RSS

Cauliflower steak

I cannot believe the flavours in this dish! 
There are almost 3 years since I was guided by the Mediterranean Diet in my daily food and every time I try a new recipe, I am impressed by so many flavours that I have not known before.

This is a nice replacement for a steak, for those who are vegetarian or vegan. I am not but this doesn't mean I cannot enjoy these delicious dishes.

It is super easy to make and a very healthy meal alternative.
The original recipe adds an extra salad to it that can even improve the flavour with an acidic note.  I wanted to simplify it, so I adapted a bit the recipe to my taste. (the link to the original recipe you can find it at the end)

Lemon-cardamom oil cake (baked in air fryer)

Most of the bundt/cake recipes I know are butter-based. But I remember that when I was a child, butter was a luxury and my mother was making most of the cakes using oil as fat.

The best oil to use for this cake is by far olive oil. However, the cake can be made with any vegetable oil. I had in my pantry an open bottle of peanut oil and I wanted to use it, so this is the oil I used for this cake.

When I bought my air fryer I had no clue how versatile such a mini oven could be for baking cakes. Actually, they turn out even better than in my good old kitchen oven. There is however a limitation to baking in the air fryer and that is the size. My air fryer drawer is 24 cm wide, so only pans under this dimension can fit inside.

As for the pan, some time ago this silicone daisy mould caught my eye and I fell for it. However, I had plenty of cake pans and moulds and I was hesitant to extend my collection because of the limited space to store them. With the air fryer, I had to evaluate all the pans I owned and select the ones fitting the drawer. I did not count many for this purpose. That was the moment when I recalled this small daisy silicone mould left waiting on my wish list. The next step was obvious,  this beautifully shaped mould joined my collection.

The recipe is an adapted one. The original one is with orange, not lemon-based. As it is more often to have lemon in the house rather than oranges I changed to lemon. I also had to adapt other quantities like (you guessed what if you know me...) sugar and improve the structure in the absence of sugar by adding more flour. 

I am very happy with the result. It is a super moist cake, not very sweet and with a distinct aroma due to the cardamom.


Soured Cream Chocolate Cake (baked in the air fryer)

This year I started a new adventure in cooking dishes into the air fryer. Cakes, of course, were on the list to test and I was surprised to see that they actually turned out very well. There are some parameters to tinkle but I was really surprised with the results.

This cake recipe is adapted from a new recipe book I bought. I was disappointed that the book had photos for only 1/4 of the recipes. In the era where videos of recipes rule the internet, a cake book without pictures to inspire and motivate you to bake for me is essential. I was at the point of returning the book but decided to test some recipes first. The resulting cakes, even adapted by myself (you know me, I cut the sugar from everywhere) were surprisingly nice. So, I decided finally to keep the book. I still feel like in the times of my mother where you could have just imagined how a cake could turn while reading a recipe because there was no image to show. I give you then my touch and present the final image of the cake here.

The cake is very moist, not very sweet and not bitter either. I would try even one more change next time, by replacing 20g of cocoa powder with all-purpose flour.

Enjoy!