These cameras all in my grill

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Tefal Optigrill

I've been thinking of how to create simple, healthy and quick budget friendly meals lately and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I've been going back to basics. Our Tefal Optigrill has really come into it's own recently for grilling meat on the quick; we've used it for all the bacon and in fact I'm eating more bacon as it's far easier than getting the oven grill going, foiling up the tray, watching it..... turning my back just for a second and letting it burn.

My problem with meat has always been the timing – I can never figure out how long anything will need or being able to identify when it's cooked right. The Optigrill system of timing the cooking with the colour changing light is perfect for me! I waxed lyrical about the wonderful features before in my mini review of the Optigrill so I will try keeping this post brief.

So what have we used it for so far?

Steak! You will notice that the steak is served with celeriac mash and steamed vegetables with a dash of gravy. Don't get me wrong, steak and chips is my favourite but a few portions of vegetables is a far healthier choice and of course the steak is pretty lean as the fat that drips off is channelled away during cooking.

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Burgers (not pictured as I got carried away and ate them before my camera got a look in, sorry!). The really noticeable benefit was that the burgers stayed perfectly in one piece as they weren't balancing on a grill rack nor having to be flipped over multiple times. By far the best way to cook burgers is from frozen – fact. Chris was most impressed with the speedy cooking time and accuracy of the heating; he used our digital thermometer to double check they were done when the Optigrill said they were ready.

We sourced some local skin-on chicken breasts and liberally sprinkled on fajita spicing then popped them in the Optigrill. It turns out the spicing was really hot but the chicken skin was beyond delicious, this shall be reserved for a treat and next time we'll be using the skinned fillets as usual. The chicken stayed moist unlike every other time and way we've cooked it before so once again we'll be sticking with the Optigrill for cooking chicken. Obviously you cannot cook anything with bones on this grill as the timing sensor wont take bones into account so timings will be incorrect but I think that's just logical anyway.

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The Optigrill has been sat on the worktop since it arrived as we use it so often that it's not worth hiding it away in between uses. It's sleek design and compact size mean that it hasn't got in the way but equally would be easy to pop into a cupboard to free up more worktop space. We keep it right by the extractor fan as some meats do produce a fair bit of steam depending on water content (bacon is the worst) but near a window would be fine. The plates are a doddle to remove, clean and reattach (dishwasher friendly too).

I can imagine this would be ideal for small families, single people and especially the elderly as you can cook so much on the Optigrill at worktop height, completely avoiding bending over to the grill or bottom oven with a hot or heavy pan. We're loving ours and are getting plenty of use out of it; I want to toast a bruscetta on it and also get some fish grilled on it at some point too.

Sophie

Thanks again to Tefal for sending me the Optigrill! All opinions and content are 100% my own as always.

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Sometimes I am sent items to feature as part of a post and these will be clearly mentioned as part of each post.Everything else is bought by myself. Any sponsored or collaboration posts will be clearly marked. Each post is my own content and all opinions are honest.