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

[Namechabged]

Mine is equal measures of buttermilk and mayo, and then double of Greek yogurt, half the juice of one lemon, two tbsp of dried Parmesan, a teaspoon of dill, garlic granules, Maldon seat salt, onion powder, and cracked black pepper.

Makes that amazing ranch dressing you get on the side of fried shit in America and is great for pizza crusts but you can also make kids eat ANYTHING dipped in it.

I’ve watched my kids enthusiastically eat celery, radishes and green peppers which aren’t normally things they will eat raw.

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!

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.)

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Soy sauce on breakfast mushrooms.

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

Brownies up thread Mella

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.

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.

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

I'm am now really hungry!

Mine is stuffed mushrooms.

• take stalks off and put the mushrooms in the oven for 20 mins (if large, less otherwise). 'Done' is when they still have shape but are soft ish. 180 degrees for oven
• dice and fry stalks with garlic until soft
• mix the stalks and garlic into chopped up Stilton
• fill mushrooms with the Stilton mix, sprinkle shop bought Freud's breadcrumbs on top and return to oven for ten minutes

I've had people who dislike mushrooms ask for seconds!

Mmmm shamelessly placemarking.

Oh, and very quick apple tart

Roll out a packet of puff pastry, spread generously with Biscoff spread leaving a 2cm margin, then cover the Biscoff spread with thinly sliced apples. Roll up the pastry margin to make a juice barrier, dot some butter/sprinkle sugar over the apples, then bake for 20 mins at 200C.

Placemarking.

My sausage rolls (well actually it's my DGM's recipe).
Half sausagemeat, half pork mince. Squish them together thoroughly. Messy but strangely satisfying, definitely remove any rings!
Shortcrust pastry - must be homemade. Use half as much fat as flour, by weight. Half the fat to be butter, half to be lard, or at least a decent hard block baking fat. Flour - half self raising, half plain. After rubbing it in, use just a splash of water to bind if necessary.
Use at least 2 layers of eggwash, allow to dry if possible between coats.

I made those peanut butter cookies with the children this morning @AnneLovesGilbert. They were amazing, thank you!!

Ooh I make something very similar to your ranch dressing all the time. Best recipe I've ever found online. 50/50 sour cream/mayo, all the herbs and stuff that you listed (except parmesan) plus chilli flakes, dried parsley and dried chives.

I sometimes do add parmesan and anchovy paste (instead of salt) to make caesar dressing.

Love this thread, thanks OP.

So many of these I am going to try!

And cheese toasties in a frying pan:
Spread full-fat mayonnaise on the slice of bread that's going to be facing down in the (dry, quite hot) pan. Build toastie in pan with cheese, ham, spring onion and another slice of bread spread with mayo on the outside. When bottom slice of bread is browned, flip so that the top side becomes the bottom one. The egg in the mayo crisps and browns the outside while the cheese melts inside....