Steamed pork dumplings & dim sim

A disaster with my sourdough. I used quite a lot for crumpets last week so I doubled the amount I put back into the jar. Because there was only a little left I took it out of the fridge and put it in the airing cupboard. A week later and lots has frothed out of the jar and covered sheets, towels, pillow cases and the vacuum cleaner below. OOPS!!! Next time I'll put it in a basin.
Anyway, after using a paint scraper to get the residue off  the timber floor and shelves and putting the other stuff in the washing machine, I've just topped up the sourdough starter as normal and put it in the fridge.

Pork & Spring Onion Dumplings

I'd made some dumpling with some cooked pork and they just tasted like the spring rolls. I shouldn't have cooked the meat. So this time I used raw pork as the filling following this video, I'd seen another video but this one shows the process:

And their recipe here.
 I used a steamer instead of frying them and I've just eaten all of 16 that I made with a soy sauce dip.
They were easy to make and I tried seaming for 12 minutes but 14 minutes was better.

I've still some filling left so I will thaw the other dumpling pastry and make them and freeze them for later. I can then either steam them or try frying/steaming in a frying pan, or even try the air fryer.

I may need to try some different dipping sauces too. 

Pork mince & Dim Sim

They have a video on Dim sum that I will try another time.

I like the idea of combination of prawn and pork.

 Initially I was using Pork mince which is quite expensive (compared to beef mince) and I've been buying Manu pork shoulder as a value cut and cooking it in bits in the aire fryer, so I thought I'd try and mince ity in my mini- chopper. That worked out well, so I got a lot of mince from a couple of joints and Manu got the bones and crackling. Definitely better value but uses up a bit of time.
When I'd used my dumpling pastries up I bought some more and some dim sim wrappers. The dim sim wrappers were thinner and dryer, and I tried to make the dim sum things above and I air fried them with a little oil. Not that great. I have some over that I will try steamed instead. I should have a combination of Dumplings and dim sum/sim.

Mince pies

I must admit I have a bit of a weakness for mince pies.

I think the One Pot Chef has a very mellifluous voice and enjoy his videos. Good basic kai.
I watched 2 videos of his about pies I wanted to try. One looked like a cornish pastie and the other a traditional pier.

Beef & Mushroom

Aussie (NZ) mince pie

 

 I got the two confused. I had some flaky pastry that I was defrosting, and then went to the shops and bought some savory shortcrust pastry. I also bought some mushrooms. I think I was thinking of the top pie in n the videos above but ended up using the filling from the first and the pastry from the 2nd.

Basically dads mince. mice. onion and bisto gravy and some mushrooms, I used a bit of cornflour to thicken the gravy so the pies would not be too soggy. 

The pastry pieces would make 3 circles for the crust bottoms and lids, so the excess I rolled into a 4th. That was a bit thicker than the other 3 as there was quite a bit of leftover dough.

A lot of videos recommended between 185 to 220 degrees C oven for between 15-25 minutes. I looked at mine after 10minutes and the top was going golden. I ended up at 20 minutes and some of the filling had leaked out, so next time 15 minutes instead. 

I was considering doing them in the air fryer but as I was going to make bread I decided that I'd use the oven instead. I am reasonably happy with the result and will try the recipe again. 

I ate one after it had cooled for a couple of hours. It was a little fatty. Next time I will heat in up in the microwave to make sure that filling is hot. 

Also I sliced the mushrooms, I should have diced them up further as they are too big for the pie filling, you end up pulling some of it out and other bits of the filling come out too. 

The air fryer will only take one at a time. Not sure how to plan for that. Maybe freeze some of the leftover cooked mince into batches and make one pie at a time. I may try that method. 

I should use some of the filling and try making the top pie. That is a plan. I'll do that later as I have a couple of pies on hand at the moment.

So:

Oven 200-220 deg C

15-20 minutes but check after 15 minutes, see if top is golden.

Chop/dice mushrooms small for filling

Patatas Bravas & Mini Tortilla's and Yorkshire pudding in Air Fryer

Patatas Bravas

When traveling around Spain this was a nice tapas , potato with sauce.

I thought the above video was a good way to get rid of some of my tomatoes for the sauce. It was also nice too, rather than just a tomato sauce.
I made a batch and split it into a number of pottles to freeze so that I can  have it at different times.
I also just used straight  mayonnaise as the other accompaniment.
The potatoes I just diced and sprayed with the canola oil and heated in air fryer at 200 deg C and for about 20 to 30 minutes. I had about 3 medium sized potatoes, so that filled up the basket.
Very nice snack and the sauce had a lot of flavour.

