Cooking with an Air Fryer

Cooking with an Air Fryer | Original

Home 2024.12

The air fryer has become my favorite cooking tool recently. I bought the Midea Air Fryer KZE5004 for around 126 CNY.

I’ve made the dishes below, and the experience has been really enjoyable.

The last dish shown here wasn’t cooked in the air fryer—it was just noodles made in a pot. Since it’s one of my recent cooking attempts, I’ve included it here as well.

If you often use a cooking tool after getting it, you can say you really like it.

The air fryer has replaced my electric oven. I’d actually like to use both, but my wife won’t allow it—she complains that it takes up too much space and clutters our dining room and kitchen, which are already filled with plenty of tools and dinnerware.

This is reasonable since my wife visits me on weekends, and I don’t want the place to feel cramped. If I lived alone permanently, I’d move the electric oven back into the dining room.

There are some benefits to keeping both appliances. First, you can use the electric oven and air fryer simultaneously, especially when cooking multiple dishes. Second, you can compare the subtle differences in taste when preparing the same ingredients in both. Third, it’s a waste to let a good product sit unused.

Using just one tool all the time can get boring, so I tried traditional stovetop cooking and made noodles in a pot. I remember in 2020 and 2021, I used to cook similar dishes at my parents’ home and sometimes made short videos about them.

Back then, cooking seemed effortless. But now, since I don’t cook as often, even using the air fryer sometimes feels like a hassle, and I’m tempted to order delivery when I’m busy. As a result, I haven’t used a frying pan or pot much lately—so I’m happy I did today.

I originally bought packets of beef balls to cook in the air fryer, but now I want to try them in a pot as well.

The noodles turned out delicious. I used a lot of water to boil the ingredients, scooped out the excess water, and then added the flavor packet to the pot. The final dish was great!

Source: Self-Captured

Cooking

2024.12.29

Cooking for yourself is simple. Use oil for stir-frying because it has a higher boiling point than water, which helps heat the food more effectively.
It is easy to make a dish with meat, vegetables, chili, garlic, and ginger.
A vegetable chopper is a very useful tool. It can chop vegetables into cubes, slices, or strips, and can be used for tasks such as slicing potatoes or creating small granules from peppers.
Making soup is easy with an electric cooker. Add the ingredients, season with salt, set the timer, and let it cook.
Soup with Chinese yam is great because it cooks easily in the soup and makes the soup thick. Carrots, daikon, and tomatoes are also good ingredients for this soup.
A grill oven can be used to make egg tarts, lamb, beef, pork, hot dogs, mushrooms, and more. For meat, set the temperature to 200°C and cook for about 20 minutes.
For outdoor cooking, you’ll need a fire. Dried leaves can be used to start the fire. Find a container to hold the food for cooking, or even use a tile as a makeshift pot.
A rice cooker can also be used to heat food, not just rice. However, keep in mind that vegetables tend to release water, which can make the rice too wet. Add only a small amount of water if you’re cooking vegetables in the rice cooker.
A cooking robot is a convenient tool for making dishes. Simply add the ingredients and let the robot handle the stirring.
We need to understand how long each ingredient needs to be stir-fried. Broccoli requires more time, while mushrooms and meat need less time.
If we cook them together, the different cooking times will result in some ingredients being overcooked and others being undercooked. The order in which we add ingredients to the pan matters.
We should minimize washing the pot between dishes and can stir-fry some foods together.
We can apply the same process or function to similar objects or items with the same characteristics. This applies to both cooking and programming.
Ingredients that are heated in a grill oven can be coated with cornflour and light soy sauce. Using fruit juice to marinate is also acceptable, such as lemon, orange, or apple juice.
We cut meat or other ingredients into small pieces to allow them to be heated more effectively in the pot. Therefore, it is different to prepare for making soup, which may accept larger pieces of ingredients.
The most important thing about cooking is make food cooked fully to safe to eat.
Using a grill oven instead of an electric steamer means that it doesn’t involve water to heat food, which makes the food dry.
A mortar and pestle is a great tool to crush garlic.
Do not use too much salt, especially if the ingredients are already coated with soy sauce.
Meat usually does not need to be washed again. People tend to over-wash ingredients; there is no need to clean them thoroughly with water. We just need to ensure the ingredients are fresh.
Parchment paper is better than aluminum foil because it won’t stick to the cooking surface.
Be careful with ingredients that contain a lot of water, such as bell peppers. Stirring them with meat may release water, lowering the stir-fry temperature and slowing the cooking process.

Source: Self-captured

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