I was watching YouTube videos and explored air fryer cooking.
Sourdough starter woes
I was led to this by looking at sourdough starter recipes that I could use with my surplus sourdough starter.
Each week I have to top up your sourdough starter with 1 cup equivalent of flour/water. Last week I mad some sourdough pancakes as per John Kirkwoods recipe, they were like buttermilk pancakes, quite thick and a nice texture, but they were a bit sharp. I'd definitely make them again but I don't know if I could have them every week.
So I found an onion/vege barji recipe that uses sourdough. I'll need to dig it out.
That led me into how to cook Onion Barji's which are deep fat fried and that led onto looking at Air Fryers as a healthier alternative to Deep fat frying.
Air fryer for fussy dog
I liked the idea of them and on looking at the recipes there were a lot on chips, wedges and chicken drumsticks (crumbed). A bit limited until I investigated further.
I thought I had a practical use use it for straight away for Manu, the puppy. He is such a fussy eater and so now, with the freezer, I can batch cook his food and freeze it and take out what he needs for the next day, so he does not get the same meat 2 days in a row (he really doesn't like the same 2 days and 3 is pretty impossible and the flies get at it if I leave it out for too long).
Now, with the freezer, his appetite seems to be improving as his dog bowl is empty. So, a change is as good as a rest for him.
That has changed my shopping habits for him. I used to buy some sort of fresh meat that he could eat 2 days in a row, fresh and raw, like a roast, mince, chicken drumsticks etc. The 2nd day, no interest and the fresh meat would be left out. Sometimes it had to be wasted and binned.
With batch cooking I'm doing a lot of grilling. I dislike the grill tray as its too bulky to fit in the sink and I usually get water/grease on me.
I bought a baking try that sits on top and catches the juices, it works but buckles a lot under the heat.
So lets see if an Air Fryer may be simpler and easier for prepping his food in batches.
Price and type
The Warehouse have a 49$ NZ one from Living & Co, so I thought its worth testing out for that price. Its basket is made of metal as is the bottom pan. I am pleased with the bread mixer that I got there, the same brand.
I was concerned about cleaning it after but playing with the display one I thought it should be easy to soak.
Also with me cooking for one I'm not using the oven much for one meal so tend to do grilled/fried food which is not so smart.
I started to look at recipes and there are more interesting ones out there, and it will do onion barji's as well. I just need to build up some recipes and test them out.
Apparently, it works great with frozen food, so I'll be testing that too.
The freezer and this could transform my kitchen and dining experience.
Roasting 2 joints
Of course, the day I decide to buy this is the day I am cooking two roasts, a leg of lamb and Pork joint. The pork was on special and I've been planning making doing a roast as I have not had one for a long long while, too much meat. Now with the freezer I can just package several meals up.
What I'm finding with the freezer is that I have a few meals set up now, but not a great variety, so I want to get some meals I can really look forward to.
Its my baking day, so I've just made a couple of Ciabatta loaves and I thought, whilst iIm using the oven, I'll also do the roasts.
Their combined weight is 4kg and Mr Edmond's Cookbook says 30min /500g of meat, so that's 8 hours of roasting. I am a danger to myself. . The largest meat piece is 2.2kg so that is only 2 1/2 hrs of cooking.Duh. I*'m glad I was checking as I went.
I'm planning to do some roast potatoes and also a Yorkshire pudding but I'm not sure if there is room in the oven for the Yorkshire pudding, but we'll see. Its early in the cooking time.
I did just look up
The Best Ever Yorkshire Pudding Recipe In The Airfryer. Maybe that will be the test drive for the Air Fryer?
Air Fryer Quantities
From what I have been reading and viewing small quantities of food work better in an air fryer, and because its very hot, cooking times are reduced, so it should be easy to cook some interesting meals for myself.
First test
After stuffing up the timing of the meat, I'd had tin foil over the joints to keep them from getting too dry, so that did not cook the crackling on the pork very well. So I decided to use the Air Fryer to make the crackling and it did a very good job of it. Interesting to see how much oil came out of it.
Baking and pre bake
I tested this out in another post and it worked fine. I pre baked some rolls so that I can thaw and use for breakfast.
Manu's meat
As I've mentioned before, Manu is a fussy dog when eating and dislikes the same meat 2 days in a row. I've cooked a lot of chicken drumsticks and have some cooked chicken breasts and also some uncooked chicken thighs, so for variety I've got some lamb chops and a pork chop, so he can have a variety of red and white meat.
