'Holi Bites' - Healthy Oil Free Gujiyas And Namakparas with Philips Airfryer

It won't be wrong to say that Philips Airfryer is full of hot air !! Literary speaking of course.

The Airfryer uses an unique patented combination of high-speed air circulation, with a top grill, called Rapid Air technology. The Rapid Air technology makes the hot air circulate very rapidly around the ingredients in the basket. This heats up the ingredients in the basket from all sides at once, making it a healthy, fast and easy method to prepare tasty food. 

Food prepared in the Airfryer is deliciously crispy on the outside, without being dry on the inside. As the basket is confined within the base pan, the hot air circulates within this space cooking the food with its own fat in the process hence minimising the need for using oil.

Conventional deep fat fryers use oil to heat the food and create the crispy layer. The airfryer does not need frying oil. The food is only heated by the circulating hot air. When you air fry French fries, the fries prepared contain up to 80% less fat compared to fries prepared in a deep-fat fryer. When you prepare homemade French fries, the fat percentage can get as low as 1.5%. It also has air filters so your whole house does not smell of the food that you are frying.

Philips Airfryer is the latest gadget which has taken the market by storm, appealing to the health conscious customers because of its claims of cooking food with upto 80 percent less fat.

Having heard so much of this revolutionary product I had to see it for myself what the hullaboo was all about. Was it just another gimmicky kitchen gadget which will end up taking space and gathering dust on your kitchen counter or would it actually hold up to its promise? So, when someone on behalf of Philips contacted me to review their Airfryer I thought to myself, "Why not ?" After all I have been planning to buy the product ever since I was introduced to it at an event held by Philips 'Foodathon'. Its just that I haven't been able to convince myself till date if it is really worth investing in another voluminous food gadget. 

The Philips Airfryer arrived 2 days back. I think the person who was most excited about it was my son who loves to experiment in the kitchen and needless to say, his exams having gotten over the same day, he was the first one to try his hands on it. He made seekh kebabs with absolutely 0% oil. I was quite delighted with the outcome. The seekh kebabs were nicely browned and cooked to perfection without a hint of being dry - which was contrary to what I was expecting.

With one successful experiment done, I thought why not try out my Gujiyas and Namakparas for this Holi in the Airfryer, instead of frying them in oil?  I was quite impressed with the results as both the Gujiyas and the Namakparas came  out nice and crisp and 'Khasta' like I would have liked them to be. Its amazing just to think how much consumption of oil I will be able to reduce in my everyday usage of the Airfyer. Its absolutely hassle free to use and the best part is that it is even safe for the kids to operate without any fear of untoward accidents happening. It looks like a large rice cooker with a squarish basket which you can remove to place your food inside. And contrary to what I had thought the basket is not all that small. It is a okay size. But the thing is that it cooks so quickly you can easily do two batches in a jiffy. You can put about 800 gms of frozen chips at one go which cooks in 12 minutes. Just ensure that you shake the basket halfway. 

Now that the Philips Airfryer has roused my interest, I will be experimenting a lot more with this unit. So watch my space for some more Airfryer recipes. It is definitely a much more healthier option and in today's world with all the health worries surrounding us, I think it is a wonderful way for enjoying all those snacks which we had kept away from because of being deep fried.

So what say you, ready for a plate of hot Samosas or some scrumptious Gujiyas?

                                           

                     

Gujiyas

Ingredients

Maida - 100 gms

Ghee - 15 gms

Khoya - 100 gms, grated

Cashewnuts - 10 gms, chopped

Raisins - 10 gms

Powdered sugar - 80 gms

Green cardamom powder - 5 gms

oil for brushing

Method

Rub the flour and ghee together till they resemble breadcrumbs. Add water and knead into a stiff dough.

For the filling mix grated khoya, cashewnut, raisins, cardamom and sugar in a bowl.

Divide the doughinto equal portions. Roll out thin rounds of dough. Place them on the gujiya mould. Brush the edges of the mould with plain water. Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of the mould and press together the edges of the mould. Remove the extra dough. Open the mould and remove the gujiya. 

Preheat the Airfryer at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.

Brush the gujiyas with oil. Arrange the gujiyas in the Airfryer and air fry for 12 minutes or till golden brown.

NamakParas - (Basic recipe adapted from Sanjeev kapoor)

Ingredients

Maida - 1 cup

Semolina (suji)- 1/4 cup

Ghee - 1/4 cup

Ajwain- 1/2 tsp 

Salt - to taste

Method 

Mix the maida and the suji. 

Add ghee and rub in with your fingertips till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add salt and crushed carom seeds. Add sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. 

Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes. 

Sprinkle some refined flour on a surface and roll out the dough into half a centimeter thick disc.Cut the rolled dough into diamond shaped discs.

Preheat the Airfryer at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.

Take out the tray from the Airfryer and place the namakparas on the tray and air fry them for 8 minutes or till golden brown.

First time I just placed enough to cover the bottom of the tray as I wasn't too sure how they would turn out. But for my second attempt I stacked them on top of each other. Just ensure that you shake the basket halfway to get them evenly cooked.