Mini Tortilla

When I make a tortilla I find that I have to eat it quickly, but I do get tired of it after a couple of days. I would be uncomfortable freezing the egg, so leave it in the fridge on an obvious shelf so that I try and eat it while it is still fresh. IO came up with the plan of making mini ones that I could have for breakfast using the Air Fryer.
After cooking a batch of potato and onion for tortillas I put them into a few containers. I had one in the fridge that I used this morning.
I heated the air fryer to 200 deg C with the potato and onion mix in the metal pie pot for about 3-5 minutes. Mixing 1 egg with salt and pepper I mixed the potato and onion with the egg and put it back into the pie dish and put it in the Air Fryer at 150 deg C for about 7-10 minutes, checking as I went.
The lower heat with the egg meant that the egg would be cooked through (a challenge I'm still managing for the Frittata).
It was nice and sweet from the caramelized onion and went well with the Ciabatta bread roll. Far more interesting than the hash brown.
I would use 2 eggs next time. I was concerned that it might overfill the dish.

I've also tried splitting the mix and cooking 2 batches. This makes them thinner and allows for the egg to be cooked through.
 Sort of works, I was a bit impatient and under-heated the potato/onion mix so it did not help cook the egg through.

Yorkshire pudding in air fryer

I made a batch and left it sitting overnight and tried it for breakfast with a cooked sausage in. A toad in the hole. It was a bit heavy and stodgy and  not really a breakfast item. I used a hand whisk, I didn't get it very airy.
Next time I wall use the column mixer to get it light and fluffy and try and have some with a roast meal.

I thought I'd try the mixture in the air fryer. I can only do one pie dish at a time, but the pudding mix which I had in the fridge for a couple of days worked fine. I was pleased with the result. 

I I turned them over near the end so that the bottom browned as well. I froze a few for later. Yet to be tested.

20th april 2020. lockdown still on. 

I made sausages yesterday and I thought of toad in the hole, so I need some yorkshire pudding. I onmly want a small toad in the hole at the moment, so I'll make some yorkshire puddings as well and feeze them. I'll follow the recipe below but I'll let it rest in the fridge for a while.

 

Naan bread, bach cooking mince for spring rolls and dumplings and frozen fruit for winter

 In Pak'n Save I came across a frozen packet of 8 Roti Channai. These are great for putting in the toaster for having with curry. Easy to prep and very flaky too.  I've noticed the freezer seems to be out of them for a while as others have found them tasty too. Its something I'll have to put on my watch list and hoard when they come in.

 At Curry Heaven in Newtown I love the fresh garlic naan bread with the curry. So I've been thinking about making naan for a while.  When I finally looked up the recipe the only main ingredient I didn't have was the yogurt, so I thought I would need to give it a try.

 Naan bread

There seem to be quite a few naan bread recipes  on YouTube, some having baking powder or soda. I would prefer just the yeast and be patient with the rise. In the end I used the recipe from the Guardian, here.
I want to make a batch and freeze them and bring them out when I'm going to have a curry.
I'll report back on this one. This is one video I watched on Naan. I don't have gas (apart from BBQ) so will have to cook both sides.

 I made 8 balls from the Guardian recipe and have frozen them. I hope to plan to take a couple out the night before with a curry and test them. I would have done it sooner but over the weekend I went mad and was prepping for a number of meals, so I'll have to wait until I'm ready for another freezer curry meal.

 Recipe from the Guardian

Makes 6-8
1.5 tsp fast-action yeast
1 tsp sugar
150ml warm water
300g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust
1 tsp salt
5 tbsp natural yoghurt
2 tbsp melted ghee or butter, plus extra to brush
A little vegetable oil, to grease
1 tsp nigella (black onion), sesame or poppy seeds (optional)

Put the yeast, sugar and two tablespoons of warm water in a bowl and stir well. Leave until it begins to froth.
Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Stir the yoghurt into the yeast mixture, then make a well in the middle of the flour and pour it in, plus the melted ghee. Mix, then gradually stir in the water to make a soft, sticky mixture that is just firm enough to call a dough, but not at all dry. Tip out on a lightly floured surface and knead for about five minutes until smooth and a little less sticky, then put in a large, lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover and leave in a draught-free place (the airing cupboard, or an unlit oven) until doubled in size: roughly 90–120 minutes.
Tip the dough back out on to the lightly floured surface and knock the air out, then divide into eight balls (or six if you have a particularly large frying pan). Meanwhile, heat a non-stick frying pan over a very high heat for five minutes and put the oven on low. Prepare the melted ghee and any seeds to garnish.
Flatten one of the balls and prod or roll it into a flat circle, slightly thicker around the edge. Pick it up by the top to stretch it slightly into a teardrop shape, then put it in the hot pan. When it starts to bubble, turn it over and cook until the other side is browned in patches. Turn it back over and cook until there are no doughy bits remaining.
Brush with melted ghee and sprinkle with seeds, if using, and put in the oven to keep warm while you make the other breads.

