Ed: Give a hand to my wife’s first blog article in years! Yes, she blogged for a while back in 2007. That blog is still live but her last post was in Dec 2009.
Given my hectic work on weekdays, weekends are times when I try to get as much rest as possible. But I do try to make some simple meals for my family (for some reason, my sweet daughter says she likes everything I make).
I have been looking up yummy but simple recipes to cook, hence, recipes that require deep frying are eliminated immediately, as the thought of my creations soaking in oil and the cleanup after that are total put-offs.
To overcome this, I’ve been itching to get an air fryer but have not really gotten down to it. So you can imagine my excitement when my hubs told me he has the Aztech AAF7630 5.5l Air Fryer for review.
The 5.5l is the largest in the Aztech Air Fryer family and it can comfortably fit a whole chicken or weight up to 1.2kg, and even a 21″ round cake pan. The large sized basket provides the flexibility to air fry small portions like snacks, to cooking full meals, like fish and chips at one go.
But I decided to kickstart my new relationship with the Aztech Air Fryer with the simplest of things …. fried crabsticks. Just roll out the crabsticks (I used Dodo), tear them into 1cm strips, sprinkle with a dash of sugar and oil, and we are ready to start crackling.
The touch screen panel of the Aztech AAF7630 Air Fryer is so user friendly, one can easily figure it out even without peeking into its instruction manual (but I did, just to be sure :). There are preset multi functions for frying, baking, roasting and grilling, and manual temperature and timer settings for the discerning cooks.
The nonstick basket detaches easily from the nonstick pan, with the sliding movement of the thumb on the catch that releases the basket from the pan. Contents in the fryer can then be easily poured out.
To ensure the done-ness and to loosen the crabstick strips (so that they don’t stick together), the machine had to be stopped at a few intervals to have the contents checked. However, instead of a pause button, the machine had to be stopped and my settings would return to the default settings, and the desired temperature and timer had to be re-keyed in. A pause button would be most helpful in instances like this.
I didn’t preheat the fryer and in the first round, the crabsticks at the side of the fryer basket browned a lot quicker than the ones in the centre.
That said, the frying was a bit more even when the second batch went in because the fryer was already hot, but the browning was still faster near the circumference of the basket. So I had to pick out the browned ones and fried the remaining for another 2-3 minutes.
While in action, the fryer emits a rather loud humming sound (possibly due to the spinning fan), but volumes were not louder than that of a convection oven. As very little oil was used, the fryer did not emit any oily fumes (plus point!).
The outcome? Most of the crabsticks came out crispy but a handful of them remained pale and flat. I would need to observe and familiarise myself with the fryer’s behaviour with a few more frying sessions.
The best part? Cleaning the fryer was a breeze as there was hardly any residue or oil in the basket and pan. This, alone, is enough reason for me to plan my next fry-time!!
After note:
After using the air fryer, I can’t help but relate it to the turbo broiler 血滴子 (that looked like an UFO) that my mum had 30 years ago, to roast chicken and pork. I believe they used the same rapid air motion with heat to cook, but air fryers look a lot cooler and can be used to reheat food.
Availability
Aztech AirCook Series is available at Aztech Showroom, departmental stores, chain stores, authorised retailers in Singapore with recommended retail price as following:
- AAF7630 5.5L Air Fryer: S$349
- AAF4630 3.5L Air Fryer: S$279
- AAF2610 2.8L Air Fryer: S$199
Product website: https://www.aztech.com/country/singapore/categories/aztech-home-appliances/kitchen-appliances/aircook
