Comfort food at its best for both chef and family - easy-peasy cooking and a deliciously warming old-time favourite from Grandma's kitchen!
I can think of many family favourite comfort foods - Cottage Pie, Beef or Chicken Pot Pie, Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Lamb Knuckle or Beef Stew, Curry and Rice, and thick Homemade Vegetable Soup. On the sweet side there's Pancakes, Apple Pie and cream, or simply Jelly and Custard.
I was rushed for time last night so decided to make one of the easiest comfort food, an all-time favourite - Sausage & Brown Onion Gravy on a bed of creamy fluffy mashed Potatoes, served with a mix of Peas, Corn and Baby Carrots for Qurator's: Hive Top Chef! | Comfort Food.
As always with my cooking, simple everyday ingredients - Pork Sausages, Potatoes, Onions, Packet Gravy and Frozen Vegetables.
I'd been looking at Airfryers for a while, but that's as far as it got for a long while.
Google's been spying on me, so when Black Friday was approaching. Air Fryer specials started popping up wherever I went. It was very tempting, and I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker!
Amazon is back in South Africa, and were offering great discounts, so I ordered one for my housekeeper and me as a Christmas pressie. Yes, December was a bumper month as far as booking went in my BnB Lily's Cottage so I could afford to splash out a little.
I was very impressed with their service and lightning-fast delivery!
I am very happy with my purchase, especially now that it's summer and I don't need to turn on my large oven, which also turns the kitchen into a sauna!
As I said earlier, I was rushing, as usual, so everything was done at a fast pace! Potatoes peeled and boiled till soft and floury - I prefer using soft-cooking potatoes for mash.
As soon as that was on the stovetop, I sliced the onions into rings and tossed them in a little Olive Oil before arranging them in the centre on air fryer paper liners.
I placed the frozen sausages on the edges, set the air fryer to 180°C for 10 min, turned them, and air-fried them for a further 15 minutes.
It has a window so I can spy on the food while it's cooking.
The potatoes were nice and soft, perfect for mashing. I added a little milk, a pat of butter, and pepper and mashed them till they were light and fluffy, adding extra milk to get the right consistency.
Yes, I cheated and made the onion gravy using a packet of instant gravy, adding the fried onions.
Real comfort food in a jiffy, no sweat and tears.
Except perhaps a few tears, firstly courtesy of the onion, then missing the kiddos, missing hubby, no longer here to fill the home with laughter, bantering, and the usual stuff families do!
At least Bonginkosi is back from leave. He still refuses to sit at the table with me and eats while watching television, or on the verandah when it's very hot!
So the two of us sat alone, enjoying comfort food to make up for the missing!
BON APPETIT FRIENDS!
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Airfeyeres are great, I'm on my second airfryer now. My second one is like a mini oven, a tad smaller than a microwave and has two shelves. They're great as most of the time we're just cooking for the two of us. The only thing about airfryer is that I can't bake cakes in them. My pound cake was unbaked when I tried, other than that, they're great.
I could actually do with one like that, didn't know they came with shelves. I mostly cook for just 2 as well.
I was wanting to try baking in it, but wasn't sure if it would be successful.
Maybe you have to halve the recipe and make a smaller cake?
If it doesn't bake a cake properly, I doubt it could bake bread properly!
I'm happy with the way it's performed so far with other foods.
Have a great weekend LUT!
PS I'm having second thoughts about throwing in the towel and moving now that my staff is back but definitely need to change holiday operations!
This is the one I have, the fancy 9 in 1 function is really preset temperature and time, but it's great that it can go to quite low temperature for dehydration and proof, which I haven't used yet because I haven't baked bread for a long time.
Perhaps it would be nice if you could operate in the busy months only and take time off the rest of the year. But would that work for your staff to work for part of the year only? Plus, if in future, when you decide to sell, would you be able to ask for a better price when you only have part year business to show? Either way, whatever decision you make, as long as you're doing what you enjoy most, that's what matters.
Have a great weekend Lizzie!!
I love your air fryer, that would be the ultimate!
I'm actually very busy throughout the year as well with the motoring companies, and their guys are model guests.
The problem is the staff wanting to go home for Christmas and New Year. I could close just for that week, but that's when bookings peak.
My staff realize now that I can't do it alone anymore, so will have to stagger their leave so there's someone here all the time.
Their family homes are in the rural areas, far removed from the city, a legacy of Apartheid!
I don't offer cleaning services on those days but if there's a guest changeover, I need someone. I could change my booking settings to not have same-day check-out and check-ins.
About moving, I've never lived in an apartment, I'll get claustrophobic, perhaps a groundfloor unit would work.
At least I have options, so should thank my lucky stars!
I love comfort food, it's the best, thanks for sharing @lizelle
Your foodie posts always make me hungry.
Thanks for sharing
Arthur used to love sausages and mash, so quick and real comfort food!
Nice seeing you my friend 🥰
It really looks a comfort food although we have a whole different cuisine here. Although you used instant gravy pack but the onion gravy looks good.
Keep making wonderful meals 😊😊
Thank you @rem-steem, I popped over to your blog to look for clues to see your cuisine and saw all that delicious spicy food!
Yes, Indian/Asian food; we have a lot of spicy food 🔥
But I too try something different, from time to time.
Hmmm - comfort food at its best
Good old sausages and mash was my whole family's favourite.
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delicious
Thank you
It is delicious but the most interestingly it can be prepared in an easy way. I like that. Thanks for sharing.
That's the beauty of it, so quick and easy but delicious.
I'm still thinking how is the perfect comfort food for me by the way your comfy dish looks super good 👍👍
Yep, we call it fast foods at home !LOL
Your dish looks very similar to ours, except that I eat garlic with everything. Sausages and mash are also our favorite to cook in the fryer.
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