Don't know why I waited so long...

[Journeyman]

I'm an ex-Victorian. (thank god these days  ) but I've lived in most States at one time or another. One thing Vic has better than anywhere else is takeaway fish and chips.

And yes, there are individual F&C shops in other States that do a pretty good job of things but in Vic it's hard to find a bad one. The Greeks have a lot to answer for.  

So I bit the bullet a week or so back and looked around for a deep fryer - saucepans don't quite cut it and tend to be messy.

What I found (on appliancesonline.com.au - bought a freezer from them years back - good place to deal from) was the Delonghi Rotofry, a neat little unit that has some decent features.

1. Where most deep fryers capable of doing more than a tiny amount use 4 litres of oil, this one uses 1.2L. 
2. The basket is angled into the oil and it rotates through the deep end.
3. Even though it uses so much less oil, the power rating is 1800W, some of the 4L ones are at that level and even the most powerful is only a few hundred more, This means, not only does it ehat quickly, when you put the food in, it comes back to temp very fast, reducing greasy food events.
4. It uses bugger-all oil - in 2 separate uses, cooking 2 lots of chips and some fish, (so 6 cookings) it dropped the oil level from Max to Min and those levels are like maybe 2mm apart. 
5. It has a drain tube to make it simple to empty the oil out for storage.
6. It's compact & looks good. A big plus for having it out on display rather than having to put it away.

After my kegging stuff and then my home brew gear, best buy!  

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Journeyman

[Stickers]

great little device for fryups

i've got the older model without the timer and works really well, scored mine as a flybuys reward too. i'm paranoid about household fires so I always keep a good watch on it and the cleaning is really bloody easy. wash the filter foam often and as long as you're not using it toooo much you should get a lot of life out of it. i use rice bran oil in mine and it's good for a few weeks even if you leave it in the unit, but for best results, strain off the oil from any floaty bits and store the oil in the fridge. you'll know when you've pushed the oil too far.

(if i do fried chicken i'll ditch the oil though)

[Journeyman]

12 hours ago, Stickers said:

great little device for fryups

i've got the older model without the timer and works really well, scored mine as a flybuys reward too. i'm paranoid about household fires so I always keep a good watch on it and the cleaning is really bloody easy. wash the filter foam often and as long as you're not using it toooo much you should get a lot of life out of it. i use rice bran oil in mine and it's good for a few weeks even if you leave it in the unit, but for best results, strain off the oil from any floaty bits and store the oil in the fridge. you'll know when you've pushed the oil too far.

(if i do fried chicken i'll ditch the oil though)

Ditto on the rice bran oil. High smoke oil and good for almost all frying. (Thai food needs peanut) Thanks for the filter tip - was wondering how often they need replacing and thought, 'Hmm... regular hot water bath?'

Why change it for chicken?

[Stickers]

6 hours ago, Journeyman said:

Ditto on the rice bran oil. High smoke oil and good for almost all frying. (Thai food needs peanut) Thanks for the filter tip - was wondering how often they need replacing and thought, 'Hmm... regular hot water bath?'

Why change it for chicken?

I did a batch with fresh oil and it was pretty good for a first crack. Re-used the oil 2 days later and the food was really unpleasant looking and had an odd taste.

Also dim sims are far better if they defrost over night. Frozen fries work really well (mostly), some brands work better than others so there's a bit of trial and error involved at times.

Filter yeah, i give it a good wash in hot water and detergent and a good rinse and dry - so you wont need to replace that as often as the manual recommends if you keep on top of it

[Journeyman]

18 hours ago, Stickers said:

Re-used the oil 2 days later and the food was really unpleasant looking and had an odd taste.

Did the oil smell? I presume you had left it in the fryer? I ask because 2 days seems really fast for something that had been heated to 180°+

I've done 4 fry-ups including a kiev and fish, on the same oil since I got it, including fish and when I drained the oil (through a mesh strainer) it's clear and smelled like oil with only a slight hint of food smell. Got me worried now - gonna be sniff-testing every time.  

