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I liked it, but the other 3 members of the household were between "ok,I guess" and "hard no" (SWMBO). I will keep this one as a lunch recipe. One batch would feed me lunch for a week, and it should freeze well.

Came down to too much smoked paprika and cilantro for them I think. Oh well, can't all be winners. I usually try 1 new recipe a week. Less than 50% "earn their holes" and go into the binder.
 
My wife recently bought an Instant Pot that also has an air fryer lid. I had to try it out and made some french fries with a spicy malt vinegar aoli.

Fries are easy, here's the sauce, I think it would be good on fish too.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons malt vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 clove minced garlic
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
A little chopped fresh parsley and tarragon.

PSX_20210204_214454.jpg

Stir together and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
 
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My wife recently bought an Instant Pot that also has an air fryer lid. I had to try it out and made some french fries with a spicy malt vinegar aoli.

Fries are easy, here's the sauce, I think it would be good on fish too.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons malt vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 clove minced garlic
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
A little chopped fresh parsley and tarragon.
Stir together and let it is in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Wow. Just wow. Those look wonderful!
 
Hey Prfessor, I'm thinking of doing your cheesecake again. Do you have any tips if I wanted to tweak it for chocolate?
Sorry, I'm a purist; Twelfth commandment: Cheesecake May Be Topped But Shall Always Be Only Cheesecake. No chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, caramel whether salted or un, etc.

Afraid you're on your own. :) But if you come up with something good...post it. I could be converted.
 
Sorry, I'm a purist; Twelfth commandment: Cheesecake May Be Topped But Shall Always Be Only Cheesecake. No chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, caramel whether salted or un, etc.

Afraid you're on your own. :) But if you come up with something good...post it. I could be converted.

must have been one of the lost ones...

 
Sorry, I'm a purist; Twelfth commandment: Cheesecake May Be Topped But Shall Always Be Only Cheesecake. No chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, caramel whether salted or un, etc.

Afraid you're on your own. :) But if you come up with something good...post it. I could be converted.

I've been meaning to start working on a tiramisu cheesecake with a ladyfinger crust, coffee and rum spiked cheesecake and topped with a sweetened marscapone layer.
 
Hey Prfessor, I'm thinking of doing your cheesecake again. Do you have any tips if I wanted to tweak it for chocolate?
Seriously, check the web for recipes. I took a quick look and most chocolate cheesecakes use a little cocoa powder (1/4 cup) and a lot of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate--8 to 12 ounces!

As a kid I was told not to lick the beaters or mixing bowl, it'll give you worms! :D But I'd taste the batter anyway, adding more cocoa or melted unsweetened chocolate or sugar as needed.

Best -- Terry
 
Large cast iron pan. Any kind of Red Meat, Potatoes and a variety of veggies.
Salt, pepper, onion powder, Lawry's, Dash, Oregano, Lots of chopped onions.
When using bird meat, add Kick'n Chich'n for a little spice.
2 large plate fulls once a day and you become a Natural Gas Processing Plant.
For desert, 3 or 4 Bananas and couple Oranges.
 
My wife recently bought an Instant Pot that also has an air fryer lid. I had to try it out and made some french fries

We got a similar apparatus recently. We made some items that we typically fried and my wife tastes little to no difference, but for some reason everything tastes 'freezer burned' to me. I would understand that a 12 year old bag of freezer fries would be horrific and possibly frying would cover some of that, but we're talking about either new freezer fries, onion rings or even fresh potatoes.

I have definitely found a few things that seem to work for me (crisping freshly smoked wings is great!) but most of the time, it doesn't seem to work for me.

If you know of a few recipes that simply work (especially fries or onion rings) I'd like to try them and become a fan. At this point, she likes it and I think it is a novelty that takes up too much counter space.

Sandy.
 
Seriously, check the web for recipes. I took a quick look and most chocolate cheesecakes use a little cocoa powder (1/4 cup) and a lot of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate--8 to 12 ounces!

As a kid I was told not to lick the beaters or mixing bowl, it'll give you worms! :D But I'd taste the batter anyway, adding more cocoa or melted unsweetened chocolate or sugar as needed.

Best -- Terry

Yep, ive seen the cocoa powder and chocolate additions, i'll probably read through a few to get an idea of the proportions. I iust dont want to throw off the goodness that's already in your recipe
 
...I have definitely found a few things that seem to work for me (crisping freshly smoked wings is great!) but most of the time, it doesn't seem to work for me.

If you know of a few recipes that simply work (especially fries or onion rings) I'd like to try them and become a fan. At this point, she likes it and I think it is a novelty that takes up too much counter space.

Crisping smoked wings was the first thing I thought about when she brought it home. I haven't tried it yet, but I will next time I have the smoker going.

For recipes, I think the best thing to remember is these appliances are only marketed as "fryers." It is just a small convection oven and you'll need to find appropriate recipes. I like the instant pot and am enjoying the air fryer and sous vide options, but they have developed one of the most irritating internet communities. When searching for a recipe, you usually end up finding a verbose story about how their neighbor's cat reminded them of these Ahh-MAZE-ing fries followed by a likely stolen and dumbed down recipe. I'll pass.

I usually turn to Cooks Illustrated and their other publications for recipes. I actually bought their air fryer book on my Kindle. SeriousEats.com is the only food blog I read regularly, the author used to work for America's Test Kitchen (see above), mentions the science with the recipe and spares the crap. Alton Brown is another source I follow for recipes.

The fries I pictured above are from Cooks Illustrated. They follow a similar method to their baked potato wedges and use less oil. The process is simple, potatoes cut and rinsed to remove some of the starch. Soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to start to soften them. Drained and dried on paper towels. Drying the outside helps them get crisp by avoiding steaming themselves. Then, toss them in a tablespoon of oil and season with salt. They are cooked for 8 minutes at 350, gently tossed in a bowl to turn them (easier to turn them without breaking than turning them inside the air fryer basket.) Cooked for 8 minutes more. Toss them again in another tablespoon of oil and put them back in the air fryer basket. Now cook at 400 for 5 minutes at a time, tossing gently every time you reset the timer until they are as crisp as you like.

It sounds like a lot of trouble, but the hardest part is slicing the fries by hand. It's more work than frozen fries, but better results.

I haven't made onion rings yet. I'd probably start with slices of sweet onion or leeks, dredge in seasoned flour, egg, then panko. Spray with olive oil or cooking spray, then in the air fryer.
 
Sorry, I'm a purist; Twelfth commandment: Cheesecake May Be Topped But Shall Always Be Only Cheesecake. No chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, caramel whether salted or un, etc.

Afraid you're on your own. :) But if you come up with something good...post it. I could be converted.
Agreed!
It's like good beer; If it can't stand on its own without adding fruit or other flavor it ain't worth drinking.
Or that lame habit of mixing a stout and some crappy pale beer and calling it a Black and Tan. Why ruin a good stout?
And I don't consider Guiness in the good stout category, it needs all the help it can get so if whatever you add gives it some flavor have at it!

Good cheesecake is good all by itself.
 
And I don't consider Guiness in the good stout category, it needs all the help it can get so if whatever you add gives it some flavor have at it!

When we get closer to St Patrick's day, I'll share a recipe for Beef stew with Guiness and Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's frosting.
 
The process is simple, potatoes cut and rinsed to remove some of the starch. Soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to start to soften them. Drained and dried on paper towels. Drying the outside helps them get crisp by avoiding steaming themselves. Then, toss them in a tablespoon of oil and season with salt.
We make a similar version but its much simpler;
Preheat to 425 (convect is good if you have it)
Slice medium russets into 3/8 x 3/8 fries.
Toss with salt and pepper or whatever seasoning you like (Garlic powder, Onion powder, Cajun seasoning....)
THEN toss with olive oil. It's important to do the seasoning first so it gets the moisture from the potato.
Prepare a baking sheet with Pam (important because any cut sides will stick like crazy)
Place fries on baking sheet with a little space between.
Bake for 18-25 minutes or until golden. (you can peek while cooking it doesn't hurt)

That's it. Basically learned this method from one of the meal kit vendors.
They come out crispy on the outside and soft inside.

I make a point of always having a couple medium russets in the pantry just in case I need them :)
 
When we get closer to St Patrick's day, I'll share a recipe for Beef stew with Guiness and Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's frosting.
Doesn't sound like I'd turn any of those down.
Getting kind of hungry all of a sudden.
 
I tried onion rings in the air fryer tonight. I should note, I've never tried to bake or air fry these before. I've deep fried them, but I don't like to deep fry anything inside.

I started with a sliced sweet onion.

Dredged in a mixture of flour, cayenne, garlic powder, and black pepper.

Dipped in egg.

Half got coated in panko and half got a second dip in the seasoned flour.

Unlike coating chicken or pork this way, the panko wouldn't stick to the onion. Even with the egg helping, most of the coating fell off. You can't cook anything batter dipped in an air fryer, so something else might work better. Maybe fresh bread crumbs would stick, but I'm probably not going to experiment with this. It is messy and only a small amount of onion rings will fit in my basket. I might breaded and frozen ones, but deep frying would get superior results.

Into the air fryer, sprayed with olive oil. Cooked at 375, flipping over every 5 minutes. These took 15 and I called it good enough.

PSX_20210207_210656.jpg

Sauce is inspired by Cane's Chicken, but kicked up. 2:1 ratio mayonnaise and ketchup, a little bit of ghost pepper hot sauce, mustard, splash of white vinegar, mustard, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder.

My wife said they were fine, she liked the "zesty" sauce. I won't fuss with them again. A quick search of recipes were a similar process and even people photographing food had a hard time getting this coating to stick. Even when you cheat taking pictures, the results just aren't worth it to me.

2/5 and it was my recipe.
 
I recently picked up several pounds of beef short ribs. I couldn’t decide what to do with them. I needed room in the freezer so they had to go. What I came up with is:
Slow cooker short rib sauce with Bucatini.
This is a long slow cook (10 hours or better) so best start early in the morning.
So let’s get cooking!
2 tablespoons canola oil
8 beef short ribs
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
12 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
1 cup red wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/3 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese, plus more for topping
1 pound bucatini pasta cooked, if you like lots of pasta better to cook 2 lbs. This makes a huge amount of sauce!

Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat and add canola oil. Season the short ribs with the salt and pepper then lightly coat them with the flour. Add the short ribs to the pot (you may need to do this in two batches) and sear until golden on all sides, about 1 minute per side. Remove the short ribs and add them to the slow cooker.
Add the mushrooms, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, paste, beef stock and red wine to the slow cooker with the ribs. Stir in the oregano and thyme. Stir as much as you can, then cook on low for 8 hours.
After 8 hours, remove the ribs with a pair of kitchen tongs (keep the sauce covered) and let them slightly cool until you can touch them. Remove the beef from the ribs and add it back to the slow cooker. Add in the brown sugar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and cheese. Stir well and cook for another hour on low heat. Remove the thyme sprigs.
Before serving, taste the sauce and season additionally if desired. You might need more salt and pepper. Don’t be afraid to add it! Serve over bucatini and top with extra cheese.

The end result was pretty good. I rushed the cook time so the beef was still a little on the stringy side. Overall taste was very good. I added extra pepper at the start so didn’t think I needed it at the end.

I will most definitely make again, making sure for the longer cook times.
 

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Beef Stew

  • ~3 lbs stew beef or a roast cut into chunks
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 1 bottle of Guinness Draught
  • 1 oz bittersweet chocolate
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1.5 lbs red potatoes cut into quarters
  • 1 lbs baby carrots
  • 1 lbs parsnip cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1/4 cup Guinness
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Brown in a big skillet and place in your slow cooker insert. Save 2 tablesooons of the beef fat dripping in the skillet.
2. Cook the onions in the beef dripping until they are golden and soft. Add the 1st bottle of beer, chocolate, thyme, brown sugar, and some of the chicken stock. (I can fit 4 cups in my skillet before making a big mess). Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the onion mixture to the meat in the crock pot. Add the rest of the stock if you need to.

