FTE Air-Fryer Potato Wedges

Note: This is one of those long posts that people who do not like cooking blogs like to complain about. Read from the bottom up if you only want the recipe. But stories are what makes civilizations, so ...

So we accidentally ended up being air-fryer people. We cook a lot, as readers of this blog know. And since we often try new things, we are tempted by all kinds of cooking tools (aka gadgets). But we are also relatively frugal and can envision just about anything we buy landing up at a yardsale, landfill, or ocean plastic patch. As quick as we are to try a new recipe, we are slow to try new equipment.

We've been hearing about air fryers -- because how could we not -- for a few years, and had only the vaguest notion of what they are. We had heard some encouraging testimonials, but not enough to spur us to serious research.

And then the electric range at our weekend place died. Well, it did not die completely, but it was in need of enough serious repair that we decided to put it out to electronic pasture. Somewhere, it is probably refurbished and serving someone else just fine.

As food snobs, we had thought we would need to "upgrade" to natural gas when replacing this range, especially since we are in the process of making this weekend place our retirement place. 

But the house has a surplus of solar power and natural gas is a bridge to nowhere. So we decided to invest in an electric oven as -- we hope -- our last oven purchase.

Following advice from friends, we located an independent appliance dealer (one we used for years ended when its owners retired, and big-box is not the way to to go for these big boxes).

We found the folks at Yale Appliance to be excellent, allowing us to select an oven through consultation with a knowledgeable salesperson by smartphone and to schedule delivery quickly and conveniently. The crew who brought the stove were amazing -- while two of them removed the old range, the third team member readied the new unit. They had it installed, leveled, and tested within minutes.

After choosing what we thought was a fairly basic model, we of course learned of its features. They include WiFi (that's a hard "no" Hal), two kinds of convection and air frying. Everything we read about air frying is that it is a kind of convection, so we are still not quite sure what makes it "frying" rather than "really even cooking" but it seems to be just a matter of degree.

Further research suggested that one other distinction is that we could not "air fry" something unless it was suspended in the air; that is, we needed some sort of basket. Between the two of us, we have worked at the Big Three frying places (McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King -- we have tales to tell), so we know what a fryer basket is. An air fryer basket is much different -- called a "crisper tray," it looks something like a little dish rack. I spent way too much time reading reviews because I could not really envision how this would work. We were already $1500 into this project, though, so I plunked down another $30 to see for myself.

Pretty confident that none of our printed cookbooks would address this topic -- all of them being published more than 5 minutes ago -- I turned to AllRecipes, which regular readers know as one of our favorite places for food advice on the Interwebs. I found a 5-star recipe with the perfect title for my first time frying air: Air Fryer Potato Wedges provides guidance on cutting, coating, and cooking potatoes. 

My approach differed slightly from the recipe -- because some sources cautioned against using oil at all, I decided to combine oil and spices in a bowl and dredge the wedges in that paste. Kitchen tongs made this much less messy than it might have been. 

Because I was preparing this for Pamela to do while I was rowing, I thought that some of that oil might drip onto the tray. So I placed paper towels between the basket and the tray, to be removed when these were ready to cook. Pam did the honors -- cooking an uncrowded trayfull for 20 minutes at 400F. She did not interrupt for turning, as that is the whole point of the rapid air movement.

These turned out PERFECT. A very similar flavor to what I have been making for years -- very Old Bay-forward -- but with a much lighter texture. These were soft on the inside and crispity on the outside, with no heavy oiliness. Win-win-win!

Regarding the reviews for the tray: most were 4-5 stars, with some very interesting and angry 1-star reviews. I concluded that these were posted by people who did not read the directions about cooking and/or cleanup. Our results were terrific and the tray/basket combo cleaned up easily.