More complex is the ginger soy fish that is steamed, half-submerged in a mixture of lemon, soy sauce and sesame oil. The recipe instructs you to place a shallow bowl small enough to cook the fish in the cooking basket. It also needs to be big enough to hold the fish, and your fingers will thank you for figuring out how to get the hot dish out before pressing the Start button. That said, it made for a surprisingly quick and lovely meal.
Chaos of both worlds
Next up is fusion cooking, where I hope to get a little of the best of both worlds: Steam for a soft inside, then steam to crisp up the outside. I quickly learned that using the combo mode means it will only steam and then cook. Programming is like trying to figure out the Konami code. The touchscreen controls look sleek but are a complicated mess, best overcome by quick memorization. Adding time at the end of cooking (steaming or combining) means you have to reset the temperature, which defaults to 370 degrees, at the end of each cycle. Then you punch in extra time.
You can follow GoWise's recipes or experiment with the times and temperatures provided by them if you want to cook something else. I wish the book had a title 100 Basic Recipes, with time, temperature and graph. I'd gladly take a copy of the basic instruction manual in exchange for GoWise's mediocre or strange preparation of broccoli—cooked but covered in a counterproductive layer of yogurt—or Italian stuffed peppers with “low carb marinara sauce,” whatever that is.
I made stuffed mushrooms, a popular appetizer, stuffed with three cheeses folded into cream cheese with Worcestershire sauce and garlic, which I just wanted to spread on my Triscuits. After eight minutes of steaming and another eight minutes of 400-degree hot air, they came out nicely. There's not much to dislike if you're a cheese and mushroom lover, but the mushroom caps were a bit soggy. I wish I had pre-blown them before adding the filling, but that seems to go against the principle of simplicity when cooking in an air fryer.
Perhaps the most successful of the combination regimens is honey soy chicken thighs. After playing around with the poorly written recipe and stealing some techniques and cooking temperatures from other recipes, they turned out extremely well. They were tender and moist, with a fragrant crispy exterior, probably the best I made in GoWise.
Like all smart kitchen devices with apps, I'm skeptical by GoWise. Not to gloat or anything, but my opinion hasn't changed here. I shuddered when I noticed more one-star reviews than five-star reviews in the app store, and very few in between. The featured review casually mentioned the cookie recipe was “wrong.” I opened the app and thought the company must have fixed whatever was wrong, but no. The ingredients don't call for butter, but the first line of the process does. After the appraisal, I deleted the app.
Modern amenities
Even so, I still enjoyed my time using GoWise. It cooks well enough and is pleasantly quiet. I like that the basket and tray are dishwasher safe. There's no need to change that simple routine of five minutes standing over the sink to scrub those stains away! Despite its many flaws, I appreciate that it comes with 100 recipes, especially those that help users take advantage of the combined steaming and cooking function. I would be more interested in the whole problem if I could control the heat in the steam cycle. You can do a lot of fun things in a “regular” steamer, but pegged the temperature at 212 really hinders the fun you can have with it.
Photo: Amazon
The bigger problem with this air fryer is shared with all dedicated air fryers: They only do one thing (or in this case two), take up a lot of counter space, and have little Surprisingly space for cooking. If you prefer air frying, use the convection setting you probably have on the built-in oven you already own, or make sure the next built-in oven you buy has this function.
if you Actually If you want a countertop air fryer, choose a toaster oven model so you can fry, broil, roast or toast with more space. (Yes, the toaster model has an even larger footprint, is harder to clean, and takes a little longer to heat up, but still.) If you believe you want a unique air fryer established, then GoWise is OK. The company should first stop using the app as an act of mercy. Just grab a copy of The perfect air fryer instead of the corporate recipe book and have fun.
