Air fryers: uses, mechanism, do’s and don’ts!

Air fryers are the in-thing these days. Health-conscious people are opting for it. It also eases the work and makes it convenient with a low investment.

What exactly are air fryers? How do they work? What are the dos and don’ts of it?

Air fryers

An air fryer is a relatively new kitchen appliance that has shown increasing sales in the last few years. It cooks and fries your food with minimal oil.

Therefore, the dishes made in it are healthier and safer for the heart and the blood vessels. The gadget is easier to clean than an oven. It is simple to use offering a lot of convenience to the user.

And it is relatively cheaper compared to the full-fledged conventional oven that one can see in the homes of the elite. The average cost range of this fryer is from 36 to 200 dollars. There are some high-cost ones as well with more digital control.

Increasingly people are opting for it. This is due to its benefits in form of less use of oil for frying the food. Just 1 to 2 teaspoons of oil suffice in preparing the food.

This is a healthy amount and can help provide the body with the required fat without damaging the heart or raising blood cholesterol or bad triglycerides.

Working

The air fryer works on electricity. There is a basket of trays in it where you place your food to be fried. This area gets engulfed with hot air that the inside heating element produces.

A fan circulates this hot air around the food to cook it. But since oil use is minimal, there are no dangers of deep frying in it. There are controls for temperature and time. When set the machine does the remaining work for you. It’s that easy.

The average time required depends on the dish and your taste. It may be anywhere between 5 to 45 minutes. But cooking as compared to the traditional oven is faster.

For cleaning, unplug the device. Let it cool. Do not put water on the main unit. But remove the detachable parts and clean them with mild soap under free-flowing water to remove traces of oil. Let it air dry.

Do’s and don’ts of the fryer

You can use an air fryer to fry many things. Whole grains, pulses, lentils, and other legumes, chicken, nuts, meat, fish, starchy vegetables, etc.

Tasteofhome.com advises that one can make breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert options in it. Foods from the frozen sections of the supermarket can also be cooked in an air fryer. You can also reheat your leftovers in the fryer.

But there are certain foods that you cannot put into and cook in this fryer. These include bacon because it is too oily. The oil would splatter around inside the tray and make it messy. One cannot eat cheese in the fryer. It will melt and drip inside the tray.

Also, read Air-fryers: are they worth buying for your kitchen?

Additionally, you cannot cook green leafy vegetables such as spinach because they will dry up and lose flavor. Battered foods that have more water will drip inside or not cook properly.

Large pieces of chicken will remain uncooked inside. The uneven cooking will make the dish unpalatable. Certain grains such as rice also are not good to go into the fryer. The cooking would be uneven.