PSX_20210214_193643.jpg

3. Add the parsnips, carrots, and potatoes to the crock pot. Cook on low for 9-10 hours until the beef is tender.

4. Once the beef is cooked, stir in another 1/4 cup of beer and slowly stir in the flour. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until it thickens. Drink the rest of the beer and then stir in the chopped parsley.

Serve with a chunk of good, crusty bread.

PSX_20210214_193630.jpg
 
Yep, beef stew weather.

3 lb chuck roast cubed
2 onions chopped
16 cloves of garlic diced (not a typo)

brown meat, add onions and garlic, cook 5 more min, then add:

1 cup red wine
1 cup beef broth
1 cup water
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp rosemary
3 bay leaves

bring to boil, then cover, put in oven at 300 for 1.5 h, then add:

2 cups carrots chopped
2 1/2 lb russet potatoes peeled and chopped
1 Tbs flour (mixed in water)

Stir, cover, return to oven for 1.5 h, mash some of the taters, return to oven until carrots are cooked (~20 min). Eat with crust bread.

43B6ECBA-3249-49C2-A276-A1F82891B7B8.jpeg
 
Those huevos ranchero also look good. We have a large Filipino population, maybe one day when I'm feeling brave I'll try the balut. ;)
Thanks for sharing that.

I made what we call “Half-@$s Huevos Rancheros“ tonight. Basically just grilled onions, red pepper and jalapeno (add fajita seasoning) with box Mexican rice, a heated up can of refried beans and some dippy eggs on top. Add a little pico, hot sauce or cheese to you liking. Hearty dinner in 30 min.

79C13487-87B0-4466-8B64-0CC1FFB3E196.jpeg

I’m going for a run in a couple hours, hence the early bird special dinner time. It is supposed to be 10 mile day, but may end up 5 mile day with this lead in my stomach.

Edit: Actually ended up a brutal 6.4 miles, this meal is definitely NOT performance enhancing.
 
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I tried onion rings in the air fryer tonight. I should note, I've never tried to bake or air fry these before. I've deep fried them, but I don't like to deep fry anything inside.
. . .
2/5 and it was my recipe.

First of all, Thanks for the detail. Secondly, thanks for the honesty. I like a pretty good onion ring and I love good ones. I may try to learn from your experience, but in the short term, the deep fry method might remain primary.

Semi-related: Our local Arby's said they didn't do onion rings anymore. They were the best chain/local rings we've had for a while. Lame. . .

Sandy.
 
First of all, Thanks for the detail. Secondly, thanks for the honesty. I like a pretty good onion ring and I love good ones. I may try to learn from your experience, but in the short term, the deep fry method might remain primary.

Semi-related: Our local Arby's said they didn't do onion rings anymore. They were the best chain/local rings we've had for a while. Lame. . .

Sandy.

Do you have a Cheddar's nearby? They have really good onion rings in my opinion.
 
My wife made these a couple of times lately, and they're headed into our regular rotation.

Squash Pull Apart Dinner Rolls
1.5 cups warm milk
2.25 tsp dry yeast (1 packet)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup pureed cooked squash or canned pumpkin
5 Tbsp vegetable shortening (we used coconut oil)
4-5 cups flour
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp poppy or sesame seeds (we used nigella seeds)

Combine milk, yeast, sugar and salt. Let stand 5 minutes then add egg and beat well to combine. Add squash and shortening, mash well so shortening is broken up well. Add 1.5 cups flour and mix well. Mix in more flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl (this is a time for your trusty Kitchenaid!). Knead 2 minutes. Put dough in greased bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise until double.

Preheat oven to 400. Punch dough down and knead until smooth and supple. Cut dough into 4 balls, then cut each ball into 6. Roll each piece round and place on a rimmed baking sheet so that they barely touch. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with seeds. Let rise 30 minutes, then bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool* then pull apart to serve.

* This instruction was left in to be faithful to the recipe. Eat them hot, you fool! :D
 
At this point, she likes it and I think it is a novelty that takes up too much counter space.
Got an Instant Pot Duo Plus from Amazon in the mail today.
It was a Prime Day special so I pulled the trigger.
If the claims are accurate it can replace my pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, and steamer.
So I'm hoping I can give away or sell them and save counter space.
Two recipe books are also in transit.
Can't wait.
0623211046[1].jpg
 
I tried onion rings in the air fryer tonight. I should note, I've never tried to bake or air fry these before. I've deep fried them, but I don't like to deep fry anything inside.

