mgaretz

Most foods that emulate deep-fried foods still have some oil on them. That's for two reasons: To give them added crispness and to give us that taste of fried foods. It does leave a lot less oil on the food than deep frying, and my wife cares about that. Personally I'm not worried about it and it's not the reason I bought it. I bought it primarily because it doesn't waste any oil, I don't have to figure out how to dispose of the waste oil, it cooks much quicker, and cleans up easier. I did try some roasted Brussels Sprouts in it last night. Not so good. Part of it was probably that I cooked them too hot and didn't use enough oil, but the thing that will keep me from cooking them in the air fryer in the future is that once it cooked and dried out the inevitable separate leaves, they blew all over the inside. Not that hard to get out and clean up, but I'll stick to the BSO for Brussies.

Cleanup is easy, certainly compared to the deep fryer.

@Shel_Bis the one who originally turned us on to this method, if memory serves. It works great. The secret, I've discovered, is to slice the end of the corn off far enough into the ear that it's past the bend and just into the slope towards the silk end. If you cut too close to the stem, it won't slide out easily.

I'm not so sure that small droplets of oil get circulated around. Certainly not by design. That said, over time the inside will need cleaning and there are several YouTube videos on that. And here's your YouTube calamari video:

Yesterday we made some store-bought chicken tenders for lunch. We tried two different brands: Tyson and Rocky. They both came out good. I liked the texture of the Tyson coating better, but it had too much pepper. The Rocky was more corn-bready, but still good. They both came out nice and crispy and very quickly too.

The other night I made a combo batch of potato and sweet potato fries. They came out good, but I used too little oil (1/4 tsp for one medium russet and one medium sweet potato) so they weren't quite as crisp as I would have liked. Today, for fun, I made potato chips. 1 medium sized russet, sliced thin (2mm) with a mandoline and 1 tsp oil. Cooked for 20 minutes at 330F, shaking several times. Then lightly salted with sea salt. Yummy.

El Pollo Loco style chicken again. This is a shot of the thighs, the breasts needed a bit longer. Served with a mix of sweet potato and regular fries made in my new toy - a Philips air fryer - and salad.

Well my attempt at fried chicken was a fail. First, the "dip in flour, dip in egg, dip in flour method" did a great job of breading my fingers, the chicken not so much. I either need to practice or figure out what went wrong, or use a different method. Then the breast was cooked through, while the thigh and leg were way undercooked. I would have thought it should have been the other way round.

Checking back into this thread after a long absence from it and a bit of experimentation with the BSO as an air fryer. Thanks @kbjesq for the suggestions, I had totally forgotten that I did pretty much what you suggest, dipping chicken tenders in seasoned mayo and then panko years earlier when my daughter lived with us and wasn't gluten-intolerant. I was never completely happy with the results, so I just got a Philips Airfryer and have revived the AirFryer thread: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/143952-the-air-fryer-topic/ I have only made fries so far, but they were much better than what I ever made in the BSO. Head over there to continue the discussion...

I just got a Philips AirFryer XL, (WS and BBB have them on a good sale right now), so am I hopefully reviving this topic. It came late (around 5pm) so couldn't use it for dinner, but I had to test it! So I made some french fries I used one potato (a medium sized russet), skin on and cut into 1/4" fries. There are a lot of methods out there, even Philips has several versions. I decided on one that closely mimics "twice fried" fries. All of them have you soak the fries in cold water for 30 minutes, pat them dry and apply a small amount of oil. I used 1 tsp but that was too much. I think 1/2 tsp would have worked. I cooked them for 5 minutes at 360F then another 10 at 390F, shaking between the two steps. They were a little over-cooked, but otherwise excellent. I would not have been able to tell they weren't deep fried. Next time I think another 7 minutes would be the right length of time. Tomorrow I am going to go for broke and try fired chicken. So what are your experiences and things that turned out great (and not so great).

Simple dinner of CAB sirloin steak (cooked SV to 125F and seared with a torch), corn and salad. The corn was so sweet it didn't need any butter or salt.

Meatloaf casserole made from the leftovers. Basically the meatloaf cut into smallish chunks with noodles and a ketchup-based sauce that mirrors the ketchup-based glaze on the meatloaf., topped with panko. The sauce/glaze was ketchup, BBQ sauce and white sugar for both, but the casserole sauce had less sugar.

Meatloaf, served with mashed cauliflower (the green specks in the cauliflower are chives).

Thanks Jo. Well first, I'm hardly a newbie to SV. Second, the tenderloin was frozen when it went into the bath. Third, I have experimented with different timings and temps and four hours at 140f is what we like the best.

El Pollo Loco style chicken again. Had dinner guests so I made enough for 5. Forgot to take a picture of the plate, so this is the leftover chicken. Served with fresh steamed broccoli, baked potato and compressed watermelon for dessert.

Pizza. Store bought thin crust, topped with mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell peppers, green onions and chicken apple sausage. Made in the BSO. I forgot that cheese should go on before the veggies so it went on top.

Didn't think to snap a pic, but tonight I made Egg Foo Yung with the leftover char siu pork tenderloin and bok choy. I added some green onion, bean sprouts, carrots and mushrooms.

[Hosts' note: This topic forms part of an extended discussion which grew too large for our servers to handle efficiently. The conversation continues from here.] Char-siu pork tenderloin, cooked SV at 140F for 4 hours then basted with honey, torched and re-basted with more honey. Served with stir-fried bok choy.

I acquired one of these recently, and the wheat bread recipes that came with it were terrible. I played with quite a few wheat bread recipes and after a lot of adjustments, here's what finally worked for me. Note that this is just the ingredient list, follow the loading instructions that came with the machine. This also makes the smallest (1 lb) loaf, so set the machine accordingly. I also used the lightest crust setting. Bread Machine Wheat 1 cup water 1 cup AP flour 1.25 cups whole wheat flour 1.5 tbs oil or butter 1 tsp salt 3 tbs sugar 2 tsp yeast (regular dried yeast, not fast rise or bread machine yeast)

Smoked salmon, glazed with a honey, mustard, bourbon, orange sauce. Served with roasted Brussels Sprouts and salad.

Lately I have been using this chocolate from Viva Labs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HES9CMS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and so far I have been very happy with it. Very rich but well-balanced flavor. The only downside is that it comes in a resealable bag and the sealing strip sucks - it's very hard to get resealed. I just don't worry about it and put the bag in a bigger zip-lock bag.

I found that what works best is a soak in OxyClean or it's generic equivalents.

I have not eaten there, but I have eaten at their #7 pick, Hunan Home. It's definitely Americanized Chinese food, but it was done very well. House of Nanking is also "famous" (also maybe infamous) for their waiters that will tell you what to order. I've only eaten there once, but I remember it was good, if different than any other "Chinese Food" I have had before.

My first home-cooked meal after being on the road for two weeks. Tri-tip (of course!). This was a big one at 3.75 lbs. I dry-brined it with salt, a bit of pepper and a some dill seeds for two hours (vacuum-packed) and then into the SV at 128F for 8 hours then finished with a torch. (Really loving my Sansaire Searing Kit.) It was as tender as prime rib but way more flavorful!

FYI, Dole makes a pineapple/orange juice blend and they pack it in small 8 oz cans (but they come in a six pack). I haven't used it ice cream, but I do use it for my chicken marinade. For ice cream I'd see how reducing the volume to a syrup like consistency affects the flavor. (My approach to flavored ice cream is to make a vanilla base then add concentrated flavors.)