[Han_EONNext]

Howdy 😊

As It is getting rather chilly outside we thought we would kick off with some festive winter warmers. Within our Community we like to talk in depth about energy saving and encourage what we can do to bring the costs down and here are my cheaper (yet yummy) energy AND budget saving festive recipes.

Hand up 🙌 who has an Air Fryer? Well let me tell you, ours has ✨CHANGED✨ the game! It took me a while to get my grubby little mitts on one 🧤, but I don't regret it in the slightest! Air Fryers are more or less a conventional oven packed into a small box and they more or less half the cooking time; It’s peaceful knowing you are using less energy to cook and ultimately things are cheaper. 🏆

My family have been trialling recipes to use for Christmas in the air fryer and it is safe to say that some do hit and some also do incredibly miss! But these ones are worth shouting about:

Roast Canned Potatoes (not so roasted)

Canned potatoes? Yep that's right. 🥔


Take a can of potatoes (usually around 30p per can) , season them as you wish (they work better with a little oil) and then pop them in the air fryer at 200 for 20-25 minutes ⏰ - and you have yourself perfect and crispy potatoes!

Air Fryer Mince Pies

Mince pies are not my favourite 😷, but they sure are a staple of the holiday's in the eyes of my siblings; and who can deny their wish at Christmas 🎄.

Depending on how you like to make them you can of course add or take away whatever you like (we do sometimes add Gin!) 🥂. Using a simple pasty recipe or ready made pasty (really does not matter) create your mini pie shapes with a dip for the filling to go inside and spoon in your mixture. Once they are ready to go pop them into the Air Fryer at 160 for around 12-15 minutes and there you go - crispy and warm mince pies 🤓.

The Air Fryer is not the only way to ensure that you can be energy-effective this holiday season, but by changing your simple dishes and altering your timings, temperatures and everything in between! Please do let us know what your holiday recipes are and anything you are doing to keep the energy costs down 🤩

[retrotecchie]

I'm sure I posted a reply in here yesterday?!

Anyway Retrotecchie's festive delicacy is as follows.

Ingredients required

One small Christmas Pudding
10-20g of butter, and salted butter is best.
A wee dram of your favourite whisky, brandy or rum. My preference is a peaty Islay malt.
A small pot of Double Cream

Method

Pop the pud out of it's plastic pot and, while still cold, thinly (6mm or 1/4") slice.
Over a moderate heat on the hob, throw the butter in a frying pan until just beginning to brown and bubble.
Toss the sliced pud in the butter and fry until just turning a little crispy on the outside.
Add the toot of the 'good stuff' and heat for another 20 seconds evenly coating the pud.

Serve, with a dollop of cream and if you are like me, pour any remaining 'jus' out of the pan over the pud.

Sorry, this is NOT for the kiddlywinks. Just give 'em pud au naturelle👍

[Han_EONNext]

@retrotecchie I remember that too!
It might have been because we moved the thread into a different category - but the comment didn't come too!
Anyway, Christmas pudding ❌ never been for me, never will be - absolutely NOT

[retrotecchie]

@Han_EONNext

Look, just because you don't like Christmas pud doesn't make you a bad person or mean we love you any less.

I found a tin of taters in the cupboard today...my zombie apocalypse stockpile needed rotating. I'm going to give your air-fried version a go tomorrow.

[Han_EONNext]

@retrotecchie That is truly heart-warming 🤗

Oohh please do let me know how it goes!

[retrotecchie]

@Han_EONNext

I will.

Among my stash of cupboard goodies, I also found a packet of butterscotch Angel Delight that was within a week of it's best before date.

Whisk with 300ml of cold cow-juice, put in fridge for 20 mins, slice a 'nana over it. Cheap desert, no energy needed other than a bit of manual labour with the whisk. 50p for Angel Delight in Morribobs at the moment. 30p for the milk, 30p for the banana. Call that £1.10. Herself had a bowl too, so 55p a head.


Tea itself was two boiled eggs (from my own hens) and a couple of slices of bread in the toaster to make Marmite soldiers. Boil the kettle with half a litre of water...3p. Boiling water in a small saucepan, eggs in and on the 'leccy hob for four minutes. 4mins on a 1kW ring, 2-3p. Two slices in the toaster. 3p.

So, free eggs apart from 10p worth of layers pellets per chicken per day. 10p let's say for energy. Two slices of toast with a bit of butter and some Marmite, call that about 30p worth.

Tea for about 60p, pudding for 55p. Not exactly 'festive' as such, but a few 'low energy' meals like that in the run up to Christmas means that I have the kiloWatt hours in reserve for the 'big day'.

[DebF_EONNext]

I love a tin tattie roastie! I use them if I do a midweek roast it is so much quicker, it's cheaper but they are just as tasty.

My favourite festive recipe is slow cooked braised red cabbage it is easy to make, delish and really cheap too. It's a winner 🏅

Ingredients:

• 1 red cabbage, shredded
• 2 apples (Bramley's are great) peeled and chopped
• 2 red onions (normal onions would work too) peeled and thinly sliced
• 60ml Red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbs Sugar (I always use brown sugar but any sugar works)
• 1/2 Tsp winter spices (mixed spice or a mixture of cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/clove)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional 100g fresh cranberries
  

Method:

• Place all ingredients into slow cooker
• Stir with a wooden spoon
• Cook on low for 6hrs or high for 4-5hrs

This can be cooked in advance and frozen, I absolutely love this recipe. I make double and freeze it in portions to heat in the "meecrowavve" as Nigella would say.

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by DebF_EONNext

heat in the "meecrowavve" as Nigella would say.

The Welsh word for 'oven' is popty. The Welsh slang term for 'microwave' is popty ping.

The Welsh for 'fish' is pysgod. So a 'jellyfish'? Pysgod wibli-wobli 🤣🤣🤣

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@Han_EONNext

Look, just because you don't like Christmas pud doesn't make you a bad person or mean we love you any less.

I found a tin of taters in the cupboard today...my zombie apocalypse stockpile needed rotating. I'm going to give your air-fried version a go tomorrow.

They were minging....gave 'em to the 🐶🐶 and even they turned their noses up at them.

The 'burden' just bought an air cooker, rather than an air fryer. Anything that stops her using a 2kW grill on the electric cooker to grill four rashers of bacon is a winner in my book.

Ok, I confess to being mildly surprised by it.

Thus far...

I've cooked four rashers of bacon which took 6 minutes. The oven grill can't even reach grilling temperature in that time. Came out OK.

Last night I did a beef stew we had in the freezer, but used the air cooker to do some part baked petit pains. Significantly less energy than using the oven and came out perfect.

A pack of 'party snacks' onion bhajis that said 12 minutes in the oven took 9 in the air cooker, and didn't look all 'lost' in the middle of the big oven.

Duck spring rolls took the same. Came out perfectly in 3 minutes less than the oven.

Oven is 2.2kW, the air cooker maxes out at 1.7kW, but is heating the food more directly and faster than having to heat up 60 litres of oven to 190°C.

Gotta say....I'm a convert. Not sure how long it will take to break even on the £129 purchase cost, but fortunately it wasn't my outlay.

How it copes with a rotisserie chicken or one of my lasagnes remains to be seen, but so far, a definite 👍

[retrotecchie]

Ok, the lasagne was not so good. I suspect, though, that the problem was not making the ragu 'sloppy' enough to steam the pasta sheets. Note to self: Either make the sauce a little sloppier or use fresh rather than dried pasta. Tasted fine, just a bit too chewy.