Air fryer

I’m on that bandwagon! I had thought about it for a while. Something that gives you food rather quickly and in an energy-efficient way is always likely to get my attention. I have an oven, and I like dishes that involve an oven, but I am often a bit hesitant to use it. I am only a one-person household, and heating the entire oven to cook dinner for one seems wasteful. And obviously, I often cook for several days, which would be similar to cooking for several people, but still. So when the air fryer became popular I was paying attention.

As it so happened, there is a program on the radio called "sliced bread" where a reporter evaluates a particular hype suggested by a listener. Air fryers featured, of course. I listened to that episode, and came away still thinking it was a good idea.

I also don't like overconsumption. The thing with a hype is that lots of people get one, and quite a lot of these will then see the novelty wear off, and not use their toy anymore. Or otherwise; maybe people get gifted them for Christmas, when they don't want them. So why buy a new one? Maybe better to wait until after Christmas and striking then. Less consumer protection, but more warm fuzzy feeling about basically reducing waste and maximising the resources that had gone into making this unwanted appliance in the first place.

Being unable to do particularly exciting things for reasons of health, I had a scroll on Facebook marketplace between Christmas and New Year. And there was one for sale in the village. That sounded ideal! And the lady who was selling it was happy to meet up on New Year's Day. So I biked there, had a nice chat, bought the air fryer, loaded it on the back of the bike, and went back home. And there I made space for it in the cupboard.

My main aim was to roast vegetables! I love roast potatoes, and roast beetroot, carrot, parsnip, onion, aubergine; you name it. But I had leftovers in the fridge that needed eating first. So it wasn't immediately able to use it for that.

On the 2nd of January, though, the weather would be great, so I had proposed a walk to my friends. They had accepted. But I have a reputation too keep up! I bring cake on a walk. And I didn't have any. I had better make something quick! And I had just bought an appliance that can make things quick. So I had a look at the documentation that came with the appliance, which didn't speak of baking, and just had a Google. You can clearly not just put the cake batter into the pan of an air fryer; the idea is that the air can get around the food stuff in the pan. So you need to have a container in the pan if you bake. That's okay; I have very small cake tins. And this was not quite what I had in mind when I bought the thing, but it was worth an experiment. I googled some vegan chocolate cake, and tried it out. It works! In half an hour you have cake. Enough for the hike.

Air fried chocolate cake

While I was doing that, I also noticed that the cat was a fan. When the air fryer is switched on, it has a display area with moving lights (like a timer counting down). She found that fascinating! And she was even interested in sitting in the box. Normally she doesn't care about boxes! But for this one, she made an exception.

Cat mesmerised by air fryer

Cat in air fryer box

So I have an air fryer now! I look forward to roasting my first vegetables. But it has already proven its worth. I hope I will get a lot of miles out of this.