European home cooking at its most practical — schnitzel, casseroles, baked cheese, and rustic tray bakes that feel like they took all day but didn't.
Two peeled apples grated on the large holes, mixed with sugar, cinnamon and a little orange zest, spread over a sheet of puff pastry, rolled into a log and sliced into 3 cm pieces. The rolls are brushed with beaten egg and air-fried on parchment at 170 °C / 340 °F for about 25 minutes, then dusted with powdered sugar. Makes about 10 rolls.
Thin, elastic crepes made from raw potato blended with onion, garlic, plain yogurt and water, then whisked with olive oil, egg and flour. Each crepe is fried 3–4 minutes per side without touching, filled with ground meat that was left to form a crust before stirring and bound with melted cheddar, folded like an envelope, topped with more cheddar and finished in the air fryer for 5 minutes.
A smooth soup from roasted butternut squash, bell pepper, carrot and a whole head of garlic, blended with slowly caramelized onions, vegetable broth and heavy cream. The squash is roasted, not boiled, so the water cooks off and the edges brown. Brown butter is drizzled over each bowl, then pan-toasted croutons and pumpkin seeds go on last. About six servings.
An apple cake cooked entirely in a frying pan, with no oven and no flour. Ground rolled oats are soaked in warm water for 10 minutes until they thicken, then mixed with eggs, honey, cinnamon and baking powder into a thick batter with chopped dried apricots, cranberries and nuts. A buttered parchment circle, a thin layer of brown sugar and a ring of thin apple slices go into the pan first, the batter on top. It cooks covered on low heat, is flipped between two sheets of parchment so the apples end up on top in their caramel, and finishes with 10 more minutes. Serves 6.
A folded potato pancake filled with browned ground meat and melted cheddar. Two potatoes are shaved paper-thin on a slicer, cut into strips and bound with a batter of eggs, plain yogurt and a spoonful of flour, plus finely diced onion and a clove of garlic. The base cooks under a lid for 10 minutes while the meat browns in a second pan and takes the cheddar. The filling goes over one half, the potato folds over it, and 5 more minutes under the lid keeps the cheese molten. About 15 minutes at the stove; serves 2.
Puff pastry apple and walnut half-moons are the bakery-window dessert built from a ready-made sheet: one strip cut into semicircles with the rim of a lid, a narrow egg-wash border, a thin layer of honey in the middle, then a filling of two apples cubed about 1.5 cm and cooked in butter with two tablespoons of brown sugar, a level teaspoon of cinnamon, orange zest and vanilla. The trick that keeps the juice with the fruit is cornstarch stirred into the orange juice before it reaches the pan. Soaked dried cranberries and coarsely chopped nuts go in, the second strip becomes the tops, pricked with a fork, and 20 minutes at 200 °C with the fan off turns them puffed and golden under a fine nut crumble. At the very end you hear the crunch. Makes 6.
Golden air-fryer mushrooms are the snack of the set, and the crust comes from a spoon of mayo: whole mushrooms tossed in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise, paprika, garlic powder, salt and black pepper, then 15 minutes at 180 °C. Mayonnaise is already an emulsion of oil and egg, so it clings where plain oil runs off and browns into a golden, aromatic crust while the mushrooms inside turn tender. Five minutes of prep, one bowl, one basket — a side or a snack straight from the air fryer. Serves 2.
The creamy mushroom triangle is a julienne in a tortilla suit: three small sausages pinned into a triangle frame along the tortilla's edge, filled with mushrooms browned in a dry skillet first — oil comes later, or the sponges soak it up and steam — then simmered with onion, salt, pepper and 150 ml of heavy cream until a dragged line closes slowly. Shredded mozzarella piles on, the exposed edges get an egg-wash glow-up, and 10 minutes at 180 °C in the air fryer bubbles the cheese and browns the crust. A calzone and a French mushroom pie, raised on simplicity. Serves 2.
One parchment parcel holds a full dinner for two: mashed potato bakes into a savoury shell around soy-glazed ground beef, browned mushrooms and melted mozzarella after 10 minutes in the air fryer at 180°C (350°F). The trick is buttering the paper and dusting it with paprika, dill and garlic powder before the potato goes on; those spices toast into the surface as it cooks, so the outside tastes of more than plain potato. Start the sliced mushrooms in a dry skillet until their water cooks off, then add oil so they actually brown. No air fryer? Bake the parcel at 200°C (400°F) for 15–20 minutes instead.
A whole camembert stuffed with garlic, honey and dried herbs, then wrapped in a woven bacon mat and baked until the outside crisps and the centre turns molten. The weave is what makes it work: pressing the strips flat with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment locks them together, so the wrap holds tight and the melting cheese stays put. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 25 minutes, until the bacon is deep golden on all sides. Serve it hot, while the middle still flows.
A thin pork or veal cutlet gets a panko crust in the air fryer, and it crisps up properly because panko crumbs are large and airy, so hot circulating air can brown every ridge without a pot of oil. The one step that decides everything happens before breading: pound the cutlet evenly thin under cling film, or thick spots will still be pink when the crust is done. A light brush of soy sauce seasons the meat right under the coating. After about 15 minutes at 180°C (350°F) with one flip, look for an even, deep golden crust on both sides. No panko? Coarse dry breadcrumbs work too.
Shredded cabbage, smoked sausage and four eggs bake into a firm low-carb casserole here, and the air fryer's two-stage method is what keeps it from going watery. A 10-minute pre-bake at 180°C (350°F) softens the seasoned cabbage and drives off its moisture before the eggs go anywhere near it. Slice the cabbage thin, a mandoline helps, and toss it with paprika, garlic powder and olive oil first. Then layer it in a foil pan with the sausage, pour over the beaten eggs, and cook 15 minutes more until the center no longer jiggles. Any small smoked sausage stands in for hunters sausage.