How to cook French fries in aerogrilla Xiaomi: the complete guide

Making French fries at home often takes a long time, using a lot of oil and cleaning the dishes. However, modern technology allows you to enjoy your favorite dish, preserving its crispy crust and minimizing the harm to health. Owners of smart appliances from Xiaomi have a unique opportunity to use advanced heating algorithms to achieve restaurant quality right in their kitchen.

The brand's air grills, such as the Mi Smart Air Fryer or Visual Smart Air Fryer, are equipped with powerful TENs and a hot air circulation system, which allows you to roast slices evenly from all sides. You do not need to immerse potatoes in boiling fat to get a golden color. Just properly prepare the tubers and set the necessary parameters in the Mi Home app or on the device's touch panel.

In this article, we will take a look at the entire process, from potato variety selection to final serving, and you will learn why some models require pre-soaking, how starch affects the texture of a dish, and what temperature regimes are most effective for different forms of cutting.

Choosing the Right Variety of Potatoes for Frying

The success of cooking depends largely on the technique, but also on the raw materials. For the perfect fries in aerogril Xiaomi best suited varieties with a high content of dry substances and low sugar.

Pay attention to the texture of the flesh: it should be dense and not watery. If you use young potatoes with thin skin, it may not be peeled, but for the classic recipe, you should choose mature tubers. It is important that there are no green spots or sprouts on the surface, as they can make the dish bitter.

The size of the tubers also matters. For uniform slicing with blocks of the same thickness, it is better to choose medium-sized or large potatoes, and small and deformed specimens are better set aside for other dishes, since they are difficult to cut in standard strips.

• 🥔 Choose varieties with yellow or white flesh, avoiding red varieties, which are often more watery.
• 🚫 Avoid potatoes with damage, rot, or a characteristic green hue of peel.
• ✨ For best results, use tubers that were stored in a cool, dark place, but not in the refrigerator.

⚠️ Warning: Never use sprouted potatoes without thorough cleaning for frying in air fryer, as the solanine contained in the sprouts is toxic and does not break down completely when heat treated.

Tuber preparation: cleaning and soaking

Before you send potatoes to a bowl of smart grill, remove excess surface starch, a step that many beginners ignore, getting sticky pieces instead of crispy bars, and thorough washing and soaking is a key step in cooking technology.

After cleaning the tubers, cut into blocks about 1 cm thick. Too thin slices can dry and burn, and too thick will remain raw inside. After slicing, fold the potatoes into a deep bowl and pour cold water.

The soaking time varies from 15 to 30 minutes, during which time the water will become muddy, indicating the release of starch. Pour the water, rinse the potatoes again and be sure to dry them with paper towels. Moisture is the main enemy of the crispy crust in the air grill.

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Use a centrifuge for lettuce to quickly and efficiently remove all water from the surface of potato bars after washing.

Dry slices are easier to mix with oil and spices, providing a uniform coating of each block. If you skip the drying step, the water will evaporate first, creating a steam bath effect, which will make the potatoes soft.

Secrets of Perfect Cutting and Marination

In order for the fries in Xiaomi Smart Air Fryer to turn out to be equally fried, all bars must be about the same size. You can use special knives for cutting vegetables or a food processor with a suitable nozzle. Hand-cutting requires accuracy and a sharp knife.

After drying, the potatoes must be sprinkled with oil. Unlike deep frying, it requires a minimum amount of fat — just 1-2 tablespoons per 500 grams of product. Spread the oil evenly, stirring the bars with your hands or in a bag.

Spices are best added before heat treatment, but with caution. Small powdered spices can burn at high temperatures. Large salt, paprika or dried garlic will be perfect.

• 🧂 Use sea salt of coarse grinding to create a pleasant crunch and bright taste.
• 🌿 Add dried herbs, such as rosemary or thyme, to flavor the dish.
• 🌶️ Paprika or turmeric will give the finished product a more saturated golden hue.

Don't overdo it with the amount of oil. The excess fat drains to the bottom of the bowl and can start to smoke, which will cause an unpleasant smell and smoke in the kitchen.

Setup of aerogrill Xiaomi and the choice of mode

Modern models like the Mi Smart Air Fryer Pro offer a lot of pre-installed software. French fries are usually designed to be in a mode that automatically sets the optimal time and temperature. However, manual adjustment often gives a more accurate result.

The recommended cooking temperature is 180-200 degrees Celsius. At 200 degrees, the process is faster and the crust forms more intensely. Cooking time usually varies from 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the bars and the power of the particular model.

If you use the Mi Home app, you can choose a recipe for "French Fries," and the device will set the settings itself, and the visual model allows you to control the process through a transparent window without opening the lid or disturbing the temperature regime.

⚠️ Warning: Do not fill the air grill basket to the brim. Air must circulate freely between the pieces of potatoes, otherwise they will be baked unevenly.

For models without the stirring function during cooking, this step will have to be done manually. Open the basket halfway through the cycle and shake the contents intensely to turn the bars over.

Preparation process and preparedness control

After loading the prepared potatoes into the basket, set a timer. The first 10-12 minutes pass without intervention, unless your model requires frequent shaking, during which time the main warming and evaporation of moisture from the surface occurs.

About halfway through the cycle, open the device and shake the basket, which will provide even frying on all sides, and if you see that some bars are already roaring more than others, move them to the center or cover them with less finished pieces.

Readiness is checked visually and by touch. Potatoes should be golden, and when pierced with a fork, it is easy to pierce without falling apart. If the crust is pale, add another 2-3 minutes at maximum temperature.

Don't over-stuff the potatoes, or they'll get too dry and brittle, and it's better to take them out a little bit earlier and let them get there with the residual heat than to get the coals.

Table of regimes for different types of potatoes

Different types of potatoes and cuts require a personalized approach, and below is a table with recommended parameters for getting results in Xiaomi devices.

These options are basic and can be adjusted depending on the specific model of your device and personal preferences for the degree of roasting.

Serving meals and storing residues

Ready-made fries are best served immediately after cooking, while they are hot and crispy. Sprinkle them with fine salt and, if desired, fresh greens. The ideal addition is garlic or tomato-based sauces.

If you cook too much, don't leave the potatoes in a closed container, otherwise they will dry up. Let them cool completely outdoors. You can keep the chilled fries in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, but if you reheat them, they will lose some of their properties.

Use an aerogrill to reheat, not a microwave oven. A short heating cycle will restore the texture of the crust.

• 🍅 Serve with homemade ketchup or aioli sauce for better taste.
• 🧀 Sprinkle with grated parmesan immediately after being extracted from the bowl.
• 🥗 Use as a side dish to steaks or chicken wings, also cooked in aerogril.

⚠️ Warning: Do not store cooked potatoes at room temperature for more than 2 hours, as this is a favorable environment for the reproduction of bacteria.

Frequent questions and troubleshooting

Even when following the instructions, there may be nuances that depend on the batch of potatoes or the nature of the power grid, and understanding the problems will help to avoid mistakes in the future.

If the potato turns pale, it may have too much sugar or not enough heat, but if it burns out and damp inside, reduce the temperature and increase the time, and make sure the bars are not too thick.

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The main secret of success is a thorough drying of potatoes before frying and the obligatory shaking of the basket during cooking.

Regular cleaning of the mesh and bowl of the device from sodium