Slow Cooker Recipe : Greek-Style Lamb, Potato & Thyme Kleftiko

As I told you recently (here), I have been trying out some of the recipes from the Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook that Morphy Richards sent me and this time, I went for the exotic-sounding Greek-Style Lamb, Potato & Thyme Kleftiko. As I told you in a previous blogpost, I love my slow cooker but feel like I always cook the same dishes - beef in beer or boeuf bourgignon, chicken casseroles and sausage casseroles - so I've been loving the chance of trying out totally different recipes (included the whole butter-basted chicken that I blogged about here).

The recipe calls for a whole shoulder of lamb but, having asked my friendly local butcher which meat he would recommend for my slow cooker, he suggested these smaller pieces of lamb. That was what was in the fridge so that was what went in the pot !

I gathered together the other ingredients - garlic, onions, tomatoes and potatoes. I decided to vastly increase the quantities of vegetables originally given in the recipes.

First of all, I decided to brown off the meat, sprinkling over a hefty shake of Schwartz Special Blend for Lamb, to give it a lovely minty, herby flavour (and to replace the sprigs of rosemary which I didn't have).

This is the first time I've used fresh tomatoes in the slow cooker so I was keen to see how they would turn out.

I placed the meat on top of the vegetables and left it to get on with it all by itself for five hours.

The lamb was absolutely divine - so tender it literally slipped off the bone when I took it out of the pot - and the vegetables were really soft but still whole. This is the first time I've cooked lamb in the slow cooker and the first time using tomatoes and potatoes with less sauce and it was a resounding success. I've been asked to make it again which says it all !

I'm joining in with the World Cup recipe challenge over on the Cooking Around The World blog

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Cookery Book Review : Morphy Richards - The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook review 

Slow cooker recipe : Butter-Basted Whole Chicken 

Schwartz review #10 : Slow Cookers Beef & Tomato Casserole

Slow cooker recipe : Butter-Basted Whole Chicken

As I told you last week (here), Morphy Richards recently sent me through their Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook to review and, while several recipes leapt out at me, the one that I really wanted to try was the  Butter-Basted Whole Chicken because it's something I'd just never thought of cooking in a slow cooker. Well, today was the day I decided to try it out. The recipe states that it needs 5 hours on high or 10 hours on low so I set it off at 1pm, just after lunch, ready to serve for tonight's dinner.

The recipe calls for butter mashed together with lemon juice and zest but I decided to try out some Zesty Sumac (which I reviewed here) instead. This is one of the spices from Terra Rossa, who explain : "Sumac is a red berry that has an intense lemony flavour. Use it to add a lemony taste to salads and meat. Ideal for kebabs!" I love the fact that it also adds some interesting colour.

You can either smear the butter all over the outside of the chicken or push it under the skin. That's something I never usually do because it sounds a bit Mastercheffy but I decided to go the whole hog today, thinking that the butter would just run off into the stock and be lost otherwise. It was actually much easier and nowhere near as yucky as I expected.

Well, fast forward five hours and this is what you have. The two disadvantages of this style of cooking that I predicted were the lack of crispy skin (which I figured wouldn't really matter as I avoid the skin now anyway, since my Thinking Slimmer SlimPod - see here - has been reprogramming my brain !) and a rather anaemic looking chicken and, I have to say, my fears did come true.

It doesn't really look as appetising as a crispy, golden brown roast chicken that has just come out of the oven. It does smell delicious though and the spiced butter under the skin spreads right out infusing the whole of the breast, which is often a bit bland and dry.

I had put some leeks and carrots in the stock under the chicken which came out deliciously tooth tender and moist, packed with flavour because they had been infused in the chicken stock and juices during the cooking. The chicken was so tender that you could literally pull it apart without cutting it because the meat was literally falling off the bones.

I served it up to the kids with some rice and they wolfed it down ! Empty plates all round is always a good sign.

Sophie said she preferred it to normal roast chicken because it was less greasy and the meat was softer.

Juliette thought it was easier to eat because the meat fell off the bones as soon as she touched it with her knife !

