Morphy Richards Intellichef 9-in-1 Multicooker

The basics

As its name suggests, the Morphy Richards 9-in-1 Multicooker boasts nine cooking programmes in one unit. It can shallow fry, steam, slow cook, bake, boil, re-heat food and more. A dishwasher safe bowl is also included.

The good

The Swiss army knife of slow cookers takes up very little space on the worktop but with its 4litre bowl can produce four good sized adult portions. It can stir-fry, steam, slow cook, stew, rice cook, keep warm, bake, boil and re-heat all using the large intuitive control panel on the front..

As well as the large dishwasher safe bowl it comes with a spatula, serving spoon, measuring cup, steam plate and full colour recipe book.

The handy 24hour timer lets you prepare a meal before work – just chop ingredients, pop everything in the non-stick bowl, choose the cooking method and when you want to eat and it'll be ready to serve as you walk through the door after a long day.

The bad

As a compact slow cooker, boiler and baker it's hard to fault, especially using the timer, but it isn't all that great at frying as you can't just leave the ingredients to cook themselves as they will need regular stirring.

The bottom line

The Intellichef will certainly save you time and effort in the kitchen. It's better looking than most traditional slow cookers not to mention being smaller and infinitely more versatile.

Cooking hearty stews and casseroles is effortless and while baking cakes, boiling rice or stir-frying without a wok will take practice the results will be delicious.