AIR FRYER HERBY POTATOES and home made one-cal spray oil

When it was a really nice day recently we decided to abandon all plans for chores, gardening and DIY and have a late lunch bbq.

It being still only March we didn't quite feel like wheeling the gas bbq out of the barn and setting it all up which would have taken quite a while.  However, last year we bought a small electric bbq at a brocante for 8€ which has been a huge success so we used that instead.

We did some of our chicken, lemon and thyme kebabs (see here), a carrot and red cabbage coleslaw (see here) and some air fryer herby mini potatoes.  When the gas barbecue comes out for the year we will do our potatoes on that instead as the process is just the same (cooking the potatoes in a foil tray on the bbq) but on this occasion the air fryer came into its own and lunch was on the table (outdoors in the early spring sunshine) within half an hour.

Another thing I have started using recently is home made one-cal oil spray.  This is a tip from Nancy Birtwhistle and it works really well, makes spray oil without any additives cheaply and easily.  I bought a glass spray bottle from Amazon that has liquid measurements on the side and which makes the job of making the oil so easy.

We have found our tiny Instant Pot air fryer very useful for lots of things but wouldn't claim that we can cook everything in it.  We still use our main oven a lot.  I don't subscribe to the theory that if you have an air fryer you can do away with the oven any more than you could manage with just a microwave, or slow cooker.  I have found that different kitchen gadgets are ideal for different things but I certainly don't regret getting the air fryer.  I'm not sure I would attempt to bake a cake in it.  If there are two items that need cooking in the oven we would use that instead of the air fryer.  Horses for courses.

Do you have one and what do you use it for?

Some of the things we find it ideal for are:

Chicken fillets

Salmon fillets

Fish fillets

Sausages, bacon and black pudding

Croutons

Frozen oven chips or sauté potatoes

Baked potatoes

Baked apples 

Frozen croissants

Fish fingers

Roasted vegetables

Refreshing yesterday's baguette

Ingredients for the herby potatoes

2 handfuls of baby potatoes or any small, firm potato, washed and cut evenly to size.

spray oil

salt and pepper

dried herbs of your choice

Method

Parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes.  Drain and tip into the air fryer basket.

Spray with a few squirts of oil (or drizzle with sunflower or olive oil)  

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over a teaspoon or so of herbs to taste.

Shake the pan a few times then cook at 180C for 8-10 minutes until knife-tip tender.  Shake the pan a few times during the cooking time.

Serves 2.

To make the spray oil

50ml sunflower oil (or other oil of your choice)

15ml cooled boiled water from the kettled

5ml vodka

Measure the ingredients into your oil sprayer and give it a good shake before each use as the oil and water will separate.  Keep in a cool cupboard, not the fridge.

CELERIAC AND POTATO GRATIN

This is a very easy and tasty accompaniment to serve with any meat, chicken or casserole.  It’s fairly rich but a real treat.  I served mine with my version of coq au vin blanc (see here).

There are numerous recipes for it online and I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe that you can see here because it looked simple.  I put the dish on the table for people to serve themselves as per Jamie's suggestion.  

It was absolutely delicious and there were plenty of leftovers which I reheated by covering with foil and baking at 180° fan for 15 minutes.

Ingredients 

4-6 medium potatoes 

half a large celeriac 

1 large onion 

2 cloves of garlic 

600ml double cream

75g cheddar cheese, grated

Method 

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°fan.

Peel and slice the potatoes into roughly 5mm slices. Put them into a large bowl of cold water to prevent discolouration.

Peel and slice the celeriac, garlic and onion.  Drain the potatoes and put everything into the bowl.  Add about half of the grated cheese to the bowl and mix everything together. 

Transfer the mixture into a gratin or ovenproof dish in layers and pour the cream over.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake for 50 minutes to one hour until the veg are soft (test with the tip of a knife) and the sauce bubbling.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley if you like before serving.

Serves 6-8 generous portions.