I do miss the crispy, browned skin that you would get on a roast chicken but I'd be tempted to experiment with browning the chicken in a frying pan before putting it in the slow cooker. That is what I usually do with meat that's about to go into the slow cooker but I wasn't sure how this would work with a whole chicken.

On the plus side, I love the fact that you can leave it to get on with cooking by itself with no risk of it burning or drying out, as would happen in an oven. The texture of the chicken is more like chicken casserole than roast chicken. It's great as a mid-week alternative version of a Sunday roast which is lovely to come home to after a long day at work. I also love the fact that the slow cooker can be used for something other than meaty stews for a change !

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Cookery Book Review : Morphy Richards - The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook review

Schwartz review #10 : Slow Cookers Beef & Tomato Casserole

Schwartz review #8 : Slow Cookers Sausage & Bean Casserole

Cookery Book Review : Morphy Richards - The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook review

Ever since I was sent a  fabulous slow cooker to review back in October 2010, I've been a huge fan of the wonderful melt-in-the-mouth stews and meaty dishes that I've prepared. However, I have to admit that I always cook pretty much the same thing - beef in beer, boeuf bourgignon or chicken casserole, with a combination of added ingredients such as beans and lentils, tomatoes and vegetables or various spices to mix things up a bit. Although the whole family loves them all, I'd love to branch out and extend my repertoire of slow cooker recipes a bit. I was therefore really chuffed to receive The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook from Morphy Richards.

Despite being quite a small 128 page book, it is absolutely packed with recipe ideas, not all of which are illustrated but which all seem very easy to follow. It's split into sections covering soups; chicken, duck and fish; pork and lamb; beef and game; vegetarian and vegetable dishes; desserts; and preserves. The first recipe that leapt out at me was the Butter-Basted Whole Chicken with Lemon and Thyme. I would never have thought of cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker before and it looks like a great alternative to a traditional roast chicken. I'll definitely be trying this out but as it takes 5 hours to cook on high or 10 hours on low, it won't be for Sunday lunch, that's for sure !

Another type of meat that I haven't tried in the slow cooker yet is ham and gammon but I will be very tempted to try the Ham Hock with Boston Baked Beans and the Pot-Roasted Gammon in Cider with Apples, which both sound and look absolutely divine.

Some of the recipes sound like things I already prepare, with or without the slow cooker, such as White Bean and Tomato Cassoulet or Sausage, Red Onion and Bean Casserole but they still have fresh twists on the classic recipes I use, such as adding a dollop of fresh pesto to zing it all up a bit.

But the sections that had me the most intrigued were the final ones covering desserts and preserves. I never would have dreamed of using the slow cooker to make marmalade, lemon curd, cheesecake or sticky toffee pudding but I think I may have to give them a try ! I haven't had time to try any of the recipes yet but when I have, I'll come back and show you how I got on.

If you're a total slow cooker novice, you'll also appreciate the guide to getting started at the beginning of the book.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : it says £14.99 on the back of the book but you can buy it for £5.99 on the Morphy Richards website

for more information : http://www.homeofthehouseproud.com/the-ultimate-slow-cooker-book-a-must-for-the-slow-cooker-fan

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

A Couple of Slow Cooker Recipes to inspire you

Morphy Richards £4 Slow Cooker Challenge recipe #1 : Chicken Casserole 

Morphy Richards £4 Slow Cooker Challenge recipe #2 : Beef Carbonnade

Morphy Richards Premium Plus breadmaker review

Ever since being selected as a Morphy Richards House Proud Innovator (as I explained here), it's always hugely exciting to see an email plop into my inbox from them with news of a new product that they'd like me to try out and review. October's challenge was to try out their Premium Plus breadmaker. 

Now, as I told them, we already have a bread machine that is in pretty much constant use but it's a cheapie one from Lidl so I was keen (and so were they !) to see how the two would compare. My first impressions were that the Morphy Richards one was bulkier but had a smaller loaf tin, but on closer inspection, the Morphy Richards machine can make a loaf weighing 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb, which is actually bigger than my current one which makes a 750g loaf, equivalent to 1.65lb. The machine itself is slightly taller but doesn't actually take up any more space than the other one, although I do find that the cable is a bit short. I have to place it very close to the socket for the plug to reach which means it is in the middle of the worktop which isn't very practical. 

