Andrew James premium halogen oven plus accessories: a review
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Kitchen equipment, Reviews | 61 comments
The top of the lid of our Andrew James halogen oven
I want to introduce you to Andrew. He is our new kitchen assistant. When he arrived he was given the night off but in the morning was up early to cook a perfect full English breakfast. It took the same time to cook as using the conventional oven but instead of using two hob rings, the grill and the fan oven Andrew took care of the sausages, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon. Leaving me to make the fried eggs and work out how much electricity we were saving.
Andrew is quite chunky. With his 12 litre bowl he takes up a fair amount of worktop space. The one drawback is the instruction manual. I thought that Andrew was wearing a natty stainless steel belt until I realised that it was an extension ring that gives him an extra five litres capacity. Apart from the skewers the rest of the accessories had me flummoxed. A trip to the Coopers site revealed all. The 36 recipes are not great either as they are poorly translated and inconsistent. You can download a free recipe book from the Internet. I also invested in the The Halogen Oven Cookbook
On Sunday Andrew roasted a crown of duck and lots of potatoes. He was still wearing his extension ring as a belt so I had a bit of a problem fitting everything in. Again it took the same time as a conventional oven with the exception of the preheating time which is about 25% less in Andrew. Browsing other halogen oven manuals on the Internet I discovered that I was using much lower temperatures than a lot recommend. So I need to experiment with this. It’s easy to see how your food is cooking through the glass bowl rather than opening the oven door – this saves on electricity too.
The accessories – once you know how to use them – are handy too. A lid stand is a must as the lid does get very hot and might damage a work surface. Apart from the extension ring they can all be stored in Andrew’s bowl when not in use. The one drawback is that if you are not going to cook directly in the bowl you need round dishes for things like pies and casseroles. Luckily I inherited several from my aunt and now they are really coming into their own. The 12 litre glass bowl is quite heavy too so I wouldn’t recommend it for people who are not reasonably strong.
Although the instruction manual is poor, the Andrew James premium halogen oven cooker
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Hi Danny
It was a 1.2 kg lean topside. The top started to burn after about 30 minutes so I covered with foil and turned it several times
Odelle, I bought my Andrew from ebay. £49.95 with all the extra tools and delivered free. I ordered on Sunday, it arrived on Tuesday. It came from Co. Durham.
Maureen
Hi Maureen
Lean topside is a joint that needs to be slow cooked. Danny discovered this when I got a good deal on a vast topside joint. This is what we did with part of ours https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/tasty-beef-pot-au-feu-recipe-7020. If you were to roast this joint in Andrew it would need to be covered in foil and slow roasted for many hours on the bottom rack at say 120c degrees.
Poor you, what a disappointment. It annoys me when reliable cooking instructions are not included with a joint.
Hi Fiona All,
The creeping cost of fuel is alarming,so we all need to save ‘energy, fuel’ consumption, yet don’t want to compromise, especially on our meals!
As the nights are colder,what better than a good hot meal, it’s a basic commodity as far as I’m concerned.
Especially as I do ‘love’ good food by that I don’t mean ‘pricey’, just good homecooked meals. The simplest stews can be fit for a King without costing the earth, healthy, warming, tastes fantastic (just like my Mum would make)corny, yet true! Another reason why I love this site, like-minded people can get together and the input is amazing, a little online community with the help of Fiona, Danny,which all contributes to make such interesting reading, comments, tips and ideas! You are a clever lot out there! LOL
Thanks to all for the feedback on the Andrew, Jenny other names for the halogen oven, so I shall have a ponder through the link to have a look at the ‘Premium Andrew’ with great excitement.
Thankyou for all the great input, may need some prompts from you on bread, cakes, pies, to give me the ‘push’, LOL. As if I need it!
Happy Cooking All,
Much love,
Odelle X.
I call my halogen oven the Hadron Collider. It’s great for jacket potatoes and sausages. Such a saving instead of heating up a huge fan oven.
Hi Rosanne
Love the name!
We rarely use our fan oven anymore. Andrew has taken over and saved us 17% on our electricity bill over the last 9 months 🙂
Intruiged now with the Andrew!
Gave my cheaper version away to help the aged last year as never got any good results!
I guess that technology has improved, moved on since then.
Where can I purchase this ingenious halogen oven please?
I’m determined to cut down the cost of my fuel consumption this year, reducing my ‘carbon footprint’,cutting costs, avoiding waste,I make bread alternate days and bake, cook lots, so Andrew seems ideal. Beats heating up the fan oven!
Where did you buy yours?
Many thanks, Odelle X
Hi Odelle
We bought ours from Amazon. There’s a link in the article above. They are now much cheaper than when we bought ours. Go for the one with the extras as the collar etc are essential.
Hi Maureen – may I ask what joint it was?
We have been happy with the results of our roasting in Andrew but I tend to do it hot (like 220) for 15-20 minutes and then drop the temp to maybe 170 for another hour or so depending on the size of the joint for medium rare. Cooking with the collar on.
One thing we did notice is that even though Andrew is a fan oven of sorts, we need to add maybe 10 degrees to the fan oven temps we would use in our conventional fan oven. For example if we cook at 180 in our normal fan oven, Andrew seems to require 190 to get the same results.
Received my Andrew this week. Cooked roast beef yesterday. The book said to cook on 200 for 60 – 75 minutes. 3 hours later the beef was cooked through but tough. Has anyone else tried this?
I got my halogen (think I’ll call it Jenny now), last Christmas as the grill in our Belling cooker popped it’s clogs.
My partner (another Fiona) gave me grief about buying another gadget destined for the kitchen cupboard.
Well, it has been used every day since then, I even took it to the Corrour estate where I go fishing each year because I knew how fast and efficient it was (and I wouldn’t know how to use an Aga).
Not a great fan of chicken in the past but in “Jenny” it’s lovely.
Hi Max
Like you, we have been amazed on how good Andrew/Jenny is. Since we invested in our halogen oven we’ve hardly used the conventional oven at all.
Yes chicken is great cooked in a halogen oven. Danny also does a mean roast lamb and roast beef to die for 🙂
I have just downloaded the book you mentioned and will take a good later….have also purchased one from Amazon on next day delivery….bread has come out of ( i call mine Ethan) Ethan great and just having a slice with butter yum
Hi Ceinwen and Ethan
I haven’t tried bread in Andrew yet – thanks for the nudge!
I love this cooker because of how it can transform your cooking not only in taste, but health. Ditching the microwave is one the best ways to retain those nutrients in our food. I think this is a similar product to what Dr. Mercola sells on his site, but the Andrew James seems to have more features!
Hi Gilly
We’ll be roasting a chicken in Andrew tonight – it’s so much easier than using the cooker.