Tina's chestnut stuffing and other secret and not so secret recipes

I was only moaning this morning with a mate that I was rotating the same old dinners - not any more!!

Brilliant thread!

My failsafe pud is;

Tub double cream, whipped, mix in lemon curd to marble, add grated zest of 1 lime, crumble in 8 meringues (keep some chunks) then put in a LINED (with clingfilm) bowl and freeze.

Get out 15 mins before serving, unwrap and turn out onto a plate, slice & serve (I sometimes heat up a bit more lemon curd & water to drizzle over) with raspberries on the side.

Pretty much zero effort for a really delish pud that always goes down a treat.

Sage and onion stuffing mix instead of breadcrumbs for scotch eggs

kecap manis M&S sell it.

Love these!

Mine is a total cheat but everyone asks for it at Christmas - Mince pie ice cream.

You basically buy a bog standard tub of vanilla ice cream, let it soften slightly, put it in a blender/processor with a load of mince pies (pastry lids off ideally), blend away and then return to the ice cream tub and freeze.

I do tubs and tubs of this at Christmas, even when I have confessed and told people how easy it is to make. They say they would get it wrong; you literally can't, a monkey could make it!

It also works well with little apple pies as well!

I've just had the mayo frying pan toastie for lunch.

Thank you

Epic, just epic.

All these idea sound amazing. Love this thread!

Sainsbury's Kicap Manis £2 a bottle

This one is nice

Love the freeze-cream tip.

I wonder if it is to do with what sells?

I'm sure it does, when I lived in North London my local Tesco had a large kosher section, now I'm in Wolverhampton there are more Indian spices / ingredients and no kosher (well not a separate aisle).

I always get compliments for my lasagna. Well really it’s a Jamie one from years ago that I’ve adapted for us but I think the trick is that I don’t make a white sauce - I use creme fraiche topped with Parmesan. It’s tastes so good and is so much easier to make.

munchiesandmunchkins.com/jamie-oliver-lasagne-an-old-favourite/

Since Kecap Manis is 76% sugar, how about warming up some brown sugar in a bit of soy sauce to make it syrupy? I've done that before and it was perfectly OK.

[quote unkindnessofravens]@steppemum here's the Morrison's one [/quote]
Thank you, we have a medium sized Morrisons, I'll go and have a look. But there is a much bigger one on the other side of town, so if ours doens't have it, I can pop in to the other one when I am goig that way.

Fig, feta and Philly turnovers are a hit - sweet and salty:

Use hot water from kettle to reyhdrate dried figs
Take ready-made puff pastry
Cut into circles
Chop figs fairly small
Mix with crumbled feta and Philly or similar cream cheese to make filling. Could add chopped walnuts too.
Spoon filling onto pastry circles, seal edges with a bit of water and a thumb roll (like with pasties)
Prick tops with a fork
Brush with milk
Bake at 180C until puffy and slightly brown
Watch them disappear...

I make chocolate mint shortbread which everyone loves. I git the idea from a Waitrose magazine years ago. You basically grind a packet of extra strong mints and add it to the shortbread mix and top with Aldi dark chocolate with mint. It’s delicious.

Cheesy shortbready biscuits
8 oz grated mature cheddar...I use 2 makes of cheddar to improve flavour, Tickler and any other.
4 oz butter
6 oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
salt and pepper
Mix grated cheese and butter together, add dry ingredients, Make into a log shape, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge while you heat the oven to 200 deg C. Slice the log into biscuits, bake for 10-15 mins, depending on thickness.

Nut fudge sauce for ice cream
3 tbsp peanut butter
5 tbsp golden syrup
I dessertspoon hot water
Mix together

To serve hot, microwave 30 seconds
Stores well in a jar in fridge,
Useful for secret treat straight from fridge when you've been lumbered with the washing up.

@steppemum here's the Morrison's one

Steppemum

Do you have an M&S near you? I've seen it in there.

trouble with online is that it is 2.99 for the kecap manis and then 3.99 for delivery.

Much as I love it, I'm not paying £7 for it!

Peanut Sauce:
175ml double cream
100g milk chocolate
100g smooth peanut butter
3tbs golden syrup

Melt together in a pan. Serve hot or cold with any kind of dessert. Makes enough for about 4-6 people. It is AMAZING on ice cream with salted peanuts crushed on top.

[quote Fink]@steppemum
You get kecap manis (with different spellings of the first word ketjap/kicap) in most supermarkets in the UK big enough to have a decent sized world food section. Definitely all the bigger Sainsburys/Tesco/Waitrose/Asda around here have it. Also you can get a load of different brands of it on Amazon.[/quote]
we have one of the biggest Asda's in the country and they don't stock it.

My mum lives near a big waitrose, and they used to, but haven't for ages

We have a huge Tesco and Sainsburys too, I know the Tesco doesn't, can't remember if I have searched the Sainsbury.

I wonder if it is to do with what sells?

We have local asian shops, but they are south asian, (only place I can get decent rice - that's the trouble, when you have lived in a rice eating country, you get fussy) and we don't have chinese one.

[quote unkindnessofravens]@steppemum I've found Ketchap Manis in Morrisons before if you have one close by[/quote]
really???

That's awesome!
What do they call it? waitrose stocked it for a while as sweet soy sauce I think.

I’m so happy! I’m going to buy a special notebook and copy these all in

Am emailing recipes to myself - thank you for the ideas.

Brilliant thread place marking for later!

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow

Your (non)egging-and-breadcrumbing idea is brilliant! So jealous that I didn't think of it

I've had great success (and many recipe requests) just by using salted butter instead of unsalted for brandy butter.

Also, I'm not very keen on the traditional sweet white sauce with brandy added to it that goes with Christmas pudding. I find it's helped a lot by making a basic sugar and water caramel and stirring that through.
Or (even better, imo) making the toffee sauce that goes with Delia's banoffee cheesecake, omitting the pecans and adding brandy to taste.

@steppemum same!
I've still got a stash from our trip last year but when that runs out Waitrose stocks it as well as our local Chinese grocer.
For a tiny bottle at a vast price though!