One of themost innovative features of the Premium Plus breadmaker is the collapsible blade, that you can see in the picture. The idea is that it rips a smaller hole in the bottom of the loaf when you remove it from the tin. This is THE big failing of breadmachines in general so I was keen to see how this would work in practice.

The Premium Plus breadmaker offers a choice of 19 programmes, from the basic bread programme to gluten free, bread mixes and pizza dough, as well as cake, dessert and jam. 

My current breadmaker only has 12 programmes, but to be honest, I still haven't used half of those !

To give it a fair test, I decided to use exactly the same breadmix and same quantity of water as usual with the most basic programme (number 1), to see if changing machines would change the resulting bread. I had a quick glance at the instruction booklet but it's quite simple to use. It only has four buttons - plus, minus, validate and cancel - so I just selected the programme number (one), the size of loaf (1.5lb) and the crust setting (medium). Then you hold the validate button for several seconds for it to start. (You can use a timer if you want it to start later, in order to have fresh bread for breakfast for example, but I didn't use this feature.)

I've often found that the first loaf made in a breadmachine goes horribly wrong (Morphy Richards suggest you grease the pan and prebake before the first use to stop it sticking) but this one came out perfectly.

It slipped out of the pan without the slightest resistance, which is better than my old machine (even when it was brand new).

It does still rip a bit of a hole in the bottom of the loaf but it's a smaller hole and, due to there only being one blade instead of two, you only get one hole instead of two big lumps ripped out of the loaf. We're used to eating W- shaped bread with the usual machine, but this time, I managed to get absolutely loads of complete slices cut without a hole in at all, which looks much better (and stops half of your sandwich filling falling out !).

Madhouse Daddy Mike said he thought the bread seemed lighter and softer. I can't say I honestly noticed any difference but what I did notice was that the whole loaf disappeared in 2 days, so I had to make a new loaf on Monday evening, wheareas usually the loaf made at the weekend lasts until Wednesday !

Before the test, I'd declared that we'd keep one breadmachine and pass the "second best" one on to my friend - who is absolutely thrilled to be equipping her kitchen every time I upgrade to Morphy Richards and pass my old castoff kitchen appliances to her ! It was a unanimous decision that we'd keep the Morphy Richards machine but what made me smile was that each of us had a different reason. Madhouse Daddy Mike likes the sleek, modern design ; I love the fact that the bread comes out so easily and that it doesn'r rip such big holes in the loaf ; and the kids can't wait to try out the fruit and nut dispenser and love the viewing window!!

Something else that I noticed on the Morphy Richards website is that you can replace the baking pan (as well as other parts, like the lid) rather than replacing the whole machine. From past experience, the pan is the thing that wears out quickest because it loses its non-stick properties, so it's great (for the planet as well as the pocket) to be able to replace one item rather than the whole machine.

I was intrigued to see how the two machines would compare. The Lidl one, despite being cheap and cheerful and no frills, does do the job reasonably well so it's ideal as a first machine to see if you get the bread-baking bug, but the Morphy Richards Premium Plus one does have some non-negligeable advantages, in particular the collapsible blade which destroys less of the inside of the loaf.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £139.99

for more information : http://www.morphyrichards.co.uk/

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Morphy Richards 'Home Made Cook of the Year' competition

Morphy Richards Intellisteam Steamer review

Morphy Richards Flavour Savour Slow Cooker

Schwartz review #8 : Slow Cookers Sausage & Bean Casserole

Here at The Madhouse, I've been loving trying out the different herbs and spices that Schwartz have been kindly sending through for review (you can see all my Schwartz reviews by clicking on the Schwartz label here), and I was over the moon to discover that they have created a range of spice mixes specially designed for slow cookers. Schwartz have done some research which shows that while 45 per cent of homes across the UK have a slow cooker, only 14 per cent of them use them, so they have developed a range of Slow Cookers recipe mixes to make slow cooking easy and tasty.

