Pressure cooker takes the pressure off {giveaway}

This is a S2 post

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I am a kitchen appliance aficionado. I’m obsessed with them. Every time a new one comes out I pore over the catalogues and the online reviews to figure out if I really need one. The answer is normally no, I don’t neeeeeed it. But I want it. A lot.

I was sent a Tefal Cook4Me and for the past six weeks I’ve been putting it through its paces. It has created a bit of controversy here and Map Guy and I have had stern words over whether it is pronounced Tef-fal or Tee-fal. I of course think I’m right but am not willing to find out the correct answer in case I’m wrong.

Now I will admit my technodouchery was in full force the first few times I used the Cook4Me. I somehow managed to undercook the risotto and then get the lid stuck closed which required the IT Crowd method of correction: turning it off and on again at the power point.

But I’d heard good things about this bloody risotto and on chatting to a few other people who were also testing it out realised that it was JUST ME. Determined, I started again and haven’t had an issue since. In fact it has become a regular on the bench, using it at least once or twice a week.

I’m going to split it in to pros and cons rather than get really wordy:

Pros:

• Inbuilt recipes are adjustable by number of serves (2/4/6)
• Recipes can be found via name, meal type or ingredients
• Super quick because it’s a pressure cooker
• Whisper quiet (other than the beeps)
• Nice size – big enough to cook a substantial meal but the device itself is not a monstrosity and can easily fit inside a cupboard
• Stay cool handles on the pot
• Simple control panel – two buttons mean even appliance phobic people could use it
• Count down timer showing how much longer you can tweet for before dinner
• A warning beep before releasing the steam

Cons:

• You can’t display the recipe mid-use or go back to check it without the cooking process also going back and re-starting - you have to make sure you get everything ready before you start
• The cord is a bit short – I love me a retractable cord and this would have really benefitted from it 
• Some of the recipes seem to be missing oil as an ingredient - for example with the Beef Stroganoff you get everything ready press OK and it says "add oil" though it was never in the ingredients list like it is in other recipes
• It doesn’t have a timer for the browning function - times everything else
• Doesn’t beep to let you know when it has preheated - beeps at everything else

None of the cons have been deal breakers for me though and the meals on high rotation for us are chilli con carne (which we serve as nachos), the Thai green curry and pesto chicken risotto. I’m not the hugest fan of risotto, mainly because I usually can’t be bothered standing there forever just to end up with a bowl of glug, so to make it from start to finish in around 25 minutes and for it to be tasty is amazing – the book says 6 minutes but that time only starts after you’ve prepped all the ingredients, preheated the machine, browned the meat and preheated under pressure again. But still, 25 minutes is pretty good!

I’ve got one of these babies to give away valued at $349.95 and to win you have to enter your details below. The winner will be the person with the best 25 words or less answer to the question “What takes the pressure off you in the kitchen?”.