[Stickers]

6 hours ago, Journeyman said:

Did the oil smell? I presume you had left it in the fryer? I ask because 2 days seems really fast for something that had been heated to 180°+

I've done 4 fry-ups including a kiev and fish, on the same oil since I got it, including fish and when I drained the oil (through a mesh strainer) it's clear and smelled like oil with only a slight hint of food smell. Got me worried now - gonna be sniff-testing every time.  

Could have just been the particular fried chicken recipe i used

[ben 10]

Don't know why I waited so long....

 

Hmmm, heart disease?

[Stickers]

1 hour ago, Ben 10 said:

Don't know why I waited so long....

 

Hmmm, heart disease?

rice bran oil isn't too bad all things considered

[Instigator]

On 8/26/2020 at 9:20 PM, Ben 10 said:

Don't know why I waited so long....

 

Hmmm, heart disease?

You make it sound so dirty.

[Journeyman]

On 8/26/2020 at 8:50 PM, Ben 10 said:

Hmmm, heart disease?

Nope, ticker's working well and always has. Liver? Not too sure these days with all the HB.

[Journeyman]

On 8/26/2020 at 10:02 PM, Stickers said:

rice bran oil isn't too bad all things considered

And it's cheap.  High smoke temp so it's great for deep frying.

[Stickers]

easy home made popcorn chicken for deep fryer

dry mix

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
pinch garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder

the rest

1 chicken breast

1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoon corn flour

2 egg whites

method

make drymix of spices

cut chicken breast into small popcorn chicken sized bits

add chicken to drymix

add 2 x egg whites and corn flour

add breadcrumbs

mix well

leave to set for 30 mins to hr in fridge

bring deep fryer to 180c

fry in small batches for approx 2.5-3mins

enjoy

 

[iBooz2]

@Journeyman Happy New Year Mark.  I do not have an air fryer and just wondering how yours went and did it meet your expectations.  I am teetering on the edge of getting one here because I do all the cooking and can see a use for one (or at lest I will talk myself into it).

@Stickers Happy New Year to you as well.  I like your recipe as it is similar to one I do but I use chicken thigh pieces and Cajun spice instead of the Turmeric / cayenne pepper and use corn flake crumbs instead of bread crumbs for a bit more crunch.  I do mine shallow fried in the Webber Q. they are good caravaning / camping tucker.  Next time you do these please take a pic before you quaff them & post here to make me hungry all over again.  Also are you happy with your air fryer model?

Cheers - AL

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by iBooz2

[Stickers]

50 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

 

@Stickers Happy New Year to you as well.  I like your recipe as it is similar to one I do but I use chicken thigh pieces and Cajun spice instead of the Turmeric / cayenne pepper and use corn flake crumbs instead of bread crumbs for a bit more crunch.  I do mine shallow fried in the Webber Q. they are good caravaning / camping tucker.  Next time you do these please take a pic before you quaff them & post here to make me hungry all over again.  Also are you happy with your air fryer model?

Cheers - AL

 

deep fryer rather than an air fryer and yeah, was too busy eating it to think to take a picture. next time i will i promise. corn flakes sound like a good idea, haven't thought to try that! happy new year indeed.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Hi @iBooz2, Just thought I would put in a good word for air fryers.  Well at least our Phillips XXl is great.  It gets used about once every 2 days.  We do not use it for doing some of the amazing cuisine we see on this forum.  But for everyday jobs for our three adult family it is great.

Any of your frozen foods like chips, battered fish, spring rolls, etc go ace.  Half the time of reheating in the main oven and half as much energy.

Cakes and puddings, big tick.  Mini pizzas, tick.  Burgers and meat balls, tick.  Danish style desserts, tick, tick, tick.

Roast vegetables come out wonderful.

Frozen pies are not so good because it runs too hot.  The crust ends up a bit too brown getting the middle hot.

Easy and quick to do enough food for one person.  Probably no good for a good sized family.  You might need two of them.  Although we have heard of people who do have two.

[Malter White]

@iBooz2 Get the airfryer!

Aside from the less oil benefits, they are worth the money just because you don't have to bother with preheating the oven.

We only do simple tasks with ours like Shamus does. Dim sims, hash browns, chips, nuggets and the like. Roast vegies if we're short on time, otherwise vegies get done in the Weber.

[Journeyman]

13 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

Happy New Year Mark.  I do not have an air fryer and just wondering how yours went and did it meet your expectations.  I am teetering on the edge of getting one here because I do all the cooking and can see a use for one (or at lest I will talk myself into it).

Hope your NY is going well, also same to the rest of HB'ers here. 

The deep fryer is a great addition. It's been used many times since I got it. Probably the only issue is when I batter salmon fillets I have to do them small or the batter fries around the basket bottom. Making smaller pieces means I can place them in the deep region where they seal before getting to the wire.

It's also great for improving the frozen stuff that is supposed to be over cooked - onoin rings come out as good as you get in a good F&C shop.

Another use... We like Chinese dumplings of the dim sum type but usually what you find in supermarkets are the thicker Shanghai style - think gyoza with thicker pastry. With the deep fryer those thicker ones come out a treat where steamed they tend to be a sticky mouthful.

[Journeyman]

11 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Frozen pies are not so good because it runs too hot.  The crust ends up a bit too brown getting the middle hot.

Maybe try defrosting them first? Then the meat doesn't have to use so much heat.

[Journeyman]

10 hours ago, MUZZY said:

@iBooz2 Get the airfryer!

Aside from the less oil benefits, they are worth the money just because you don't have to bother with preheating the oven.

We only do simple tasks with ours like Shamus does. Dim sims, hash browns, chips, nuggets and the like. Roast vegies if we're short on time, otherwise vegies get done in the Weber.

When you say chips, do you mean from raw potatoes or frozen ones? I can't see an air fryer producing good chips from scratch, but it could be worth getting for things SWMBO eats - chicken roll-up mini roast things and kievs etc.

[Malter White]

@Journeyman I meant frozen chips, mate. We've made pretty wedges though and just yesterday I used the airfryer to reheat some leftover fish shop chips. 3 minutes @ 200C and they came up quite well. Far better than microwaving.

[Malter White]

I bought this 8 litre model from Aldi. It was $89 or $99 from memory. I put the 2 litre milk bottle in it to show it's capacity.

Funny story on how I managed to get this: I'd heard airfryers from Aldi were very popular when they came up on their "special buys" so I got to my local store 10 minutes before opening to ensure I didn't miss out. When I arrived there was about 40 people already waiting. A staff member came out and informed everyone, "We only have 8 airfryers!"

So I asked a number of people in front of me if they were after an airfyer too. They were and I was resigned they'd miss out and so would I.

I get inside and naturally all of them had been snapped up. I see a guy walking the floor with one in his hands. Being the extrovert I am I offered him $20 for his. He gave it to me! Didn't want the $20. He'd just got off the phone to his wife who'd lined up at another store and had got one also. He was walking back to return his to the shelves when I cheekily approached him. Winning. 

[iBooz2]

Thanks guys.  I seem to be suffering from a bit of brain burnout lately and mixing them up.  Thank goodness I did not head to the Good Guys to buy last week because I would have gone in there thinking of air fryers, looking only at deep fryers and walking out with a damn dish washer. which I don't need.  Will take a step back and get brain in right gear then re-visit this exercise.

Cheers - AL

Edited January 15, 2021 by iBooz2

[Classic Brewing Co]

I bought the Sunbeam Multi Function it has Air Fry, Grill, Pizza, Bake, Convection, Warm functions. You can make toast, toasted sandwiches, roast meat & veg, pizza - fresh or frozen.

It also makes the best chips with NO OIL, my favorites are Coles Beer Battered Steakhouse Cut $2.70 per kg. In fact you could even do without a normal oven as it is so versatile & dosen't need to be reheated. Air Frying is 30% - 40% faster than a regular oven. I use mine every day !! Happy Camper.

 

Sunbeam Multi-function Oven & Air-fryer

BT7200

 

[jamiek86]

@Journeyman so I'm guessing you have lived in or eaten fish and chips from tassie but still think better in vic?

[Journeyman]

10 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

@Journeyman so I'm guessing you have lived in or eaten fish and chips from tassie but still think better in vic?

Yep! Tassie comes 2nd.