This is a thread for CC members to share their favourite recipes, their top tips for cooking, or simply to discuss food ideas. :ok:

CHEATS CHOCOLATE TRIFLE.

This is a fantastic Trifle, and so easy to make. I found it best to get the chocolate from Sainsbury's....when I used chocolate from other supermarkets, I found it slightly bitter in the trifle.

Serves 8
Ingredients

3 double-chocolate-chip American-style muffins- DON'T use swiss roll instead as it will become too soggy.
7 oz (200 g) dark chocolate (75 per cent cocoa solids) -Sainsbury brand is best.
1 x 680 g jar pitted morello cherries, drained and soaked overnight in 3 fl oz (75 ml) dark rum
2 level tablespoons cherry/raspberry jam or conserve
9 oz (250 g) mascarpone
14 oz (400 g) fresh custard
10 fl oz (275 ml) whipping cream

You will also need a trifle bowl or serving dish with a capacity of 4 pints (2.25 litres).


You need to start this recipe the day before you want to serve it, and all you do at this stage is soak the drained cherries overnight in the rum. The next day, begin by slicing the muffins horizontally in half, then spread each slice with some jam and weld the slices back together to their original muffin shape. Now cut each one vertically into 4 pieces approximately ¾ inch (2 cm) wide, and lay these all around the base of the trifle bowl or serving dish. Now take a skewer and stab them to make holes, then strain off the rum the cherries have been soaking in and sprinkle it all over the muffins, scattering the cherries on top.

Now, reserving 2 oz (50 g) of the chocolate for decoration, break the rest up into squares. Place the broken-up chocolate in a large heatproof bowl, which should be sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Allow the chocolate to melt slowly – it should take about 5 minutes to become smooth and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan and give it a good stir, then let the chocolate cool for 2-3 minutes.

While that's happening, put the mascarpone in a bowl and beat to soften it, then add the custard and whisk them together. Next whisk in the cooled melted chocolate, then pour the whole lot over the soaked muffins and cherries. Now whip the cream to the floppy stage, then carefully spoon this over the trifle, Lastly chop the rest of the chocolate (using a piece of foil to protect it from the heat of your fingers as you steady it), shredding it very finely. Sprinkle the shreds over the surface of the trifle, cover with clingfilm and chill until needed.

:D

CARROT CAKE

2 x 9” Round Cake Tins

8 ounces (200 grms) Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarb
1 tsp Ground Cinamon
½ tsp Salt
4 Eggs
12 ounces (300 grms)Golden Gran Sugar
8 Fluid ozs Corn or Sunflower Oil
12 ounces (300 grms) Grated Carrot
4 ounces (100 grms) Chopped Walnuts
8 ounces (200 grms)Tinned Pineapple (chopped – about 8 rings)
OR
8 ounces (200 grms) Raisins – 1 ½ cups.


FROSTING
12 ounces (300 grms) Cream cheese (340gram tub) Philli is best.
6 ounces (150 grms) Icing Sugar
1 Lemon – Zest and Juice.


1. Beat together Egg, Sugar and Oil. Add Carrots, Nuts, Pineapple (or Raisins) – mixing between each addition.

2. Pour mixture into prepared tins and bake at 180c (Gas Mark 4) for 30 – 35 minutes until cake starts to shrink from sides and knife comes out clean.

3. Frosting: STIR (folding) Cream Cheese with Icing Sugar, Lemon Zest & Juice until light and fluffy but not runny. Cover cooled cake with frosting.

4. Optional: Decorate with Fresh Flowers and attractively cut Carrot Slices, Marigolds and Nasturtiums are both edible & continue the ‘Orange’ theme of Carrot.

