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The Tefal OptiGrill #GrillSkills Review #Dad

As a lover of all things meat and an owner of more wires than CERN, when your hear there’s a grilling gadget that combines the two, you get my attention! You see Tefal have always been ahead of the game when it comes to Kitchen appliances, we’ve currently got the induction pans with removable handles and I’m also looking at adding the Actifry to our list of tools. Tools are what I call these as like any professional, you need the right tools to get job done if it’s steak, fish, sausages or chicken. No one likes an over cooked chicken breast or salmonella. The job in this instance is to make the perfect steak panini just how we all like it. That’s medium rare for Mrs P and I, then slightly more well done for Bethany. There’s always a challenge in our house, getting the temperatures just right but also how do you cook steaks the size of your hand and still have them all cooked together? So I’m reviewing this against three family criteria:

  • Must be big enough to cook large steaks.
  • Must be able to make me into a master chef (cook steak to temperature/preference).
  • Must be easy to clean.
  Question 1: Can it handle a Palmer Meal? I tested this bad boy on two occasions to make sure it was up to scratch! First was on the perfect panini but I also gave it a good go with a challenging mixed grill for me and Mrs P. Here I have two of the biggest steaks that Lidl sell, both a mammoth bit of meat that would cost an arm and a leg in a restaurant. As you can see from this beast below, we really didn’t scrimp on size! With the size of the griddle, they both fit on easily and as it”s fully adjustable and the steaks are sitting there ready for a grilling! Imagine the size of the frying pan that would need and time on the hob to get up to temperature. Here’s the LED Cooking Level Indicator which I’ll go into a little bit later but as you can see from the colour it’s pre-heating nicely! It wouldn’t be a mix grill without some gammon steaks either. Mrs P doesn’t believe in Pineapple on meat so they’re a bit lonely. Using the grill to cook all of the meat was very easy and cooking gammon first, then steaks and sausages on a manual setting, all the food was ready, cooked perfectly and hot with no oven needed. So to answer the first question, it handled two massive bits of steak no problems. Question 2: Can it turn me into a Masterchef? Steak has always been one of my favourite meals but when it’s been cooked wrong it can ruin a meal. It has to go back and wastes time and you’re eating your main course when everyone else is tucking into dessert. So it has to be cooked perfectly and I want to be able to do that without an advanced cooking course and hours of my time. So testing out the OptiGrill I picked my favourite sandwhich, the Steak Pannini for me, Mrs P and Beth. The problem is the wife likes it medium and Beth well done. Reading through the very quick start guide, I was informed that this beauty here did all the hard work for me. The OptiGrill asks what type of meat you are cooking and then does the hard work for you. It starts to pre-heat and from a nice colour change and beep it’s time to show the meat the griddle. The LED indicator changes colour when as time goes by and depending on the shade of colour, that should be how done the steak is. There’s a thickness detector built in so no matter what size your slab is, the Tefal has a setting built in for you. So first is a medium rare steak and as the colour of the indicator hits orange, it’s time to get the steak out and slice that bad boy up! I was asked by the wife why the steak wasn”t all brown and if you have a look at the griddle, those grooves divert all of the fat away from the meat and into a reserve for disposal later. That means you’re not cooking the food in fat but with just heat and ensuring a lean meal from start to finish. That looks pretty good to me! So let’s get these cut up and ready to go! Even though you’re not cooking in fat, the meat was so moist and perfectly pink inside, just how we love it! So a quick splash of ketchup and into it’s bun for delivery to the wife. The good thing about the Tefal OptiGrill is that I can leave the 2nd steak in there and once the lid is shut it can then continue to cook until the next required temperature. It really is that easy to cook two different steaks, to perfection, within minutes! The colours change very gradually so if you like yours in between its cool because there’s a shade for that. They blend into each other nicely. So in relation to questions 2, that looks like a pretty good job Question 3: How Easy is it to Clean? If you’ve got things like soup makers that all require power chances are they also can’t be cleaned very well. We’ve all seen someone’s George Forman with a year’s bacon debris stuck to it and thankfully Tefal has thought of everything. Using two clicks on each grill section, the plates get released and are fully dishwasher safe. This is really a game changer for me as who wants to be cleaning it with cloths. As the OptiGrill channels away all the fat, you don’t want to be messing around so after leaving it to cool down, get the plates into the dishwasher for a perfect clean. They came out spotless which means that we’ve now got a kitchen essential that not only handles the biggest bits of steak, cook them to perfection, every time, be easily cleaned and convince everyone that you’re a master chef in the process. What’s not to love about this bit of kit. Just look at it, beautiful. I had an amazing time reviewing this for Tefal, if you’d like to know more about this grilling beast have a look at the OptiGrill here. To show you all how much fun I had, check out my YouTube video and whatever you do, don’t get too hungry.]]>

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