Now go ahead and enjoy your snacks without feeling guilty or compromising on the taste. 

Enjoy and have a wonderful time on Holi.

Healthy Snacking With Smart Eats and.....Strawberry and Lemon Chai Muffins

Trying to select healthy snacks for my growing teens, which would also in turn meet the approval of their taste buds, has been a challenge for me for quite some time. When hunger strikes, mostly during the 'in-between' meal times, their favorite choice is to reach out for a piece of cake or some savory snack,  which obviously, as a mother does not leave me too thrilled. 

A few days back, a post on facebook caught my attention, where Sangeeta Khanna, a blogger friend had a few sample boxes of Smarteats up for review. Sangeeta also happens to be the advisory nutritionist for Smarteats and has developed quite a few snacks for them. Sangeeta has a research background in microbial biotechnology and is a nutrition consultant and trainer who develops nutritious recipes and also works on personalized diet plans for people with specific health conditions. You can read up more about her healthy recipes on her blog Healthfood desivideshi. Knowing she was on their nutrition team, further assured me that whatever will be delivered at my doorsteps would be 100% genuine and healthy as professed. 

I further explored their website and was happy to read that according to them the "snacks had no artificial flavor/fragrance or coloring, no preservatives, no transfat, low added sugar, and balanced calories". Perfect!! Exactly what I was looking for.

The box arrived with a sampler of five snacks which were neatly packed, some of them in reusable vaccum sealed packets. Apart from its neat packaging what I really liked was that behind each packet the nutritional information of each snack was printed. This is a big help for those who are watching their calories.

As the snacks were meant to encourage healthy snacking in my kids, I asked them to taste the snacks and share their opinions on what they thought about each one of them. 

The first packet we opened was the Fruity Granola Bar which came in a packed 100 gms packet. The Granola bar had a combination of various dried fruits like apples, peaches and grapes as part of its ingredients. It also consisted of oats, almonds and coconut powder to lend it a powerful punch of vitamins and minerals. 

While my daughter wasn't very happy as she found a strong coconutty after taste and my son found it so-so and graded it 3 out of 5, but this snack really worked for me. I loved the soft and chewy texture and found the crunchy bites of the mixed fruits really filling and satisfying. I think it makes a great munch snack to keep those in between hunger pangs at bay.

The second snack we tasted were the Parsely Pepper Crackers. Made mainly with wholewheat, parsely and pepper this was my daughters favorite  While my son wasn't too keen on them, I found the taste good but a bit on the drier side - maybe that is because of the wholewheat. I think they would make a great healthy snack served with a nice cottage cheese or a yogurt dip.

Next on list was the whole wheat Walnut Brownie Biscotti. Soft and crumbly it was delicious with the perfect combination of chocolates and walnuts to satisfy your chocolate cravings. I found it perfect to have with your tea, coffee or with a cup of milk.

 Undoubtedly, it got a big thumbs up from all of us. 

The Tangy Sweet Roasted Mixture was roasted and a healthy mix of chana(gram),  peas and sugar coated puffed rice. We all liked it except for the fact that it had a slight sweet taste to it. I prefer my mixtures to be a little spicy and chatpata but for those of you who don't mind a little tango of sweet and salt, go for it.

Saved the best for the last - Very berry Strawberry.  These were dried pieces of candied fruits bursting with tangy strawberry flavor. We all loved it, especially my son who just could not stop popping them one after another. 

After tasting them, I immediately thought of baking strawberry muffins with them (recipe down below). Searching their site, I was happy to find more candied fruit in exciting flavors like peach, pineapple, plums, apricots,mango, orange grapes and amla. Christmas just around the corner, these would be just perfect to add to your cakes and desserts. 

A big thumbs up again from all us.

On the whole the snacks were hugely satisfying and would make a great option for a quick healthy snack and that too delivered right at your doorstep. The great thing is that not only is there is a vast selection to choose from but you can also give them special instruction as per your requirements. Now that you have seen how healthy can be tasty too, go ahead and order yourself a box full of healthy goodness.
For further information you can read the Smarteats website.

Munching on the yummy dried strawberries, I decided to try making muffins with them. To balance the sweet flavor of the strawberries, I thought of adding some reduced lemon tea to the mixture. Pardon my adding the butter, (I am usually good and bake my cakes with canola oil) which deviates from my above post of healthy snacking but it was just a temptation I could not resist. The end result were soft, moist, buttery-flavored, delicious muffins with little bites of chewy strawberries. They were so so good - maybe the best I have tried out so far!!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
150 gms flour
2 tsp baking powder
100 gms sugar
1/4 cup reduced lemon flavored tea 
100 gms butter
3 eggs
100 gms dried strawberries, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice

.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

For the Lemon chai- boil half a cup of water, put in one lemon flavored teabag and reduce till the water in the pan is halved. Keep aside.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixture for  7-8 minutes until well combined.
Slowly beat in the eggs one at a time
Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the dry ingredients slowly to the creamed mixture along with the reduced lemon tea mixture and lemon juice.
Fold in the chopped strawberries.
Spoon the muffin mixtures into prepared muffin tins, filling each to just over the half way mark.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans.