This Cosori Turbo Blaze is Amazing

As I previously posted, I had to replace my Foodi & I am still over the moon in love with this Turbo Blaze air fryer. I have used it every day for my meals since a couple days after I got it. It was easy to get the hang of.

I do use the pressure cooker - but mainly to prep things for the fryer. Some of the things I've fixed:

• Chicken - baked in the Turbo once and after that pressure cooked with seasoning, then crisped in the Turbo. Both are good, but I love the 2nd method because I get better seasoning without using a lot of sodium. If I want a coating I do an egg-water wash, then a Panka (or generic!) coating before I spray with oil and fry.
• Garlic - I love to air fry whole heads so that I can smooth the garlic onto bread veggies like butter. One day when I was feeling not so well but had to eat to take meds, I had nothing except some air-toasted seed bread slathered with garlic and dipped in EVOO. Honestly, that can be an everyday thing!
• Onion - I have made homemade onion rings, baked whole onions and baked onions stuffed with garlic.  I love eating the baked onions with veggies as a sort of side dish,
• Veggies - I love broccoli and Mediterranean blends. I will either broil or air fry them. Sometimes I just steam them.
• Fish - this is so much easier to air fry than cook any other way. I like to toss some of the air fried onions and/or garlic on top and eat with the toasted garlic bread. No worries for me about vampire type intruders!
• Tortilla chips - I buy the raw corn tortillas spray with some EVOO and air fry them, add cheese to melt, then eat with salsa and sour cream. This is great also if I have some refried beans to add to the topping. Not to mention I can cut the tortillas to air fry and eat for an easy snack.

I really like being able to use nothing but some EVOO to get crispy (air) fried chicken. BTW, I do recommend getting one of the good oil sprayers. Mine has been essential to saving on oil and actually getting my food coated well. The one I got was from Amazon by Trend Plain or Plain Trend (there are other sellers) for around $7.99. It sprays a mist or stream or can be poured.

The next thing I am going to try is baking bread and cake in the Turbo. I have already done cookies. I used a little brownie box mix and nuts to make 6 cookies one day. They came out so good. It's good to know I can make a few brownies at a time to last a couple of days rather than having a large quantity tempting me.

Yummy air fried wings and steamed broccoli

I'm really going to go all machine in when I do bread. I plan to make the dough for 2 loaves of walnut bread in my bread machine before I bake one loaf in the Turbo and do the other loaf in my cast iron Dutch oven. I want to see how they each differ. And I really do need to use my bread machine more than I do. I tend to like making dough by hand, but it's been so hot here lately. I will let the machines do the sweating.

I think what I love the most about the Turbo is how fast and easy it is to clean. All I have to do is let it cool down, then lightly scrub the inside of the pan with a sponge and some soap - sometimes I can just rinse it clean with no scrubbing needed. Every couple of days, I will run a damp towel over the heating element.

Salmon

I have learned a few trick. For instance, to keep my insanely sensitive smoke alarm from scaring the crap out of me, I will put a few tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan. If oil from spraying my food or just from drippings the water keeps the debris from smoking. I use the little accessories that came with my reusable liners. One of them is a fine mesh that will keep things from flying around the pan - for example, the tortillas.

Honestly, I wish I'd had this air fryer all along. It's lighter weight than my Foodi was and does more. When I think back, I realize I couldn't actually get enough food into the 8-quart Foodi at one time to cook evenly. The Foodi was deeper that this 6-quart Turbo but not as wide and the width counts when you want heat to circulate well. Also, the Foodi did more crisping finished foods rather than fully air frying them to doneness. 

My neighbor popped in one day and noticed the Turbo. She knows I loved the Foodi. I was telling her that I liked the Turbo so much more, but that I did have to replace it with the Turbo and a cooker. She summed it up for me, noting that the Foodi was trying to do too many things. She's absolutely right. The Turbo does less but does them all better. Since I paid less for the Turbo and cooker combined than with a Foodi costs... Well, I guess I win.

If the Turbo only lasts for 3 years or so, it will be a much better bargain than the Foodi that lasted 5 years. And I do a lot of cooking with the Turbo.

Peace

--Free

I Replaced My Foodi, and...

 ...I'm not sad anymore!

I found the air fryer I never knew I needed so much

                                                                The Turbo Blaze

It might be on sale at time of this posting

And I got the pressure cooker from the same brand. 

                                                                           The "Cooker"

It is definitely on sale at time of this posting

As I said in my other post, I scored a great deal on them as a bundle. Even at the time of this posting, you can get both for close to the $170 price I did.

I received the Turbo Blaze first and it made me stop weeping for my Ninja. For one thing, I realized that the Ninja (while great at what it did) could not compete with the Cosori in most things. The Cosori is better at everything it does - especially air frying and baking. 

cannot wait to try the Proof function!

Using the Turbo (for the things it does) is much easier also. It's easier for me to handle and it's extremely easy to clean. Even without using liners, it's quick and easy to remove, clean, and replace. I did go ahead and get some silicone liners that, funnily enough, are made to fit a Ninja!  Since I got the Cosori, I truly have not missed the Ninja. It almost pains me to say that, but it's true. The basket is super-roomy. It's not as deep as some other models, but it's perfect for me. I really will be able to fit a small (4-5 1/2 pound) chicken or 2 game hens inside.

