You can also use it to steam, cook porridge, bake cakes and slow cook, too. The first thing we noticed on getting it out of the box is how attractive it is, with a rose-gold exterior, neat, curved shape and white, easy-to-navigate, pressure-sensitive touch LED display. 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. One of the most delicious risotto recipes is sausage risotto. Make it sautéing a knob of butter with chopped shallot. Add the sausage in pieces (casings removed), and brown, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the rice and toast it for a few minutes. Add red wine. Cook the rice, adding hot broth as it is absorbed. Once cooked, remove from heat and stir in more butter and parmesan cheese. To prepare the mixed mushrooms, finely chop any cultivated mushrooms (such as chestnut or portobello), and tear any wild mushrooms into small pieces to keep an interesting shape and mix of textures. Keep Warm: for keeping food warm for up to five hours (30 minutes for risotto) if you’re not ready to serve

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. This premium one-pot cooker saves on time and washing up. Superb, if you don’t mind the hefty price tag. 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. Not really, no. Microwave cookers and some less feature-led models will give you well-cooked rice in about the same time as pan cooking. Some fancier models might even take a little longer. This is because they have separate stages to deliver the rice at the optimum texture. The beauty of these machines is not necessarily the speed of the cooking. It's more the fact that you can walk away, safe in the knowledge that the machine is doing the hard work for you. Can I put a rice cooker in the dishwasher? 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!

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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? The consistency I look for in a risotto is a soft, flowing mixture – like lava – with the individual grains of rice holding their shape and retaining a little bit of bite. The end of the cooking process is when you can stir in vegetables, seafood or mushrooms, which are usually cooked separately so they don’t overcook in the rice. The build quality of the Sage Risotto Plus strikes you immediately. It feels solid and well built, with quality materials and design details such as superb handles on the side for transferring it to the table or simply moving it in the kitchen. We also experimented with the crust function. The crusty bits at the bottom of a rice pot are much prized in Asian cooking. Although at an hour and a half it took quite a while, it was definitely worth waiting for. There’s a sub-menu for cooking specific kinds of rice for more refined results and even a preset function. This allows you to set a timer up to 24 hours in the future, although if the pot contains perishable foods that long isn’t recommended.

If you’re cooking rice or steaming, however, the cooker will switch over to keep warm mode once it’s cooked. (This common rice cooker feature might seem like magic, but it’s quite simple: a temperature sensor detects the fact that your food is getting hotter because all the cooking water has been absorbed.)Still, doing it the traditional way is a safe bet for a delicious risotto: the rice grains all cook evenly and you don't walk away leaving it to burn or turn stodgy. But if you’re feeling experimental or if you’re in a rush, then give the no-stir method a try and see which you prefer. The combination cooker that makes tender slow cooked meals, stir-free risotto, and fluffy rice all in the same bowl. This meant less cook ware to wash after, no transferring or spilling in between and no rushing about getting different things together, a true blessing for risotto fans. 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. 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. Slow Cook (low and high temperature) – for long slow cooking of casseroles and stews and tenderising tougher cuts of meat

There’s nothing we don’t like about this fantastic rice cooker – apart from, perhaps, the price. That said, it is a hard-working, multi-functional machine. There are modes for steaming, slow cooking, cake baking, porridge and yoghurt making. We’d be willing to give up our slow cooker and steamer to find room for it on the worktop. Rice/Steam: for perfectly cooked fluffy rice and quinoa as well as healthy steamed meat, fish, poultry and vegetables The resulting jam was less sweet than many of its shop-bought counterparts, and goes well with pancakes. Store any homemade jam in a clean jar in the fridge and eat within a month. While the risotto cooks, add to the pan a sprinkle of rosemary and the zest of half a waxed lemon. In a separate bowl, add egg yolk, cream, parmesan, and fresh lemon juice to create a "primrose emulsion". Stir this mixture into the pan until perfectly combined, turning the pale rice colour into a blonde shade. It's so simple, but tastes delicious.

Method

Most bread makers have a Jam setting – a program that heats and stirs the breadpan’s contents for a few hours. Your manual should come with a basic recipe, but there are plenty available online. You can use your bread maker as a rice cooker: add rice and water to the bread pan on the “Bake” or “Cake” setting and cook for about an hour. But more excitingly, you can also prepare rice pudding or even a risotto with the Jam setting. After toasting it, cover the rice completely with simmering, hot broth – vegetable or meat broth, depending on the risotto you wish to prepare. Cook over medium heat. Keep the rice consistently covered with hot broth to ensure even cooking. Add a ladle at a time continuously to keep it moist as the rice absorbs the broth. 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. But if you love risotto, or you simply want to make slow-cooked dishes without using another pan to sear/sauté first, the beautifully made Sage Risotto Plus won’t disappoint. Verdict