Events,  Foodie Life

Getting holiday-ready with DeLonghi Multifry and Coffee Maker

Walking into the DeLonghi showroom is like walking into a dream world of kitchen appliances. Those of you who like to spend time in the kitchen can probably relate to what I’m talking about: There’s so much shiny luxurious kitchen stuff!

DeLonghi is a global brand known for making kitchen appliances that are innovative and high-performing, but at the same time stylish. Their machines are literally something you can display on your kitchen counter like a trophy!

You might remember me sharing the unveiling of the PrimaDonna Elite Coffee Machine some months ago. It’s this amazingly high-tech coffee maker that you can operate using its touch screen controls, but the amazing things is you can also operate it from your smartphone. Cool right?

When I arrived, they had been making some hot chocolate for the bloggers attending this afternoon’s cooking demo using this beautiful thing. But you might be wondering why I said cooking demo. Isn’t DeLonghi known for its coffee machines? Well, that and they also have this little magic worker called the DeLonghi Multifry. None other than Chef Mitchie Sison was present to show us exactly how this little kitchen helper works.

Preparing for the holidays can be quite exhausting. I think we can agree that we’ll need all the help we can get not just in terms of manual labour, but with the appliances we use as well. We want to have something that is efficient and time-saving, and that is where the DeLonghi Multifry steps in.

The DeLonghi Multifry is another innovative tool that combines the power of a low-oil fryer and a multicooker. (So yes, it gets plus points in the health department!) Using this machine, you can fry, steam, make stews and even risottos. Not only that, you can also bake anything from pizzas to cakes!

To demonstrate, Chef Mitchie had us try out a recipe for Cheese & Chive Muffins. It’s a simple recipe that leans more towards the savoury than the sweet, thanks to the bits of cheese and chives in the mix. It starts with the creaming of butter and sugar together, then the eggs and sour cream. Then you mix in the dry ingredients, plus cheese and a bit of the chives.

As a final touch, the muffins are topped with more chives for an added savoury boost. Normally this is the part where you pop these babies into the oven, but today we’ll be witnessing the magic of a preheated DeLonghi Multifry.

The DeLonghi Multifry has a bowl with an automatic mixing paddle attached. If you cook inside the bowl, that basically means the appliance mixes for you as you go and do something else! It can hold up to 1.5 kilograms of food at least, and that’s good enough to serve 8 people.

For the purposes of this recipe, we’re removing the bowl and the paddle since we will be using the DeLonghi Multifry for baking.

The DeLonghi Multifry has a double heating element on the top and the bottom. Aside from that, it also has a fan to facilitate even heat distribution. That’s why it takes a shorter time for things to cook when using the DeLonghi Multifry.

We pop the muffins we made onto a wire rack inside the DeLonghi Multifry, then we set the heat level and the timer. The BPA-free lid is transparent, allowing us to check up on the muffins as it baked. After about 15 minutes, the demo area began to smell of butter and cheese and chives. That’s pretty much our sign to go see if the muffins were ready to be taken out.

I love how nice and golden they look. The tops are crisp but the inside is soft, so these reminded me more of biscuits rather than muffins actually. Not being a fan of overly sweet muffins, I did appreciate the savouriness of these though.

But we’re not done yet. The second recipe we were to make in the DeLonghi Multifry is actually a Filipino staple: the embutido. With this one, you basically just toss all your ingredients into a bowl and then mix. We’ve got some ground pork and bell peppers, some carrots, a bit of cheese and raisins as well. To round out the flavours, a dash of salt and pepper.

Now you just shape the embutido inside some aluminum foil as though you were making a long candy. Set the embutido on top of a metal rack before pouring in some water for steaming. This time we got to use the more high-tech version of the DeLonghi Multifry with the knob for selecting the cooking mode. I believe this is called the Extra Chef model.

It didn’t take too long for the embutido to cook. In less than 20 minutes, it was ready to be taken out and eaten.

You can eat this just steamed, but Chef Mitchie wanted to do a little something extra just to show us the versatility of the DeLonghi Multifry. She sliced the cooked embutido and then pan-fried them right inside the Multifry. You want to panfry the embutido slices until golden and a bit crisp on the outside. Yummy!

Of course, no cooking demo at DeLonghi would be complete without some lessons about coffee. Coffee machines are the pride of the DeLonghi brand after all. And in the span of a few hours, I learned so much about the process of making a good cup of coffee thanks to Coffee Master Mike Canlas.

With their San Remo coffee-shop level machine, of course you can expect the perfect cup of joe. Mike made some espressos for us to illustrate what a good cup consists of. Of course everything starts with some good beans, which he grinds on the spot.