Batch mince for Spring rolls and dumplings

I bought some pork mince, and also have some beef mince so decided to cook them both up with some garlic and onion, separately. Then I drained them over a sieve (to get excess oil out) and froze them in smaller batches, about 200/250 grams, so that I can make small portions of spring rolls or dumplings.
I bought some dumpling pastry at the Asian supermarket in Kilbirnie so I have to test some of that out, as well as buying some larger spring roll pastry as the other ones were too small. There was some rice paper ones but  I think I'll leave that for later.
I need to prep the vegetables for fillings and make a big batch of dumplings and spring rolls again to freeze.

They sold mung bean seeds there, far cheaper than at the natural health place, about 1/3 of the price, so when I've finished with those that's where I'll be buying the next batch.

 Seasonal fruit. Kiwifruit. Freezing for winter

Its coming into some of the fruit season in autumn, and I want to prepare for winter.
I thought about tomatoes and freezing them, but they are so cheap in cans that its not really worth the effort or space. Fresh tomatoes blitzed for Brochetta with garlic and onion is great but for a lot of cooking tinned tomatoes are fine.
The fruit may be worth freezing. Since I've been playing with the puff pastry I can make some simple danish with custard and fruit. I was looking at frozen fruit to use for this.
 It's the more practical way to go as I'm not a fruit eater and some goes off, which upsets me, but now with the freezer I can prepare small batches to use when I need it for pastries , desserts or for smoothies.
I had bought some over ripe mangos and peaches that I blitzed and put into ice cube trays and froze. I had them with tonic water in the afternoon on hot days. It was very nice. Autumn fruit will be coming down in price so I want to prepare for that.
I did have some fejoas that I was going to freeze, but I ate them all. I love the perfume of Feijoas, it is such an aromatic smell to the skin.

Air Fryer what is working so far

 
I tried to do a bread pudding last night. I had a ceramic bowl and some stale bread, but I was short of milk.
Also the bread I'd saved was old fruit bread that was not a successful bake and I was a bit heavy handed with the cinnamon, something I'm not over keen on.  I found it was a bit dry. I have bought some custard powder ( A small custard container is too much for me, I don't use it that frequently) so I'll try it out with that.
It was delicious the next day with custard, see below.
Next time I have some molenburg toast bread in the freezer I will try and layer and see how that comes out.

Puff pastry

I tried the first example in the video above. It made a shape that I could use custard in. I also added a slice of peach on top.
The recipe says heat at 200 deg C for 15-20 minutes in the oven. So I did 200 deg C and 10 minutes in the air fryer.

I only did one for a test, I'd tried to cool the custard down but it was still very runny. I have some chilling in the fridge for the next time.

It was lovely and light. I will sprinkle caster sugar over next time.  

I wonder if baking the pastry on its own and then putting the fillings in after may make a different taste. I have a couple of squares in the fridge so will try one each way and see which I prefer. 

This is quick, easy, looks very pretty and is tasty.

Spring rolls

A great success, great to heat up in the evening and munch on as a snack.

Sausage rolls. 

I really like these for breakfast and for a day or evening snack. A bit greasy but yummy (maybe because I haven't had any for so long). I'm now looking to take one strip off and thaw overnight then just heat in air fryer and eat straight away. Although the frozen cooked ones and then pop in microwave is easy too. Just grab a bag from the freezer and put in the fridge overnight and they are ready for a 1 minute zap.
I put poppy seeds on the ones below, I've also put sesame seeds on them too. The ones in the photo below I just cut up, heated and then ate them straight away, they went very fast.

Bread pudding

This developed from left over bread. As I'm baking my own most of the time this issue does not come up as much. I will have to buy a loaf and freeze it to use for this. The bowl size is good for making a good size one for one person. It will last 3 - 4 portions.
I just had some with custard and it was delicious. A real rib sticker.

Frittata

Yes, good idea, I haven't quite got it right but am working on it.

 Mini Calzone

They are a great success. I thought I was getting pizza'd out but they are thin and not very oily so are definitely more pleasant than the pizzas I get at the talks. I think I'll need to make some more pizza dough and freeze it on the weekend.

Chicken bits and wedges

I tried these stopgap reheat freezer bits that I have in reserve and the air fryer heats them through well. You can fit 4 chicken pieces and a reasonable amount of wedges in the basket and they just need turning and a shake once in a while. Quick and easy.

