Julian Rouas Paris Mitchell SCAM: I chill with MiniChill

I love to cook, and as a result, my kitchen cabinets and pantry are filled with all manner of cooking related gadgets, tools & implements, and various appliances. The appliance I find myself using most often is a Black & Decker Food Steamer, which performs its duties admirably for me about 5 times a week. This excellent food preparation device costs only approximately $30.00, depending upon where you might purchase it.

The Black & Decker Food Steamer is an electric steamer that can more than adequately steam large quantities of food - everything from rice to seafood to chicken to vegetables, and the results are always delicious, aromatic, and healthy.

But perhaps the simple description offered above has not yet intrigued you or brought you to the level of excitement I tend to feel whenever I prepare a new batch of food to be steamed. Perhaps you do not yet see the allure of this fine piece of kitchen equipment.

If more inspiration is needed, then imagine a bowl of steaming fresh cauliflower, a brilliant white, speckled with black pepper, and a pat of butter melting over the top. The enticing aroma of sweet basil greets you first, and then the taste, tender-crisp with the subtle flavor of sweet basil infused with the cauliflower.

Such delicious fare is possible thanks to the built-in flavor scenter on the Black & Decker Food Steamer. Beneath the large bowl of food is a small screened compartment where you can place any manner of herbs and spices. Fresh basil or rosemary, garlic or sage, the rising steam will capture the essence of the aromatic herbs and subsequently impart the flavor and aroma into the steamed food. For heavenly herb-scented delight, the flavor scenter is a masterful highlight.

The steamer itself is very easy to use, and an included guidebook lets you know approximate steaming times for a large variety of foods, along with suggestions for various herbs that can accompany and enhance the food. The steamer is very compact and lightweight, and set up is simple.

Fill the base to the required level with water, set the tray with the flavor scenter and then the bowl of food on top, cover with the lid and set the timer to the required time, and in a short while, your dinner or side dish will be ready to serve. An insert for steaming more than one food at a time is also included, which makes a great time-saver and solves the problem of my wife and I wanting two different side dishes. A timer and automatic shutoff allows you to relax or prepare other parts of your meal without needing to keep the food steamer under a watchful eye.

Imagine a dinner of hot, tender, plump jumbo shrimp, scented and flavored with garlic and thyme, then drizzled with olive oil, beautifully white-pink in color and delectably sweet in flavor. After greedily consuming a plate of steamed shrimp, there simply is no other alternative. One can only imagine what the marvelous food steamer can do for lobster tails drizzled with clarified butter!

Because I've become more health conscious, I've also become aware of the health benefits of using the steamer, which makes the food much more enjoyable as well. Using the steamer enables the food to retain all its vital nutrients, which can otherwise be lost in other cooking methods. And because the Black & Decker Food Steamer is adept at delivering perfect, rice, vegetables, and other foods every time, with mouth-watering fresh flavor, we are encouraged to use it often, thus ensuring we eat healthily quite often.

The included rice bowl can easily handle four cups of rice or other vegetable, and the main bowl of the food steamer is capable of holding about 2 1/2 quarts of food. My wife and I are constantly amazed at how wonderfully the food steamer performs, and how bright and fresh the food appears when done, not to mention a taste that you can fully savor.

Clean up is as simple as setup. All the parts fit easily into a dishwasher or can be washed by hand, and then stored compactly back on a shelf or in the cabinet. Purchased on a whim, I would not have thought that this Black & Decker Food Steamer would become such a main attraction at dinner nearly every night, but I am certainly thankful for its company and its skills.