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We’re all looking for ways to make Christmas dinner easier – and if you’ve got an air fryer, festive food could be a whole lot simpler. Christmas dinner normally requires a lot of effort to pull together all the starters, turkey and side dishes, and chef Poppy O’Toole says she’ll “definitely” be using her air fryer to help everything come together. Michelin-trained O’Toole, 29, is something of an early adopter of air fryers – she first fell in love with them in 2018, and says: “I was working in kitchens at the time, and I was like, I don’t know how chefs are going to feel about this. It might fade, but I was intrigued – and it’s got bigger and bigger.” She adds: “It was so easy to get on board with because of how convenient they are. As a chef, I wasn’t at home a lot – so my partner could use it really easily without me having to be over his shoulder.” They’ve got speed and energy efficiency going for them, O’Toole suggests, and she’s even dedicated her most recent cookbook to air fryer recipes. Her air fryer will go into overdrive on Christmas day, “because I need all the space for everything”, the Worcestershire-based chef says. “I’m going to be feeding a lot of people.” “There’s not enough space to do everything, but what it’s really good at is giving you the capability to do more stuff at the same time,” she notes. “So you’re not just relying on the oven and the hob – you’ve also got this other piece of equipment, which is amazing at cooking things and it can be done quicker and more energy efficiently.” Before diving in, there are a few mistakes O’Toole warns against making with your air fryer on 25 December. “Make sure you put a timer on. I’ve done that a few times, where I’ve gone, it comes out in 20 minutes or whatever and you go, ‘yeah, I’ll come back in a few minutes, it’ll be fine’. And I’ve left it in there the whole time and it’s burned to a crisp.” The second thing to watch out for? “Don’t overcrowd,” she says. “It can be very easy to throw it all in, it’ll be fine. But it doesn’t work that way – the whole point is that the air circulation gets around everything, so it needs a gap where that can happen.” And if you’re looking to impress your guests with beautiful-looking food, O’Toole recommends keeping your air fryer clean. “This is another thing that I do very regularly, and I think a lot of people do – I don’t wash it enough, I don’t clean it enough. I end up getting these little dark bits on the rest of my food, which is fine when you’re cooking for yourself – that doesn’t matter. “But when you’re cooking for other people, if you’ve got family coming over, you want to make sure it’s the best. So make sure in between each thing you cook, you give it a little wipe down.” Interested in using your air fryer this Christmas? This is what O’Toole recommends doing… Starters “I always like little nibbly bits on Christmas,” admits O’Toole – and these can be easily whipped up in the air fryer. “It’s something a little bit different around lunchtime, because I have my Christmas dinner a bit late – I have it more as a dinner around three, so around 12 you’re getting a bit peckish. So I do some lovely little nibbles – like crispy wontons, spring rolls, samosas, that sort of thing. They’re really tasty and fill everybody up, without having to do much.” If you’re feeling industrious you can make these yourself, but they’re just as delicious from frozen – and you can save all your cooking efforts for the main meal. The main event For O’Toole, the best way to use your air fryer is for all the festive sides. “It’s really good for roasted parsnips, roasted carrots, sprouts or chestnuts,” she says. You can cook the parsnips and carrots together. “And then they can be ready and waiting for when you want them – you can get them into a tray, and once they’re cooked, you can keep them at the bottom of the oven or in a tray that you can warm back up”. And one of the most important parts of any Christmas dinner: “I’ve got to say roast potatoes are very good in there, and you don’t have to pre-boil them – so that’s given you more space on the hob.” How can you pull off perfectly crispy roasties in the air fryer? “Chop them up, get them in a bowl, add a tablespoon of water, a little bit of oil and salt – give it a mix, so we’ve got a bit of moisture on them. Then you get them into the air fryer and cook them about 160C or 170C for about 20 to 30 minutes, so they’re a little bit cooked, then you whack it up to about 200C to get the golden crispy outside.” Dessert While O’Toole doesn’t plan on making Christmas pudding in the air fryer this year, there are plenty of sweet treats you can do in there instead. Her sister will be clamouring for a pecan and pretzel blondies recipe (or you can try any variation on brownies you like – even mince pies would work), and O’Toole adds: “Custard tarts – they’re so simple and something about doing them in the oven is always terrifying to me, but being able to put them in the air fryer for literally a few minutes is perfect. “That’s definitely something I’ll be doing.” ‘Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook’ (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20). Read More Beauty advent calendars 2021: Our guide to this year’s top treats 13 best tech gifts to spoil a gadget geek this Christmas 10 best luxury Christmas crackers for dressing up your dining table Why restaurant influencers have just ruined your dinner The Independent high street Christmas sandwich and drink taste test Seasonal affective disorder: Can you eat to improve your mood?

