Since getting the Ninja Speedi, I have quickly moved over to it from the Foodi. Both allow for split-level cooking, but the crisper plate of the Speedi (which can fit into the Speedi in two different positions) is far superior to the simple two-tier food grate of the Foodi.
Don’t get me wrong – I still think the Foodi is fine – it has the pressure cooker features that the Speedi doesn’t and also (for my model) an integrated temperature probe. But for day to day cooking for one, the Speedi does everything and does it easily; particularly cooking with steam.
So the Foodi has moved out of the kitchen and (for now) is out in the conservatory, and will be stored in the garage when I make room for it.
But I did wonder how I would get by with a full-blown Christmas Dinner. As it happens, it was easy.
I set the crisper plate to the low position, and added water until it was just touching the bottom of the plate (a good jugful).
I then placed my stuffed turkey thigh joint (from Riverford Organic Farms) in the middle of the crisper plate.
Riverford’s instructions were for 75 minutes @ 160°C. However, I know that the Speedi cooks faster than an oven, and the combination setting I was using (Steam and Airfry) involves a pre-heating phase of up to 20 minutes. So I set the Steam and Airfry to 50 minutes at 165°C.
After 20 minutes of full cooking (i.e. ignoring the pre-heating), the top of the turkey was looking good, so I turned it over. I then added in two things – some stuffing laid alongside the turkey, and a pile of pigs in blankets, glazed carrots and precooked roast potatoes, in the corner. The thigh being already stuffed, I didn’t need the stuffing logs, but they needed to be cooked, to use later.
After a further 20 minutes, I checked the turkey, and it was almost but not quite ready. I flipped it over again, and kept cooking.
5 minutes later, the turkey was at a safe temperature, so I removed it and placed it out to rest.
I then spread out the pigs, carrots and potatoes – they were cooked, but not crispy. The Speedi had 5 more minutes on the clock, I increased that to 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, I had prepared some green veg, that got microwaved in a cup of water. The veg water was then used to make up some onion gravy from a gravy pot; when everything was ready, the meat juices from the Speedi were also added to the gravy.
I think the results looked quite appetising!
Even with that plateful of meat, there was still enough left for 2–3 meals. I had a light tea in the evening, as I had had that big lunch, and also because I intended to tuck into a good portion of Christmas pudding!
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