I’m still determined to find a good air-fryer apple fritter recipe. The next one I try out this morning calls for an egg, some melted butter and apple cider vinegar in addition to the usual flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices. The “dough” turns out very thin, almost like pancake batter. I use the mini-oven’s air fryer mode instead of the stand alone round air fryer I used for the previous recipe. The addition of egg makes the fritters more spongy and cake-like, and they don’t really get a good crispy exterior despite plenty of oil. I try one and the flavour is OK with a zing from the apple cider vinegar, definitely less doughy than the recipe that used yogurt, but the outside is not as good — a thicker batter seems to produce better results. For the next attempt for another day, I found a third recipe that uses brown sugar and only a little yogurt, so the dough seems to be dryer, and it calls for pressing the fritter flat — probably so that it cooks all the way through.
My friend J comes over the hang out this afternoon, postponed from Friday. We haven’t seen each other since before Christmas, and we do our usual chill-out routine of watching TV (there’s a new season of Drag Race I haven’t seen) and ordering in some food. We try out a different BBQ place called Smokin’ Bones that looks very promising from their menu. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t very good… I order a chicken sandwich that turns out not to be very crisp on the outside while dry on the inside. The sides were so-so… the cole slaw seems fresh and crispy, but rather bland; the mac and cheese is globby; the skin-on fries/chips were probably the best item. The slice of oreo cheesecake for dessert wasn’t bad, but not the best either. I don’t think I’ll be ordering from them again.
It’s been eerily quiet in Temple Bar during the latest lockdown. Most people out and about seem to be Deliveroo bike couriers wearing their insulated backpack coolers for food deliveries. The number of daily new COVID cases in Ireland has been in the 3,000-4,000 range the last few days, which is a big dip down from the dramatic surge right after the holidays, but still more than double the cases during the October peak. Ireland has turned a dark red on the EU map for the infection rate over the last 14-days… meanwhile the UK is no longer included after Brexit. Yesterday the new COVID-19 test requirement for travels entering Ireland went into effect. I just read that the U.S. will be imposing a test requirement on travelers starting January 26. I’m glad I did the trip to visit my friend O in France when I did!
Until next time….
