Book Review: 2 Qt Small Air Fryer Cookbook for One

Title: 2 Qt Small Air Fryer Cookbook for One

Author: no information is given, but it reads like Olivia Graham

Quote: "This book is all about air frying for one."

And so it is. I don't have the new contraption for which this book was written, and can't test the recipes, but they'll fit into a bowl that fits loosely into the two-quart fryer, anyway. 

The recipes are a selection of the snacky kind of thing bachelors and students tend to eat, including egg things for breakfast, fried vegetable snacks, meats, a few trendy alternatives to meat (a cauliflower "steak" cut, mushrooms, tofu), and several desserts. One shortcut to the "lava cake" effect is explained: air-fry a marshmallow and other things in puff pastry. 

This book seems more carefully edited than some others from the same source. Recipes that specify cut carrots or three of something are still accompanied with photos that show whole carrots or six of whatever, but each recipe does seem to be at least adapted from the one photographed. Instructions spell out how to make sure things are done inside--stab a pick or a fork into veg or desserts, a thermometer into meats.

If your approach to cooking for one involves a special device that cooks single servings, this book is for you. Mine tends to involve making full-sized batches of things and eating the leftovers or sharing them with others, including the cats. Cooking single servings is fun and cute but it does involve things like using one slice of the tomato or even half or a quarter of one egg, so you still need a refrigerator, if not a freezer, to use this book. If you have an air fryer and also have friends, you've got it made with this book--just make one of every dish for every person, and you should be able to use up the tomato and the egg while they're still fit to eat. 

If your school allows air fryers to be used in dorm rooms, using this book should guarantee instant friends. Of course most of them are merely hungry, not really compatible, but it's worth doing a little extra work for extra cash to give growing students an alternative to chips and candy anyway.