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To me I was brought up with potatoes at every main meal. Rice happened occasionally as did pasta but only when out and it seemed strange. I still love potatoes in all forms but rice and pasta have their place. However cooking rice well is not always easy.

The unit is not quite a cube as it is 23cm wide, 24cm deep and 22cm tall. The latter figure does not include the circular container that all the cooking is done in and that protrudes by a couple of centimetres from the top.

The instructions are all in diagrams and to me anyway were confusing. There is a single push down button on the front that turns the unit from ‘keep warm’ to ‘cook’. The rear has a 13amp plug lead (90cm) and that is all.

The accessories supplied are a sort of spatula and a colander type fitment that sits in the top just under the lid to allow you to steam things.

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The supplied ‘20 Recipes’ cook book subtitled ‘Rice and Cereals’ is a lot more helpful. Even though I trained as a chef for a while in my youth I do not remember eight different types of rice that are mentioned here. The two I tried were both cooked correctly in the times given in the book and tasted fine.

However this can also steam items (either over the rice as it cooks or when used standalone) and while this is called a rice cooker it also cooks cereals (no not corn flakes and Weetabix) but items such as Bulgar Wheat, Polenta and Couscous. It will also cook Pasta and as stated steam fish and vegetables. It is also possible to cook home made soups and even some desserts.

The cook book starts by giving charts for how long for what quantities or rice and how many it will serve. I am sure we all at sometime or other have made mountains of rice when novices. It even gives advice on how long and how many times to rinse the various types of rice.

Simple cooking instructions include always add the rice before the water or stock and always use cold liquid. Advice in chart form is also given fr cereals. The book completes with eighteen different recipes for rice, cereals, soup and even deserts.

In use the rice cube is a breeze to use (perhaps maybe why the instruction booklet was naff) put in the amount of rice or cereal required using the measuring cup supplied and the stated amount of water and switch on then push the switch to turn from ‘keep warm’ to ‘cook’ and that is probably all you need.

I tended to use the supplied spatula a couple of times to make sure that the rice was not getting into solid lumps. The most surprising thing to me was that it automatically turns itself to ‘keep warm’ when cooked. I have no idea how it does this as different styles of rice/cereals require different cooking times.

The cooking container is non stick and has a pair of cool handles to allow easy removal from the cube. The top is a glass lid with three metal ringed hole and a metal rim, this allows you to see what’s cooking. I really liked the colander that allowed steaming of vegetables so you get to taste the vegetables and not so much the water or stock you are cooking whatever is underneath.

Doing my Internet searches drew a blank on the UK Tefal site (mind you this still considers the Acti Fry as new and I reviewed this in May. However the Australian Tefal site does have it the link below. I see it is also available in New Zealand. The Australian price is shown at near $90 (Australian) going to a currency converter would make this £41 in the UK. If I manage to find this on sale in the UK I will update it.

UK price available at ……

www.tefal.com.au/All+Products/Cooking+Appliances/Multi+cookers/Products/Rice+Cube/Rice+Cube.htm