ME OF LITTLE FAITH
Life is expensive – do I really need another kitchen appliance? Plus, I don’t really like deep-fried foods and prefer to do as much as possible in the oven – meat, vegetables, potatoes many ways – every evening my oven is filled with pans and dishes happily roasting by themselves. I not only like the independence of oven grilling; I find it tastier and it’s generally healthier as well.
I continued to scoff at air-fryers until a friend with young children mentioned that his kids started cooking their own food thanks to the air-fryer. Precisely because there’s no hot oil that can cause ugly accidents. Moreover, they enjoy the responsibility of operating the oven themselves and controlling the cooking process. The seed was planted…
When I finally got an air-fryer – a 3-litre Philips model
– I was much too excited to read the instruction manual. How wrong can you go with only two knobs? I still have fond memories of the TV grills of my youth with which our mothers would send us off to university, so we could make ourselves grilled cheese sandwiches. As for microwaves, I’ve always looked down on them for their inability to brown or crisp anything. Before I had time to google interesting air-fryer recipes, I’d popped two cheesy open sandwiches in the air-fryer’s basket. Three minutes later
I was in melted cheese heaven and pretty much stayed there for days. Eskom ejected me from my cheesy comfort zone when I had to make a meal in a hurry. Frozen crumbed chicken strips and potato röstis were plated, crisp and perfectly cooked, in a fraction of the time. “This thing is unbelievable,” I called out to my husband, as I air-fried a handful of baby marrows five minutes before load shedding kicked in.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have focused on the “fry” in “air-fryer” so much. Because an air-fryer is simply a small oven that gets very hot really quickly and spreads the heat around evenly. Plus, the basket is designed to ensure that hot air cooks the food from all sides. This means your cheese toastie will never have a soggy bottom. In addition to cooking fresh or frozen food, it’s also excellent for heating leftovers. And, unlike in a microwave, last night’s pizza comes out crispy all the way around. Goodbye, gloopy cheese and rubbery crust! It makes you wonder what else you can put in an air-fryer?