Shop-bought cottage pie. (Photo: Tony Jackman) 
Sometimes we’re rushed and take the easy route, popping into a store to buy a frozen cottage pie or macaroni and cheese on the way home. Would it have been a better idea to go home and make it from scratch?
We don’t mind – or shouldn’t mind – such a product being merely kind of good to eat. If we want something top-drawer or impactful, we really should be putting in the effort and making it ourselves.
This product did not have specific air fryer instructions on its packaging. However, the machine I cooked it in is an air fryer oven, and differs from a large conventional oven only in size. It is as much of an oven as my old Bosch gas stove, just on a smaller scale. And is electric, of course.
Which brings me to a point I need to make: “air fryers” are countertop ovens. All of them. They’re miniature ones, and some are much smaller than others. But some of them are really big, comparatively, and to all extents and purposes they are just as much of an oven as that big old growly thing in your kitchen.
So, manufacturers of products such as this need to take the trouble to test-drive them in a range of these newfangled machines, or otherwise customers will start to gripe. And then, as now often happens, state air fryer instructions on the packaging.
In any case, why would a manufacturer of frozen family meals not automatically offer an air fryer option? Do they want to lose two-thirds of their potential customers?
This is a precooked product, and the heating instructions refer only to ovens and microwaves, and there’s a rider:
“These heating instructions are a guideline due to varying microwaves and ovens. Defrost thoroughly before heating.”
I presume, therefore, that by “varying ovens” they include the air fryer variety.
This brand – which I chose randomly from a freezer at my local Checkers – was Dine-In. Its packaging is smart and quite elegant, and seems to suggest, thereby, a somewhat superior product.
The Foodie’s Wife, who is perhaps a bit easier to please with these things, liked the cottage pie a lot. I was happy enough with it to consider it a decent supper, under the circumstances.
In fact, before I leave for a trip to Johannesburg, I’ve been instructed to buy a couple more Dine-In products for her to eat while I’m away.
I’ll be in restaurants.
Ingredients
1 Dine-In Cottage Pie
OR
1 Dine-In Macaroni & Cheese
Method
As per the pack’s instructions, verbatim, copied and pasted:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Remove carton box and film.
Place the container on a baking tray.
Place on the oven rack in the centre of the oven.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until hot throughout.
Allow the product to stand for 2 minutes.
And that’s all folks. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.