We’re in the thick of Disney Ooshie collecting right now.
Which is all the justification I needed to purchase the famous $49 Woolies Air Fryer.
I managed to get the last one on the shelf at my local Woolies.
Master SSG was taken aback to find me watching a YouTube unboxing featuring the Air Fryer. It’s a sign of the times when your own child can’t fathom that parents watch YouTube unboxing videos too.
This is the video, FYI. It runs through all the basics and includes the results of a few cooking projects using the Air Fryer.
It goes without saying that my first experiment with my Air Fryer involved frozen chips.
The instruction manual that accompanies the appliance is easy to follow and there’s a handy table with guides regarding how to use the fryer for various types of food. It’s important to preheat the empty basket for 5 minutes at 80C prior to use. Also it is recommended to not fry very fatty foods like sausages with this appliance.
The basket is dishwasher safe and the rest of the unit is easy to wipe clean. It is quite a large unit at 35cm high and 18 cm or so deep which for me means it’s a benchtop appliance rather than something I can stow away in my already full kitchen cupboards.
One of the advantages of this particular Air Fryer is also a potential disadvantage. There are only two knobs to adjust and this model lacks the cooking sensors that I understand more highly powered models have as a feature. So you will need to ‘shake’ some foods half way through the heating process.
Shaking is not as frightening as it may sound. The Air Fryer automatically shuts off when the basket is pulled out of the unit while the power is on. Also, because you aren’t dealing with heaps of oil as you would be with a deep fryer, there’s no fear of splattering oil anywhere while you get shaking.
This is how my fries looked when they were done (about 20 minutes at 200C with one shake midway through booking. This 3.5L sized Air Fryer suits our family of two. We cooked about a third of the bag of frozen fries easily with room to spare.
But how did they taste? Somewhere between oven cooked and the gold standard of being deep fried at the fish and chip or chicken shop. They crisped nicely on the outside while retaining their inner mushiness but they still tasted ‘frozen’. I’m hoping to make wedges from scratch soon so they will be an interesting comparison to today’s effort.
UPDATES:
There are a few, I’ve used the Air Fryer pretty much every day since its unboxing.
I’ve just made Air Fryer zucchini chips.
Thinly sliced chips work best as they cook more quickly. I dipped mine in beaten egg white before rolling in a mixture of panko crumbs, paprika. Cajun spice mix, garlic powder and parmesan. I then sprayed with olive oil spray before cooking at 180C for 10 minutes.
I turned the chips halfway through and only cooked as many chips as would fit in a single layer in the fryer bowl.
They were delicious. Not as oily or starchy as potato-based chips. The crumbs stayed crispy and the centre of the chips were soft.
Thin fish fillet coated in beaten egg and seasoned flour cook perfectly in 10 minutes… without that ‘fishy’ smell pervading the kitchen or clinging to your cooking equipment. What’s more, the fillets didn’t break apart in the fryer when I removed them.
These are my marinated drumsticks. My usual marinade contains a swig of sesame oil. To cook, I sprayed evenly with olive oil spray. The skin is crisp and the meat isn’t bone dry and neither is it swimming in juices. Very happy with the result.
The only oil I’ve added to anything has been a spray of olive oil. My homemade foods definitely don’t taste the same as conventionally pan-fried foods but they also aren’t as dried out as if I’d cooked them in the oven. Wise people on Instagram advise that leftover fish and chips taste like they’ve come straight from the shop when you reheat in an Air Fryer.
Maintenance wise, all I’ve had to do is wipe down the interior and exterior of the fryer unit after each use and washed the fryer basket and tray insert in warm soapy water. It’s been a breeze with no additional wiping down of cook tops or splash backs. It’s blooming fabulous to not be living in fear of spitting oil as you fry food over the stove.
I’m having lots of fun with my Air Fryer and you can rest assured that should my $49 bargain fall apart, I’ll be stumping up for a bigger version with all the bells and whistles.
But that’s not all. Vegetable chips, poultry and chicken (you know, bog standard foods) are only the beginning…. have you watched @airfryerguy on TikTok?
You should.