The cooker is a good one. I haven't fallen in love with it yet. I don't use it as much as I do the fryer. When I made some chicken wings, I used the pressure cooker to cook them with the seasonings. Afterward, I sprayed them with some lightly seasoned EVOO and air fried them crispy. I meant to get pics but... They were yummy!

Today, I am doing spaghetti. I will boil the noodles and make my sauce in the cooker and then bake my seasoned meatballs in the Turbo. I do like that a lot of my smaller Ninja baskets and accessories fit in the Corsori cooker.

Another thing I like about both these appliances is how small and tidy they are. My Ninja was only one unit, but it dictated how I used all my counterspace. Now I keep the Turbo on one counter (shared with my coffee maker and some small kitchen accessories) while the cooker sits on another counter - leaving plenty of room for a cutting board and my kettle. My whole (tiny) kitchen looks neater and is easier to work in.

So, yeah, I am not still mourning the Ninja. It was a blast while it lasted and I will cherish the fact that my best friend gifted it to me. It's gone now. Long live (please!) the Cosori.

Peace

--Free

**REVIEW** GoWISE USA 5.8-Quarts 8-in-1 Electric Air Fryer XL

While I do love my Instant Pot and am so very glad that I got it, it does not crisp foods. If I want to fry something or put a crust on chicken or fish, I have to move them to the oven. Or just fry them in a skillet. (There is a Saute function that browns some foods, but I have to figure out how much oil I can use...)

Until I figure out how to use the IP for shallow frying some foods, someone suggested using an air fryer for a healthier diet. This is the one I snagged on one of the recent Lightning Deals.

looks like something out of a sci-fi movie

That, my friends, is the GoWISE USA 5.8-quart Air Fryer. I'm not thrilled at the "8-in-1" label they slapped on this thing. The 8 they mention is just for the 8 presets on the control panel. What this could correctly be called is a 4-in-1 because it will fry, bake, grill, and roast. So. Yeah.

Let me just say right off that this thing is a lot bigger and -heavier than I thought it was going to be. A LOT. ** On the other hand, the one thing I liked right off was how attractive the unit is. I didn't appreciate this fully until I turned it on.

It's pretty, but so are most "bimbos"

Okay, so with that out of the way, let me go over the Pros and Cons I see after having used this on 2 items today. I cooked fresh cut potato fries first, then I attempted to crisp a game hen that I had already cooked in the Instant Pot.

PROS -

• The basket is rather large and roomy. I was able to fit a whole cornish game hen inside - one a small metal rack - and had room for a second hen if I'd wanted.
• The unit runs fairly quiet. I was able to hold a phone conversation easily while it was running.
• It's attractive, especially when powered up. For someone with enough counter space, it looks nice enough to leave out when not in use.
• Air frying certainly seems safer than pan-frying with oil.
• If cakes turn out well using the fryer, that will be another Plus.

CONS - 

• I was not thrilled with the results of my fries when cooked to the suggested time and temp. I will probably adjust to a lesser time to get the crispiness I want without drying out the potatoes.
• The hen did crisp up but didn't look very appealing. I am hoping that battered chicken with come out better. Again, I think the results might be better with adjusted time and temps.
• I don't think that the presets are very useful and I will need to come up with my own or look to other users for better ones.
• The control panel can be a bit confusing, especially as to the ones for setting the cooking time and the alarm time. Some buttons seem, in my opinion, to be completely useless. That could be user idiocy.
• The unit is large, which is a good thing for those with room for it. Because the air vents need to be kept away from walls and things that melt, that adds to the space needed when running the machine. I had just enough space to safely use it. Storage is also an issue for small-space homes.
• Getting the basket out took a little bit of hand strength. This could be a good thing because I know now that it won't just pop loose when I am shaking food in it, but it was also a bit annoying.
• The normal price of the unit is, again in my opinion, a bit high for something of a single-function. An oven can replace the fryer in most instances for those that want healthier options to pan-frying.
• Clean-up is not fun. I even lined the bottom of the pan with foil (which helped) but still had a time maneuvering the big pan around in sink to clean it.
• I expected better from the fryer as far as appearance and textures of food. 

I'm not sure why appliances that do basically one thing are so expensive. I snagged this one on a deal, but today the price shown is $79.00. Unless I can do get more day to day use from this, I would not spend that amount for the fryer.

You can see that I found more negative than positive about the fryer. However, I have not fully tested all it's supposed to be able to do. I might have to update this when I've tried cooking more foods in it. If this works well on cakes, that might be a huge positive.

And, if I have to be stuck with it, at least it's a quiet thing...

Again, I don't see a huge advantage of using this over using a stove - other than the fact it might cut back on heat in summer months. Frankly, this is not an appliance I am that excited about. I am considering sending it back but that means forfeiting $15 for a return shipping fee... ~sigh~

Peace

--Free


P.S.: I fried some chicken cracklins (seasoned skin) and some gizzards. These turned out pretty good so I am a little happier with the product.

** NOTE about the size of the product - this is about the same size as the 8-quart Instant Pot, as you can see. However, it is a great deal heavier to lift and store on top of my fridge.