Category Archives: homecooking

silicone sunday

01 Monday Dec 2025

Posted by in air fryer, azahars kitchen, cooking, homecooking, sevilla

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Well this works! I was in the middle of preparing yesterday’s lunch when I noticed that the roasting pan I had bought for the air fryer a couple of years ago was in pretty bad shape. A quick look online and a quick trip to El Corte Inglés later and… brand new “BPA free” silicone thingy. I was a bit unsure about it at first, and being non-biodegradable they’re not exactly “eco-friendly”,  but oh well. It’s mine now. As for functionality, it cooked everything just fine but it doesn’t really brown food as it doesn’t conduct heat. Anyhow, it will be useful for stuff like this…

Free-range chicken thighs marinated in yoghurt, lemon/lime and spices, with garbanzos, red onions, baby spinach and cilantro. Recipe here. 

arancini o’clock

28 Friday Nov 2025

Posted by in air fryer, casa azahar, home, homecooking, recipes, sevilla

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I swear the main reason I make risotto is so I can make arancini from the leftovers. This was a smoked salmon and baby spinach one but almost any risotto will work. I used to just add more grated parmesan when I made the rice balls, but now I put a small cube of cheese in the middle (usually manchego) and bread them twice, first in fine breadcrumbs, then egg, then panko.

Fried until nicely browned in evoo and then finished in the air fryer. That way they get all hot and melty inside without burning. I usually cook them all at once (to get all the messy frying out of the way) and then freeze half, which are then ready to thaw and reheat in the air fryer any time. 

too many veg!

14 Thursday Aug 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, homecooking, markets, sevilla

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Coming home from the Bellas Artes Museum yesterday I was hobbling up Calle Baños and spotted Frutas Faustino. Which has been there as long as I can remember. Just up the street there is also a butcher, an abacería and a fishmonger. Totally old school family-run shops that have somehow managed to survive in the centre of the city’s gentrification horror.  Faustino’s isn’t that far from my house, but the markets are closer (Encarnación and Arenal) so I normally go to those for fresh produce. Anyhow, stopped in for a couple of tomatoes and ended up leaving with close to 20€ worth of veg (!!!). And if you know anything about fruit and veg prices here, you know that was a LOT.

What can I say? There was a guy ahead of us pretty much buying up the whole place to be home delivered (yes, you can still do that here and it doesn’t cost extra) so while waiting I kept spotting this and that and the other… by the time it was our turn omg. There was just so much. But that’s fine. Went home and made a late lunch that included mar azul tomato with a side of avocado mashed with lots of lime and cilantro. And all I’ve been thinking about since is what I’m going to do with all the rest of the veg. What a happy dilemma.

more tomato madness

22 Tuesday Jul 2025

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Well, look at these! Went a little overboard at the market on Saturday, but I loved those gorgeous tomatoes from the other day so much that I had to get some more. Then I saw they had more varieties so I ended up with the mar azul (asurcado antociano) again, cherokee, tomate rosa and also some cute little kumat & cherry-plum hybrids.

The only way I’ve ever enjoyed cherry tomatoes has been roasted so I decided to do that with these baby kumats and found a recipe online for “upside down” tomato puff pastry thingys (three mini pastry tins fit in the air fryer perfectly). I added roasted shallots and garlic, and some herb cream cheese, which made them tricky to flip over as you can see on that messy plate below, but they were delish. The others I just ate sliced with evoo and maldon salt. So much flavour there it would be a shame to miss out.