“This one goes out to all the lost carrots over the years that have been just cut into rounds and boiled,” says chef Poppy O’Toole, who goes by Poppy Cooks on social media. “I’m sorry you went out like that. We will do better. Here’s to more carrots being roasted in honey and going out in style. They deserve it.” To make this dish vegan, replace honey with maple syrup and use a dairy-free alternative to butter – and you can boost the flavour even more by adding a crushed garlic clove to the honey and butter mix. Honey roast carrots Serves: 4 Ingredients: 4 carrots, peeled and sliced in half lengthways Vegetable oil, for spraying 2 tbsp runny honey 1 tsp butter Salt and ground black pepper Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 180C/350F. 2. Get the carrots in the air-fryer basket and spray them with the vegetable oil. Then cook them for 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, in a microwaveable bowl, melt the honey and butter together for about 30 seconds, until liquidy, then season well. 4. When the carrots have been in the air fryer for 10 minutes, tip them into the honey and butter mixture and mix well so that they are all coated, then pop them back into the air fryer for a further 10 minutes, until sticky, glazed and tender. Depending on the size of your carrots, you may need to cook them for a little longer, so cook in five-minute intervals until tender. Roast potatoes “Believe it or not, I’m no stranger to a roast potato or two (or seven), and I’ve made it my life’s work to ensure you have the best potatoes on your plate every time,” says O’Toole. “With an air fryer, the process is much quicker, which means potato gets to your mouth in half the time – always a good thing. “For me, the perfect roast potato has a crispy exterior while still maintaining a beautifully fluffy interior, and this recipe does exactly that.” Serves: 2-4, depending on greed Ingredients: 4 Maris Piper, russet or red skin potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tsp fine salt Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 160C/325F. 2. In a mixing bowl, toss the potatoes in the oil and salt, and tip them into the air-fryer basket. 3. Cook for 30 minutes, giving them a proper aggressive toss every 10 minutes, and even poke them with a fork if you want to fluff up the insides further. 4. Increase the heat to 200C/400F and cook for a further six minutes, until golden and crispy. Chestnut and bacon sprouts “Sprouts are underrated and can be such a delicious vegetable side. When they are cooked right, and not pure mush, they add texture, flavour and colour to any dish,” says O’Toole. You can easily customise this dish to your guests’ dietary requirements – skip the bacon if anyone is vegetarian, and swap out for vegan butter if necessary. Serves: 4 Ingredients: 50g butter, melted 500g fresh or frozen Brussels sprouts (if fresh, cut in half) 100g bacon lardons 50g pre-cooked chestnuts, chopped Sea salt flakes and ground black pepper Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 180C/350F. 2. In a large bowl, mix the butter with the sprouts, season with salt and pepper and place in the air-fryer basket. Just chuck over the bacon lardons. 3. Cook for five minutes then add in the chestnuts. Cook for another five to 10 minutes, checking at five-minute intervals until cooked to your liking. ‘Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook’ (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20). Read More Beauty advent calendars 2021: Our guide to this year’s top treats 13 best tech gifts to spoil a gadget geek this Christmas 10 best luxury Christmas crackers for dressing up your dining table Why restaurant influencers have just ruined your dinner The Independent high street Christmas sandwich and drink taste test Seasonal affective disorder: Can you eat to improve your mood?

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