Go Mo! :clap: :clap: :clap:

My recipes won't eb so organised, I don't measure much and use my instinct and taste so they coudl all go horribly wrong for people. :unsure:

Liams booze buster:

ingredients:

half a loaf of mighty white bread
half a tub of margerine
oven chips
salt and vinegar (and ketchup if you like that sort of thing)

cooking method:

1.come home drunk from pub
2.shove oven on (temperature depends on how blurry your eyesight is)
3.put chips in oven
4. shove lashings of marg on the bread
5.get your arse on the couch and watch a bit of telly for half an hour, setting your alarm in case you nod off
6.take chips out and put on the bread, then use seasoning of your choice
7.wake up in morning wondering why your on the couch covered in chips

Well the chocolate trifle I found on the web and the Carrot cake I had already copied from a friends cook book....so not really my wording. :rolleyes:

:D oooo think I might try this one Liam. I like a challenge. :P Does it work as well with mayo and raw chopped onions per chance :unsure: :unsure:

Here 's one I made yesterday - I didn't follow a recipe, I saw this woman on TV do somethign similar and then guessed. I made ti cos I really had to use up coriander and didn't want to make curry.

CARROT AND CORIANDER SOUP

Ingredients

Depends how you like it, if you want it thicker or more chunks, use more veg. And you don't need onion, I just like them

Carrots - I used 4-5 decent sized ones
Onions- I used four very small ones, equiv to a medium one?
FRESH Coriander - used half a bunch of pre packed stuff
Vegetable or chicken stock (boil up the ends of leeks, carrots etc to make a fresh one as I did and I added a chicken stock cube)
Plain unsweetened yoghurt.
Olive oil or butter
Salt
Fresh ground blackpepper
paprika
fresh grated ginger

Chop onions finely, grate carrots. Fry them in a large cast iron pan as you don't want to burn but soften them, you might need to do this in batches depending on how much you use. Chop the coriander up roughly, make sure you use the stems to cos they add loads of flavour. (Save some leaves back for later) and add thsi to the mix, fry briefly to release the flavours of the stems. Pour in some stock (depending on how thick you want it) and grate in some ginger, salt and pepper, paprika (all to taste) bring to boil them leave to simmer to allow flavours to develop and veg to soften. Then blend in some yoghurt, just gives it a slightly sour edge, and take your hand mixer to it and blend to required consitency. It will taste better fi you leave ti overnight in fridge for flavours to develop. When you serve it put a swirl of yoghurt on top and some coriander leaves.

Geroge said ti was very good and he's fussy so I was quite pleased. :ok:

i've been looking for as good carrot cake recipe for ages - cheers Mo :hug:

roflmao

The Masterchef contestant had better watch out for you! :lol:

Oh its divine so do try it, you won't be disappointed. It went down a treat during last christmas :D :D

Well you can alter the recipe depending on your level of intoxication :) Chopping onions is usually far beyond me when drunk :cheers:

Chunky Chilli Beef

Ingredients:

stewing or braising steak cut into small pieces
1 clove garlic - crushed
herbs of your choice - I use coriander and basil
300ml beef stock
3 tablespoons tomato puree
dried chillies (optional)
? tspns hot chilli powder (I tend to just bung in loads - experiment for the level of hotness you want)
red pepper cut into strips
tin red kidney beans
red wine - to stock up sauce if need be

Method:

brown meat with the garlic, herbs of your choice and chilli powder and dried chillies if using, in large saucepan.

In meantime, make up stock and stir in tomato puree (feel free to add extra if you want it a bit more tomato-y).

When meat is browned, stir in stock, turn down heat so simmering and cover.

Leave to cook for two hours - checking occasionally and stirring - if the liquid looks to be getting a little low, add red wine (does give it a nice tang so you may want to add anyway!).

After two hours, uncover, add pepper and kidney beans and cook for a further half hour until the meat is falling apart.

Serve with accompanient of your choice and lashings of sour cream.


If you have a slow cooker - brown the meat and just add it with the stock and cook on low heat for five to six hours - even nicer that way!

i wonder if that will work as a veggie recipe pebs??? :unsure: maybe i could just exchange the beef for quorn :blink:

Here's a really easy but scrummy supper dish, good around Bonfire night etc, hence the name! My mum does it, I copie dhere and add my own stuff.

BONFIRE JACKET SPUDS (stuffed jackets)
You can add whatever fillings you like to this. The basic cheese and onion one is fab, you can use ham, bacon and I like tuna. You can add things liek chilli sauce too.