LEMON POSSET

We had dinner at a friend’s house one autumn evening last year and for dessert she served lemon posset, something I had never made or eaten before.  It was utterly divine and she served it in pretty stemmed champagne coupes.  

She and her husband are renovating one of those drop dead gorgeous French houses known as a "maison du maître" with large airy rooms, tall, draughty windows and high ceilings.  They still have plenty of work to do!  But the previous owner left behind a vast quantity of old furniture, linens, china and glassware, including the coupes.  Some of it was not to her taste but much of it was real treasure.

This is in sharp contrast to the unattractive furniture and other stuff that the owner of our first French house wanted to sell us.  We were mightily relieved to find it had all gone when we finally got the keys!  The difference is that our friend's house had been a well loved home whereas ours had been a holiday home for generations of a Parisian family who just descended on the place for six weeks every summer!  You can read a bit about that here.

Anyway, at the first opportunity, the next time we had guests for lunch, I decided to make lemon posset myself.  I served it in a hotchpotch of china cups and glasses and it went down a treat.  I adapted a Mary Berry recipe which was a doddle to make and I shall add it to my repertoire of favourite desserts.  It was luscious yet light and very lemony!  It's also ideal for a dinner party as it can be made the day before.

Ingredients

600ml double cream

15og caster sugar

3 lemons, zest and juice

a handful of fresh raspberries for decoration

strips of lemon zest for decoration (optional)

Method

Put the cream, sugar and lemon zest into a wide saucepan.  Bring to the boil over low heat and simmer gently for 3 minutes, stirring all the time.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Stir the lemon juice into the cooled cream mixture and pour into 8 small ramekins, cups or glasses.

Chill in the fridge for at least two hours until set or overnight.

Just before serving, decorate with the fresh raspberries and strips of lemon zest.

Serves 8 portions.

PARSNIP AND ARTICHOKE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

 

As we enjoyed the carrot and artichoke soup so much, I decided to make it again.  That's when I noticed the one large parsnip in the veg drawer and wondered how it would turn out if I used that instead of carrots.

In France there is a chain of greengrocer shops called "Terre Y Fruits".  They sell excellent seasonal fruit and veg, plus some meat and dairy products and other groceries, much of it local.  There I spotted some Jerusalem artichokes that were a much more user friendly shape to peel so I bought some.

It turned out to be a delicious combination.  The soup was a lovely creamy colour and the flavour more delicate than the carrot version.  I will definitely be making this again!

I served mine with some home made air fryer croutons, made from the previous day's baguette.  You can see the recipe/instructions for those in this post here.

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 stick celery 

sufficient Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips to fill the machine to the bottom line, about half and half of each

1 vegetable stock pot 

1 good squirt garlic paste or purée 

1 tblsp dry sherry

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 

Method

Peel and roughly chop the onion.  Clean and roughly chop the celery.  Add both to the soup maker.

Peel and roughly chop the parsnips and artichokes and add enough to fill the soup maker to the bottom line.  You can vary the proportions depending on how many of each you have but I used half and half.

Add the stock pot, garlic paste and enough water to fill to the top line.  Season well with salt and pepper.

Cook on smooth.

When done, check the seasoning and stir in the sherry and nutmeg.

A tip for grating nutmeg: grate the amount you want onto a chopping board or plate then tip it into the soup. This saves having to go fishing in the soup for the nutmeg when you drop it!

Makes 4 generous servings.  Would serve 6 as a starter.

CARROT AND ARTICHOKE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

Topinambours, the French word for Jerusalem artichokes, are in plentiful supply at the moment and I couldn’t resist a bagful when we breezed through the market in the wintry drizzle the other week. I have made Palestine soup many times (see here) but decided to have a look in my soup book for an alternative recipe.

This book was a charity shop purchase a couple of years ago and appeared to be brand new.  It’s crammed with excellent recipes for delicious soups, most of which can be adapted for the soup maker.  This time added my "secret ingredient" which is a splash of dry sherry and a good grating of nutmeg - a tip I learned from Nigella Lawson's recipe for vegetable soup in her book "How to Eat" (see here).  I have found it enhances the flavour of most vegetable soups!

