening onions. Steaming vegetables seems so much less hassle in the Intellichef than in my stove-top steamer (possibly because there is less to wash up and the Intellichef is more likely to be accessible). The delay timer is jolly useful. If it boiled down to a straight choice between a slow cooker and this gadget, I would definitely choose the Intellichef.

janeym_2

I'm afraid my experiment was unsuccessful. I made a Morrisons Oat and Sunflower Bread Mix loaf. Unfortunately the Intellichef, on bake, only seems to steam dough, although the bottom was crisp. I finished it off in the oven and it has turned out OK. So, there is no saving of time/energy using the Intellichef to bake bread. I do use a breadmaker almost every day, so I recommend you buy one of those if you do want to make your own. By the way, this is the first time I've used the Morrisons's mix, and it is delicious! I've made a small loaf and 7 rolls for 75p (not including the energy...gas/electricity)

Missouri_girl

Thank you very much, Avocet and terra_ferma, for taking the time and effort to respond to my 'book' of questions, and giving all the valuable info and tips! I think I am being swayed somewhat toward the Intellichef... :-)

Missouri_girl

Well, the Intellichef won! I have now ordered one and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival so I can begin to experiment! :-) Thanks again for the tips!

janeym_2

Missouri_girl wrote: »

Well, the Intellichef won! I have now ordered one and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival so I can begin to experiment! :-) Thanks again for the tips!

probably the best thing you'll buy this year! don't forget to go back to previous posts and look at the links for the spanish and french recipes (use google translate page for the french recipes; dead easy and very accurate), and of course, Avocets bibliobubble.com blog for inspiration! Looking forward to your reports! JM

Missouri_girl

janeym wrote: »

probably the best thing you'll buy this year! don't forget to go back to previous posts and look at the links for the spanish and french recipes (use google translate page for the french recipes; dead easy and very accurate), and of course, Avocets bibliobubble.com blog for inspiration! Looking forward to your reports! JM

I am looking forward to having meals waiting when I walk through the door from work! I haven't looked at the Spanish and French recipes yet (I'll have to take a look), but I have read Acovet's blog. I think it was one of my inspirations toward getting the Intellichef! My Intellichef hasn't arrived yet so in the meantime I am also looking at slow cooker recipes. I would like to try some of those to see how they turn out.

System

Missouri_girl wrote: »

I have read Acovet's blog. I think it was one of my inspirations toward getting the Intellichef!

Oh dear! The responsibility! I do hope you like the Intellichef.

I'm now feeling a bit guilty for not updating my Bibliobubble blog. To be honest, most things I cook seem to be variations on the same sort of thing, which is based on putting random ingredients into the pot and cooking until they are done on whatever setting seems appropriate. There are limits to how much you can say about cooking rice, for example, or plain unadorned chicken, or steamed vegetables, or odds-and-ends soup, or stir-fries, or throw-everything-in-the-pot stew.

janeym_2

tried fying potatoes tonite: not 100% successful, but with the right potatoes possibly! I used a home grown Cara potato, so probably not the best spud to fry. Par boiled, then fried on vegetable setting for 25 mins...didn't start to crisp up so put them in the oven to finish off. Anyone else had any success?