I received a fabulous pack comprising a wonderful Morphy Richards slow cooker, which I will be passing on to a very excited friend because I've already got one (you may remember, I have already reviewed the Morphy Richards Flavour Savour slow cooker here) and some of the Schwartz Slow Cookers spice mixes.

Today, we tried out the Slow Cookers Sausage & Bean Casserole mix. I often make the classic Sausage Casserole using their mix so I was keen to see how this would compare. Well, as you'll see below, the answer is very well indeed !

At 8.30 this morning, I was busy frying sausages so that the dish would be able to happily bubble away for a few hours and still be ready by lunchtime when Madhouse daddy Mike popped in from work.

I prepared the rest in the slow cooker within a couple of minutes. All I needed to do was empty a can of chopped tomatoes, a can of beans (the recipe suggests cannellini beans but I went with baked beans, as it was what we had in the cupboard), a chopped onion, the sachet of spices and a bit of water.

A quick stir, add the sausages (having drained off the excess fat) and pop the lid on for a few hours.

Fast forward several hours (as many as you like - the joy of slow cooking is that a couple of hours here or there makes no difference at all !), and here is what you get. I purposely added more water than the suggested amount so that we'd get lashings of lovely sauce.

This would be absolutely lovely with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes but, as I was cooking twice baked stuffed potatoes for tea, I decided to serve it with coucous, which also worked very well.

One happy smiley face ...

Two happy smiley faces (even though she was feeling ill with her cold and wanted a pyjama day) ...

Three happy smiley faces (well, kinda, he was too busy stuffing sausages in his mouth to smile for the camera !)

To be honest, I wouldn't really have been able to tell the difference between the sausage casserole I usually cook and the one in the slow cooker, but the added bonus is that I didn't need to keep checking back to see if it was drying out too quickly, I just let it get on by itself while I had fun playing with the kids !

If you want some more inspiration for slow cooking, you might like to look at my other slow cooking posts here

The Schwartz Slow Cookers recipe mixes include Beef & Tomato Casserole, Chicken in Red Wine, Sausage & Bean Casserole. I'll be back blogging about the others in the range once I've tried them out ! The Sausage & Bean Casserole mix contains nothing but a mix of herbs and spices with no hidden nasties : Wheat Flour, Modified Maize Starch, Tomato Powder (11%), Dried Onion, Flavourings, Garlic Powder, Paprika, Red Bell Peppers (4%), Sugar, Oregano (2%), Chilli Powder (Chilli Pepper, Cumin, Salt, Oregano, Garlic), Marjoram, Salt, Black Pepper.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : 99p for a 35g sachet 

for more information : http://www.schwartz.co.uk/productdetail.cfm?ID=11576

for more information about Morphy Richards, you can check out my Morphy Richards Innovator posts here.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Morphy Richards 'Home Made Cook of the Year' competition

Morphy Richards £4 Slow Cooker Challenge recipe #2 : Beef Carbonnade

Schwartz review #1 : Creamy Mild Peppercorn Sauce

Morphy Richards special pink kettle and toaster for Breast Cancer Care

As a Morphy Richards Innovator, I've been reviewing lots of their household appliances and gadgets here at The Madhouse, including several products from the funkily-coloured Accents kitchen range. Having chosen the red theme, because it matches our Dolce Gusto coffee machine, we've tried out and reviewed the One Cup hot water dispenser (here), toaster (here) and jug kettle (here). I love the red colour but I've just seen the fabulous limited edition Accents pink kettle and toaster set, which will see a donation from each sale going to Breast Cancer Care, which are gorgeous too. Read on for more information.

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For Breast Cancer Awareness month (October 2011), Morphy Richards is proud to announce a partnership with Breast Cancer Care, which will result in a minimum donation of £20,000 going to the charity.

To mark Breast Cancer Awareness month, a national campaign to raise awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, Morphy Richards has launched a limited edition Accents pink kettle and toaster set, which will see a donation from each sale going to Breast Cancer Care.