The aim of this is to basically bake your spuds in the oven as normal. Use a metal spike to get them done quicker. When ready leave to cool a bit or you'll burn yourself like I tend to. Then slice them lengthways in half, be careful the skins don't break. Scoop out the potato and put it in a bowl with seasoning and a bit of butter and mash it up roughly. Then take yoru fillings, e.g.g chopped onion and grated cheese and stir them through the potato mix. Then you put the filling back into the skins and bake in the oven until bubbling and golden. You can prepare in advance and fridge them. Simple but very tasty. :)

I love chilli, I ALWAYS use a slow cooker after brownging the mince and onions, it seems to develop more flavour liike you say :ok:

Tell you what I add - cumin - the seeds have a warm earthy flavour that compliment chilli and coriander. You can fry them off to release the flavour, or just chuck a few in. And/or a bit of mixed spice adds depth. And I like fresh chilli but you need to watch ti cos they can be too much fi you go mad. :D

:lmaao:

I don't even get that far - cheap kebab / burger / pizza / anything else that makes me feel even worse than I would have done anyway in the morning is usually the order of the day. Will post some more sober Wise Analyst recipes when I can remember the last time I got more adventurous than a fry-up. :ok:

Savoury rice

Rather than that awful packet stuff, i tend to make my own using redyellow and green pepper, mushrooms and onions chopped quite small. when its all bpoiled mix it with boiled rice and fry in a tiny bit of olive oil. really tasty and looks good on the plate

I'll post you some fo my pizza and kebab recipes then :D

Stolen entirely from the vegetarian society's website, I made this a few weeks ago (although not for 12 people i must say :yikes: ) and it's really really nice, and actually fairly simple.

VEGETARIAN PAELLA
Vegan

Serves 12
Ingredients:

60-75 ml/ 4-5 tbsp sunflower oil
3 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 red peppers, chopped
450g/ 1 lb button mushrooms
225g/ 8 oz frozen peas
350g/ 12 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into 1.25c m/1/2" slices
2 x 450g/ 1 lb cans chopped tomatoes
900g/ 2 lb long grain white rice
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp saffron
1.8l/ 4 pts vegetable stock (boiling)
to taste salt and freshly ground black pepper
225g/ 8 oz green olives, chopped
175g/ 6 oz toasted cashew nuts
handful fresh parsley, chopped

Method:


Preheat the oven to 190C°/ 375F°/ Gas 5.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok and fry the onions and garlic over a medium heat until starting to colour. Add the peppers and mushrooms and fry for 3 minutes. Transfer to a large casserole dish.

Add the peas, green beans, chopped tomatoes, rice, and paprika. Mix the saffron with the boiling stock and pour into the casserole dish, simmer for about 5 minutes.

Cover the casserole dish and transfer to the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed. (Alternatively, simmer altogether in a large pan on the hob)

Season to taste and leave to stand for about 5 minutes

Stir in the olives and serve sprinkled with the toasted cashew nuts and fresh parsley.

ooo thanks for that SB - I like the idea of cumin :ok: I would use fresh chillies but tbh, I am soooo lazy I just get the jar of dried ones out! :blush:

I have a craving for a kebab at the moment - loaded with chilli and garlic sauce... so def post some kebab ones (though I am craving the terribly greasy jobs in a pitta bread)

Thise dried ones can be really hot! I know cos I once used too much :lol:

Ginger in a chilli is nice too, fresh stuff. I love ginger as you might welel guess.

I don't like them. I've tried doing chicken ones in skewers on teh barbie, very good indeed! :ok: Not the saem doing them indoors though. Let em see what I can come up with cos again, I kind fo made the marinade up!

I reckon it would hun - just wouldnt need to cook it for as long - I have a nice simple mexican chilli rolls which would work well with quorn instead -

ingredients

250g mince (or quorn)
red onion
400g tin chopped toms
chilli powder
garlic clove crushed
400g kidney beans
red leicester cheese
sour cream
spring onions, chopped
small tin sweetcorn and mixed peppers
tortillas


Method

brown mince with onions and garlic

stir in chilli powder (as much as you want - I just tend to sprinkle it in good and proper and add cayenne pepper for extra spice)

add chopped tomatoes and kidney beans and simmer for twenty mins until cooked through

In meantime, mix sour cream, spring onions and sweetcorn in a bowl and grate cheese - again, pretty much use as much as you like

Warm up tortillas as instructed and spoon mixture into the tortillas - normally makes about enough for six tortillas and sprinkle cheese on top and fold over

Cut slices into the tops of each tortilla and spoon the sour cream mixture into the gap.

