Air Fryer Gnocchi Snack

There are so many food ideas that work in an air fryer. This time: potato gnocchi

I had an open package with just 120 g uncooked gnocchi sitting in my fridge. A second helping of cooked gnocchi with pesto was not on my wishlist for today.

Baking them in a pan was one choice, but that would mean an other dirty pan. My baking paper cover in the air fryer helps with keeping it clean. Chucking the gnocchi with a lot of seasoning and a tiny amount of olive oil in the basket was a great idea.

It took 12 min, 2 basket shakings in between, and the gnocchi were done. I mixed some curd with an Oriental paste and a bit Agave syrup as a dip.

Seasoning:

Smoked paprika, Tuscany seasoning blend, pepper and a little French fries seasoning

Filet Mignon de Porc au Melon et au Chorizo

Sunday lunch.

The combination between hot and spicy and sweet is awesome. It took only 20 minutes from start to finish. 

Start with the pork. Season it with salt and pepper and heat up butter and oil and brown it all around on medium high heat.

Add meat fond and some herbes d'Provence and cover with a lid, reduce the heat and cook for 15 min. Cut in 4 tranches. Add creme fraiche and finish the sauce.

Cut the melon open and take the seeds out. Two tranches are enough per person.

The very hot chorizo in 8 slices, put it in a pan on a little oil. Brown the pieces in a little oil and let the red fat out. When they are done, get them out of the pan, pour the maple syrup in and drop the melon pieces in.

Season the melon with salt and pepper. It will need only a couple of minutes on medium heat.

Ingredients for 1:

180 g pork filet

40 g hot Chorizo

200 g orange colored melon

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp oil

100 ml meat stock

30 g creme fraiche

Salt, pepper, herbes d'Provence

I served it with bread.

Gnocchi with Carrotgreens Pesto and caramelized Onions

Keep it vegetarian was the motto for today.

The only thing that took a good amount of time were the caramelized onions. They need about 30 minutes in total. But when they are done and dusted, the other ingredients are easy.

I bought the gnocchi, I just needed a small amount. They were more or less freshly made and just needed to take a plunsh in boiling water, then heat turned off and stayed in 3 min.

Soft and pillowy gnocchi, what's not to like?

The pesto made from the green carrot tops was in the fridge, ready to go. Two teaspoons full of pesto were enough to coat the gnocchi.

Onions on top and a little grated Parmesan and lunch was done.

Chocolate Crunch Bar with Lentils

After 3 times doing the Dubai Pistacchio Chocolate and 3 times the Date Peanutbutter Bars, I decided it was time for something new.

Some health guy "likegian" posted it and I thought WTF?

Others put rice crispies or cornflakes in chocolate to give it some crunch. Why not lentils. Protein intake on an other level.

The whole process is easy and can be done on the side while you cook something different.

The use of chocolate moulds is not mandatory. Just use a decent container to flatten the mix out.

Ingredients for 2 chocolate bars:

100 g yellow lentil

110 g semi sweet chocolate 60%

Some edible glitter 

Preheat the oven 180 C

Cook the lentils in unsalted water for 10 to 15 min. Check if they are done and not too hard.

Drain them very good and spread them on baking paper in a single layer. Bake them 15 min, stir and turn the oven off and let them sit inside an other 5 min.

Melt 100 g chocolate in the microwave in 30 sec blasts at 800 Watts, stir. Take the chocolate bowl out and toss in the 10 g cold chocolate to melt slowly in the hot liquid. Basic temper of chocolate.

Mix with the chocolate and fill the moulds. Pur in the fridge to cool.

 

Protein Bread with Skyr

The weekend is starting tomorrow and I am baking bread for it.

I lots of great cheeses I bought in France and they go well with homemade bread. Some French butter with salt chrystals needs to be eaten too.

This is a Thermomix recipe. But you can easily prepare the dough in a standart kitchen maschine. 

To season the bread a bit, I added salt and Italian Tuscany blend seasoning to it.

Preheat the oven 220 C fan.

Recipe:

350 g spelt flour 630

380 g Skyr

5 g salt

5 g Tuscany blend seasoning

10 g baking powder

1 tbsp olive oil

Knead the dough in the Thermomix with the bread sign setting for 2.5 min. It will fall out perfectly.

Form a loaf, cut the top with a knife and brush the bread with olive oil.

Bake for 25 min. When the bread comes out of the oven and has cooled off for 10 min, brush it again with some olive oil.

Tarte aux Carottes rôties et Feta crémeuse

Carrot Tart with Feta cream.

First of all you will beed carrots with their leafy green heads. But most supermarkets only sell the chopped off variety. I went for organic and they had the green stuff. It is the base of the pesto that finalizes the tart later.

This recipe needs some planning ahead to know which step is first and how to reach the final one without a lot of running around in the kitchen. It is from one of my latest Gourmand magazin issues.

The puff pastry was made with French butter and French flour. They are proudly printing it on the package. The quality is awesome and I love buying the pastry there.

