Life without a fryer
Although in our younger years, we could not imagine not having a fryer to fry snacks or fries, at some point this became less interesting and even though we had one in Budapest, we never bought one here in Spain. Yes, sometimes we fry some Dutch frikandel but we do it in a pan with a layer of oil. Works fine but the downsides is that it's getting hot, you have to wait until it cools down again to clean the pan and nobody likes standing in that already hot kitchen for longer than 15 minutes in the summer months as it's the hot side of the house in the afternoon.
Air Fryers
Although I would have loved to try an air fryer years ago, we never bought one because at the time we had the regular fryer and later we just managed without it because we rarely ate anything we'd prep in it. And let's not forget a very important thing that these air fryers are toxic according to a lot of news I read.
These rumours definitely held a bit of value in deciding not to buy one on our side for several years. On the other hand, we also have a friend who keeps saying this is a false story it's not possible but I never really gave it much thought as we never considered getting one. Until we did today, I can only hope he's right! It's something I'm definitely going to look into in the future but for now I'm going to park these things in the back of my mind for later.
Xiaomi Mi smart air fryer
We were talking about the Dutch Frikandel snacks to prep one and I said oh please use the other pan again because the last attempt was not only tricky in terms of what could possibly go wrong with hot oil in that pan, one little mistake and you have burned yourself badly.
My boyfriend said that was indeed a failed attempt and one time thing so back to the other pan but damn, an air fryer would be so much better because it's so bloody hot in the kitchen already from 3 pm and up. The heat also stays in there extremely long and it's just a room you wish to avoid after using some pan with heated oil or the oven for too long.
We checked online if there was any good deal at this moment because I was still very curious if I'd love it or hate it and voila, there was one at Mediamarkt for 45 euros, a Xiaomi Mi smart air fryer. We went there and found a price tag saying "package deal for 53.99", this meant the air fryer and a year extra warranty for 8.99 euros. I was not willing to get a more expensive one as we both never used one before and this seemed like one big enough for the things we'd use it for.
Questionable behaviour by Mediamarket employees
As per our recent experiences in the past 5 years or so, we learned that a lot of appliances of the lower budget range rarely last much longer than warranty but then again I think 45 euros is 15 euros a year if it lasts for 3 years under fabric warranty. I don't need that extra year for 8.99 and didn't want to buy that.
Yet the lady at the cashier desk said it was a package deal, I said yes but I want the Air Fryer only not the package isn't that possible? No she said. Mind you, this was not a translation issue because I could have this conversation perfectly well in Spanish. She quickly called her colleague who she whispered something to and said to her 45 euros. Then she was whispering again and I knew that she thought to get away with selling this as mandatory but after she asked if we had a Spanish identification number (NIE), she assumed we didn't so it seemed, both of them ran off and quickly said our colleague will take care of it.
This behaviour raises eyebrows because how many of the clients get fooled by thinking they need to pay 45 euros plus 8.99 extra warranty, or in other cases (more expensive appliances) the insurance is probably higher per year (it's an assumption though, I didn't check) and they pay for something that already has 3 years mandatory warranty from the fabric.
We gained this knowledge thanks to the guy on the cashier desk btw. I was happy we didn't fell for it but it makes me a bit pissed that people not only try to push something like that (it's their right to try) but when asked a direct question lie to me that it's mandatory.
Focusing on the positive again
So now that I spilled my thoughts about these two ladies let's have a look at our first two trials in the air fryer, which I call "our WiFry" because of the whole wifi smart stuff inside, which has been dismantled by my boyfriend as we do with all these smart devices.
The first test was easy, frikandellen we recently picked up at our favourite Belgium restaurant who sells us a box a few times a year when we ask for it. It's a big box of 40 pieces, while in Holland you mostly buy 20 in a box (or smaller packages) and he is very reasonable with his asking price. They fry well in a pan with oil but the kitchen is overheated and it's just a lot of hassle for a few snacks. The perfect snack to toss in the air fryer.
We learned that the frikandellen need to be in the air fryer for 10 minutes and that it's normal for them to pop like you see in the picture. It also happens if you fry them too long, they shrink back to the normal size in minutes.
Some Joppie sauce (so good!) and voila, a quick afternoon snack, approved by all three!
We also had some chicken wings left which we normally toss in the oven, a lot of hassle to turn them around and a lot of heat in the kitchen is what I'd hope to avoid from now on. It took 25 minutes for these wings to look like this:
Super tasteful, and so much easier handling this compared to the oven method. How can we not love this machine? I can't wait to test a first badge of fries because I never prep fries at home due to the hassle of doing it in the oven, this will now be fun. The first fries I will try are from sweet potatoes..
Air fry week
I plan on trying out something new in the air fryer every day in the next week at least to see what works well in there. So far I'm so happy because the heat from the chicken badge was gone so quickly while normally you'd have a heated kitchen for the rest of the night.
I'm also excited to toss in some veggies and see how they turn out in there. If you have an air fryer, what's the best thing you prep in there? Leave a comment with your tips please!
All pictures above are my own..