Food Appliances - part 3 of many

The Air Fryer. (And my oh so many mistakes already - a mere 24hrs in...)

I've been anti-fryer for a long time. I saw one - once - in a friend's kitchen. right alongside another identical air fryer. They said they used them both together quite often and their children loved anything crispy-fried in air... I thought I'd never have a use for one. Well, maybe. One day. In a distant future when I found one for ten bucks at the opp shop. After I'd found an induction cooker for a tenner. Maybe then.

But things change. Life moves in mysterious ways. And the landlord replaces the old gas cooker with an electric one, and that started me looking at - going back to an electric cooker... Not even kidding, one of my favourite places where I cooked up many many storms had an electric stove. 

Also luckily, I'd found a single induction cooker at an opp shop for ten bucks about a year earlier... 

Induction Cooking

That cooker opened my eyes, it did. I started using it for simple stuff at first, cooking spuds and vegetables, that sort of stuff. Then suddenly it became my main cooking appliance and the gas cooker did the simple stuff. Then the gas cooker went away and the new electric stove seemed like a dinosaur, with elements that took longer to heat than the induction cooker did to fry an egg... 

And the old ten buck induction cooker had apparently been at the opp shop for a reason, one of the switches had been dodgy from the start and suddenly the most important switch on it - the mode switch - only worked if you held your mouth in a curse word shape, crossed your eyes, and tapped it twenty times spelling out "SOS U SOB" in Morse code and by now these things cost just a few bucks over fifty and - we bought a new one. 

The old one is in my workshop and I'll replace the tac switch and use it as a second cooker. Oh and air fryers are down at the same price range and the only thing the electric cooker has is good grille and a fantastic  oven for larger roasts and bakes and - a day ago an air fryer rocked up at the door...

Both from K-Mart in case you were wondering. 

Air Fryers

In just a bit over 24hrs I've noticed a few things already - ... Hang on. Here - have a picture:

We had some hash brown shapes from ALDI in the freezer, and around eight at a time fitted in the silicone tray liners we'd bought with it, and the machine made spectacular hash browns. We sort of tasted one or two and said goodbye to our waistlines. 

No - maybe not quite, but we decided the machine was going to be dangerous. And my wife gave me that "told you we should have gotten one two years ago when I said" look and - I didn't care. I have a new cooking technique to learn! 

This is written the next evening, and dinner ALL came out of that machine. I tested a recipe for potato chips made with baby spuds but they recommended an  oil/flour/spice dredge and honestly - next time I'll skip the flour altogether and just add salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder directly to lightly oiled sliced potato.  Dry the potato slices first though. Fry in small batches (layers of a few chips deep only, stop every ten minutes and shake them to make sure they all cook evenly) for around 20 - 30 minutes at 200C and there's the recipe I'll be using next time, Air Fryer Potato Crisps.

Second were some Aldi crumbed chicken tenders that I always found will go slightly soggy and often lose their coating if I fried them so I've always made them in the oven. The air fryer we bought has a 3.75 litre capacity and the actual basket is a bit smaller, so only seven of the eight fit into it. It sucks because you need to do these in a single layer just like the hash brown stars. ( Oooh, more air fryer tips!)

I noted with some interest that the packet included air fryer cooking instructions so I didn't have to guess, 180C for 10 minutes turning once - you know what? Let me cut to the chase for you. Like every other packet instruction for microvwave/oven/and-now-air-fryer, it's crap. Like wife says: "ten degrees more, ten minutes longer and that's closer."

In this case, next time I'll be cooking them at 190C, for seven minutes, then turn them, check progress, and go for another five to eight. Because I *know* these can be more crisp than they turned out with the packet instructions.

Last thing was an experiment to make a frittata-style dish, beat four eggs with three tablespoons of self-raising flour, mix in a pinch of salt, some paprika, and half a cup of shredded cheese, now use one of the silicone liners as a form, air fry at 180C for six minutes, then do the old "invert to flip" into the second one (What? You didn't get two of them when you bought the machine?) and do it same temperature for five more, turn out onto a plate and allow to set, then slice and serve. Actually better when served cold. Egg and Cheese Bake. 

So, Ted - Never In A Million Years, Eh?

yeah. My wife is the best. When she edges me out of my comfort zone, she expands my horizons, and now you can expect a few more AF recipes as well. (There are thee - sort of - hidden somewhere in this article, can you spot them? 😹)

The Alternative Appliances Show, part 3.

Yeap. This is part of the series, I have two more in draft and then see where it takes us. The thing I meant to demonstrate here is that when you find a new appliance, don't be afraid to mess up, think outside the supplied recipe booklet, and be prepared for some bad potato crisp slices... I'm already wondering how low I can get this one to run in order to dehydrate something like tomato puree to make tomato powder, because that's how you get BBQ flavour... I'll fail a few more times before I figure it out, but it's part of the process. 

Anyhow - please share this, hit one of the donation buttons and support my research, and see you on the next article!