 

Pink Accents Kettle

 

The pink Accents dome kettle incorporates a mixture of stainless steel and plastic, giving it a unique look. As well as the rapid boil element, the kettle has a capacity at 1.7 litres and also boasts blue illumination in the water gauge and a dual water window to help make sure it is filled with just the right amount of water. The kettle is priced at £39.99.

Pink Accents Toaster

The pink Accents two slice toaster looks great next to the pink Accents dome kettle. It features a combined plastic and stainless steel finish with chrome accents. It also has a variable browning function, defrost, reheat and cancel functions and removable crumb tray. The toaster is priced at £39.99.

Morphy Richards’ donation will enable Breast Cancer Care to continue to provide expert support to people in the UK living with Breast Cancer, for more information, visit: http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/  

The Pink Accents Range is available from mid-September from http://www.morphyrichards.co.uk/ .

You can find out more at http://www.homeofthehouseproud.com/

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Donate £2 to Charity Just By Watching the Street Dance For Change Video

HELP WHIP BREAST CANCER WITH THE PAMPERED CHEF LIMITED EDITION PINK PRODUCTS

TV presenter and mother-to-be Angellica Bell is urging people to Go Pink in October

Morphy Richards 'Home Made Cook of the Year' competition

Are you proud of your skills in the kitchen? Are friends and family always dishing out the compliments after eating your home cooked food? Can you prepare wholesome, nutritious food on a budget?

Well, if the answer is ‘yes’ to any of the questions above, Morphy Richards' ‘Home Made Cook of the Year’ competition could be the opportunity to have your kitchen creativity recognised with a national award. At‘Home of the House Proud’, they want to find those ‘Home Made Heroes’ that keep their families' bellies full with delicious, wholesome and nutritious food.

As they explain :

"In these financially challenging times, families across the country are making cutbacks when it comes to their weekly shop and it’s becoming increasingly tougher to feed the family on a set budget. As well as finding that one person that consistently cooks great food, we’re looking for somebody who can cook a delicious main meal to a set budget, that budget being £7.50. We’ve set the budget of £7.50 to mark our 75th anniversary!

It’s not just the folk here at Morphy HQ that will need impressing with their food; our three short-listed entrants will be invited to the Women’s Institute’s Denman College on 5th December 2011, where they will have the opportunity to meet celebrity chef Brian Turner, ambassador for our prize partner Stoves, and what’s more, cook their dish for him!

The cook that rustles up the food that Brian judges as the best will not only walk away with the prestigious title of ‘Home Made Cook of the Year’, but will also bag themselves a £1,000 Morphy Richards kitchen makeover, a Stoves Mini Range cooker, a Roberts DAB radio and a one day Women’s Institute cooking course for them and a friend – the perfect prize package for any ‘Home Made Hero’!

The two runners up will each win a Morphy Richards cooking product of their choice (up to a retail price of £150), a Roberts DAB radio and a one day Women’s Institute cooking course for them and a friend.

Each entrant will receive a single use 15% discount code for purchase of any Morphy Richards Worktop Cooking product direct from Morphy Richards.

for more information and to send in your entries, head over to : http://www.homeofthehouseproud.com/category/home-made-cook-of-the-year

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Morphy Richards Intellisteam Steamer review

Happy Birthday Morphy Richards - 75 Years At The Heart Of Your Home and 75 Days of Great Offers

Morphy Richards £4 Slow Cooker Challenge recipe #2 : Beef Carbonnade

 

Morphy Richards Intellisteam Steamer review

A steamer is one of those products that I've always had on my wishlist but could never justify buying because I wasn't sure how much use it would actually get used. But I said exactly the same thing about a breadmaker, a slow cooker and an Actifry and they've been in constant use ever since I got my hands on them. Well, the Morphy Richards Intellisteam looks like being exactly the same.

When Morphy Richards asked me if - as one of their Innovators - I'd like to try out the Intellisteam, I instantly saw my chance to try out a steamer but, to be perfectly honest, thought that I'd only be able to use it as a healthier, fat-free way of cooking chicken and fish and a great way of keeping the nutrients in vegetables. I didn't think it would be able to knock up family meals or get used on a daily basis.

