Did you know there were 2 mass UFO sightings in the US in Texas and Colorado this year?**
A big box arrived at our house a couple of weeks ago. Not unusual, but I had no idea what it was, (especially as I had totally forgotten that I’d applied to review something with Britmums.)
Having unveiled the box inside the box it stood in the middle of the kitchen for another week. The device inside looked lovely, but utterly bewildering. It’s a ball on a base. I don;t watch a lot of live TV, so the adverts showing this kind of machine have totally bypassed me.
Hugo asked “Mummy, when can we play with the spaceship? ”
We started referring to it as the Spaceship.
Finally, I plucked up the courage and opened the box… but only to find the manual and sneak that out before I firmly closed the box back again. With the manual I made sense of my new kitchen counter hog.
Armed with the newly acquired knowledge, I unpacked the Spaceship and placed on our kitchen counter. The lines of it are so different, and the colour very happy and perfectly fitting with our lime green accessories. (Thank you Breville for designing it just for us! 😉 ) I opened the Spaceship up cautiously, peered inside, switched it on, tried pushing and twisting the big button at the side… till I read the manual again and realised it needed to be pulled and twisted. Dooh!
The Spaceship again stood unused, with disconcerting eyes glancing at it every once in a while:
“What shall I make in it first? I need to make chips! That’s what it’s made for, afterall.”- pondering to myself
“I know, I’ll use it on Friday, our fish and chips night!”- I thought
Then a fish and chips night time ran away with me and we had a takeaway instead.
Another couple of days passed and we were making home-made pizzas. I had a brainwave: I’d try baking one of the many small pizzas in the Spaceship. I put the pizza on the rack that slots into the rotating bowl, set the timer for 10 minutes and left it spinning away.
The pizza turned out really well.
A perfect crust, well-baked through, but still moist enough. It was crispier but moister (if that is possible) than the one made under the grill and combination oven.
First test: Pass!
As winter drawers in, I don’t know about you, but I crave comfort food. The best ones, for me, are nice thick soups.
I love serving my soups with crispy, crunchy croutons! But shop bought crouton, when you do find them, are bloody expensive considering they are just dried bits of bread!
I’d made some wholemeal onion loaf, but it was nothing to write home about. (Meaning it was an utter flop!) It was, however, the perfect candidate for croutons. I cubed my breadslices and popped them into the Halo Spaceship, tilted it just like for chips and set the machine going. Just 15 minutes later I had perfect croutons!
Second test: Pass!
Fish and chips night came around again. This time I was organised and had time to make it all from scratch. Then I realised that my method of lazy battered fish- dip fish pieces into a beer batter and deep fry them as such- will not work with my Spaceship (or at least I didn’t dare to try it.) Oh well, there’s always the frying pan!
Third test: Fail!
(However, it did cope well with the frozen chips I banged in instead: 1 kg frozen chips went in, turned the machine on and there’s no hassle of turning as you have to when putting them under the grill.)
Finally, it was time to make in the Spaceship what this little beauty is meant for: potatoes. Some roast potatoes with skins on was my choice. I roughly followed the suggestion from the instruction booklet (some details in my speedy Christmas dinner post). They turned out amazing!
Fourth test: PASS!
3 out of 4 is not bad, is it? Why had I been so afraid of it when it arrived?
Now I want to push it to its limits and see what else I can make in it.
“Would it cope with my drippy fish batter?”- I wonder. I will still experiment with it to see if it can cope. Keep an eye on my Instagram to see the results!
So far the things I like about the SpaceShip:
- It’s easy to clean. In fact so far, I’ve only needed to wipe it clean with a paper towel.
- The SpaceShip traps the smell of frying quite well, just letting a little of the scent escape.
- I actually like the design.
- Oil- it saves on a lot of oil.
The only drawback I’ve identified so far is the space it takes up on the kitchen counter. Saying that, it is not more of a counter hog than a regular deep fat fryer and, so far, it has proved more versatile that a regular chip fryer.
Come to think of it there is one more question: It does what I can do with my combi grill and oven, right? Actually, yes it does. Except the foods I’ve made so far, I would’ve needed to stop the oven and turn the food a couple of times, making sure it didn’t burn. The Halo health fryer is a load it, set the timer and leave it sort of device. A toddler distracting you is unlikely to result in burnt food. That’s my kind of gadget!
The bottom line is: would I recommend it to my mum for the price? Yes, and definitely, to anyone making chips regularly. I think the saving on oil in a year contributes a great deal to the purchase price already.
Do you have a Health Fryer? What do you make in it?
Disclosure: I was sent the Breville Halo Health fryer for the purpose of reviewing as part of the Britmums professional review network. All words and opinions are my own and reflect my true feelings of the product.
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