A few years ago, when I was working some incredibly long hours I purchased a "Tefal Cook4me" machine. This machine is incredibly good when it comes to cooking a curry in a short amount of time. You get home after 7.30 p.m. and you are sitting down with dinner at 8.00 p.m. Or you have friends who turn up right on dinner time and you lack the energy to be creative in the kitchen as you simply don't have the time.
The link is here
http://www.tefal.com.au/Cooking-appliances/Rice%2C-Pressure-%26-Multi-Co...
I wish I had discovered this site a long time ago, when I rekindled my love of food. I now wonder, if I would have bothered with the Telfar given that it only takes 30 minutes to poach a chicken breast in a roast chicken stock and you can make a lovely pan reduction red wine sauce. This machine has a built in menu. I sometimes wonder if machines like the Telfar make you lazy in the kitchen or less creative with your vision. You are also using someone else's pallet as to flavour. The other disadvantage is that it has a built in menu.
I don't know if this machine is available in the USA. However it uses pressure cooker tehnology and only needs a teaspoon of oil. I also find that I do not need to use salt when I am cooking with this machine.
When I went to India in 2009 I bought a pressure cooker. Just a small one as I am a family of one. It is great for cooking a lamb curry. The meat is always so tender and falls off the bone. However I saw a person post recently their chicken stock which had been canned in the pressure cooker. I will certainly be giving this a go in due course.
So now I ask the question to others - what is the best time saving device that you at first thought was a luxury but you now appreciate as a pure gem in your kitchen?