This week’s cool gadget is a leetle more expensive than last week’s. Ok a LOT more expensive. It’s an Actifry. These are the near magical contraptions that cook chips and roast potatoes with little effort and a tiny amount of oil
The Actifry
It’s not the only air fryer on the market but it’s the only one that I have. If people want to send me other makes I will happily try them out and blog about them 🙂
The are expensive. Mine was around £50 and I bought it second hand. It’s very much an investment buy for me though as it means I don’t have to turn on the over whenever I want chips/wedges/roast potatoes. Of course if the oven is already on then I use it but having something that sits on the counter top and does not require any attention is fantastic. I don’t have to turn them part way through, I don’t have to move the brown ones from the outside of the tray and replace them with the anaemic ones in the middle. Even with a fan when I am making oven cooked slimming world style chips this happens.
With an actifry the potatoes are moving constantly giving a very even finish. It also means that any herbs/spices/seasoning you add is also evenly distributed and not in clumps on some. In addition you cannot pile up chips in the oven you have to spread them out thinly on baking sheets and this takes up quite a lot of space. If you do have the oven on for other reasons you are forever playing Tetris with hot trays trying to get everything to fit in.
I am firmly sold on mine now and use it at least twice per week. The crucial test came the other day when I did have the oven on and did have room for one tray of potatoes. However one is not enough so I decided to do that tray plus a load in the actifry. We then did a taste test. The actifry cooked ones won hands down, despite being almost identical in appearance the texture and taste was just better.
You can also add Frylight or other spray oils instead of the tiny amount of real oil and it works pretty much as well although they are nicer if you use oil and it’s only 1 tsp or thereabouts to cook 1.2kg of potatoes which easily serves 4 people.
I’m not sure if I would pay full price for one but I am more than happy with mine. It is quite bulky, fortunately I have room for it but it is something to consider if you are thinking of buying one.
Top tips
- Par-boiling really does not make any difference to the end result but can cut time, I’d prefer just to cut them smaller
- Just before they are cooked stop the actifry and add salt, then let the actfry ensure that they are all coated and delicious.
- Granualted garlic added to the potatoes at the start makes them taste wonderful and adds texture.
- Add garlic, ground cumin, chili and ground coriander for Tex-mex wedges or try with sweet potato for a twist
- Small cubes of potato with garma masala or any curry powder are absolutely delicious serves with a curry.
- Do not overload the actifry. There is a weight limit and for a reason the blade on it is fairly robust but they do break
On the left dry roasted potatoes, on the right actifry ones
Actifry skinny fries with steak
Spiced potatoes with chicken tikka
Oh I love a gadget I really do, in fact I am a bit of a sucker for them. Â The problem is that so many of them just do not deliver what they promise. Â I’m looking at you JML and your range of miracle products that just don’t work, or only work if you spend more time faffing about with the gadget then you would actually have spent doing the job by hand. Â By this time I have wasted time, money and effort not to mention the crushing disappointment when expectations of an automated household akin to the one enjoyed by “The Jetsons” is dangled before you only to be cruelly dashed.
Perhaps I expect too much but when these things work they are utterly fabulous and I want all of them to be like that. So over the next few weeks I will be blogging about a few of my kitchen gadgets that actually work (for me, please don’t hate me if you get a duff one!)
The Pineapple Corer
It’s on average 50p cheaper to buy a whole unadulterated pineapple rather than a pre-prepared one.  Now if you are going to hack at one with a knife almost losing your fingers, getting bits of juice, pulp and skin all over the kitchen and failing quite spectacularly to remove all the hairy bits then 50p seems like a small price to pay. Until you realise that for £3 you can buy your own cool device that does it for you.  A mere six pineapples is all it takes to break even and then it’s savings of  half nugget every time.  Which (unless you are on some weird pineapple fad diet) granted is not a huge amount but the gadget is cool anyway and pineapples do keep better if you buy them whole and prepare them when you need them.
I’m sure they are available from most department stores but I bought mine from a random eBay seller that happened to be the cheapest located in the UK. Â I like a bargain but I don’t like waiting for 6 weeks for it to arrive from Hong Kong .
I love using mine, it’s easy to use – you chop of the top of the pineapple, place the gadget on top press down firmly and then twist. Â The cut, cored and slice pineapple comes out leaving the skin intact which I full intend to use one day for a rum based cocktail complete with umbrella. Â It’s FABULOUS and so very satisfying.
Behold the pineapple corer in all it’s glory!
Middle Class Value 