One of my birthday gifts was the vortex multi-cooker. I mainly wanted to be able to "fry" chips without wasting a few cups of expensive avocado oil. And maybe fry chicken, too.
I solicited advice from various locals communities and then searched online specifically for air-fried sweet potato chips and chicken wings. I followed the advice and guidelines, but wasn't happy with the results, so I'll explain what I did, what I learned, and what I'll try differently for the next time.
Earlier in the day I pureed some rosemary, sage, olive oil, salt and pepper, coated about 8 chicken wings, and placed into fridge. When I got home, took them out of fridge, and readied my tools for slicing the sweet potatoes.
I cut each end off a potato, then cut in half. The food holder for the mandolin has prongs to stab into what you are cutting. Advice I got was to slice them 1/8". I proceeded to do that with 2 large sweet potatoes. I then soaked them in a large bowl of ACV and water for about 20 minutes. While those were soaking, I tended to the chicken.
A recipe mentioned airfry at 360 for 12 minutes, flip, 12 minutes, flip, then 6. The machine heats up very quickly, so added chicken onto the tray within a few minutes.
For a specialty gadget, doesn't cooking something at the same temperature and time as you would do in your regular oven seem stupid? I thought so, but wanted to follow instructions as this was my first time.
Meanwhile, I drained the sweet potato slices. Patted dry, sprayed with avocado oil, sprinkled with salt, pepper and chili powder, continually tossing.
Timecto flip the chicken. The machine is kind of loud, at least on air fry mode, cycles in and out, but is easy to use and intuitive like a digital blender. Another flip then 6 minutes.
Beep! Chicken done. Using tongs, I put them on a plate to cool and started on the chips.
I kept the temperature at 360 and figured I'd flip after about 10 minutes. They say to put food on as one layer, but when I opened to flip them they had flown about and landed on top of each other. Oh.
So I flipped over and rearranged. At this point they were sill pretty flat with no browning, so I checked again in about 8 minutes.
Ooh, chicken has cooled down, still hot, but not burn-my-mouth hot. Um, pretty good. Very moist, definitely cooked properly, but I wouldn't describe it as crispy, like from frying.
Okay, time to check on chips. A lot more flying around in the basket, and the edges have started to curl with some subtle browing beginning. I just stirred them around, and cooked for anther 5 minutes, and decided to take those out and add a second batch.
The chips were still damp-like when I put them into a bowl, so I waited a bit, and they did indeed dry off to resemble potato chips. The taste? Okay... definitely too thick. Next time, instead of 3 mm, I will set the mandolin to 1.5 mm. I'll also try soaking them in salted water and ACV. And go a little heavier on the sprinkling. I also think, for both the chicken and the chips I will kick the temperature up to 425, and flip/turn after 5 minutes.
Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences!
There are a lot of expressions that we hear now and then; most we think we know the origin of, some we don't. For the most part we just don't ponder the origin of commonplace expressions because they are... common. The first thing I discovered when beginning to read this little gem of a book, was not only hadn't I considered where many common sayings come from, but my preconceived idea of their origin was actually wrong! Kinda embarrassing, but guessing I may not be alone in this. I thought it would be of value then to share some tidbits from this book. Audio format is nice, as you can multitask while listening to this. This is my first attempt at recording reading a book, so any constructive criticism is welcome!
There are a lot of expressions that we hear now and then; most we think we know the origin of, some we don't. For the most part we just don't ponder the origin of commonplace expressions because they are... common. The first thing I discovered when beginning to read this little gem of a book, was not only hadn't I considered where many common sayings come from, but my preconceived idea of their origin was actually wrong! Kinda embarrassing, but guessing I may not be alone in this. I thought it would be of value then to share some tidbits from this book. Audio format is nice, as you can multitask while listening to this. This is my first attempt at recording reading a book, so any constructive criticism is welcome!
There are a lot of expressions that we hear now and then; most we think we know the origin of, some we don't. For the most part we just don't ponder the origin of commonplace expressions because they are... common. The first thing I discovered when beginning to read this little gem of a book, was not only hadn't I considered where many common sayings come from, but my preconceived idea of their origin was actually wrong! Kinda embarrassing, but guessing I may not be alone in this. I thought it would be of value then to share some tidbits from this book. Audio format is nice, as you can multitask while listening to this. This is my first attempt at recording reading a book, so any constructive criticism is welcome!
Cool! I've never noticed galls on staghorn sumac. Location: SE NH.
Melaphis rhois on Rhus typhina
https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1112