Hamilton Beach Digital Food Steamer, Vegetable Steamer and Rice Cooker, Programmable, 5.5 Qt., Black

Oh my goodness! I am so impressed and excited about this Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart Digital Steamer! I was anxious to give it a try and it did not disappoint. The upper and lower stackable steam bowls are generously-sized and hold a lot of food. A rice-cooking bowl is included and will easily hold two big servings of rice. Each of the two stackable steamer compartments has a removable bottom with deep indentions for standing eggs to hard boil. The appliance is easy to assemble and the instruction book provides a chart with cooking times and other pertinent information (replacement parts, troubleshooting, etc.). Within 4 minutes of plugging-in the steamer, I could hear the water boiling in the reservoir and the top and sides began to steam. In the lower steam bowl, I placed small ears of sweet corn and tiny, whole, red potatoes sprinkled with herbs. In the top steamer bowl, I placed an entire bag of shrimp and two more ears of corn. I set the timer for 35 minutes and finished preparing other parts of the meal. At the end of the steam cycle, the unit began timing for the one-hour “keep warm” setting, which it does automatically. I can't say enough about this awesome steamer. It would make a great gift for anyone wanting to implement healthier cooking in their diet. I LOVE it!

This steamer may be small, but it has eliminated several of the cooking appliances I was using. Its sleek design and compact build made it ideal for my kitchen and limited counter space. I was amazed that all I had to do was fill the bottom of the steamer with water and I was able to immediately use it. Before I was using several different pots and pans to cook my foods, now I really only need this. And because the food is cooked with steam and not oils or fats it is a great option for those that want a healthier way to cook. I used this steamer to cook rice, raw vegetables, fish, and shrimp. They came out perfectly and although it takes more time to steam them with this appliance it was well worth the wait to have perfectly steamed foods. There is also a manual that has cooking times for the different foods that you can use with this steamer. I was amazed that you could steam eggs instead of boiling them and you can cook eight full ears of corn as well. This steamer is something that we use every day because cooking with steam makes the food taste great. You can actually taste the food instead of the oils and additives that you would normally use when cooking on the stove. All in all this is a great buy. With the exception of the long cooking time there isn't a downside to this appliance.