Today’s recipe is Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs 红烧狮子头, gigantic, delicious and juicy meatballs in a yummy broth, with sweet napa cabbage. I like to add fish paste to mine – I don’t care what anyone says! To up the veggie profile you can include some sliced carrots or add Chinese spinach towards the end.

Because airfryers are awesome, I airfried the meatballs instead of panfrying them. They’re actually fully cooked in 10 minutes, but the simmering time makes them extra juicy and tender. And my secret to sweet and savoury broth/gravy? Honey dates! Don’t forget to add them.

Feel free to reduce the saltiness in the gravy if serving to kids, like using 1 tbsp concentrated stock instead of 2, etc. Your kids will love this all the same. Try it out!

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Instead of going out and spending money on cafes, I decided to stay home and make some cafe food today!

The fact is also that my fridge finally went ‘kapowwww’ yesterday and we have to quickly clear everything before they go bad. Luckily it decided to die on Saturday and not Sunday when I’d have been done with my marketing for the week!

But ok la, it die also good (它死了也好), that means we can finally get a newww fridge! We went out to get one with a bottom freezer so that it is easier for Ah-mm and 88 to get things, i.e., no need to bend to reach the vegetable compartment all the way at the bottom. I’m quite looking forward to our new fridge. it’s gonna be delivered on Tuesday!

So thinking of the ingredients I have in the fridge, which is now actually a cupboard.. I have bacon, eggs, the orange capsicum that I was soooo fascinated with on Friday that I had to bring two home, a yellow capsicum (this one just 客串 cos it looked bright and fresh next to its orange cousin), and some spring onions. Oh, I also stole 2 slices of bread from 88. I decided to make something pretty with these!

Bacon and egg cups baked in a muffin tray! You can also airfry these, but you only only AF 2-3 at a go and in those aluminum cups. I wanted to save time and money so I used my muffin tray. I realised that although these came out nice from the oven, it was lacking.. a sizzle. So what do I do? Like any Airfryer fan, I scooped each one out when done and airfried them for another 3-5 minutes so that the bacon got even further crisped up. If you like your eggs more runny, you can decrease the oven baking time.

These were really easy to make. You could also use blanched spinach or sliced mushrooms in place of capsicums, and add shredded cheese before cracking the egg! Step by step recipe with pictures right below!

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[Airfried Salmon Patties] is one of the earliest dishes I made in the airfryer, and it has appeared on our dinner table many times since. The dish is easy to prepare, budget-friendly, pretty healthy and chockful of flavour.

We usually buy our salmon frozen. They come in a packet of 6-7 salmon portions for about SG$22. You have no idea how much easier my dinner preparation has become because of them. All I do is this: remove frozen salmon from the freezer and transfer to the centre fridge compartment the night before, get home from work the next day, clean and dry salmon, season lightly (usually with home-made teriyaki sauce or lemon butter, and now I also have a favourite lemon-mayo + dill dip!), preheat my AF, and finally grill for 6 minutes at 180C.

In the meantime, I get some rice cooked and make a small salad. And dinner is ready in less than half an hour! Because I reach home at 6pm, I’m usually done with dinner preparations by 6.30pm max. Thank you Philips Airfryer. Because of you, we’re eating more fish (I almost NEVER cooked fish because I hate the oil splatter, and I’m not a fan of steamed fish) and I’m spending less time in the kitchen. You have improved my life in more ways than you can ever imagine. You have my vote for BEST KITCHEN APPLIANCE EVER!

Although the AF makes really delicious and moist grilled salmon, I wanted to eat salmon in more ways than grilled all the time! This weekend, I thought that I would make the salmon-potato patty that Jason likes very much, although the preparation was just a tad more troublesome than simply seasoning and airfrying a salmon steak.