Manu drumsticks and chops

Yes, good to do in batches and freeze. He is definitely getting a bit of padding on him as he eats most things put down now.

Whats not working to date

Southern fried chicken drumsticks. 

Although I never cooked them before, only doing BBQ drumsticks, and those extremely infrequently, I found that the outside breadcrumbs had the flavour but the chicken was pretty bland. Maybe some sort of marinade overnight might improve the taste. I may give them another go. We'll see if Manu eats the ones I'm not successful with.

Par baked bread

Still tastes doughy at my 2nd attempt. I did that at 12mminutes. About 8 minutes at 170 deg C and the rest at 200 deg C.
I may have to go back to my standard method of making Ciabatta bread. Or freeze the dough balls.

Roasted nuts and chickpeas
Not that successful to date but I'll need to be a bit more careful about what I'm trying to mix with them. 

End comment

I still want to try a few other things out, like patata bravas, although I have to make some of the sauce first.
Pork Dumplings would be interesting too.
Empanadas with puff pastry, which is really a calzone variation with a different pastry.
I definitely want to try some churro's too.
It seems to be setup to do quick heat and eat and picky bits, my type of food.
I should try some vegetables too. There is a cauliflower one that may be interesting. A few of the videos show brussel sprouts.
Generally, the things I'm enjoying are greasy foods but with the minimal grease in the process I haven't come across an oily experience. They tend to be a bit dry.
The flaky pastry and the sausage rolls

Bean sproats, chick peas, Spring rolls, Mini Calzones & breakfast fritata

I found a bean sprout growing jar in the cupboard and decided to try it out, also some dried chick peas.
Mr YouTube entertained me with growing beans and legumes. I thought I'd give them a try.
This rather disrupted my other plan of making some spring rolls. I'd bought some Spring Roll pastry from the asian shop next to Pak'n Save in Kilbirnie, I bought the smaller ones to try out. I'd fried up some mince and then after finding the sprout jar I thought I'd hold off until I grew some mung beans. That did not work out, I'm still waiting for the mung beans so went ahead with the spring rolls.

Sprouts

The growing jar says soak beans overnight (1 cup), rinse, then leave jar at a draining angle. Rinse 2-3 times  a day and by day 4-5 you have beans.
Yes, they have sprouted but are very small.
I think the jar one is for small sprouts for salads, I was expecting full mung beans.
There was a small, one cups worth of mung beans with the jar, so I went and bought some more. They were not cheap. I ended up spending over $9 for the mung bean seeds (I'd filled up a bag with about 2 cups worth!) from a health food shop in Kilbirnie (I looked in Pak'n Save but none there).
So, after soaking overnight in water, then washing 2-3 times a day for about 4 days I'm moving over to the strainer method with a plate over it.
I can't seam to find that video at the moment.
The plate/weight on the mung beans makes it stronger. Still rince a couple of times a day. Also day 5-6-7 is when they are ready. So a bit more work to do.

 

The new beans are blasting along a lot faster than the original batch. Also, the original batch that I've put into the Sieve with a plate on top to encourage stronger stems, the seeds are looking quite pinkish. I think the bag of beans are old and possibly past their due date. They are both kept in dark places. I will see how the process goes. The ones I tasted from the strainer had an oddish flavour, but as the others are growing so fast I will do a comparison test later.

Gerbanzo or Chickpeas

 I used to eat these raw as a kid in Lebanon with a little salt. I found the dried packet and put a cup in to soak overnight. Drained the water the next day, they'd doubled in size, then kept rinsing them the same time as the Mung beans. After a couple of days they still hadn't sproated tails but tasted yummy. So I used them in a chickpea curry. I added coconut cream to the sauce and cooked the chick peas in the sauce so they would absorb the flavour (rather than cooking in water separately). I had enough for 2  servings so froze one.

Spring Rolls 

In the end I didn't wait for the bean sprouts. I had the cooked mince (with onions and garlic) that I thawed overnight. I had 500g of mince so a reasonable amount.
I had capsicums, carrots and cabbage and bought some spring onions(3) and chopped up all the veges finely and then fried with a minimal amount of sesame and soy sauce.
They recommend a dry mix for the veges so that the spring rolls don't get soggy.
I also soaked some vermicelli in water and cut in half (so strands were not too long- next time cut into quarters)
After the veges cooked a bit and looked shiny  I put in vermicelli and mince and carried on heating. I added 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce. I did not want to over spice them.
Then I put in strainer and left over sink (just to drain any liquid in the mix (there wasn't any).
I had about 30 pastries so first tried rolling them with the ends folded. These ended fat in the middle and short. So I just rolled them with filling all along the edge and if it came out the ends I'd poked that back in.
I put them on trays and put them in the freezer to get them to hold their shape.
The air fryer would take 5. I sprayed them with Canola oil spray and did them for 15 minutes and turned them over half way. I had them with sweet chilli sauce. Yum