But it's nothing like any of the other steamers I've ever seen in the shops. First of all, the capacity. It holds an amazing 8.2 litres which is plenty for 4 adults or, in our case, 2 adults and 3 kids. Secondly, the number of things you can cook at once and the variety of food items that can be prepared. When I saw that the Intellisteam was delivered with 1 rice tray, 1 x food plinth, 2 x sauce trays and 1 x removable divider wall, my initial reaction was "ooh, I didn't think you could cook sauces and rice in a steamer". (I should point out at this point that the only steamer I had used before the Intellisteam was one of the contraptions made of two superposed bamboo trays that you placed over a saucepan of water - not very high tech and not very inspiring !)

The Intellisteam can be adapted to suit your needs. It has a big compartment, which can be used with the food plinth to cook meat or fish or without for a large quantity of vegetables. Then it has two other compartments which can be used to cook rice, vegetables, noodles or -believe it or not - sauces. And there was me thinking steamed food had to be bland ! The two compartments can be made into one with the removable divider, again depending on your needs.

Then it starts getting clever. Each compartment has a separate, individually controlled heater so you can cook three different items with three different cooking times. But that's not all. Say you want to cook fish for 15 minutes, potatoes for 35 minutes and peas for 10 minutes. The Intellisteam really is intelligent as it will set each compartment off at staggered times so that they're all ready at the same time. How cool is that ? Even better is, there's no mad panic when it's ready because there's an automatic "keep warm" function that will keep everything piping hot for 40 minutes. This makes it just as convenient as the slow cooker for getting a complete meal on the table with minimal fuss when you've just got in from work.

Programming the Intellisteam is really simple and actually a lot of fun - I guarantee your kids and husbands will want to get involved ! The timer has a whole line of pictures and you select the correct food type for each compartment then push on the button to start cooking. The Intellisteam is preprogrammed to set the cooking times for these food items, but you can also finetune the cooking times by pushing the buttons, once you've experimented and got a better idea of how long things take to cook. You can also save your personalised cooking times for future use.

The whole principal behind a steamer is, obviously, steam so you have to pour in about 2 litres of water before you start. Things are made simple by a maximum/minimum level and also a gauge on the front of the steamer. If you realise you need to add more water during cooking, once the grease/water tray and compartments have been placed on top of the water recipient, that's not a problem because there's a special opening to allow you to do this when in use. Just in case you still mess up, there's a boil dry safety cut-out and alarm.

The Intellisteam is an expensive piece of kit to splash out on and, I have to admit, before trying it out, I probably wouldn't have parted with that amount of money to buy one. But I have been absolutely amazed at how versatile but also time saving (not to mention hassle-saving) it is and it will be used a lot more than I first intended. I haven't had much time for trying it out over the summer because we've been off gallivanting around all over the place (Turkey, Brittany, my parents') but now that we're back - and especially as I'm now embarking on a weightloss/healthy eating plan - it will be in constant use. There's a recipe book included and also various recipe suggestions on the Morphy Richards website (here) so have a look at those - I'm sure you'll be amazed at some of the ideas. I'll keep you posted here on my blog too as we get more adventurous.

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £99.99

for more information : http://www.morphyrichards.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Product=48780

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Morphy Richards Accents One Cup review

Morphy Richards Accents Toaster review

Morphy Richards Flavour Savour Slow Cooker

Morphy Richards Accents One Cup review

This summer, in boiling hot Turkey of all places, 10-year-old Sophie discovered a passion for fruit tea and had great fun trying out all the different flavours at the breakfast buffet. Well, when we got back, she wanted to carry on and excitedly bought some red berry and blackberry & apple tea at the supermarket.

However, I wasn't so sure. On holiday, you just had to push a button and the hot water came out straight into your cup. You still had to be careful you didn't spill it and scald yourself or burn your tongue on overly hot tea, but there was no steam to add to the risk. I really wasn't keen on her using the kettle because of the steam aspect and also because it's so heavy that it would be easy to drop or spill, so I told her to heat a mug of water in the microwave. Even then, it's still a bit awkward getting the mug in and out without spilling it and it's not easy to judge how long it needs to heat for.

