To share this odd cooking tip and ask for yours?

[Clafoutis]

When making a chilli, if there's too much sauce and it's a bit thin....add a dessert spoonful of rolled porridge oats. It soaks up the excess liquid and bulks it a teensy bit-and you can't tell! I found this tip when googling. Apparently lots of chilli sauces from outlets in the US use porridge oats.
Anyone want to share their culinary own tips?

When making a chilli, add cumin and a teaspoon of cocoa to the onions before the tomatoes go in. You're welcome.

Teaspoon of sugar in anything if you add too much heat/chilli.

When chopping onions, hold a wooden spoon in your mouth. You look silly but your eyes won’t water.

Ooh alt I do the cumin but not the cocoa. Will have to give it a try, thanks!

Don't accidentally use muesli. The kids will notice.

Likewise if you’ve over salted soup or something add a potato as it cooks yo absorb the excess salt.

Anything cheese sauce based add a bit of vodka!!

A teaspoon of marmite also helps in a chilli

For good flavour, add chopped garlic to cold oil and then cook them until done.

Daddies brown sauce in a stew

Thread baking potatoes onto a metal skewer before putting in the oven, the skewer heats up and cooks the potatoes inside, so they cook faster and come out fluffier.

Half a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon in when you fry minced beef brings the flavour out in shepherds pie, chilli, spag Bol etc

Teaspoon of red pesto stirred into spag bol is v nice

Another easy way to thicken a one pot meal is to stick a couple of nuggets of frozen mash in.

With Chilli use a hand masher (whilst cooking) to improve the texture and get rid of any lumps of mince.

Most things that are milky or cheesy taste better with a hint of nutmeg.

Add a touch of expresso powder to chilli along with the cocoa.

When making a sauce to accompany pasta, add a ladle of the water the pasta was cooked in to the sauce- it gels the sauce together really well.

Also mushrooms love garlic.

I use cheap spaghetti (cut up slightly when cooked) as noodles in stir frys etc.

I don't know if kids would notice as there are none to test it on, but DP certainly doesn't.

I freeze peelings of veg/broccoli stalks etc in a bag then when I've got lots I boil it up as stock, or chick it in with whatever meat bones I'm using as stock.

Splash of Worcester sauce in chilli gives it a nice kick.

Yy to pasta water- works especially well when making carbonara sauce.

Peel ginger with a spoon.

Don’t do the following:

1. Add Parma ham to a stir fry - it’s gross
2. Microwave lazy garlic - you’ll have to move house because of the stench
3. Run out of breadcrumbs/cornflakes and roll chicken in crunchy nuts cornflakes - my DNan did this one and it was f*ing revolting

You’re welcome!

When baking brownies line the pan with aluminum foil and you can just lift them out of pan once they cool. The easy way to do this is to turn the pan upside down and mold the coil over the bottom, folding at the corners. Then turn the pan right side up and gently push the shaped foil into the pan.

If a tomato (or any) sauce is too sharp/acidic add bicarbonate of soda. Only a tiny bit though!

I followed Nigella's tips for poached eggs the other day and it worked:

Refrigerate the egg, place the egg in a strainer to let the very liquid white drip away, slide the egg into a cup and slide it into barely simmering water. You end up with a perfect looking egg with no stringy bits of white floating in the water.

She also squeezed a bit of lemon juice onto the egg while it was in the cup, but I didn't do this.

Another good way to thicken a too watery sauce is to mix up a teaspoonful each of flour and butter into a paste, and stir it in.

Beurre manié