Things for next time:
Bigger pastries as it was fiddly with the small ones and I couldn't fold the ends. Although, there was minimal pastry and lots of filling in the taste. I will have to try out the thicker ones to see if it enhances or detracts from the flavour.
When putting the mixture in, the meat fell to the bottom, so more vege ones at the beginning and more meaty ones at the end. Maybe a better mixing of the filling prior to doing the rolls.
Overall, an enjoyable snack and meal.
I ended up making about 30. I cooked in batches of 5.

Mini Calzones

I go to techy talks and they all have pizza for the snack at the beginning. I'd made 4 dough balls and had eaten 3 a while back, so thought I'd better use the last one as it had been in the freezer for over 6 weeks. I didn't want the yeast to become totally inactive. So I thawed it overnight.
I came across Stromboli, such a cool sounding word, and looked at what it is, which is a rolled pizza, a bit like a Swiss roll. Challenging as there is dough in the middle,so you have to cook at a lower temp for longer so you can cook the pastry in the middle. On one vid it also talked about Calzones. So I wondered if you could do mini calzones in the Air Fryer. So I tried it out.
I split my dough, which was based on a large pizza into 3 pieces and rolled that out. Then put ham, mozzarella cheese and some bruchetta tomato mix on top.
It is suggested that for calzone you make the mix drier, and if you have sauces, that you put them on the top, rather than the base, to keep the pastry dry.A bit like a toasted sandwich with melted cheese in the middle. I used a fork to seal around the folded edges and pressed over the middle to let all the air out. I then used the fork to make holes in the top of the pastry to let any steam out.
I put in the Air Fryer, I think 7 minutes at 200 Deg C. Check after 4. That is the great thing about the air fryer, its easy to check on how its cooking. I spayed the basket and the top with canola oil spray (the olive oil in squirter will not mist so I went to the air spray).
A bit like an empanada, but the pastry is pizza dough, so not as thick or sweet.
Very successful, apart from I had forgotten olives. I will try and remember next time.
Quicker than heating up the oven. The pastry tasted fine and as I cooke the first one through most of the cycle, I added the 2nd while prepping the 3rd, so when the first came out you put in the 3rd and so you could eat each as they came out hot and yummy.
You could also prep them and have them ready in the fridge for snacks the next day as the ingredients were mainly dry (a test for another time).

Fritata

I watched a couple of vids on breakfast fritatas using air fryer. I had some beef filling left over from the spring rolls, and I went to the Warehouse to buy a rammekin to cook in but came back with 4 pie dishes (2 x as much ($4) but 4 of them and they are bigger, so better value).
I mixed a couple of eggs, I'd bought some Garlic pepper the day before (Garlic salt with a few grains of pepper, quite salty) and added that to the eggs , and then put the beef and vege filling at bottom of the pie dish and eggs over. 10 minutes in the air fryer. I think it could have done with a couple of more minutes. I let it stand for a couple of minutes, so it could cook through in the air fryer.
Ciabatta toast and a hash brown and the fritata. A nice breakfast.
The egg goes to the bottom too so the filling gets pushed to the middle, even though it was placed at the bottom to begin with.
A nice savory breakfast. I will try with some other fillings too. Could make a nice lunch snack too.

I did these again, at 180 deg C and 7 minutes but really runny.  The top crust was very cooked.
I think a lower heat and longer. Another test required. Try 160 deg C at 12 min- check at 9 min

Sourdough crumpets, a disaster the first time

Update 5/6/2020

I found a simple recipe in Stuff :

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter discard (unfed)

• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar ( I now use about 1/2 teaspoon)
  

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• Scant ½ teaspoon baking soda

• Neutral oil and melted butter, for greasing the pan

Simple but I overfilled the rings and it frothed out. I made 4 1/2 crumpets, the ones for breakfast were a bit soft.  Only fill to about 1/2 way on rings (- about 3 tablespoons) I'll see if the rest firm up tomorrow.

Crumpets

Although I was disappointed with my Sourdough bread, I've been maintaining the Sourdough starter and feeding it each week. I have a calendar event set up to remind me.

I tried the pancakes and they were OK, but I dont think I want them every week.
I came across a couple of YouTube sites suggesting banana bread and I'll plan to get some bananas and give that a test.