I cooked the chops in the air fryer. I had 2 packs of 4. They took a while as I could only fit 2 in the air fryer at one time and I was turning them every 5 minutes (total 15 min cooking at 180 deg C). So a lot of getting up and checking. It took a bit longer than if I'd used the grill but a far cleaner process and I drained the oil after every 2 chops and the clean up at the end was a breeze.
I'll just need to plan the process better, but I'll definitely stick with that for the time being. I may see if I chop the meat up more whether I can get more meat in and cook for longer.
Oil sprayer
One article suggested I use a spay dispenser with some olive oil in instead of a can of oil spray so I've purchased a new sprayer from the Warehouse to test that out. It doesn't appeal to me to use one that I've had detergent or some other chemical flowing through it so I'll go for new. Also, a couple of the oil sprays I've found quite strange, some just have a bit white froth that I find quite strange. Not particularly appealing. Actually got one from the Waerhouse but a bit big and for gardening, so does not work well with olive oil.
Chicken drumsticks with herbs and spices
Drumsticks were on special, so I thought I would try some drumsticks myself as well as doing some for Manu.
I watched a couple of YouTube videos about everyone's take on herbs and spices. I only had some of the ones they were describing and went ahead anyway.
I mixed some of the herb/spice mixture into the meat, also with some flour in a ziplock bag and then shook the drumsticks in the flour in the bag.
Then I put that in an egg mix and then back in the flour.
I had quite a few so I put some in the freezer, mainly to chill, but I ended up leaving them there overnight. One lay said that chilling them they had more chance of holding the batter on the outside rather than it sticking to the basket.
I put tin foil down and laid the first lot flat. I also set the timer to 200 deg C and ran about 10 minutes. The batter had stuck to the foil. After turning over it cooked quite quickly too. I think I had them in there about 20 minutes. The drumsticks were under-cooked. The outer batter was hot and spicy but not enough flavours and the inside was bland. I was disappointed.
As I was cooking this morning I decided that I'd cook from Frozen the other drumsticks. This time, instead of 3 I had 5 and I stacked them leaning on each other so there was minimal contact with the pan. I also started on about 130 deg C to lightly cook/thaw the chicken without overcooking the batter. Then I turned them over to do the other side.
Then I ran them on 180 deg C for about 10 min both sides and used a meat thermometer to see internal temperature.
They came out much better.
Sausage rolls
I decided I'd do some more frozen Pam's sausage rolls. I really enjoyed the first batch I made of these and froze, so I thought, lets test the air fryer.
The packets come with 4 slender rolls. I used milk wash on them, and 2nd lot I even put sesame seeds on the top. I cut into 6 pieces for each one. I could get 2 lots in the basket.
Preheat the basket. Put them in and run for 10 min on 200 deg C. Then gently try and wiggle them out (pastry sticking) and take about half out onto a plate so you have room to get your hand in to loosen them. Then 5 minutes on the other side. They come out great. Also no oil drained from the pot underneath.
The only weird thing is Pam's have peas in their sausage roll mince (a real kiwi thing!).
Spring rolls planned
I bought some spring roll pastry so will try and do a beef and veg set of spring rolls and cook them in the air fryer. On a couple of vids I watched they said they were better from frozen, so I'll need to freeze some to test out that theory.
I cooked the mince, I have a cabbage and other veges ready to cook, then I found a bean sprouting jar, and I thought I'd have some mung beans in with them as well. The mung beans take about 4-7 days to grow, so that has slowed me down.
Interestingly, I used up ones I had in the freezer, and when reading the label of the beef spring rolls, it said filling 70% cabbage!!!!!! That to me would be a cabbage roll with beef flavouring.
End comment
I'm still coming to terms with this machine. I'm looking forward to trying the par-baked ciabatta. Also looking to make and try the spring rolls.
For re-heats (shop bought spring rolls and sausage rolls) its great.
I tried roasting some peanuts and soaking chickpeas (from dry) and adding some sweeteners to them for snacks. I was a bit casual with the recipes and the chickpea one is too runny (even after a day in the freezer) and the peanut one , with melted white chocolate stuck to the basket and plate and had to be chipped off. So, a bit more thought needs to go into that process.
I haven't even considered the onion bajis yet. I think either heating from Frozen, or making sure the basket is very hot (run on max for a couple of minutes empty) may be the way to reduce the sticking to the pot. The cheap one I have does not have any accompanying bits for different types of cooking, so its an all or nothing device.
I really like the way you can quickly check the food without spoiling the process so you don't overcook things.
I really like the ease of soaking and cleaning the device. A real Irish steeping of the tray.
