Those of you who know me will know two things:
- I love to eat.
- I’m not that great of a cook.
So when I was offered the chance to test the Moulinex Companion I had one question: will it actually make cooking easier or will it be one of those gadgets that overcomplicate things and have you working for them instead! Keep reading to know my verdict…
So first of all: what is it and what can it do?
It’s an “all-in-one” appliance that can chop, mince, puree, mix, boil, fry, steam, stew, knead, emulsify, whip and stir. Woah. All things I hate doing myself or am simply incapable of. Like: have you tried making a sabayon with your bare hands? Yeah, don’t even try. This little dude is precise, too. Not that one makes custard every day but if you get your eggs above 85 degrees the proteins will harden and your custard is ruined. Plus the bowl is pretty big: 4,5 liters. So you can cook a stew or a soup and it’ll serve tons of diners or last you the whole week. Great for lazies like me! And it comes with a book with 300 recipes (starters, main courses and dessert) to give you tons of inspiration and guide you through the use of the 6 automatic programmes: sauce, soup, slow cook, steam, pastry, dessert. There’s also a manual programme for the savvy and brave but I decided to stick to the safe side for the most part and let the book guide me, although I did play with the recipes a little.
So let’s get cooking. To test the Companion, I made a focaccia and some beet hummus. Simple things, yet I never bake bread cause I hate kneading and waiting till the dough raises…
Focaccia
Ingredients:
- 20g of fresh yeast or 10g of dry yeast
- 400g all-purpose flour
- 5 cl Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp chopped rosemary
- 1 tsp sea-salt
- some rosemary and sea salt to sprinkle on top
How to:
- Use the kneading knife accessory in your bowl and throw the yeast with 18cl of water. Using the manual programme, heat on speed 3 at 35° for 2 min.
- Throw in the flour, the olive oil, the salt and rosemary. Press the Baking programme P1.
- When the 40 min. of the programme are over, take out the dough from the bowl. Take out the knife accessory and throw the dough back inside. Set the robot to 30° for 40 min. In the meantime, preheat the oven at 200°.
- Put the dough on baking paper, stretching it a bit with your fingers, make some cuts in the dough with a knife, throw the extra rosemary and salt and bake for 25 min.
- Tadah.
Beet hummus
Ingredients:
- 3 cooked beets (I get the organic ones that come in sealed vacuum bags)
- 100g thick cream
- a chunk of chopped mint leaves
- juice of a lime
- 1 tsp sea salt
- a bunch of your favorite spices (I used cumin but you can use dry garlic, chimichurri, herbes de provence, paprika…)
How to:
- Throw everything in the bowl using the ultrablade chopping knife. Mix in speed 12 for 3 min.
- Tadah number 2.
My verdict:
After the first getting-to-know-each-other phase (what accessory does what: hacking, whipping, kneading…) I actually found it quite cool! And this coming from a gal who would often eat a salad or a cup-o’noodles for fierce laziness in the kitchen. Hello, seen my cheesy-bastards recipe? How lazy is that? Believe me, I was glowing with pride when I made my own focaccia from scratch to dip in my home-made beet hummus. I would have patted my own back but was too busy licking my fingers. The Companion is a tad pricey at almost 700 euros -though less than the KitchenAid Cook Processor which is 1000, but I reckon it’s a good investment if you cook often. Especially if you have kids or like multitasking while cooking: the automatic programmes do save you a lot of time… Take a risotto for example: normally, you need to stay by your pan, stirring so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. Well not with this little guy. You can just throw all the ingredients in and press the stew programme. There goes half an hour you can use to do anything else.
I hope you now have a better idea of what the Moulinex Companion could do for you and that it can help some of you decide whether you want it in your kitchen.
See ya!
Anita
