MODERN CLASSICS

Breville The Smart Oven Air Fryer, $799.95.

E D I T O R ' S P I C K

How ’s the air in there?

An air fryer is put through its paces

You can only resist the air fryer phenomenon for so long. It’s at the stage where some people haven’t turned their conventional oven on for months at a time because of the versatility and convenience of the air fryer.

If, like me, you thought they were just for chips, think again. Take a look at the recipes preceding this right down to French toast and a special celebration cake – remarkable not just for being baked in an air fryer but for using only five ingredients.

We took the plunge and went all in with Breville The Smart Oven Air Fryer with its stainless steel benchtop oven good looks, rather than dipping our toes in the water with a smaller, more conventional one that looks like an overblown kettle. But wait, this isn’t just an air fryer, it’s also a slow cooker and toaster, and has bake, roast, warm, pizza and reheat functions.

You may be wondering if this isn’t just a small version of your regular convection oven, but because the oven is smaller, hot dry air can circulate more efficiently thereby making it quicker to heat and cook.

It comes with pictures of crispyskinned roast chicken, a pav Dame Alison Holst would be proud of and a pizza that could just have stepped out of a Sicilian pizzeria. No pictures of chips, though.

So, the first thing we did was test some oven chips. And it did them just like a regular oven, except the heating time was much shorter and it did shave a good 10 minutes off the wall oven. What I liked about the Breville’s size was that we managed to get enough for four chip butties in the one wire basket. I’ ve heard the smaller ones can only cater for one person at a time.

Time to step it up, so I took the panko breadcrumbs out of the back of the cupboard and seasoned them like the courgette fries recipe says on page 121. They come out looking just like the photo, except what you don’t see is all the crumbs on the bottom on the oven. That was my fault as I was too impatient to read the instruction book or I would have seen the “IMPORTANT When cooking fatty foods (e.g. bacon) it is recommended to use the roasting pan to catch excess drippings of oil and fat” . I should have deduced that panko crumbs would be just as misbehaved.

The haloumi fries on the same page were a hit and came out crisp and golden using a minimal amount of oil – it really it could be part of the Mediterranean diet, it’s so healthy.

I wanted to try something more unconventional, so next up was the Not-so Frenchy toast on page 124. I love that you can heat the cherry and maple dressing as you warm the oven ready for the French toast, put the bread in and leave for 10 minutes without having to stand over a frying pan – liberating.

I haven’t had an occasion to make the 5-ingredient celebration cake on page 126, but can barely contain myself as one of the main ingredients is Nutella.

So far, I’ ve just tried the air fryer function, but I' ve always wanted a slow cooker and can’t wait for next winter to roll round to give that function a whirl.

F O O D E X T R A C T

Modern

Spring greens & feta filo pie (or parcels)

classics

Craving natural and delicious family-friendly food? Food writer and photographer Nicola Galloway has the recipes for you

Chilled cucumber & avocado soup

Boiled mandarin cakes with chocolate olive oil ganache

MAKES 9 MINI CAKES

Thank goodness for citrus season. When the early spring days are short, these little pops of orange and yellow bring a welcome freshness to the kitchen. The mandarin tree gifted by my father for my daughter’s fifth birthday is now earning its keep, with the branches heavy with fruit in early spring. A fruit tree really is a gift that keeps on giving.

INGREDIENTS

3–4 medium mandarins 3 free-range eggs 3 Tbsp honey or ¼ cup sugar ¾ cup plain white flour – wheat, spelt, or gluten-free flour mix ½ cup LSA (see right) or ground almonds 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda

CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL GANACHE

80g dark chocolate, broken into pieces 2 tsp olive oil

1 First, place the mandarins in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for 30 minutes. Top up with extra boiling water as needed to keep the mandarins covered. After this time, drain and leave to cool completely. 2 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously grease a medium-sized muffin tray (9 holes will be used), or line with cupcake cases. 3 Halve the mandarins, removing any pips, and place in a food processor along with the eggs and honey or sugar. Blend until smooth. Add the flour, LSA or ground almonds, baking powder and baking soda. Pulse 6–8 times until just incorporated –don’t over-mix, or the cakes will be tough. 4 Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tray to fill 9 holes. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes

Homemade LSA or Seed Mix

LSA is a ground nut and seed mixture consisting of equal quantities of linseed (flaxseed), sunflower seeds and almonds. I prepare a ground seed mix for use in baking that has equal quantities of golden flaxseeds (linseed), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. I use a spice (coffee) grinder to grind the seeds in batches, then tip everything into a large jar and shake to combine. Store in the fridge, as the seeds’ volatile essential fatty acids begin to degrade once they are ground.