Air fryers and pressure cookers: adventures in new kitchen gadgets.

Welcome to 2022, everyone, and a post about food.

Well, a post about kitchen gadgets that facilitate the preparation of food, anyway. Moving into my new place back in November I found myself in the novel situation of having almost a blank slate when it came to kitchen tools, and kitchen equipment, and kitchen...just about anything, really. I did ship some things from Australia—measuring spoons, the electric kettle I was gifted, some serving spoons and the like—but those still haven't arrived yet (though I've heard the boat is slated to arrive in Hilo on Monday!). I thus found myself in a unique position to start almost from scratch and tailor my kitchen to how I wanted it with the latest advances in cooking technology. While in Australia I held off any any purchases of new gadgets beyond the bare essentials for several reasons (difficulty in moving back before I expected to have moving expenses paid, electric plug differences, ect.), but I'd picked up a few ideas from the internet over the years that I wanted to try out.

Perhaps most pressingly, I didn't have a microwave, and while I was down in Walmart browsing the selection an intriguing combination microwave + toaster oven + air fryer caught my eye. I'd heard about air fryers and wanted to give one a try, and multi-use gadgets have always appealed to me (and made a lot of sense in my kitchen, which is not huge), so I picked it up.

So far, it's been quite handy and I'm really happy with it. Much like how I mentioned in the post about my new car, I have the feeling of technology having taken a leap forward without my noticing it. (Also like my car, I'm sure some of the innovations have been around a few years, but they're still new to me.) In the past, microwave ovens have been things you put food inside of, guess at how much time it'll take to heat it up satisfactorily, input that time, and stood back while it cooked. Now, I can cook with either microwaves or convection in the same appliance (both at once, even!), and it's got humidity sensors that let you automatically heat or reheat food to the right temperature. In fact, I've only turned on my oven once since moving in (to make lasagne with the new pan my aunt gave me for Christmas) because anything that would otherwise need the oven which can fit in the microwave is easier done in there. If I want to make cookies I can just stick them in the microwave and set it to the preset "Bake cookies" option. If I need to cook a frozen fish filet, it knows how long to do it based on the weight. Mozzarella sticks or French fries? The air fryer functionality stands ready to cook them conveniently and quickly. It's quite a useful device, and I'm happy I got it (it's this model by Galanz if anyone's interested).

Another gadget I haven't had before, and have been low-key interested in for a while, is a pressure cooker, so when I moved it I bought an Instant Pot Duo. It wouldn't be hyperbole to say that it's revolutionized my cooking even more than the microwave air fryer. It does such an incredible job of simplifying the cooking process that I can't get over it. If I wanted to make pasta before, I'd have to put a pot of water on the stove, wait for it to boil, put in the pasta, stir it for 10 minutes or so making sure it doesn't boil over, and finally have it ready. During that time I couldn't stray too far from the stove for too long, which made preparing other food at the same time tricky. With the pressure cooker, I just dump the noodles and some water in the inner pot, set it to pressure cook for a few minutes after building up pressure, and come back in 10 minutes or so to ready-to-use noodles. Similarly, I like rice, but making it manually is a dull and time-consuming affair. Now, I just rinse it, put it in, and hit the Rice button to come back to beautifully cooked rice. I've also been experimenting with steaming a variety of vegetables, and I'm finding steaming retains the flavor better than other cooking methods I've tried in the past (in addition to being easier).

And it's not just pressure cooking, either! The Instant Pot Duo can also function as a slow-cooker (another multi-use gadget!), so I've used it to make my particular slow-cook chilli a few times already. It can also be used to sauté, so just today I used it to sauté some frozen burger patties (which came out incredibly delicious, garnished with some greens from my hydroponic garden). Unlike doing it in a frying pan, the spattered grease was easier to contain (with the help of a lid), making it a lot cleaner than doing it on the stove. There's other features I've yet to try (like "yoghurt making," and cooking soups or roasts), but I feel I've already gotten my money's worth on this gadget and then some. It's just so nice and efficient to be able to put food in to cook and then having that time to work on other things rather than needing to stir a pot or whatever.

Anyway, that's not the end of my experimentation with new kitchen gadgets and tools, but I'll save that for another post. I just wanted to my voice to the chorus of people on the Internet who've discovered these things and had them change their cooking experience. In my case, while I've been cooking for myself for over a decade now, it's not usually something I initiate because I want to, but rather because I, well, need food. Between the pressure cooker and microwave air fryer and a few other new gadgets, I'm finding myself actually excited to cook, and after several years of grad school and lockdowns I'm actually finding myself increasingly eager to try cooking new things. It's a good feeling! A hui hou!