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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How do i raise the hinged lid for an extension ring, Ive tried sliding the button and holding down button underneath but there doesnt seem to be any scope for the handle to go any higher.
If I remember correctly – put the lid into the open position and just pull it up…
i find meat in fan assisted oven comes out very dry so cook them in tin foil. much better
Chris Ford; you certainly can cook the stuffing with the whole chicken in the Halogen. I do it all the time. I put the stuffing balls around the chicken, on the lower grid and grid dish, around half an hour toward the end of the cooking time.
The thing about the Halogen for me was not so much the energy saved, as for the ease of cleaning it as apposed to getting down on one’s hands and knees to clean a conventional oven. Even with self cleaning ovens one must still get down and wash and wipe them. With the Halogen it’s all contained in one 12 liter bowl, and no fat splash. Everything apart from the lid can go into the dishwasher. I’ve even unscrewed the stainless steel cover that protects the halogen bulb and washed it or stuck it in the dishwasher a few times.
It’s awesome for bacon, sausage and jacket potatoes too… Even frozen products like chicken nuggets can be cooked in it, from frozen. The only thing that I would say is that sausages, in my humble opinion, should be thawed before cooking in the Halogen, unless one likes their sausages watery and squidgy (I don’t).
Hi I’ve been given an Andrew james halogen in very good condition only used once.my friend has lost the manual so how do I get one
Thank you irene
Can you tell me where I can find a manual?
So, I borrowed my neighbours Andrew tonight (as my andrew is unsafe!) and cooked a chicken and vegetable pie in it. It took 30 mins (paster was not blind and soggy) but then we cooked pudding after as there was not enough room for both and the consumption was 1.22 Kwh. Therefore the result was there is no difference in energy consumption except that the food cooks quicker BUT as you cannot multi cook, i.e. you have to cook a chicken separate to the stuffing and vegetables there is no energy consumption difference. Also you have to warm the plated in the microvave thus adding more cost. I have reviewed our energy costs in the UK and gas is far cheaper than electricity. My advice for versatile cooking is to go for a fan asisted gas cooker and shelve the halogen. p.s. i do not get paid for writing reviews and this review is totally independent, i just want value for money and give an impartial comment. And by the way, chicken cooked the halogen way does not taste like chicken cooked in a conventional fan asisted oven and please do not try to convince me to the contrary, we are all used to slower cooking, it is like trying to tell you that microwave cooked chicken is the same, definately not unless you have lost your sence of taste. P.s. it does not produce the same stock for gravy!
We received our Andrew last Wednesday and in order to try it out correctly we cooked a chicken in it so that we could get a cgood comparison betewwn oven cooking and Andrew. It took 80 mins at 200 deg C to kook a 1.5Kg (medium) chicken. There was no room for the roast potatoes which we had to do later along with the stuffing while the chicken rested so this took the overall cooking time to 140 mins. Today my wife has been doing some baling, i asked her to use a fan assisted oven at 200 deg C for 1 hour. The actual energy consumption was 1.23 Kw. later on i will cook with the Andrew and measure the power. Dont forget, a fan assisted oven heats up and there is a lot of insulation around it so the element is not on all the time. I have noticed with Andrew that the infra light is on most of the time so the consumption may be higher. Will let you know later. Oh and by the way, half way through cooking I lifted the lid off and one side of the handle came out. Luckily I was wearing an oven glove otherwise i would have been severely burned!!!
Hi, just stumbled on your site after buying an Andrew James oven! I have to say i really like your website, very interesting and informative now looking forward to using mine! ,thanks x
Hi Mini – The halogen is not any faster than a conventional oven.
Just cheaper to run.
You could cook both at the same time, with the fish fingers on the lower shelf under the chips. But you could do that in a normal oven too.
About 25 mins at 230. We found that halogens work best at roughly 10 degrees hotter than instructions say for normal ovens.
I am a very busy parent and time is a very important factor for me.
I just wanted to know how long it would take me to cook approx 500g of home cut chips and frozen chips.
also could i cook fish fingers at the same time as the homemade chips?
thanks
mini; yes one can cook fish fingers or any other similar product together with home made chips in the halogen. For myself I much prefer to use the acti-fry for chips; however I have done them once or twice in the halogen. The problem there tho is the time consumed in turning the chips over, as one must do in the halogen.
As for frozen chips, I’ve never done them in the halogen oven, and never much cared for any particular brand of frozen chips, until I tried them in the Tefal acti-fry. that takes about 20 mins (25 mins if one likes them crispy), and they are scrumptious. 🙂
The time it takes to cook chips in the halogen rather depends on how one likes their chips cooked, some prefer them crispy, others prefer them less well done. It can be a case of trial and error at first.
Hi Colin,
I checked with the Andrew James company.
50hz
Good luck with it!