Until recently you would be more likely to find halogen lamp cookers on sale late night on some TV shopping channel than in your high street. But these days halogen cookers are making quite an insurgence into our homes. The promise that the cooking times are quicker, the energy used is lower and that they are now becoming quite popular, I thought it was about time to see if one of these cookers would work in the Caravan.
So what is it exactly? Very simply, it’s a halogen lamp. It generates an awful lot of heat and to dissipate that heat a strong fan is used to circulate the hot air. The controls on these cookers is much the same. A temperature control sits along side a timer. All the controls and heating elements are contained within the lid.
For campers you will want to know how much energy this will use. You will need a mains hook up and these cookers are rated at 1.3Kw. with some quick maths, you will need a 6A supply to run just the cooker. So in the perfect world, if you have some other devices running you will more likely need a 10A supply to use it.
The physical size is quite alarming too; the glass dish does take up some huge real estate with a 12 Litre capacity and the glass does get hot so we thought it wise to set this cooker up in the Awning (plugged into the van via the kitchen window). Once space has been made, and you’ve gotten over the logistics of transporting such a large beast you will be set for cooking pretty much anything you would cook in an oven or stove top.
What exactly can you cook ? We have (at home) tried roast chicken, curries, baked potatoes, casseroles, chips and complete meals) While camping we cooked potatoes wedges, crispy chicken fillets and rice. The manufacturers claim you can bake, stew, roast, toast, sear, brown, BBQ, steam and reheat any food type that you would usually use the oven for.
We used the oven for the 1st time in the Caravan while in Longleat over Christmas. It really did work well. Our choice to bring this instead of the Slow cooker was a good one. The halogen oven provided a lot of heat, a lot of light but more importantly it cooked quicker and more thoroughly than the Gas oven in the caravan
Here is a quick run down of what we found :
1. Easy to use
2. Quick cooking times.
3. Excellent results.
4. Extremely versatile
1. Large glass tub – difficult to transport, difficult to clean at dishwashing facilities, needs to stay in awning.
2. Lid is heavy, gets hot and really needs a stand
3. Can burn food on the top, if left unattended.
4. Needs 6A – 10A mains hook up supply
In summary. Would We recommend it ? Yes. In fact we are taking it away on our next trip. We generally find the results far superior to that of the oven, and we can use this instead of the microwave.
Our model is available on Amazon and the highstreet.
