De'Longhi Roto Fry Deep Fryer with Easy Clean System F28311.W1, 1.2 L, 1800 W - White

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It also boasts an “easy clean” system to make it simpler to drain the oil after use. First though, you must wait an hour or two for the oil to cool down. Then pull down a flap on the front to reveal a rubber pipe with a small cap on the end. Open this and the oil flows out so you can drain it into a jug. This RotoFry looks like a fairly compact conventional deep fat fryer. And it is, in one sense. Unlike the latest “health” fryers that use minimal amounts of oil, this uses 1-1.2 litres of the stuff. But rather than just plunging your basket into the oil for a few minutes, the basket is set at an angle and rotates – so your food spends some time in the oil and some time out of it. The design is doubly clever because you close the RotoFry’s lid with the basket raised, then lower the handle to lower the basket. This keeps the risk of hot bubbles and splashes to a minimum.

This tiny fryer is one of the smallest we’ve ever seen, it only has space for 700ml of oil and you can just about fry an individual portion of chips in the little basket as long as you’re not feeling too greedy. It works like any other deep fat fryer, it’s just in miniature, perfect for single person households or for people who only want to fry very small portions, like calamari for a starter. The tiny size makes it easy to store, plus there’s not much oil to deal with every time you empty and fill it.The RotoFry took a good five minutes to come up to cooking temperature after we filled it with a litre of oil. We then cooked 500g of fresh chips in it – it quotes a cooking time of 7-8 minutes for 500g and 14-16 minutes for 1kg of fresh chips, both at 190°C. Yes – despite the unusual rotating design, the RotoFry is capable of cooking a wide range of fresh and frozen fried foods. It’s affordable and fast, it uses less oil than deep fat fryers and it’s easy to clean. The chips cooked for 7 minutes were slightly underdone – we’d try 8 next time – but they tasted great. They were evenly cooked and tasted like they’d come fresh from the chip shop. The handle design impressed: you can close the lid and then fold down the handle to lower the basket into the oil. The lid was slightly hard to close with the basket in place, but it did feel safer than plunging the chips in with the lid off. The fryer generally felt very stable too.

Removing the oil involves lifting and tipping the whole fryer which is awkward, but considering its size and the amount of oil, it isn’t heavy. The small frying basket can be washed in warm soapy water but nothing else is removable, so can only be wiped clean.The instructions suggest placing food round the sides of the basket, rather than the middle, presumably to prevent uneven cooking. But we spread the chips throughout the basket and found they were cooked evenly.

If you are looking for a healthier way to cook chips though, consider the Philips Viva Airfryer HD9220. And for top-notch twice-fried chips consider the Sage Multi Fryer. Verdict

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There’s a large viewing window in the lid, so you can keep an eye on progress, although like any fryer the window often gets steamed up. The lid is also home to a large anti-odour filter, which the manufacturer suggests you replace after every 10-15 uses.