Recipe:

1 round puff pastry

1 egg

Sesame seeds

350 g small carrots with green leaves

3 tsp Zataar

2 tsp Baharat

2 tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper

75 g Feta

50 g Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp oregano

Parsley

1 tbsp Parmesan

25 g pine nuts

1 tsp garlic paste

1/2 lemon juice and zest

Preheat the oven 180 C fan.

Wash the bunch of carrots with the greens. Take a knife and cut off the top for later.

When you have young carrots, no need to peel them. Just take a knife and cut them up lengthwise. Put in a bowl. Season with Zataar, Baharat, salt and pepper and olive oil. Put on baking paper and bake for 25 min.

Take the puff pastry and crimp it all around. Use a fork to prick holes in the dough. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. The pastry goes in when the carrots come out. Bake it for 20 min.

Pull the carrot leaves from the stems. Add garlic paste, pine nuts, Parmesan, lemon zest and juice and Salt/Pepper and top with some olive oil. Blend with a stickblender until smooth.

In a second bowl add yogurt, feta, oregano, parsley and pepper and mix to get a cream.

If the middle of the pastry has come up a little, press it down a bit. Spread the feta cream all over the center of the pastry.

Put the carrots on top and drizzle some pesto over it. The egg that was left over from the brushing of the pastry  went in the microwave.

Chocolate Mousse with 3 Ingredients

How to get rid of day old rice. Make a stirfry? Cook a rice soup? No, make Chocolate Mousse!

 

This is a great recipe without added fat like double cream or lots of eggs. Egg free and Dairy free. And no alcohol either.

This is a recipe by Shiresh17.

Well, 260 g of dark chocolate are no health food

But hot water is 🤣.

Use a strong blender, I used my Thermomix and dump cold rice, hot water and melted chocolate in. Mix for 15 seconds on speed 6. Fill in small jars and let it cool down.

To make it more fancy, just powder it with cocoa.

Keep it on the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Ingredients:

260 g dark chocolate, microwaved in 30 sec blasts at 800 watts.

228 ml hot water

1 stuffel cup of cold day old rice.

1 tsp cocoa powder

Radish Salad with Lemon Verbena

A good amount of grated radish (Daikon) was sitting in a Tupperware in the fridge.

It is a hot day today and a salad sounded refreshing. The grated radish caught my eyes.

But what kind of dressing to eat with it? I went outside on my balcony and looked around. Something lemony goes with radish:

Lemon Verbena

Lemon Balm

Lemon Thyme

Fresh Oregano

Cellery leaves

A tsp olio de oliva con limone and a very fruity vinegar with cellery seeds, fleur de sel, Asian mixed pepper and some Agave syrup went in with the chopped herbs.

A great summer salad!

Ojja tunisienne aux Merguez et aux Oeufs

It is like a Shakshuka, but with sausages!

I bought some Merguez last week in France and they needed to be cooked. I checked Pinterest and the Ojja dish was everywhere.

Nothing easier to prepare. Food was on the table in less than 30 minutes. The merguez cook in their own pan and then are cut up and added to the pan with the eggs. They come in last and need 3 to 5 min with a lid on the pan.

If you want the yolk more runny, 3 min is a great time.

Recipe for 2:

4 Merguez

4 eggs

2 tbsp olive oil

5 medium tomatoes, 1 large red bell pepper

3 green onions, 4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp Ayvar paste

150 ml veg stock

1/2 bunch fresh dill

1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp Arrabiata seasoning, 1 tsp smoked paprika, salt, pepper

Chop all veggies and brown the Merguez in 1 tbsp oil in a pan.

Put onions and garlic in a wide pan that has a lid. Cook for 3 min. Add bell pepper and season. Chop the tomatoes and let them get soft. Some Ayvar and veg stock follow now. The dill is the last before the cooked sausages gets in.

Make four wells in the pan and drop the eggs in. Cover with a lid and finish your dish with runny or more cooked eggs.

Eat with bread.

Melanzane Mbuttanate or stuffed Aubergine

This is a family recipe from YT Beryl Shereshewski. And I love it!

It is rural food or poor people food. Summer in Italy means gardens with aubergines, tomatoes, herbes and homemade olive oil. Days old white bread is easy to come buy. 

What's not to love?

Looking in my lot behind the house, aubergines are growing, tomatoes ripening (some of them are already in this dish), herbs on the balcony and old baguette at home. The only thing missing are olives to produce oil. I had an olive tree in a pot for a couple of years, but it only produced about 20 olives a year. One very cold winter and it was dead.

Recipe:

1 large aubergine

Salt

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 bunch fresh dill

1 tsp chili flakes, pepper

Olive oil

300 g cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp grated Parmesan

Cut the aubergine in the middle. Take care and make some long cuts, about 3 to 4 without cutting down. Rub lots of salt in the cuts and on the cutside. Let the aubergine sit for 30 min.

Holding it up now, water should run out. Wash the salt off and pat dry.

Chop the dill and mix with chili, pepper, breadcrumbs and oil. Stuff that with a teaspoon in the slids.

Cut the cherry tomatoes down the middle and toss them with olive oil in a baking dish. The leftover breadcrumb mix on top of the tomatoes. Set the stuffed aubergines on top.

Bake at 180 C fan for 45 to 50 min. Sprinkle some Parmesab on top.