I started with a sliced sweet onion.

Dredged in a mixture of flour, cayenne, garlic powder, and black pepper.

Dipped in egg.

Half got coated in panko and half got a second dip in the seasoned flour.

Unlike coating chicken or pork this way, the panko wouldn't stick to the onion. Even with the egg helping, most of the coating fell off. You can't cook anything batter dipped in an air fryer, so something else might work better. Maybe fresh bread crumbs would stick, but I'm probably not going to experiment with this. It is messy and only a small amount of onion rings will fit in my basket. I might breaded and frozen ones, but deep frying would get superior results.

Into the air fryer, sprayed with olive oil. Cooked at 375, flipping over every 5 minutes. These took 15 and I called it good enough.

View attachment 449795

Sauce is inspired by Cane's Chicken, but kicked up. 2:1 ratio mayonnaise and ketchup, a little bit of ghost pepper hot sauce, mustard, splash of white vinegar, mustard, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder.

My wife said they were fine, she liked the "zesty" sauce. I won't fuss with them again. A quick search of recipes were a similar process and even people photographing food had a hard time getting this coating to stick. Even when you cheat taking pictures, the results just aren't worth it to me.

2/5 and it was my recipe.
Nate, breading almost anything can be improved by letting it set for at least a half hour before cooking. Same process as yours. If you let it set it becomes more of a gelatinous coating that adheres much better. I learned this from a German cook for use with schnitzels.
 
Ummmmm,

Not to troll here but why use a so-called insta-pot? Yeah I see about the air-fryer lid and that is interesting to me about making one's own French fries but what is the major advantage here? I can saute' in my old timey pressure cookers, put the "juice" in and fire them up on the gas stove to cook some neat dishes.

I suspect the electric "insta-pot" is a new rendition of an old type of cooking. I do admit though, when I was in college starting in 1974, I would have really liked to have one next to the electric popcorn popper. :) Could'a beat the hell out of cafeteria, institutional food back then!!! Yeah, pressure cooking was invented in 1679 but didn't get popular until WW2. Pressure Cooker History – Instant Pot UK

All the best,

Kurt Savegnago
 
Not to troll here but why use a so-called insta-pot? Yeah I see about the air-fryer lid and that is interesting to me about making one's own French fries but what is the major advantage here?

Because my parents gave us one for Christmas a few years ago and then my wife bought the air fryer lid for it.

It is convenient in that it has pressure cooker and slow cooker functions in one appliance. It isn't the life changing, replace your kitchen to a single pot device along with a chorus of angels singing that the food blogs on the internet and bored housewives claim it is.

The air fryer is misnomer too, it's really a tiny convection oven. This is probably why french fries turn out pretty good, but batter dipped onion rings did not. Circulating hot air just can't cook the wet batter like hot oil can.

If you have an oven with a convection fan and a traditional pressure cooler, you'd have no use for one of these. We have a small kitchen and it is useful to have a multicooker.
 
but why use a so-called insta-pot?
You are correct, it is a glorified pressure cooker.
But the programability of the temperature, pressure and cooking time also allows it to function as a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, saute pan and in Nate's case, an air fryer. So you can replace several small appliances with one.
 
I think a decent summary of the insta-pot vs pressure cooker would be as follows.

While there's nothing new under the sun as far as cooking goes in recent history (microwave was likely the last 'game changer') it is similar with our phones, now-a-days. Back in the day (2000's for me), you could have a cell phone, a PDA, a pager and a home computer connected to the internet. Today, a low end smart phone has all that and probably more.

I like the concept of having an 'all-in-one' insta-pot to cover the previously known technologies, but for some reason, we just added the insta-pot and kept the rice cooker, pressure cooker, convection oven, 2 toasters and probably a 'countertop' appliance I'm missing. Not the best planning. . .

But don't mess with my 'nuclear sandwich smasher' I took to college back in the 90's (i.e. Pannini-press now-a-days). Best hot ham and cheese ever.

Sandy.
 
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