Sourdough crumpets

One article I came across was for crumpets. Now, I love them, but have been avoiding buying them as they just soak up the butter, and my waistline is growing with all the unhealthy things I'm eating (Sausage rolls, spring rolls, spicy wedges etc).
But actually making them sounded interesting, especially as I have the sourdough to get rid of. So I thought I'd give it a try as I had the starter sitting on the counter. I fossicked through the cupboards to find some baking soda and found that too. Also I got a skillet out and scrubbed the rust off it.
I know one setting on the stove, high. So I followed the recipe, got the frothing of the mixture (I think next time I'd divide it into 2 and so give 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, that means the initial froth would be maintained).

A disaster

The pan was too hot and not enough oil under the crumpets so they stuck and burned. I was too hasty lifting them off so the top had not cooked and leaked out. I also used the small ring so the heat wasn't even.
I then tried the rest of the mixture all ion a pan (not a skillet) and the centre stuck while the sides were still wet. So that tore up and was munted too. A total disaster.
Next time I will know what to expect and take a slower approach. Halving the mixture, oiling pan and rings well, and leaving until the top shows its dry before trying to turn them over.
It had a nice smell. I think it did have the right consistency for a crumpet. I just need to do a bit more research on it.  Also the rings I have are only about 5mm high, I need higher ones.

2nd run 

Another week, so sourdough starter needs to be turned. I've replaced the one cup of flour/water mix and emptied a cup of sourdough starter

This time I split it into 2 cups and halved the added bits to the recipe. I found the baking soda frothed very quickly so wanted to manage it better.  

I have not found higher sided rings yet, so reused the egg rings. I also used a table spoon to pour the mixture into the skillet.

I set the electric stove to 5 1/4 to 5 1/2 and the initial batch I waited until the top had all cooked, this ended up with the bottoms slightly burned, also in the 2nd half I turned the stove up to 6. 

So for the 2nd batch, still from the first 1/2 cup, I dropped the temp back to the 5 1/2 and kept it there. 

Also, the skillet seems to have bowed over time, so oil goes to the sides, leaving the middle of the pan dry which encourages the burning.

I've only 3 egg rings, so have to do them in smaller batches. They were washed after every batch and seemed to keep greased (I used a butter wrapping from a used up butter). 

They are a bit small in diameter, mainly due to size of rings, also small in height. I would prefer them the size of the shop bought ones. 

The final batch was 14 crumpets. I will freeze them in batches and take them out for breakfast.

End comment 

I was prepared for all of the hazards the first time around  this time around and it went a lot more smoothly. 

Breakfast was pancetta (in microwave first as its thick NZ pancetta (almost bacon)) with egg (from Crêpe maker, so no oil) on crumpets with butter. 

A nice combination, but as the crumpets were so thin you couldn't get much of a flavour from them. I may try with just scrambled eggs the next time. 

They definitely need to be made thicker, so I'll hold off the recipe until I can get deeper rings. 

One thing I noticed when cooking them is that I used quite a lot of olive oil, yet the ones in the supermarket look quite dry and fluffy. 

I may try a non-sourdough starter recipe and see how that goes. Bigger rings first.

Recipe from website above

• 270 grams (1 cup) "100%" natural starter (see note) -- it doesn't need to be particularly ripe, and may have been kept in the fridge for a few weeks
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• vegetable oil for greasing

Instructions

1. Pace the starter in a large bowl, about 1 liter (1 quart) in capacity. Add the sugar and salt, and whisk to combine.
2. Place a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat, or preheat a griddle to 180°C (360°F). Grease crumpet rings well, if using, and place on the skillet to preheat.
3. When the skillet and rings are hot, add the baking soda to the batter and whisk it in. As the baking soda reacts to the acid in the starter, the batter will quickly start to foam and rise.
4. Using a measuring cup, a small ladle, or an ice cream scoop, pour about 60 ml (1/4 cup) of the batter into each crumpet ring, or directly onto the skillet if you're not using rings.
5. Cook for a few minutes, until the top is set; exact timing will depend on your stove, your skillet, and the thickness of your crumpets. (If your stove has hot spots -- and I don't mean the wifi type -- you may have to rotate the skillet every once in a while, and rotate each crumpet after a few minutes so they brown evenly.) As they cook, the crumpets will gradually shrink back from the rings.

6. Using tongs, lift the crumpet rings off the crumpets (wriggle them loose and/or use a knife to help loosen the crumpets if they stick a bit), and optionally (this is not traditional but I prefer them that way), flip the crumpets to brown lightly on the other side.
7. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
8. The crumpets can also be frozen once cooled: freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet before putting them in a freezer bag so they won't clump. You can pop them in the toaster straight from the freezer.

