Beef Jerky (Ang Moh style) - With the Philips Airfryer

I'd like to lead a simpler life but I don't think I'm very successful, seeing as last week alone, I'd purchased several household appliances! I know it's not everyone's cup of retail therapy but gadgets do get me excited. Oops.

As I type, I'm editing because I really bought more than I could remember!
Yes, there was that small Philips rice cooker on sale at Courts. I'd bought 2! 1 for my MIL and 1 for ourselves because the current one although quite new, has a crappy pot that burns the rice at the bottom, every single time! Also because we do not need to cook much rice on a daily basis, it would make more sense to have a smaller one (which would mean I'd have to keep the bigger one in storage for parties!)

Then of course, we had misplaced our brand new 2nd Xiaomi Powerbank and so that had to be replaced, didn't it? It was a case of buy a new one or fight with hubs to use the only one we had when both phones threatened to die on us at the same time!

Then I drooled over a food dehydrator (but good girl me, managed to pass...for now). I did not, however, manage to pass on a wet and dry vacuum cleaner because I'd like to really suck the blardy aircon pipes clean. Hubs is not very convinced of the usefulness of this purchase. He's the one who usually removes and cleans the aircon filters but he thinks we'll end up having to call the aircon serviceman anyway. So anyway, that fat gadget now sits lonely right smack next to our living room TV because it's waiting for me to use it.

Oh yes, of course, I had to fight myself for a very long time but I ended up buying a steady pomp pee pee Tefal frying pan. Not the useless light one. This one's heavier and the handle doesn't look like it'll come lose loose so easily (like my previous one). There is also the option to use it on an induction stove. I held out on this one for a long time because, sigh, some people at home like to use metal tools on Teflon and buying another Teflon pan to replace the scratched Teflon pan, well, seems pretty useless if old habits die hard! Grrrr! I was waiting for the Happycall Diamond frying pan price to drop but it never did. Was very tempted to buy an imported set online but I decided I really didn't need 2 frying pans, 1 with cover, 1 without cover, 2 pots, 1 with cover, 1 without cover when all I needed was a frying pan! So, yes, I finally bought the last heavy duty Tefal pan hanging on the nearby NTUC Xtra's rack. Oh crap! I forgot, I'd also bought a 30cm Paella pan!

So anyway, because I was a very good girl and resisted the temptation to buy a food dehydrator, I attempted to use my current Philips Air Fryer to cook some Beef Jerky. I dare not say Biltong because airfrying beef, albeit well-seasoned beef, for 20 mins cannot come anywhere close to Biltong!

When I told hubs I had been so tempted to buy a food dehydrator, he didn't even hear me out. He just shook his head and said, 'No, just use your airfryer!' He's right. I really have NO SPACE for it. It looks very much like a food steamer and I had given my food steamer away because it had taken so much space on my limited counter top AND had been underutilised!

So, to the supermarket I went. Bought my Round Beef Steak. Sliced it thinly and soaked them in a motherload mix of spices!

Put in a third of my beef into the airfryer. Was too ambitious. Set it to 200degC for 10 mins and walked away. 10 mins later, I walked back to charred sticks! Felt really sad to have lost 1/3 of my beef! Shall save my face and not show the pic (yes, I did take a pic of the shame).

Tried another third and this time, set it for 200degC for 2 mins.

It looked like something you would eat as a dish but looked far from Beef Jerky (or Biltong)! So I put in another 2 mins. It was tedious. I repeated the steps about 4 times which actually meant a total of 8 mins before I thought they looked presentably hard and chewy.

Looking at the state of the grill at this point (in the above pic), I was thinking, what a chore it will be to clean the pot and grill! I was hoping it would remain fairly easy to clean! But it surprisingly took very little scrubbing to get the charred bits out. Perhaps because there was no oil involved.

Then, finally, what I thought looked decent enough to be called Ang Moh Beef Jerky (as opposed to Asian Bak Kwa)!



I stuffed a small piece into hub's mouth. He said it tasted no different from 'burnt meat'. Gee, thanks. I sent a pic of it to my SIL Down Under and she thought I had fed my dog too much corn (ouch!). LOL. My kids said a tad too salty but they devoured the lot anyway cos it was addictive!

So, I'm a far, far way from being simpler. My mind is still thinking of the dehydrator being able to do a better job at Ang Moh Beef Jerky than my air fryer. Tonight, I'm going to try to make it again but using minced beef. Want to see if I can get the consistency to come out like the yummy commercial Biltong Sticks! This time, I will make my seasoning drier. Let's see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'm wondering if the dehydrator will still be on sale tomorrow...

(UPDATE: JULY 2015 --> I did purchase a dehydrator and have been making delicious beef jerky which looks less like poo and tastes more like the real thing! Will blog about it soon)