Over the last year, after much ‘encouragements’ from friends I researched and finally bought 2 Air-Fryers; fundamentally one for my son who has moved away and one for me to learn so I can teach him easy recipes to feed himself. However I have since fallen in love with it!
I use it as a glorified oven really. After a year of experimenting and such, there are some food I will never use it for, especially those that only taste good with frying. Air-frying might be ‘healthier’ but for food that needs frying in oil, it is not nicer in taste. However I would never use my big oven for certain food now, like Cantonese Crispy Roast pork – Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 which I think I have perfected in my air-fryer to my satisfaction. For full recipe please refer to this link – https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2019/09/06/traditional-cantonese-crispy-roast-pork-belly-siu-yuk-%e8%84%86%e7%9a%ae%e7%83%a7%e8%82%89/
My recipe uses red nam yue, fermented bean curd. To me this is a MUST. If you do not please do NOT refer to yours as ‘authentic’ or ‘traditional’ It kinda pisses me off. This is the way traditional Cantonese roast pork Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 used to taste like when I was young. After roasting the pork itself will have a shade of light pink hue due to the nam yue and it taste so much better for it. Below are pics and TIPs of roasting it in an air-fryer. Enjoy and please feel free to ask me any questions pertaining to this cook.
TIPs (added 26th August 2026)
TIP 1 – Find a nice piece of pork with no creases. As level as possible.
TIP 2 – Poured hot water on the skin a few times to shrink it back before scrapping clean with a sharp knife.
TIP 3 – Poke with your stabber patiently with ‘kung-fu’ strength (just the skin, don’t break into the fat layer)
TIP 4 – When roasting time try to make sure it is level because if not you are going to have uneven heat so your skin will not be even. Use the scrunched up tin foil under method. When I first made this few decades ago I used ceramic spoons. Later when I was too lazy to scrub the spoons clean I thought of using tin foil. Could have kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. I like to believe I have graduated since then.
TIP – Know your air-fryer/oven. Manufacturer fibs. My new air-fryer is hotter at the back than the front. Adjust. I turned over half way.
