Changes

According to someone - I can’t remember who - “Everyone hates change, but we all want progress”.

True. We’re as keen as anyone to embrace the latest technology, to keep up and move with the times. But there was one change we saw coming from a long time ago, yet wanted to postpone for as long as we could.

Our kitchen was rebuilt sometime around 2001 and at the time, there was so much upheaval involved that the mere thought of redoing any of that gave us the wotsits. We made decisions that would stand the test of time, spending a bit more to get something that would last - and last it has. Gradually, though, things are beginning to need replacing; hardly surprising after twenty years.

The designer created a “power block” here, with the major appliances grouped into this compact area. That’s the oven, the dishwasher and, behind the two lift up doors at the top, the microwave and our favourite of all, our Imperial Steam Oven.

When our kitchen designer suggested it, we’d never heard of such a thing. Thankfully, though, the UK HQ of Miele, the distributor, was very close to the WI’s Denman College, then the base for several departments and where my friend Jill, then NFWI Home Economist was based. I engineered a meeting with the Miele Home Economist and Jill and I went a few miles down the road for a demonstration, which included lunch cooked in the same steam oven I was considering. In spite of the price - it was horribly expensive - I was sold and my new kitchen was equipped with this magical piece of kit.

It’s a simple concept and the term “oven” is a bit of a misnomer. It’s basically a plumbed in, automatic pressure cooker and in the twenty years I’ve been using it, I’ve come to rely on the efficient, no nonsense way of steaming fish and vegetables, making stock and other fuss-free processes that were done without steaming up the kitchen or cluttering up the hob, all in super quick time too.

But we knew that these wonderful machines were no longer made and that, were anything to happen to it, we’d be looking for an alternative.

Two weeks ago, the inevitable happened. After some problems with the dishwasher, easily sorted by the engineer, we noticed a puddle on the kitchen floor. We assumed that when the dishwasher had been pushed back into place, it had squashed the outlet hose. As you can imagine, behind those appliances lies a huge collection of power and water supplies in a tight space and we could see that those machines hadn’t been put back into place as carefully as they ought to have been from the gaps and weird spaces that had appeared. Sadly, though, it wasn’t that simple. A second engineer confirmed that it was the pump of our steam oven that had broken and replacements were no longer available. The moment had come to look for an alternative solution and we made an appointment to meet the Miele Home Economist to learn of the options.

It’s not going to be easy. Whilst our kitchen guru gets his head around slightly different dimensions and works his way around fitting in whatever we choose to fit the available space, I boiled potatoes on the hob for the first time in years. Twenty years? Come on - there’s got to be a better way!

We ordered an Instant Pot from John Lewis and collected it from Waitrose yesterday. Meanwhile, I posted a note on the WI Facebook page asking for recommendations for a good, basic Instant Pot handbook written in metric with UK ingredients. Does such a thing exist?

I’m not sure it does, because what resulted were lots of urls for websites and user groups which are undoubtedly full of useful information but so filled with advertising to be tiresome for regular reference. So, the search continues. It could be a few weeks before we have everything shipshape again and even then, it won’t be a direct replacement for my lovely steamer.

If you have an Instant Pot and know of a great source of advice and recipes, then please do share! I’d appreciate any tips and tricks you can offer of how I can get the most out of this all-singing, all-dancing electric pot which promises to be the answer to a maiden’s prayer but which so far has produced only a steamed syrup sponge (which may in itself be the answer she was looking for!)