Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Air Fryer Nation

 Air fryers have taken the culinary world by storm. It;s a must have for any home chef and makes cooking  and now baking easy. it's rising in popularity because of this.

Christina Morales , a regular contributor to the Wednesday New York Times Food section wrote about this fantastic machine in today's section.Most home chefs like myself use them more than we do our ovens (I only use my oven now for baking Christmas cookies and holiday roasts).  Everything can be made in them as more and more functions are being added. Hard to believe that the air fryer is not that old.It was invented by inventor Fred van der Weij in the Netherlands in 2005. He was looking for a way to make fries t home.A convection oven dried them out. It took hum three years to develop a prototype  for his egg shaped fryer, Philips produced it and it made its' debut at the Internationale Funkausstelung, a major consumer electronics fair in Berlin. Soon major appliance companies like Cuisiinart, Ninja, Cosori and Instant Brands quickly introduced models.The air fryer is so popular now  that they're are even vlogs and cookbooks dedicated to it. America went wild for them  thanks to being gadget crazy.

Ms. Morales includes two recipes.One is for an easy chicken parm along with another for a cheesecake! Yes, many home chefs are baking in air fryers. It's the usual recipe for the parm which involves dipping the chicken breasts  first into eggs then in the batter of bread crumbs, Parmesan and seasonings. It's a quick fry, but you will have to fry them in batches. Then it's spreading the marinara and sprinkling the breasts with shredded mozzarella cheese. It's cooked again until the crust is a deep brown. Ms. Morales recommends serving it with more sauce and any kind of pasta but you can also put in on Italian bread as a sandwich.  The cheese cake which turns out without cracks or flaws is the classic recipe  The graham cracker crust is made first and pressed into a spring form pan  then in the air fryer basket. The cheesecake batter is poured over that, almost hitting the rim of the pan. it's baked at 300 degrees Farenheit for twenty-five to thirty minutes. Cherry pie filling can be poured over it but you can also use pineapple or chocolate syrup too,

The air fryer is here to stay. There's so many dishes we can make in it from savory to sweet. Get one today and discover how great it is.