A carrot and just one knobbly artichoke!

Next time I think I would hand pick my own artichokes.  Those I got from the market were very knobbly and the devil’s own job to peel!

My Morphy Richards soup maker, which apparently "died" in the middle of last year is now working perfectly!  Why that happened is a mystery but I'm happy for now that it’s still going strong!

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 stick celery 

sufficient Jerusalem artichokes and carrots to fill the machine to the bottom line, about half and half of each

1 vegetable stock pot 

1 good squirt garlic paste or purée 

1 tblsp dry sherry

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 

Method

Peel and roughly chop the onion.  Clean and roughly chop the celery.  Add both to the soup maker.

Peel and roughly chop the carrots and artichokes and add enough to fill the soup maker to the bottom line.  You can vary the proportions depending on how many of each you have but I used half and half.

Add the stock pot, garlic paste and enough water to fill to the top line.  Season well with salt and pepper.

Cook on smooth.

When done, check the seasoning and stir in the sherry and nutmeg.

A tip for grating nutmeg: grate the amount you want onto a chopping board or plate then tip it into the soup. This saves having to go fishing in the soup for the nutmeg when you drop it!

Makes 4 generous servings.  Would serve 6 as a starter.

A PINK CASTLE BIRTHDAY CAKE

A few months ago a friend asked me if I would make a cake for her granddaughter’s fourth birthday.  I sent along some pictures from a book I've had for ages, hoping that something simple like a rabbit or cat shaped cake would be chosen.  The message came back that the pink fairytale castle was the favourite.  Having never, ever made anything like it before I had to put my thinking cap on!

The cake chosen from the book!

I did a mock up of the design using the cookbook as a guide.  Creating the turrets seemed to be the tricky bit.  There were lots of ideas on the internet suggesting using cardboard tubes covered in fondant icing for the turrets but I rejected that idea.  What little girl wants to cut into a cake and find it’s made of cardboard?

My first idea was to bake the turrets in two rings joined together with foil but decided that might not work if they came apart as the sponge mixture rose.  The next idea was to use small pilchard tins but what to do with all those pilchards?! In the end I opted for joining the sponges together with buttercream.  They were then covered in pink fondant icing which more or less concealed any bumps or wonkiness.

The base was a 15cm madeira cake plus a little mixture used for a smaller one for the top .  The turrets were made using a basic four egg sponge recipe that came with the pack of 2” cake rings. As a precaution I used some of that mixture to make some mini madeleines and in the final design one of those was used for the top turret to display the pink number 4 candle.  

The turret roofs were ice cream cones brushed with warmed apricot jam then sprinkled with pink glimmer sugar.  The base cake was covered in a generous amount of pink buttercream, reserving plenty for fixing decorations to the cake.  The turrets were secured to the base with cocktail sticks and after that it was just a matter of chucking as many decorations as we dared at it!

It was enormous fun to make and took the three of us two hours to decorate!  

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK TWO WAYS

 

Oh, the joy of leftovers!

The first version is simply leftover mashed potatoes and green veg, mashed together.

The mixture was piled into a well greased muffin tin and baked in the oven at 180° fan for about twenty minutes then sprinkled with grated cheese before returning to the oven to finish cooking.  After another ten minutes the cheese was melted.  We had ours with baked beans.  Yum!

For the egg version I used all the leftover veg we had, including carrot and half of a small tin of sweetcorn.  I added some fried chopped onions and leftover spaghetti.  I mixed in a tablespoon of panko breadcrumbs for a bit of texture.

I made depressions in the mixture ready to receive the eggs and baked it for 20 minutes at 180° fan  before dropping an egg into each well.

It was then finished off in the oven at 180° fan for around 10 minutes more until the eggs were cooked but the yolks still runny.  Double yum!