Air Fryer testing

I was watching YouTube videos and explored air fryer cooking.

Sourdough starter woes

I was led to this by looking at sourdough starter recipes that I could use with my surplus sourdough starter.
Each week I have to top up your sourdough starter with 1 cup equivalent of flour/water. Last week I mad some sourdough pancakes as per John Kirkwoods recipe, they were like buttermilk pancakes, quite thick and a nice texture, but they were a bit sharp. I'd definitely make them again but I don't know if I could have them every week.
So I found an onion/vege barji recipe that uses sourdough. I'll need to dig it out.
That led me into how to cook Onion Barji's which are deep fat fried and that led onto looking at Air Fryers as a healthier alternative to Deep fat frying.

 Air fryer for fussy dog

I liked the idea of them and on looking at the recipes there were a lot on chips, wedges and chicken drumsticks (crumbed). A bit limited until I investigated further.
I thought I had a practical use use it for straight away for Manu, the puppy. He is such a fussy eater and so now, with the freezer, I can batch cook his food and freeze it and take out what he needs for the next day, so he does not get the same meat 2 days in a row (he really doesn't like the same 2 days and 3 is pretty impossible and the flies get at it if I leave it out for too long).
Now, with the freezer, his appetite seems to be improving as his dog bowl is empty. So, a change is as good as a rest for him.
That has changed my shopping habits for him. I used to buy some sort of fresh meat that he could eat 2 days in a row, fresh and raw, like a roast, mince, chicken drumsticks etc.  The 2nd day, no interest and the fresh meat would be left out. Sometimes it had to be wasted and binned.
With batch cooking I'm doing a lot of grilling. I dislike the grill tray as its too bulky to fit in the sink and I usually get water/grease on me.
I bought a baking try that sits on top and catches the juices, it works but buckles a lot under the heat.
So lets see if an Air Fryer may be simpler and easier for prepping his food in batches.

Price and type

The Warehouse have a 49$ NZ one from Living & Co, so I thought its worth testing out for that price. Its basket is made of metal as is the bottom pan. I am pleased with the bread mixer that I got there, the same brand.
I was concerned about cleaning it after but playing with the display one I thought it should be easy to soak.
Also with me cooking for one I'm not using the oven much for one meal so tend to do grilled/fried food which is not so smart.
I started to look at recipes and there are more interesting ones out there, and it will do onion barji's as well. I just need to build up some recipes and test them out.
 Apparently, it works great with frozen food, so I'll be testing that too.
The freezer and this could transform my kitchen and dining experience.

 Roasting 2 joints

 Of course, the day I decide to buy this is the day I am cooking two roasts, a leg of lamb and Pork joint. The pork was on special and I've been planning making doing a roast as I have not had one for a long long while, too much meat. Now with the freezer I can just package several meals up.
What I'm finding with the freezer is that I have a few meals set up now, but not a great variety, so I want to get some meals I can really look forward to.
Its my baking day, so I've just made a couple of Ciabatta loaves and I thought, whilst iIm using the oven, I'll also do the roasts.
Their combined weight is 4kg and  Mr Edmond's Cookbook says 30min /500g of meat, so that's 8 hours of roasting. I am a danger to myself. . The largest meat piece is 2.2kg so that is only 2 1/2 hrs of cooking.Duh. I*'m glad I was checking as I went.
I'm planning to do some roast potatoes and also a Yorkshire pudding but I'm not sure if there is room in the oven for the Yorkshire pudding, but we'll see. Its early in the cooking time.

I did just look up The Best Ever Yorkshire Pudding Recipe In The Airfryer. Maybe that will be the test drive for the Air Fryer?

Air Fryer Quantities

From what  I have been reading and viewing small quantities of food work better in an air fryer, and because its very hot, cooking times are reduced, so it should be easy to cook some interesting meals for myself. 

First test

After stuffing up the timing of the meat, I'd had tin foil over the joints to keep them from getting too dry, so that did not cook the crackling on the pork very well. So I decided to use the Air Fryer to make the crackling and it did a very good job of it. Interesting to see how much oil came out of it.

Baking and pre bake

I tested this out in another post and it worked fine. I pre baked some rolls so that I can thaw and use for breakfast.

