Goodbye Deep Fat Fryer, Hello Low Fat Fryer

The worst things about traditional deep fat fryers are the mess, the smell, the hassle and the safety issues. Traditional fryers leave that horrible stench of old oil in your house that just seems to linger for days after cooking your chips, getting into the curtains and the carpets.  Sure they make nice chips and sausages, but in 2012, surely there must be a better, healthier way of getting our favourite foods without the down sides.

Tefal have created an entirely new type of fryer that produces food as tasty as a deep fat fryer, but using new technology it only requires a spoonful of oil and it’s completely odour free. I was sceptical at first too, I thought to myself, how is it possible to cook the food evenly so it that comes out as crispy as it does in the deep fat fryer, but after cooking my own chips in it I was shocked at just how good they tasted. I’m not going to exaggerate here and say they taste better than chips in a deep fat fryer, but they do taste exactly the same. If you made 2 portions of chips, one in a deep fat fryer, and one in the low fat fryer, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, and I doubt anyone else could either.

Benefits of the Tefal ActiFry Low Fat Fryer

The major benefit for me is the smell, or should I say the lack of smell with the low fat fryer. It’s completely odourless, so I can cook delicious crispy chips without stinking out my house. The parts of the fryer that you’ll need to clean are all removable, plastic and dishwasher safe, so cleaning the ActiFry is as easy as removing the compartments, popping them in the dishwasher, then heading off to watch some TV with your hot chips while it cleans.

You’ll also need far less oil. I personally like to cook my chips with peanut oil since it produces the best tasting chips, but it can be expensive with a deep fat fryer to keep refilling the fryer with 2-3 bottles of peanut oil. The Tefal ActiFry continually moves the oil around and rotates the food inside so that your food/chips are cooked evenly.

Conclusion

If like me, you’re fed up with the mess and smell associated with deep fat fryers and you love fried food, like chips, sausages, chicken, fish, and vegetables, then the ActiFry will allow you to make your favourite crispy fried food without the smelly mess. Your fried food will also be much healthier too, containing only 3% fat, which means you’ll be able to lose weight while still enjoying food that tastes great.

Delicious Crispy Deep Fried Food

One of my favourite dinners is chips and sausages, and I love them both deep fried. There’s nothing better than golden deep fried chunky chips served with deep fried sausage, cooked to perfection so that it’s nice and crisp on the outside without ending up hard.

I used to deep fry my chunky chips and sausages in a large pot full of oil. Sometimes they’d be delicious, other times they were over-done. The problem with using a pot, aside from the safety issue, is you can’t control the temperature, so sometimes the food comes out just right, other times the oil has been heated up too much, so it makes the food a bit hard.

Cooking with the Breville Deep Fat Fryer

I wanted a deep fat fryer with a large enough capacity so that I could cook enough chips and sausages at the same time, and I didn’t want to wait forever for the fryer to heat up so I could cook my fried food. The Breville VDF059 was what I decided on, as I liked the fact it has a 1kg food capacity, temperature control and something called Cool Zone technology, which they say helps the oil to last longer.

When my deep fat fryer arrived from Amazon, I headed out to the shops to get some maris piper potatoes, some fresh sausages from the butcher, and some clean cooking oil. I wanted to test it out with my favourite classic meal to see if it lived up to the positive reviews.

I unpackaged my new Breville fryer, gave it a rinse, filled it up with cooking oil, and then set the temperature to 180C. While it was heating up I chopped up my chunky chips ready to go in. The fryer let me know once the temperature was 180C and I popped in my chunky chips and sausages.

They took about 10 minutes to cook, then I took them out, increased the temperature to 220C and once it heated up I popped the chips back in for 2 minutes to make them extra crispy. I couldn’t believe how tasty the food was, it was perfect because I was able to control the temperature. The chips were golden brown and just melted in my mouth.

Cleaning Up and Final Thoughts

The oil definitely lasted longer than when I’d cooked in the pan. I would say I got twice as long out of the oil with the Cool Zone technology keeping the oil fresher. When it was time to clean the deep fat fryer, the whole process was really easy. The fryer dismantles so you can wash it in the sink and easily dispose of the oil.
If like me you love your fried food and you want a quicker, easier way of making your favourite deep fried meals, then I definitely recommend Breville’s deep fat fryer for your kitchen, you won’t regret it.
 

