For those who follow my blog for a while, it’s obvious that I love a new gadget. In the kitchen, in the lab, I am always excited to try something new. Then comes the flip side of that coin. The after-taste of guilt after brining a new toy home. “Did I really need that?” Next, I make solemn promises to never ever fall to temptation again (yeah, right). Lolita, our Philips air-fryer, was no exception, I went through intense mea culpa sessions every time I passed by the laundry room and saw her in all her shiny beauty sitting on the countertop. Ready and waiting. Guilty feelings are not fun, so I fight them with my best weapon: putting Lolita to work as often as possible. You know what? It seems to work. So here I am to share three guilt-removing dishes made in the air-fryer.
GOODIE #1
FRIED MANIOC ROOT, A BRAZILIAN CLASSIC
I’ve published quite a few years ago a full tutorial on how to make “mandioca frita.” You can read it here, so that you learn how to prepare it. Please, don’t ever try to fry the root without cooking it first.
Once you got your pieces of yucca root cooked, they can sit in the fridge for a few days, or even be frozen. To cook them in the air-fryer, simply coat them with a little olive oil, season with salt, and place in the fryer at 390F for 20 minutes or so. The time will vary depending on the size of your fries. Watch them as they start to get dark brown, then remove them and salt the pieces before enjoying them.
Just like potato fries and sweet potato fries, there will be a difference in texture, as the fried pieces will not be soaked in oil. That, of course, may turn off some traditionalists, but I find it a brilliant way to reduce the fat content still allowing us to enjoy this delicacy.
GOODIE #2
SWEET POTATO CHIPS
I’ve blogged about sweet potato chips made using the spiralizer. In this simpler version, I cut them by hand and omitted the soaking. The idea was to get them to the table as quickly as possible on a weeknight. I used a mixture of orange and white sweet potatoes, cut them more or less uniformly in 1/4 inch slices, coated them very lightly with salt and into the basket they went. Temperature was set to 390F, which is the highest setting the Philips will go to, and they took about 18 minutes to get brown, shaking the pan every once in a while. I must say I preferred the batch made with the spiralizer, but if you need to take a simpler, faster route, these are still pretty pretty pretty good (any Curb your Enthusiasm fans out there?).
GOODIE #3
PARSNIP FRIES
These turned out excellent! The only problem with them was the amount. I ended up with a smaller portion than anticipated. It so happened that when I was peeling the parsnips, the largest of all slipped from my hand and fell on the floor. A race took place between Sally and a certain dog that attends by the name of Bogey Quit That. Against all odds, since the cook happened to be closer to the fallen root, BQT won, and thought it was super fun to grab it and run around the house with it, as fast as his powerful legs would allow. There was a bit of profanity involved, some screaming, until he finally dropped the badly mangled veggie on the second floor of our home, near the bed in a guest bedroom. Into the trash it went. Serial killer, folks. As I mentioned many times, I must have been a serial killer in a past life. Eternal karma.
But, back to the recipe. Cut the parsnips as uniformly as possible. Not an easy thing to do, those are creatures shaped in exotic ways. Coat them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and then add one to two teaspoons of cornmeal all over, shake gently. Any cornmeal that doesn’t stick, it’s ok, you just want a very subtle coating. Place them in the basket of the air-fryer, and set it to 360F. Cook for 10 minutes, increase the heat to 390F and cook a few more minutes, shaking the pan every once in a while. As they brown, remove them and adjust seasoning with salt if needed. Due to their shape, some bits will be more cooked than others. No big deal, it’s all good. They have this wonderful sharp taste, like fries that had a date with a lemon. Yeah, that’s about right. Love them.
We really love the air-fryer, and I have no regrets about buying it. It makes portions that are perfect for the two of us, it is not too noisy, it doesn’t smoke, it is super easy to clean, and it doesn’t require a lot of time to reach temperature. Two minutes at most, but I don’t even worry about that. I put everything inside, turn it on and add two minutes to the cooking time to compensate for the heating.
Of the three goodies, I think the parsnips were my favorite. I might try to make them in the spiralizer as chips, just for fun. We enjoyed them with a New Mexico Pork Chile, rice, and avocado slices. Simple, but very tasty dinner. Of course, a little more parsnip fries would have been nice… But life with BQT has its complexities…
ONE YEAR AGO: Focaccia with Grapes, Roquefort and Truffled Honey
TWO YEARS AGO: Moroccan Carrot Dip Over Cucumber Slices
THREE YEARS AGO: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
FOUR YEARS AGO: Cilantro-Jalapeno “Hummus”
EIGHT YEARS AGO: Shrimp Moqueca
I’m sure those veggies are quite … healthy (shudders) but give me decadent things like chicken wings. Can you cook battered things like onion rings and calamari and tempura in Lolita?
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yes, you can… I haven’t tried it myself, but I see recipes around. I’ve got a couple of major epic failures trying to do “fritters”, like veggie patties, but I think it was a bad recipe. They sell paper covers with holes on them to use for more “wet” items – I bet they would work for tempura – but let me experiment with it and I’ll blog about it
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They all look great, and perfect uses for Lolita 😊😊😊 aaah, how boring life would be without Bogey….!!!! 😝😝
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It is true, life without Bogey would be a long, never-ending yawn… 😉
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What exactly does the air fryer do that a convection oven with the fan on would not? I have been tempted by them but haven’t given in so far. My kitchen cabinets are overflowing. Those parsnips look delicious, I agree that it wouldn’t have been enough. But then you wouldn’t have a good story either, love our fur babies.
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I cannot explain why the air frier is different on a technological profound base. However, it seems to me it concentrates a very hot temperature on a small space in a way that the regular convection oven is unable to do due to its dimension.
I think that it is almost as if a convection oven would get on steroids but on a smaller scale – you cannot cook the same amount of food, but to get the same crisp, browned up product you would get in the air fryer, you would need a much longer time in a regular oven, and to heat it up to that level you would require a lot more energy
this is a very intuitive answer, based on practical experience with both devices – I might be missing very important points…
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What a nice trio of recipes! I totally get that guilt all of the time, every time I pass the slow cooker, pressure cooker, etc., etc., but I seem to be using the air fryer a lot!! It’s so great for simple small dishes, isn’t it? Great post!
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Karen, I bought a new toy….. it is waiting for me to use it…. a very unique pan…. you will be shocked. 😜
Once I get back home I intend to jump on it….
(Figuratively speaking….)
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Soo yummy!! Will give it a try definitely 😊
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Especially the parsnips…. very tasty….
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I can imagine!!😍😍
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Please feel free to visit our blog 😉
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I would eat EVERY single one of those sweet potato chips… dangerous! 😉
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So true!!!! 😜
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