Review of the Remoska®, a small portable oven, ideal for use in any family home, as well as student accommodation, or touring in a caravan or motor home
The Remoska ® is a small electric oven which is completely portable, as long as you have somewhere to plug it in!
The Remoska® is a Czechoslovakian invention, available in the UK through Lakeland. The oven looks like a pressure cooker, but it doesn’t need to go anywhere near the stove.
The concept is very simple. The food can go directly into a pan that sits on its own stand, or can be placed within the pan in a dish, just be careful not to scratch the non-stick surface. The lid, which contains the heating element, then sits on the top and cooks the food.
The oven cooks at “moderate” temperatures (approx 180 to 200 degrees Celsius), and so although it may not be quite hot enough for pastry, it cooks most things very well.
As well as its convenience and ease of cleaning, the Remoska® is very economical, using a fraction of the electricity consumed by standard cooker. This means that it is no longer necessary to have the oven on for over an hour to bake a couple of potatoes, but they can still have crispy skins, unlike those that have been in the microwave.
The Remoska® comes in three sizes: baby, standard and grand. The standard is easily big enough to cook a meal for two people.
It is also possible to bake in the Remoska®, but it is here that one of the disadvantages is evident. For example, if you are baking a sponge cake, the top tends to brown long before the whole cake is cooked, because of the position of the heating element. This is quickly rectified, however, with the use of aluminium foil. Cut a circle of foil to fit the Remoska®. Cut out another circle in the middle, approximately half the size, so that you have a ring of foil rather than a solid circle. Once the top of the cake has set, simply place this ring on top of the sponge, and the top will be protected from burning.
The portability of this oven is one of its great benefits. It’s an idea piece of equipment for caravan and motor-home users, as it takes up relatively little space, but can cook as well as a full oven. It’s also an ideal bit of kit to pack your kids off with when they go away to college or university, as it’s great for cooking from scratch and for reheating take-away food!
There are a number of accessories available for the Remoska®, including a rack that is handy for frozen pizzas, as it raises the food closer to the heat source. This can also be good for roasting meat, as any fat will drip down, either to be spooned away by the health-conscious, or used as the fat for roasting potatoes.
There is also a separating dish available, which is very useful if you want to cook a casserole in one half of the dish, and something dry in the other half.
It is not a piece of equipment to be used within the easy reach of small children, as the lid does get quite hot (but no hotter than a saucepan on a hob). The lid has a long handle, and a smaller one for lifting and resting, but it can be a little awkward turning it over when it is hot.
That said, it’s an incredibly versatile piece of kitchen equipment and, unlike many gadgets, it is unlikely to be left gathering dust at the back of a cupboard.