What comes out is a complete cup with the heart (bottom brown and bitter layer), soul (caramel-brown middle layer), and the ever so lovely golden-brown crema. The foamy crema is where the espresso’s best aroma and flavour is contained.

To take it up a notch, it was time for some cappuccino. What makes a good cappuccino anyway? Well, for starters, when they serve the cappuccino to you it should appear to have some well-frothed milk on top with a ring of crema around the mug. Some people describe this look as a puffed up cotton ball.

To demonstrate, Mike first made some espresso, frothed some milk, and proceeded to put it all together. Here’s a good test to know if your barista frothed your milk properly, you have to be able to float a spoon on top. Whoa! Very cool. (After this class, every time I drink cappuccino I feel like I have to do this little trick hahaha!)

Even the brown sugar sits on top of your foam when you add it in. Mixing the brown sugar with a spoon doesn’t deflate that marshmallow-like top at all.

People seem to think that making high-quality coffee can be accomplished using only a high-powered machine, but as the DeLonghi Dedica proves, you can also makes coffee drinks masterfully at home.

Despite having less bells and whistles, the DeLonghi Dedica produced much the same lovely result. You can see the layers of the espresso I talked about above more clearly in this picture:

The DeLonghi Dedica isn’t just any espresso machine; it also comes with a built-in steaming wand that is absolutely perfect for frothing milk to create some coffee shop level drinks. First you fill your pitcher about just 1/3 of the way so the foam doesn’t spill out from the top once the milk is frothed.

The secret to effective frothing is to make sure the tip of your spout is just about 1/2 inch submerged, close to the surface of the milk. As the foam of your milk rises, you will have to move your pitcher downward to keep the spout submerged just right.

Once the milk has doubled in volume and you’re happy with your foam, you now place your pitcher on the table and start swirling it. Swirl the pitcher in a clockwise motion to create a sort of whirlpool in the warm frothy milk, at which point you will see the foam turn shiny and even thicker, like marshmallow. The texture evens out and you can now slowly pour it into your waiting espresso, right in the middle.

Mike pointed out that there’s a reason why you leave that brown ring when you pour in the foam for the cappuccino. Apparently the proper way to drink cappuccino is to take a sip from a different spot every time, until you make your way around the mug. This way, you get a good balance of espresso and milk and froth. This is the first time I learned that! Now I know the proper way to drink some good old capp. 😉

Gone are the days when cappuccinos can only be made in cafes! But of course, we just had to do the spoon test here as well just to prove that you don’t need a gigantic machine to make some mean coffee from top to bottom!

So we’ve got our party food and we’ve got our coffee, all that’s left now is to make dessert! If you follow my blog on a regular basis, you’ll know that I love making homemade ice cream, so this next product was right up my alley: the DeLonghi Il Gelataio.

This ice cream and gelato maker has a bowl with a special paddle on it, like most ice cream makers do, only you don’t need to freeze the bowl with this one. The machine already has a built-in compressor that helps it to maintain a constant low temperature that’s perfect for churning ice cream. If only I’d known about this beauty before I bought my ice cream maker!

So the ice cream recipe Chef Mitchie introduced here is a custard powder-based ice cream. Instead of going to the stovetop to cook eggs and make custard, Chef Mitchie just added a good amount of vanilla custard powder into her milk and cream to make the base. The two flavours of choice for today involved some fresh espresso made by the DeLonghi Dedica, and then Nutella.

Sometimes I have problems with my ice cream maker’s uneven churning, but with this thing, you just put on the cover and switch it on and it churns like magic. Most homemade ice cream recipes require about 20 to 25 minutes of churning before they thicken and turn into a soft-serve texture.

Look at that beautiful tail on that Coffee Gelato!

And because we’re making Christmas treats and it always has to be a little more special than normal, Chef Mitchie turned her coffee gelato into an affogato. A shot of hot espresso is all you need!

The Nutella Ice Cream was quite nice as well. This machine truly spoke to my homemade-ice-cream-loving heart. (And my wishlist!) The ice cream the Il Gelataio produced was, simply put, an awesome way to end this day of deliciousness.

I don’t know about you, but give me a cup of joe and some good food anytime and I’d already call it a great party! But with the help of DeLonghi,the holidays can be even more special. I can already imagine the smiles going around! 😉

Huge thank you to Concept Specialist, Inc. for the fun afternoon. Needless to say I was so impressed with the DeLonghi Multifry and the range of coffee makers, but more importantly, I learned so much more than I expected! Now I’m extra-prepped for the holidays. Have a #DeLonghiChristmas everyone!

~~~

Enjoyed this post? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more. All images and videos on this blog are owned by The Tummy Train and Clarisse Panuelos. Unauthorized use of content, removal of watermark, or edit and reupload is prohibited and will constitute theft.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.