George Foreman little grill

mrsmab59

Curry_Queen wrote:

This is the only way to clean any non-stick surface, be they grills, pans or woks!!! Never, ever use soap or detergents as they damage the suface and food will stick to them then. Also, after a few uses the surface becomes seasoned making them even easier to cook and clean in ... I have a 15 year old wok that still looks and cooks like new and has never seen a drop of washing-up liquid

Thanks Curry_Queen That explains why non-stick coatings don't seem to last in my house. I really need to practise a bit of TLC on my pans.

Curry_Queen

mrsmab59 wrote:

Thanks Curry_Queen That explains why non-stick coatings don't seem to last in my house. I really need to practise a bit of TLC on my pans.

Hehehe

It helps to make sure everyone else follows the rules too (that's if you're lucky enough to have anyone else cook or wash-up for you LOL!) or they might undo your good work!

Someone once washed my frying pan in washing-up liquid and for ages afterwards my fried eggs stuck to the bottom of the pan :mad: ... and I also caught one of my son's using a metal spoon in my stir-fry pan which damaged the non-stick coating :rolleyes:

If I've made a curry or sauce dish then I just use warm water to clean it off, as it doesn't penetrate the protective oily layer, otherwise I just wipe out with kitchen roll

suki1964

I have the big gf for just the two of us and to be honest I would struggle on anything smaller. When Dh wants steak, he wants to be able to see the steak on his plate and the GF I have takes two to three good size steaks or upto 5 chicken breasts.

I have the one with the tempeture control on it which to be honest is a waste of money as everything is cooked on high. I found I needed to cut down considerably on the timings indicated in the instruction manual - 9 minutes for a chicken breast and you are looking at inedible, four or five minutes is enough.

Bfore the GF I used a caste iron griddle and cooking steaks meant heating it for ages,smoking the house out and having to remember to take down the fire alarms. Plus the hassle of wiping off splashed fat from the hob and tiles The GF halves cooking time and is a lot cleaner. One thing I do though is to stand it on my hob when Im using it and switch the extractor on - it does seem to make a lot of steam.

Main benefits of using it over the grill? Cleaner (no fat spitting everywhere) quicker (cooks twice as fast) and no washing up (wipe out with kitchen towel when still warm) Also my grill is the small oven which I use for jacket spuds or garlic bread when Im grilling steaks/sausages/chicken etc so saves on having to heat the main oven

This is one "gadget" that really does get a lot of use in my house and Im looking forward to the summer when it shall be taken into the garden for quick barbies

jaimeo

chicken breasts/steak dry out in GF...unless you are an excellent judge of cooking time. 1 min over and it will cost you a lot in terms of texture!

bacon/burgers/sausages are best...fatty meats after all was what is was designed for.

the tip for roasted veg is handy if you dont want to use your oven. when i roast veggies in the oven it takes about 40 mins...am i doing it wrong??

i have the cleaning problem too. it is all about the kitchen roll for best results!

anyway- i would not use it for steak or chicken breast, but that said, any thin cuts of those come out well. Salmon is v.good too!

and if your talking garlic mushrooms then enough said!

main advantage of the GF is it heats in 2 mins. cooks meat in 7 mins, veg in 4 mins. no pans, no oven trays, nothing!

luvverly.

rereading that post, sorry for the overused exclamations

furrypig

wow thanks for all your replies seems the GF has mixed reports from you guys so still not sure about keeping it!!
Generally we don't do loads of burgers or sausages and if we do its for 4 of us or when we have people rounnd so the small might be too small!?
Did fancy the idea of combining it with making toasted sandwiches as had some when I was at my sisters (on her 15 year old toastie maker!0 and they were devine!! Cheese and baked beans very filling too!

thanks will continue to think about it!

HOLsale

jaimeo wrote:

kicks !!!!!! mainly because you can whack stuff in it. close the lid for X mins and its guaranteed to be cooked.

sausages were a nightmare to cook for me, especially under the grill. The george does them perfectly every time.

food does cook very quickly, AND not only are sausages easier to cook in the gf grill, you NEVER have to worry about the sausages starting a greasefire and nearly burning down your kitchen/requiring the fire dept to come to your house and spray everything in your kitchen with the fire extinguisher and making an enormous mess (plus have an EX cooker!) ...not that i'm speaking from personal experience or anythign (and in my defense the grill pan was perfectly clean!)

HOLsale

r.mac wrote:

Meat tends to get too 'squashed' in my opinion, and chicken breasts are best left far away from Mr Foreman's invention. Yuck - cast iron grill pan, or cooker grill makes the meat much more appealing to look at, as doesn't dry it out the same and generally taste nicer.

QUOTE]


it sounds like you're cooking the food too long. the forman grill actually sears the meat and keeps the juices in so your meat should be LESS dry than pan frying. try cooking meat from frozen, you'll have better luck i suspect

furrypig

HOLsale wrote:

it sounds like you're cooking the food too long. the forman grill actually sears the meat and keeps the juices in so your meat should be LESS dry than pan frying. try cooking meat from frozen, you'll have better luck i suspect

Now that sounds useful!

Can you really cook stuff from frozen???

suki1964

furrypig wrote:

Now that sounds useful!

Can you really cook stuff from frozen???

At those temps - yes

Seeing as the GF maintains its cooking temp and cooks from both sides at the same time,cooking from frozen shouldnt be a problem - just make sure whatever you have cooked is hot all the way through

tiff

Interesting thread, thanks. I always wondered what the benefits of a GF were. I might get one eventually for camping, thats if we ever get an electric hook up lead - they are expensive at £70. I fancy one for at home, but I'm wary of buying too many gadgets, taking up too much space, getting fed up with it all and selling it at a car boot!