A solution for every imaginable cooking scenario
Firstly, this is a quiet microwave. The door opens and shuts quietly and the beeps are much quieter than my previous microwave. It does not continue to beep at intervals when the food is left in the microwave. I have insomnia and heat up a latte at 4am and the door on our old 15-years+ unit was extremely firm, making a loud bang when it opened and closed. In fact, this Panasonic microwave goes even further and has what the manual describes as the unique function of a Beep Off mode! Like couples sharing a studio apartment or viewers who relate to a certain Seinfeld episode, I was enthusiastic about this. Unfortunately, it is a default setting when FIRST plugged in only, and if you turn the dial at that point it will turn back to Beep On without the ability to later reset it to Beep Off. Once only chance. While I was out, my spouse took the unit out of the box and plugged it in without reading the manual, so we are beep on.
Built in child lock. In addition to having a grandchild, I've rented out a property in the past and always sought appliances with built in child proof locks. This one is activated quickly and easily with 3 taps on and 3 taps off.
The microwave mode for reheating my Christmas leftovers was very effective. It warmed right through a big bowl piled with falafels in less than 2 minutes and all of them were hot, no cool spots, which was above my expectations.
The microwave itself can make the decision about how much time ready-made meals need to be defrosted and reheated, or both! I have several frozen meals that I prepare during my weekly cooks and used the Sensor Reheat program (Auto Menu 1) to defrost and reheat two of them. The meal of beef, potato, carrot and peas was overheated and I removed it at the midway stir point. A denser chicken and vegetable casserole came out perfectly reheated after stirring midway as instructed by the oven. So the program was pretty close considering I was not required to enter the weight.
There are so many other pre-programmed options which must cover every imaginable scenario. I considered using the defrost for some frozen blue grenadier fillets then using the steam function to cook them. But there is an Auto Menu option that does both in the one program! All that Auto program No. 7 for Frozen Fish Fillets asked of me was to fill the water tank, enter the weight of the fish and press start, after which it started defrosting and then utilising the water tank to steam. The fish was steamed beautifully, and I added a coconut curry sauce with toasted flaked almonds (photo supplied). I am glad I can steam a whole fillet now, in addition to the small things I have steamed like broccoli over my saucepan. I just have to remember to clean the fish and position it nicely before freezing because if it’s warped it will defrost and cook in that shape.
The grill mode took the 4 minutes recommended on the pack to colour some blond gluten free mince tarts with no preheating required. And yes, it will toast your bread if your toaster breaks down.
Talking of appliances breaking down, my air fryer stopped working 2 days before the new microwave arrived. Therefore, I was keen to try out the “Air Fry Style” chart in the manual. The air fry style is basically achieved by positioning the tray higher in the preheated (convection) Oven Mode. All my Christmas and New Year crumbed finger foods were cooked by this method – polenta chips, cheese croquettes, prawns, chicken popcorn and the like. None of the items I cooked this way needed to be turned given the tray underneath is hot, but if you need to turn them you can open the door and the time countdown will continue when you put them back in. The manual suggests 220C for air fry style, but I used lower temperatures written on the product box with great results. To compare, some of the food in my old air fryer would lose their shape, while the food I cooked in the Panasonic retained their shape well. I won’t be rushing out to buy a new air fryer just yet.
I was still looking for something like an air fry style option but without preheating, which led me to “Combi 1”, the microwave + grill program. It turned out to be most suitable for food that takes longer to cook, like lasagna, and it dramatically reduces the cooking time for things I have previously cooked in my kitchen oven. I roasted/baked 510g of cut potatoes on Combi 1 on the bottom tray in 17 minutes (Combi 1 microwave strength is 300W), and they were lightly browned at that point by the simultaneous grill. I added another 5 minutes of grill alone on the top tray, still with no preheating, after briefly spraying with some oil and adding salt, pepper, and sprigs of rosemary and thyme from my garden (these things cannot be added before microwaving) and turning some pieces over as you do for roasting. So in 25 minutes and without preheating, I got charred roast potatoes and crispy herbs with the leaves falling off the stem, which I sprinkled over the potatoes. They looked great. My husband said something smells nice and ate a few before I managed to take the photo. (BTW the manual includes a microwave method for drying herbs).
I was happy that I was able to increase or decrease the cooking time during the cook if I changed my mind about that; and when, in my wisdom, I decided to skip preheating for the oven or grill modes, I could bypass that at the start.
The only thing I miss about my old microwave is the ability to get a 30-second microwave quick start with one press.
I was gifted the NN-DS59NB 4-in-1 Combination Microwave Oven in exchange for an honest review on Panasonic’s website.
