Meat Balls (kolla orundai)

These are the most yummiest meat balls ever. They are just so awesome and so tasty that you can't stop with just a few. This is recipe is also from my mom and its so common in my native and in chettinad region.

Ingredients:

Minced mutton - 500 g
Green chilies - 4-5
Garlic - 5-6
Sombu - 1 tsp
Coconut - 2 tsp grated
Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Onion - 1
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Puttu kadalai - 2 tsp
Egg - 1 (NOTE: avoid using the egg yoke if you will deep fry in oil)
Tumeric powder - 1tsp
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves
Oil - to deep fry and if using a air fryer about 2 tsp

Method:

I had to make minced meat from normal meat pieces in my mixie. It was not very hard but then the mutton was more of a paste than minced.

Grind all the ingredient shown on the plate in this picture into a fine paste. You could add a few cashew nuts to make it more rich and yummier.

Mix these ground ingredients into the minced meat. Add egg, turmeric, finely chopped curry leaves, finely chopped coriander, salt to taste.

Make them into small patties and you could deep fry in oil or you could use air fryer. Since I used air fryer I added about 2 tsp of oil into the meat mix and mixed it together with the other ingredients.

Air fryer at 180 C for about 15 mins. Turn it around once after about 8 mins of frying.

They are looks soo pefect and wow just mouth watering.

My Verdict about air fryer: I only needed about 2 tsp of oil to fry about 20 meat balls, with normal deep frying it would typically way too much than that. It was so much hasel free, i tossed these meat balls into the fryer and could do something else. There was just the nice aroma of the meat balls at home and not the strong smell of fried meat. So over all i loved it.

Muffins with air fryer

Yes you read the title right. Air fryer could also bake muffins and cakes. I have made some muffins for a small kids party. With my toddler at home i don't get so much time to make everything from scratch so i went with the store bought muffin mix  and gave it a try with the air fryer.

There is not big recipe in this post its more of a review on air fryer. The store bought packet comes with a pack of muffin mix, i have got both chocolate and vanilla. There is also a packet of choco chips and some paper muffin cups. All i need was to mix oil, milk and egg with the muffin mix as per the direction in the packet and it was all ready for backing.

I used this muffin mix

I set the air fryer at 160 C and for 10 mins for vanilla and for 12 mins for chocolate muffins. 

Muffins all set ready for backing

Muffins all done!!

My verdict on air fryer: They are just making sooper soft cup cakes. Its faster. In an conventional bake oven it would take 20 mins as per the direction in the box, while in the air fryer it just took half the time. 

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.

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.