Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Breville BPR600XL Fast-Slow Cooker


Love this appliance!
I am not sure what happened with the other reviewer but- I love this appliance. I have used it multiple times since it's arrival-even though I am new to pressure cooking. I cook all of our meals due to living in a very remote area. And, as I was getting tired of the crockpot (using it 3 to 4 times a week), I decided to give this a whirl after a friend bought a similar product off of a shopping network and raved about it. I feel the one star review is not justified. This machine pressure cooks well and safely- I have used the pressure cooking to make pasta, roasted chicken and a beef roast as well as a steamer for steamed veggies. I plan on trying the rice pressure cooking soon. I have used it as a slow cooker for 2 dishes, with the same success I have with my regular crockpot. I look at the 6 hours a a 'high' setting and 8 as more of a low,even though there is no heat adjustment.

PROS:
Excellent results with pressure cooking
Love that I can sear or brown ground...
Great for cooking beans at high altitude
We live at 8,500 ft above sea level. Beans normally take 1.5 days or more in a crock or longer on the stove and they cook uneven here, making the beans a bit toothy/hard in spots. This Breville is amazing in that it takes 15 minutes to cook thicker beans like kidneys. If you are a beginner to pressure cookers, I'm offering a tip. Remember that the 15 minutes they specify is for "pressure cooking". That means, the pressure has to reach the amount required to start cooking. Total time (minus soaking, which I do overnight) is 45 minutes to 1 hour. At first try, I thought something was wrong with our Breville's timer/count down because I set it to our kitchen timer and count down took a while to start. For higher altitude, the times allotted in the book are right on the money. No additional cooking time is necessary. I highly recommend this product but be aware that the timer doesn't start until the correct amount of pressure is reached.
Valuable Cooking Tool
This cooker has opened up new meal options for our household. The ability to determine at 5 pm that we would like to serve tacos made with fresh refried beans rather than planning that the night before is liberating! No more overnight bean-soaking! Lentils and quinoa in a couple of minutes? No problem. We are trying to avoid eating anything that comes from a can, and this machine has enabled us to completely give up canned beans. We have become addicted to a healthy, 30-min black bean soup that I make by tossing a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic, along with a generous sprinkle of cumin, into the cooker with the beans for 25 min, then puree with a bit of Sriracha and salt/pepper to taste when it's done. Sprinkle with chopped green onion and a crumble of goat cheese, and it's gorgeous and delicious.

The machine is beautiful and looks great on the counter with our other stainless appliances, which is good because we have been using it nearly daily. I'm a little bit...
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