Manu's meat

As I've mentioned before, Manu is a fussy dog when eating and dislikes the same meat 2 days in a row. I've cooked a lot of chicken drumsticks and have some cooked chicken breasts and also some uncooked chicken thighs, so for variety I've got some lamb chops and a pork chop, so he can have a variety of red and white meat.
I cooked the chops in the air fryer. I had 2 packs of 4. They took a while as I could only fit 2 in the air fryer at one time and I was turning them every 5 minutes (total 15 min cooking at 180 deg C). So a lot of getting up and checking. It took a bit longer than if I'd used the grill but a far cleaner process and I drained the oil after every 2 chops and the clean up at the end was a breeze.
I'll just need to plan the process better, but I'll definitely stick with that for the time being. I may see if I chop the meat up more whether I can get more meat in and cook for longer.

Oil sprayer 

One article suggested I use a spay dispenser with some olive oil in instead of a can of oil spray so I've purchased a new sprayer from the Warehouse to test that out. It doesn't appeal to me to use one that I've had detergent or some other chemical flowing through it so I'll go for new. Also, a couple of the oil sprays I've found quite strange, some just have a bit white froth that I find quite strange. Not particularly appealing.  Actually got one from the Waerhouse but a bit big and for gardening, so does not work well with olive oil.

 

Chicken drumsticks with herbs and spices

Drumsticks were on special, so I thought I would try some drumsticks myself as well as doing some for Manu.

 I watched a couple of YouTube videos about everyone's take on herbs and spices. I only had some of the ones they were describing and went ahead anyway. 

I mixed some of the herb/spice mixture into the meat, also with some flour in a ziplock bag and then shook the drumsticks in the flour in the bag. 

Then I put that in an egg mix and then back in the flour. 

I had quite a few so I put some in the freezer, mainly to chill, but I ended up leaving them there overnight. One lay said that chilling them they had more chance of holding the batter on the outside rather than it sticking to the basket.

I put tin foil down and laid the first lot flat. I also set the timer to 200 deg C and ran about 10 minutes. The batter had stuck to the foil. After turning over it cooked quite quickly too. I think I had them in there about 20 minutes. The drumsticks were under-cooked. The outer batter was hot and spicy but not enough flavours and the inside was bland. I was disappointed. 

As I was cooking this morning I decided that I'd cook from Frozen the other drumsticks. This time, instead of 3 I had 5 and I stacked them leaning on each other so there was minimal contact with the pan. I also started on about 130 deg C to lightly cook/thaw the chicken without overcooking the batter. Then I turned them over to do the other side.

Then I ran them on 180 deg C for about 10 min both sides and used a meat thermometer to see internal temperature. 

They came out much better.

Sausage rolls

I decided I'd do some more frozen Pam's sausage rolls. I really enjoyed the first batch I made of these and froze, so I thought, lets test the air fryer. 

The packets come with 4 slender rolls. I used milk wash on them, and 2nd lot I even put sesame seeds on the top. I cut into 6 pieces for each one.  I could get 2 lots in the basket.

Preheat the basket. Put them in and run for 10 min on 200 deg C. Then gently try and wiggle them out (pastry sticking) and take about half out onto a plate so you have room to get your hand in to loosen them. Then 5 minutes on the other side. They come out great. Also no oil drained from the pot underneath. 

The only weird thing is Pam's have peas in their sausage roll mince (a real kiwi thing!).

Spring rolls planned

I bought some spring roll pastry so will try and do a beef and veg set of spring rolls and cook them in the air fryer. On a couple of vids I watched they said they were better from frozen, so I'll need to freeze some to test out that theory.
I cooked the mince, I have a cabbage and other veges ready to cook, then I found a bean sprouting jar, and I thought I'd have some mung beans in with them as well. The mung beans take about 4-7 days to grow, so that has slowed me down.
Interestingly, I used up ones I had in the freezer, and when reading the label of the beef spring rolls, it said filling 70% cabbage!!!!!! That to me would be a cabbage roll with beef flavouring.

End comment

I'm still coming to terms with this machine. I'm looking forward to trying the par-baked ciabatta. Also looking to make and try the spring rolls.
For re-heats (shop bought spring rolls and sausage rolls) its great.
I tried roasting some peanuts and soaking chickpeas (from dry) and adding some sweeteners to them for snacks. I was a bit casual with the recipes and the chickpea one is too runny (even after a day in the freezer) and the peanut one , with melted white chocolate stuck to the basket and plate and had to be chipped off. So, a bit more thought needs to go into that process.
I haven't even considered the onion bajis yet. I think either heating from Frozen, or making sure the basket is very hot (run on max for a couple of minutes empty) may be the way to reduce the sticking to the pot. The cheap one I have does not have any accompanying bits for different types of cooking, so its an all or nothing device.
I really like the way you can quickly check the food without spoiling the process so you don't overcook things.
I really like the ease of soaking and cleaning the device. A real Irish steeping of the tray.