What a fun, easy to use and convenient piece of cookware the new Zojirushi’s Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet is. I have steamed mussles (after mussles are done, I removed them and heated tomato sauce in the same skillet), fish and vegetables, and grilled wagyu beef steak (raised in America), pork chops and chicken with the very handy, easy to use and flexible applicance. Flexibility does not usually come with Japanese way of thinking and products, so this is a big thing. Judith Jones, my editor of The Sushi Experience, enjoyed cooking sukiyaki (thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked together with a little sugar, sake, shoyu and water) in this skillet with me the other day, and she was in the heaven.
This is a distinctively Japanese-looking and Japanese-designed (absolutely no re-call anticipated) cooking applicance with a somewhat twisted French name that may on first reading give you hard time to figure out exactly what this product does.
Shallow skillet; the photo with a glass lid is a deeper skillet
But what I found out and I can highly recommend is that this is a wonderful addition to a kitchen if you are looking to bring fun, ease, convenience and education to your everyday as well as your very special meals.
Zojirushi, the highly reputed manufacturer of state-of-the-art high quality Japanese rice cookers, came up with this home-cook friendly multi-use cooking skillet, steaming and stewing pot. The entire applicance consists of five layers, including a glass lid. You can see the structure in the photo. The base is the electrically heated element. It heats up quick and you can control the temperature from “Keep Warm” to a completely variable range of cooking temperatures between 280 degree F and 480 degree F. The remaining three layers are two skillets of different depths – a 2-inch deep shallow skillet and a 3-inch deep one, and a thin steamer panel with legs to raise the panel and the ingredients placed on it above the steam generated by boiling water in the skillet. The steaming panel fits into the deep skillet. The insides of both skillets ahve a non-stic surface.
THE FUN PART: This cookware is meant to be used for cooking meals at the table by the host, family members and guests or by eveyone. You simply set the cookware – base and one of the skillets – on your dinner table and carry all necessary ingredients to be cooked to your table as well. Here in this photo you can see I have cooked chicken breasts and vegetables. During the cooking I covered the skillet for some time with the glass lid to secure the most uniform heat to cook the chicken. Later, I removed the lid and crisped the chicken skin before painting the skin side with my special miso based sauce. The result is juicy chicken with a crisped skin and a delicious sauce together with perfectly cooked vegetables.
With this Zojirushi appliance you can have a quick, delicious hands-on dinner every night if you wish. And, when cooking at the table I am sure that you will be having a fun conversation with your family and friends about the entire meal – how to know when the chicken is done; when to put in the vegetables; when to turn the chickens; who gets which part of the chicken; what other creative ways could this dish be prepared,……
I will continue this blog in my next post: THE CONVENIENCE PART.
To order this wonderful cookware, go to Hiroko’s amazon store and select Zojirushi Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet. You will have a great fun!