An air fryer is the new black, or perhaps the new microwave. I ran one through a battery of tests to see what it could do.
The best thing an air fryer does is cook typically deep fried recipes, such as chips, or vegetables that soak up a good deal of oil, such as aubergines, in a quick, mess-free and low fat way.
When the weather is hot, we want salads and also fried foods with plenty of salt and seasoning – all the better to down with a beer or a glass of rosé.
I love fried aubergines, but you can use gallons of oil when cooking them: they are sponges. Here is my air fryer recipe for fried aubergine sticks. Chips are a rare treat in my house, mainly because of the pfaff – all that chopping and double frying. (It is worth it though. I filled an ordinary deep fat frier with bulk-bought olive oil and have been frying up more-ish treats all summer.) The air fryer does make fried potatoes a doddle: I’ve just cooked homemade chip butties with last night’s air fryer chips. Strangely they hit the spot in today’s weather at the time of writing: 31ºC and rising.
During my research, I do wonder how many of the air fryer recipes out there are properly tested. I had a few failures, particularly in my attempts to bake cakes in the air fryer, which took twice as long as in an ordinary oven, and left the batter in the middle uncooked. The times are often wrong in the internet recipes that I found. Having access to only one air fryer, I couldn’t compare with other brands, but I followed the temperatures (from 160ºC to 240ºC) diligently.
I popped in some herb-encrusted salmon fillets, which looked perfectly cooked on the outside but were raw on the inside. This needs more testing.
One successful thing you can do with an air fryer, in total contrast to a microwave, is cook a boiled egg. Just pop a raw egg in its shell into one of the air fryer drawers. For a hard boiled egg, cook at 160ºC for 12 minutes and 8 minutes for a runny egg. Other things worth trying is kale chips.
Here is a recipe I came up with that did work well.
Mexican style corn, cheese and courgette fritters with avocado salsa
Ingredients
Fritters
- 1 courgette, grated, then pressed to extract as much liquid as possible
- 1 pack (225g) halloumi, grated
- 1 tin (160g) sweet corn, drained
- 2 tbsp of picked green jalapeños or rajas (which are mild green chillis, poblanos, in tins, see stockist in notes)
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- handful chopped fresh coriander
Avocado Salsa
- 1 small red chilli, roasted
- 1 avocado, diced
- 2 limes, juice of
- 1 tsp sea salt
- handful chopped fresh coriander
Instructions
- Mix together the grated courgette, halloumi, sweet corn, jalapenos.
- Add the whisked eggs, and salt.
- Add the coriander, leaving some for garnish.
Avocado salsa
- Roast the red chilli (roasting chillis makes them milder and gives a charred flavour) on the stove top until the skin is slightly black.
- Scoop out the avocado and dice.
- Add the lime juice. You can also add the zest.
- Add the salt and coriander.
- To cook:
- With a large tablespoon, drop the mixture onto the air fryer rack in the drawer. Cook in batches in the air fryer at 200ºC for 9 minutes.
- Serve with the avocado salsa.
I love my airfryer (Cosori). I made crispy “seaweed”
You one you get in a Chinese restaurant. I just use kale in small pieces cut up and a few splashes of oil. Then I run my hands through the kale before putting in the pre-Heater airfryer. It takes 3 mins at 185C. Then I shake it out & add a few shakes of sugar and salt on it…. Or more… adjust to your taste.
Yes wa thinking I should try that with my cabildo Nero in the garden!
Oh, your, god! I’ve been seeing air fryer recipes popping up alot recently, especially on Facebook and twitok. I never knew you could actually do runny eggs in them though, will 100% be trying it out.
Also a big fan of the chips, they are superbo!