Kitchen appliances chat

Pressure cooker can also act as a rice cooker, allegedly but I haven’t tried it myself yet.

https://ninjakitchen.co.uk/ninja-catalog/ninja-multi-cookers/

Have one of these. It's bulky, but does two of your three tasks; and no reason why it wouldn't work as a rice cooker, just doesn't have a setting for it (perhaps the bigger one does?).

Also works well as a small convection oven, and seems much nicer to use than a traditional oven.

Seems bullet proof and I think people rate Shark/Ninja as being good + UK based.

Edit: wild that with the current discounts the fancier one is cheaper. Meat probe sounds interesting (although not useful for me).

And an additional edit, whilst I can see the appeal of a separate lid to make it easier to clean, I would much prefer the space saving of having a true all in one

Instant pot is a pressure cooker par excellence and rice cooker too - the latter works just as well as other rice cookers I've used but I'm no expert.

You can get instant pot air fryer lids too that make it truly all in one, but they are hard to come by in this country

Instant Pot pro crisp + air fryer is what you want.

The problem with most pressure cookers is that for rice, you need to cook a sufficient quantity at a time. For example, 200g of dry rice (for 2 people) is just too small a quantity to cook in a 5l pressure cooker.
Great for large family quantities though.

Takes up a bit of space, but I would go for a removable air fryer lid rather than the combination type, as far easier to maintain and keep clean.

Also does fun and delicious things like pressure cooking a whole chicken, then air frying in situ for super tender chicken with crispy skin, or pressure cooked bbq short ribs finished with the air fryer.

FWIW, I have a small seperate rice cooker, and a 2 drawer air fryer as well.

I also wouldn't get an InstantPot at the moment since the parent company has filled for bankruptcy after being brought by private equity

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instant-pot-bankrupt

Looking at the article, it implies that Instant Pots were good quality so people didn’t need to buy replacements, so the private equity firm couldn’t leverage more sales.

If I needed one would I buy a Kenwood Chef or a Magimix if either company filed for bankruptcy? I probably would.

Though maybe from a retailer with a good warranty process.

I didn't know that, a shame.

I wouldn't have any hesitation about buying one anyway though. Mine has been used probably minimum 3 times a week since I bought it, in 2018, and there's no sign it's about to give up the ghost.

Ninja foodi will do all of that, good discount on the 15 in 1 at the moment. They also do decent refurbs on the outlet on eBay, I got an air fryer from there and it looked like new

We have a ninja and it feels well put together.

I think a dedicated rice cooker is worth it, if you cook rice often. It makes the whole process so much simpler/better.

We use an air fryer all the time - daily.

And then the pressure cooker gets rolled out a couple of times a month.

We've got a Kenwood thing that's first a rice cooker but also does slow cooking, frying etc. It's good but frankly too large, if I was buying it again I'd get a small size pure rice cooker.

I've got the ninja 11 in 1 which does pressure cooking and air frying (plus various other stuff like steaming and air frying simultaneously, slow cooking and grill which I use a surprising amount).

It can cook rice but, as others have said, you need to cook a lot of rice to do it.

I prefer the all in one hinged lid as you don't need the storage space for another lid (they're big) and you don't need somewhere to put it down halfway through cooking. Downsides are it won't fit on a worktop with cabinets above and, if you're pressure cooking, it's wise to give the seal a quick clean (30 seconds of a job) as otherwise it may not seal and won't get up to pressure.

You can often get them cheap on Amazon warehouse

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

A separate rice cooker and a multi-use ninja-type thing seems to be the way forward then.

Zojirushi then, or do other brands exist. Can they do everything rice from basmati to sticky to tahdig?

Partners Japanese (I say this only to highlight rice consuming palmares) parent is convinced that one of these is close enough to what they get out of a rice cooker and they eat rice most days.

Surely not?!?

Cuchen or Cuckoo are also superb Korean varieties.
Some are ludicrously expensive with unnecessary features like induction heating and voice control.

The microwave ones can produce good results, but you need to figure out the right amount of rice, type of rice, water, rinsing, time cooking.
If you make the same quantity every time, you can get good consistent results.

However, rice cookers have a keep warm setting post cooking which means you can cook the rice ahead of time, independent of whatever else you’re cooking.
And additional servings of rice (always necessary) are perfectly steaming hot.

And can keep warm between meals at a pinch.

How do you keep your rice warm in a microwave pot? How do you cook anything else in your 16 in 1 instant gadget when it's full of cooked rice?

Honestly anything that doesn't have a glass lid will do. Only difference between types of rice for cooking is the amount of water.

Cuchen or Cuckoo are also superb Korean varieties.

This is useful to know - thanks. They come up in searches, but without having any brand familiarity, it's easy to discount them.

Do you have any favourites?

keep warm setting

This is a must. Not just for keeping rice warm, but also making black garlic.

I can get consistent rice of most types with a pan, foil and lid (and seive, if doing thai sticky rice).

I'm hitting peak lazy, though, and want it done for me.

We have a Toshiba - that seems to be the go to for my wife’s HK family who all have variations of that one (sorry in Abu Dhabi hence link)

https://www.desertcart.ae/products/177684430-toshibarice-cooker-6-cup-uncooked-japanese-rice-cooker-with-fuzzy-logic-technology-7-cooking-functions-digital-display-2-delay-timers-and-auto-keep-warm-non-stick-inner-pot-white?

Any have recommendations for recirculating hoods/extracts? Considering moving kitchen away from an external wall

That doesn't preclude a proper extractor - it doesn't need to be directly above the stove.

Do you mean ducting it to the nearest external wall, or do you mean a combo of a room extract (like in a bathroom) and a recirculating hood?