I mashed three large sized Russet potatoes as the base- they’re the best for mashing because of their high starch content. To that, I added some mixed vegetables for crunch and colour, and some chopped parsley for a flavour lift. The seasoning was simple: just some salt, pepper and dill. And of course, I airfried a salmon portion and flaked it into the bowl before adding an egg and mixing them all up.

Shape into the size you like and coat with breadcrumbs. You could also shape these into little salmon balls (like finger food for the kids) instead of patties. Spray some oil before airfrying for 10 minutes to crispy, golden, perfectness.

I served it with some mayo and lettuce leaves by the side. We loved it. I think you will too!

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For me, one of the best things to eat is a warm, crispy, flaky pastry filled with savoury mushrooms and melted cheese. Imagine my joy when I discovered I could have “pastries” in any form, with any filling sweet or savoury anytime I wanted, straight from my Philips Airfryer. The “pastries” are in inverted commas because…….. I make them with Chinatown Frozen Prata.

(grabbed from Chinatown Corporation’s website- I use the plain ones in green packaging)

These delicious puffs were a result of three things: laziness, budget and sunshine. It was a pretty Saturday morning where I am usually too lazy to cook. There is normally no one at home (the two old ladies like to go OG shopping on Saturdays) and the husband WILL be sleeping. I rummaged my kitchen in search of anything I could put together without “wasting” an ingredient. For example, if there’s a brand new package of mushrooms in my fridge, I won’t open it just to make a snack. I would be putting myself in a position where I’ll have to use up those mushrooms quick or have them go bad.

And that was what happened that day. I had some mushrooms left over from the Japanese Mushroom Hot Pot which had to be used up. And then I had frozen prata. And mayo. And THERE WAS SUNLIGHT. These days, when I cook, I take a picture. If the light was bad, sometimes I don’t cook because I can’t take a picture. Does that make sense?

You could do these a few ways: add a drop of flavoured oil and toss it with the mushrooms, a sprinkle of paprika, some cheese, have it twisted closed beautifully or simple haphazardly gathered up for a open-faced puff.. the variations are endless. You could also make banana/ apple strudel puffs using these frozen prata which I will share in another post!

For now, I think it’s time to savour these amazing mushroom puffs.. done in less than 10 minutes!

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I was just thinking of new ideas on how to cook chicken thighs, apart from the usual grilling or braising (Adobo Chicken, anyone?) and an idea popped into my head. I had been growing my own curry leaf plant for some time (Mom passed a beautiful plant to me really) but the curry leaves are just severely underused. I was going to make some crispy curry fried chicken!

It was time, I thought, to dispel the silly rumours that the Airfryer is only good for a “roasted” or “grilled” effect. “There is no way,” I heard someone say, “that this airfryer can achieve a deep fried battered effect because it is essentially just a glorified oven.”

What I’m gonna do is prove you wrong.

Ok, so now tell me the airfryer can’t make crispy deep fried kinda stuff.

I marinated the chicken thighs overnight with curry powder, cumin, sugar, salt, corn starch, curry leaves, cracked an egg, and mixed everything together. Then when it was time to fry, I spooned 2:1 parts of self-raising flour and Pagoda potato starch in a shallow dish, added some curry powder, then coated the chicken thighs evenly on both sides. Let it sit for a few minutes before airfrying til super crispy.

I made one version with a thin layer of oil brushed on the skin only, and another with absolutely no oil. The one with the oil looked so golden, evenly coloured and crunchy, and the one without also looked good, but you can see it is a little paler in colour with some white “patches”. Both tasted moist and crispy.

I think you need this recipe!

This chicken is seriously da bomb! Jason told me happily, “以后我们就这样炸!” (We’ll fry it this way in future!) You get an aromatic whiff of curry as you prepare to chomp on the fried chicken, and when you do, the meat is moist and juicy, and the skin crispy and light, thanks to the potato starch. The amazing thing about the airfryer is not only does it not need oil, it actually forces the natural oil out from the chicken. My airfryer needed a good wash afterwards!

“以后我们就这样炸!” Yes indeed!

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