Vegetable puffs

It a delicious snack for a lazy evening or a rainy day. My family loves having this. Its also super easy to make and just takes few mins.

Ingrdients:

Boiled potato - 3  medium size
Boiled peas - half can
Finely chopped onion - 2
green chilie - 1
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Fennel powder -1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves - small bunch
mint leaves - few (optional)
Puff pastry - store bought
Oil - 1tbsp
Spices - 1 small stick cinnamon and 2 clove


Add oil in a pan and add the spices, followed by the fennel powder and onion. Fry the onion till golden brown and add the mashed boiled potatoes, and peas. Add chillie powder, turmeric, and keep frying on medium heat for a few mins.You could adjust now the taste as you like by adding garam masala or more chillie powder.  Add salt, chopped mint and coriander leaves.

Vegetable puff mix

Cut a rectangle from the puff pastry of about 5 cm by 10 cm. Now put in some of the prepared mix in the middle of the pastry piece and fold it over as shown in picture. Press the ends together so that they dont open up when being cooked in over or air fryer.

filling up the pastry

corners pressed together and place in the basket of the air fryer over a bake paper.

Now place the vegetable puffs in to the air fryer. This time i put in a backing sheet in the basket as the pastry is sticky and I didnt want it to stick to the basket. Cook it for 8 mins at 180 C by flipping it once at about the 6th min. After 8 mins open the basket and pull of the backing paper and let the puffs fry in the basket for a min or two at 180 C to get the beautiful golden colour and at this point the puffs are already cooked and wouldn't stick anymore.

after 6 minutes of cooking

cooking 2 more minutes without the bake paper.

The whole thing can be don't in bake oven in about 15 mins at 180C

My Verdict: Here the air fryer doesn't reduce the oil as the pastry sheets are loaded with butter i believe, and we fry the mix in a pan with oil. What is better than an oven is it comes out evenly colored, both the sides cook the same way unlike in the bake oven one side is flat even if it is flipped. and is a few mins faster than bake oven.

Vathal with philips air fryer

Here is something very very simple which i tried out in the air fryer. As i mentioned in the first post about air fryer, i want to try the basic cooking init so i could use it more in our everyday cooking.

I coated the store bought vathal which half a teaspoon of oil in a bowl and tossed it into the air fryer and fried it for 2 mins at 160 C. Its comes out really puffed up and evenly colored. You really cant make out if it was fried in a conventional way or not.

It makes a lot of sense as its just 2 mins and way too little oil to get this one. In the traditional method, i normal fry a big batch and store it for a week or two and if the oil doesnt look bad i use it in the next days or sometime throw it away. 

My verdict: Its faster, cheaper on power and oil, tastes the same. So really cool.

Fried vathal

Philips air fryer

This our recent kitchen equipment that we totally in love with. We have Philips Avance Airfryer XL model in black. We love fried foods like fries, chips, roasted meat, chicken wings, etc.

We decided to get it hoping to go on a healthier eating habits. So far we tried couple of store bought fries, chips, fish fingers, chicken wings, etc from the frozen section. They come out really yummy. But the point is these are pre- loaded with oil. So i guess it doesnt cut down on calories if you would use it for coooking store brought food. I really would like to have healthier fresh food coming out of this new technology.  So I am in the process of trying fresh foods. If I would be successful in making yummy healthier meal quickly this would be a great product. I dont find much time for cooking as I need to be running behind my toddler and I am also working. Here is my first impression about the product.

1. Very simple to use, just two functions temperature and time.

2. Fries store bought chips very quick compared to microwave or bake oven.

3. I would say tastes much better than other frying methods but definitely fries are cooked evenly.

4. Cooking time is less.

5. Ofcourse less oil in fresh food, I tried making vada with it. I used about 4-5 tsp oil for 20 vada.

6. Baked muffins and they came out real yum.. So baking works just fine, for those who don't believe the advertisements 100℅ like me. I was like how can this back, fry, grill when there is really no way to change the cooking method.. But infact it does!

7. I am not a big fan of microwave as I don't think it's safe cooking method. My mom and my husband find microwaved food to  be less tasty. IThis air fryer is a clean cooking method.

The only problem I found was cleaning the basket. Sometimes food gets stuck to it when cooked and this is a problem as we dont have a dish washer.  I read about using a baking paper to lay underneath the food that might stick to the basket, which I am yet to try. Philips claim they are dish washer safe, so if you have one may be your job gets even easier.


Finally to comment about the look, it is indeed a classy kitchen equipment. Its a bit bulky for my real tiny kitchen.

Hopping to come up with more recipes of fresh healthier food. I am more curious on how to incorporate it into my everyday cooking and other Indian recipes. That would help me greatly rather than just chips, fries and snacks.

P.S: We spend on the product and the views are completely my own.

Beef briyani

Briyani is one of the most famous Indian delicacy. Normally its a long process to cook them. This blog post is talks about one of the many ways of cooking briyani. This recipe is from a friend in Vaniyampadi (in tamil nandu) region. As i dont get good tender lamb I make briyani with beef but you can replace beef with mutton in this recipe.

Ingredients (for 1 kg meat)

Beef - 1 kg tender meat of 1-1.5 inch cubes.
Basmathi rice - 1 kg
onion - 500g sliced
tomato - 400 g chopped
coriander leaves - as required
mint -1bunch
chilli powder - 4 tbsp (can be adjusted to taste)
green chillies - 5
ginger garlic paste - 8 tbsp
lime juice - 1 large lemon
salt
oil - 4-5 tbsp
ghee - 3 tbsp
spicies - 1 bay leaves, 2 1inch long cinnamon, 2-3 cardamom, 2 star anise, 3-4 Cloves - more is optional

1. Add 3-4 tbsp oil to the pressure cooker, add the spices and onions and fry the onions till light brown. 
2. Add green chilies and fry for about 2 mins. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for about 2 mins till the prominent smell fills the room. 
3. Add curd, meat, read chili powder, salt and pressure cook for about 8 whistles. (You can have less number of whistle or more depending on the tenderness of the meat.) 
4. Cooking rice: Soak rice for 30 mins when you start cutting the onions so that the rice can be cooked when the meat is being pressure cooked. Boil water in a large vessel with jeera, 1tsp oil, salt (the water should taste a little more salty than normal) and lemon juice. Add the rice when the water comes to boil.When the rice starts to dance on the top, check the consistency of it. Rice has to be little more than half cooked (when pressed with 2 finger it should get crushed). Now drain the water and keep the DRY rice aside. 
5. Now back to the meat. Open the pressure cooker after it cooks down. You have to see oil separating out and the meat well cooked. Add chopped tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and cook for about 15 mins till the tomatoes are cooked and mashed.
6. Now mix the gravy with the semi-cooked rice in a large thick bottom vessel. Add ghee and more fresh coriander leaves and mix well. 
7. Now use a wet cloth to over the pot to make it air tight and then add a cover the vessel with a tight lid. Or make a paste out of all purpose flour and put it on the rim of the vessel and seal it with the tight lid. 
8. Cook this on high flame for 5 mins (you will see water drops on the inside of the lid - if u have a transparent lid) and medium flame for about 35 mins. 

Here are the pictures in sequence except cooking of the basmathi rice.

Yummy briyani is ready to be served. Enjoy this with raitha