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

I make peanut conkers in the autumn. It’s basically 1 part salted butter, 3 parts unsweetened peanut butter, 6 parts icing sugar and a dash of vanilla essence. Then you roll it into balls and chill them in the fridge, then dip the chilled balls into melted chocolate, leaving a little undipped bit on top so it looks like a conker.

You can play with the proportions to get a taste and texture you like. Too much sugar makes it crumbly and too little butter means it won’t set in firm balls. It’s better if you can get 100% peanut butter with no palm oil.

What quantities of chocolate and yogurt Fink? That’s genius. I’m always running out of icing sugar and hate using it. Covers bloody everything.

Brownies up thread Mella

Just following as I'm an uninspired cook and there are some great ideas here!!

Soy sauce on breakfast mushrooms.

Mine is chicken/pork/tofu satay:
Mix equal amounts of Indonesian (important as it's sweet) soy sauce and ketchup. Grate in some nutmeg a couple of cloves of garlic and marinade your meat/tofu in it for as much time as you have.

If you've got some peanut butter in your house you can make an easy sauce with PB,chilli sauce and hot water. It seizes but keep on mixing and it'll turn out lovely.

For dips use 50/50 of Greek style yoghurt and mayo - then add flavour, finely chopped garlic, herbs, chives, mustard.

OMG some seriously good ideas on here! Saving this for future meal planning😍

Easy cake toppings (I dislike icing sugar so don't like buttercream/royal icing):

1. Melted chocolate (mixture of milk and 70% dark usually suits both children and adults) mixed with Greek yoghurt. Is both sweet and tangy and delicious.

1. Speculoos and marscarpone/cream cheese. Goes great with a slightly less sweet cake (e.g. coffee cake, carrot cake).

Everyone always love my paellas and risottos. Lots of wine, low heat, lemon juice at the end.

and I forgot Parmesan Crisps.....grate parmesan, and put little piles of it on a baking tray, and into the oven with it, watch like a hawk, the oven wants to be pretty hot 180, and they need about 5-8 minutes

if you want them to be all regular and fancy use a measuring spoon (teaspoon sized) and tip the cheese into a pastry cutter to get a perfect circle when you lift the cutter.

These are brilliant with any soup.

@AnneLovesGilbert recipe for those naughty brownies too please!!!!

Anyone got any secrets for a brilliant veg chilli? It’s a freezer and store cupboard meal as we need to shop.

always grate an apple into sausage meat for sausage rolls

always add coffee to anything chocolate, it deepens the chocolate flavour

use red pesto on pizza bases instead of buggering about making rich tomato sauces.

if you are making mash, make enough for the rest of the week while you are about it, and then when you need it fork it over in an oven proof dish, mix in sliced spring onions (optional) and more cheese than is decent and a splash of double cream (cheese and cream and NOT optional) Put it in the oven with whatever else you are cooking and it'll be done in half an hour...maybe more if it's a deep dish. It's amazing.
If I am being organised I do the forking/cheesing straight away and put it directly into those lidded pyrex tubs that can go into the freezer and oven. ...but it works with plain old back of the fridge left over mash too.

and don't bugger about egging and breadcrumbing things, lay out whatever it is you want crumbing, use a pastry brush and paint one side with mayo, press that side into your crumbs ...for minimal mess put them in a shallow layer in a large roasting tin, paint the next side and then turn.
Mayo can be subbed for BBQ sauce/ketchup/sweet chilli/leftover dip

My mum's mackerel pate which is stupidly quick & easy but everyone always asks how I make it

1 packet of peppered hot smoked mackerel
1/4 packet cream cheese
2 big tsp horseradish
lemon juice

put all bits in the food processor. Whizz up to required consistency. Eat for lunch with toast/pitta breads, or put into ramekins for posh starter.

The peppercorns/horseradish give it a lovely kick.

(Also, dog owners: you can make it with cheap mackerel/cheap cream cheese/no horseradish and it's a very popular Kong-redient.)

To be honest, low fat cream cheese is my secret ingredient in a lot of things!

Tip it onto a plate and cover in sweet chilli sauce - delicious dip.

Add to any combination of meat and veg to make a delicious creamy pasta sauce. Or add a tablespoon to a tomato sauce that is a bit too harsh tasting or to a meatball and tomato sauce.

Scoop out jacket potatoes, add cream cheese, tuna and spring onions and pop back in for delicious tuna/potato melts.... It's a theme!

on a quick meals thread on her a while ago someone posted this recipe, it is so easy and very tasty.

crab taglietelle.

Cook a stack of taglietelle.
In a bowl mixed a large pot of creme fraiche, teaspoon of chilli flakes, lemon juice (plenty) splash of olive oil and the crab.
Mix in to cooked taglietelle and serve.

For the crab, I am lazy, so I use 2 tins of crab, plus a packet of prawns. or I have used 2 tins salmon, and some smoked salmon offcuts. Basically any flavourful fish.

Really easy pizza...no oven required!

1 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup greek yogurt (approx)
salt

Mix together well. Should be the texture of dough. Roll out. Put some oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the rolled out dough and cook until golden brown. Flip. Top with sauce, toppings and cheese. Add a lid to the pan to melt the cheese or stick under the grill.

[quote SpaceOP]@ShirleyPhallus we were asked for "Secret" recipes that always go down well.... and this mine! [/quote]
@SpaceOP I have respect for that 🙌🏼

Actually an amazing recipe which I took from MN before

Real sweet n sour sauce like from the Chinese:
Equal parts white wine vinegar, honey and ketchup.

That’s it! It tastes like the real deal!

well, my friend has just given me her family's secret brownie recipe.

They are AMAZING, and a whole tin just gets inhaled by my kids.

But I've promised to guard it with my life and not tell.....

My sausage rolls...

Spoon mango chutney along the sausage meat, sprinkle with feta cheese, roll up and then egg wash pastry and sprinkle fennel seeds on top. Lovely combination of flavours.

@ShirleyPhallus we were asked for "Secret" recipes that always go down well.... and this mine!

Mash up one ripe avocado with approximately 1/2 of cream cheese, preferably low fat (it gives it a slightly less creamy/more sour taste). Adjust amounts for texture etc. Add handful of chopped tomatoes, one small chopped chilli (optional - I often leave out if doing for kids) and LOTS of lime juice. Season with salt generously. Adapt the lime/chilli/salt to taste.

Guac with cream cheese?! Sacrilege! And your missing coriander! I’d add in a bit of red onion there too

So many good recipes! Sadly too many with butter/cream that'll I'll have to see if I can adapt for my ed as she's dairy allergic.

My contribution is something I made last Christmas (adapted from a Waitrose recipe I think). I skinned the sausages and mixed the meat in a bowl with a good amount of cranberry sauce, not too much, as you then need to form small sausage balls which you then wrap in the bacon to form neat little parcels. I then cooked them in the oven for about half an hour or so. They were eaten up even quicker than normal pigs in blankets. I wish I made more.