Perfect Results Every Time

The DeLonghi CoolZone deep fat fryer will allow you to cook perfect crispy fried food like, chips, chicken, sausages, and vegetables. It has a built in temperature control allowing you to preheat your oil to just the right temperature for what you’re going to fry so you’ll get consistently great results every time you use it.

On a regular old deep fat fryer that you use on your cooker you don’t have that fine control over the temperature, so you’ll get inconsistent results. Sometimes you’ll get crispy fried food and other times it’ll just come out hard and overcooked. You really need a professional deep fat fryer like the DeLonghi CoolZone to get the best results every time you cook.

Cooking With the DeLonghi CoolZone

The DeLonghi CoolZone deep fat fryer is a nice rectangular stainless steel unit with a massive 1kg food capacity and 3 litre oil capacity. To make your favourite fried food (chips!) you pour in some fresh oil (I prefer peanut oil for chips), set the temperature according to the manual, then you can relax and watch some TV while your deep fat fryer heats up to the correct temperature.
Once the correct temperature is reached you can put in your pre-prepared chips, prepared however you like them, chunky or thin cut, then set a timer for 15 minutes and go back to watching the TV while your crispy chips are bubbling away in the peanut oil. After the 15 minutes you can lift up the basket and hook it on a higher latch to allow your freshly cooked crispy chips to drain fully. The handle will be nice and cool thanks to the heat protector. After the chips are drained, add some sea salt to taste and serve. Yum.  It’s as simple as that, and you can have crispy chips served up for dinner in no time at all with minimum effort. It’s easier than going to the chip shop and a lot cheaper too!

Cleaning Up and Maintenance

The DeLonghi CoolZone is very easy to clean and will come apart almost entirely. It has a tap to allow you to easily drain away the old oil into a cup and dispose of it cleanly. This is a really great feature because with a lot of deep fat fryers you have to mess around trying to empty the oil from the fryer by tipping it over which can be very messy.
You won’t need to clean the oil out very often though as the CoolZone in the name is actually a special feature which keeps the very bottom of the oil cool so that any bits of food that drop down to the bottom don’t keep cooking and spoil the oil.

Conclusion

Overall the DeLonghi CoolZone deep fat fryer is fantastic value for money and a great addition to the kitchen of any lover of crispy deep fat fried foods.

Less Oil for Better Chips

The DeLonghi Roto fryer automatically rotates the basket inside the fryer so you only need to use a third of the oil you would in a traditional deep fat fryer. Using less oil also means your chips soak up less grease, so they’re crispier and dryer.

Cooking with the DeLonghi Roto Fryer

Using the DeLonghi Roto fryer is really easy thanks to its temperature control. You just pop in some fresh oil, set the correct temperature and relax for 10 minutes while it heats up. When it’s ready just pop in your food that you’ve pre-prepared, set the timer and in 15 minutes you’ll have delicious hot deep fried food.

You can cook a wide variety of delicious deep fried food with your Roto fryer, everything from chunky chips and fries, to chicken, sausages and vegetables. I love chunky chips cooked in peanut oil. Peanut oil is used by a lot of the best fish and chip shops and produces the best tasting chips around.

Cleaning up

The DeLonghi Roto comes with an easy cleaning system that allows you to drain all the oil from the fryer through a tap for easy disposal. For cleaning the main unit you’ll be able to take it apart and give it a rinse in the sink, then clip it back together ready for your next home cooked deep fried meal.

A Safer Alternative

With traditional deep fat fryers you have to continually monitor them over the cooker, and there’s always the risk that they go on fire when the oil gets too hot. You can’t control the temperature with a deep fat fryer on a cooker, and there’s no safety features built in to them. The vast majority of house fires are caused by the old style deep fat fryers used on a cooker.
The DeLonghi Roto is extremely safe for a number of reasons. It’s got accurate temperature controls so you’ll never go above the temperature you set it to, which means the oil physically can’t go on fire. Different oil has different burning temperatures, so if you only set your deep fat fryer to 180C, then it won’t ever get hot enough to go on fire.

Conclusion

If you want to be able to cook delicious crispy deep fat fried food from the comfort of your own home, without the hassle of having expensive equipment that’s difficult to manage and clean, then the DeLonghi Roto deep fat fryer will make an excellent addition to your kitchen.