When Morphy Richards told me that the latest Innovators project was trying out their brand new One Cup machine, I thought it sounded ideal. And it is. It's so incredibly simple to use that it's Sophie's absolutely favourite gadget (of the kitchen variety anyway!), she worked out how to use it all by herself and she's been showing us how it works !

 As the name suggests, you just empty one cup of water into the wide opening at the back, close the flap, put your cup on the grille under the spout, push the button and, within 30 seconds, hot water comes dribbling out to fill your cup. Sophie loves standing there watching it do its magic but there is also the added bonus that - if you're in a mad rush and want to gain a few precious minutes in the morning - you can put your teabag in the cup before you put it under the spout, then wander off and make your toast or sort your cereal out or whatever and when you come back, the tea will be ready to drink.

As you pour in the exact amount you need, there's no way it can overflow and this also avoids wasting water and electricity every time you overfill the kettle (and let's face it, we all do). The One Cup can hold between 150ml (a cup) to 300ml (a mug) so it's ideal for students, old people or anyone who lives on their own. For the elderly, the fact that it avoids handling heavy kettles is another great safety feature.

It looks really stylish on the counter too. It's been dubbed "the spitting penguin" in our house by the kids, because they think it looks like a penguin and Juliette always laughs when the water starts coming out ! I love the fact that it comes in black or red and perfectly matches the Accents toaster and kettle (that I reviewed here and here) as well as our red Dolce Gusto machine.

My only slight qualm is that it's designed for one cup, whereas I'm sure many couples would prefer a dual "tea for two" One Cup (or should that be Two Cup ?) so that they could use it as a timesaver in the morning at the same time. Although nothing's stopping them from buying two and running them simultaneously !

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP :  £34.99

for more information : http://www.morphyrichards.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Product=43930

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Morphy Richards Shirtmaster ironing board review

Morphy Richards Comfigrip review : Iron-ly Have Eyes For Youuuu !

I'm a Morphy Richards House Proud Innovator!

Morphy Richards Accents Toaster review

As I told you in my review earlier for their Jug Kettle (that you can see here), I've been reviewing lots of lovely products for Morphy Richards in my role as House Proud Innovator. I loved the red Jug Kettle they sent, which matches our red Dolce Gusto machine, so I was over the moon to get the matching toaster too. Although, if you don't like red, you also have the choice of blue, green, white, and ... wait for it ... lime green and purple ! I love having funky -coloured appliances in the kitchen that make me smile as I do the washing up or saunter in half-asleep and bleary-eyed in the morning.

I love the rounded corners of the toaster (if it was a woman, you'd say she was voluptuous and curvy !) and the shiny metallic trim. The retro look and funky colours instantly make me think of a classic American diner - maybe I should redo the kitchen with black and white tiles and buy a black vinyl bench !

But it doesn't just look good, it's also a very nifty toaster with some great design features. Firstly - and most importantly - it has a variable browning control, which is brilliant if you have fussy kids ! I also love the fact that it has a defrost setting (handy if you freeze your bread and defrost it a few slices at a time as needed) and a reheat function (very useful if - as always happens - the phone rings or Pierre does an incredibly stinky nappy just as the toast pops out of the toaster !).

It has two slots for toasting two slices at once and you can choose the thickness, which is brilliant if you make your own bread, as we do, as it invariably comes out thicker than shop-bought sliced bread. If you like toasting other things like crumpets, muffins, rolls, burger buns or malt loaf, the high lift facility is really handy (and avoids the death-defying poking around in the toaster with a knife when black smoke starts pouring out and you can't get the stuck crumpet out ... or is that just me ?!).

The removable crumb tray is fabulous too - no more shaking the toaster all over the place upside down trying to get all the crumbs out and making them ping all over the floor. (Oh, is that just me again then ?!)

It's a lovely-looking toaster that creates evenly cooked toast every time. And you even get a crumb-free kitchen. What more could you ask for ?!

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £34.99

for more information : http://www.morphyrichards.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Product=44266

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