I love them - especially when completely bladdered but - and this is the oddest bit - I love them with a really strong, sweet tea :unsure:

oooh - i like that one too! i haven't done tortillas in ages :ok:

JO - if you make a chilli whay bother with quorn? Just use lots of beans - a lot of mexican food is just the beans. Try those refried ones, you cna get them in tins form Old El Paso, I liek them just tarte dup with chilli sauce and cheese in a tortilla.

Yep, that would do it - although, if you give me two ticks, I have a chilli bean stew floating round here somewhere that would be perfect for you...

'cos i'm not a big fan of beans, but have been told i need to eat them to get more iron in my diet. i kinda try to "hide" them in the rest of my food. And quorn is a great camoflage.......plus, it gives a different texture. i think that's one of the things about having quorn mince or pieces in food - not so much the taste, but it's just a complementary texture.

Oh right! Shame you don't like beans much cos they are so versatile. :( I often use them instead of meat for texture. When I was veggie I was actualyl never a fan of quorn - I went to the bean end of the scale, I used to liek bean burgers an awful lot, and nut burgers too. Still do.

okay, found it - I have not tried it yet - its one I copied out of a Waitrose mag and have to hand to try soon

Chilli Black Bean Stew

Ingredients

1-2 tsp Belazu Rose Harrissa
150g Black eyed beans
1 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions diced
2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped
2 x 400g cherry tomatoes
100g chopped apricots
1 tsp ginger

method

warm oil in large pan over medium heat and add onion and chilli. Cook for five mins until softened. Add ginger and cook for further five mins.

add harissa to the pan to taste, followed by apricot pieces, mixing well.

stir in cherry toms and beans and return to heat, uncovered, for further five mins until hot.

serve with dollops of greek yoghurt, fresh coriander, cous cous, rice or tortillas.

i'm a big fan of Quorn. Can't stand Linda McCartney's stuff though :sicky: the thing with cooking with quorn though is that it's very very dry - it's confused a lot of my mates 'cos it looks so much like meat, but it doesn't cook in the same way as meat - you need to add a lot of liquid. More importantly, quorn mince and pieces don't really have a taste of their own - they tend to take on the taste of whatever sauce you put them in, unlike meat which tends to flavour whatever you cook with a meat taste. I do like some of the flavoured quorn stuff though - like the fillets and burgers and stuff, but also like other vegetable burgers and stuff.

It's most likely improved Jo since I was veggie. Back then there were so few products. Tbh real mince can taste of nothing and just absorbs flavours too (unless it's quality stuff) so the principle is similar, and I now get what you mean :)

I used to love Linda Macca's stuff, but then we had little choice then and we used to slather the suasages in sauce cos they were dry :D I used to use Beanfeast a lot, a sya mix, and add to that. The spag bol one was great if you added to it cos it was bland otherwise. It was a soya base. I don't suppose you liek soya then?

harrisa is a North African chilli puree - I trie dit in Tunisia, they used to put it on the side in olive oil. You need to handel that with care :ok:

I'm kind of reluctant with North African cooking cos I loved it out there, but it is never quite right when i try to do it myself. :( I've nver tasted couscous as great as they do ti out there, in trestaurants or otherwise.

oh, the veggie stuff i had in egypt was just amazing!!!! they seemed to make most of their meals as mainly veggie and then just add meat. Plus i gained a love of falafal which i never believed i could have - we used to get falafal in pitta bread for the equivalent of 5p from a roadside vendor :ok:

Linda mcCartney's stuff is just odd tbh. It doesn't taste quite as nice as quorn. But i guess when she started making it, there was very little else around. Soya is alright, but it's the same sort of principle i thinj - takes on the taste of whatever it's cooked in. Although i don't like the texture as much as quorn

Me too, LOVE falafel :wub: MY firend was veggie for years, she has been to Egypt loads and loves the food. Used to be a regular at the Blue Nile restaurant in Nottingham, do you knwo of it? I think ti closed down recently and she was gutted. :(

Middle Eastern cuisine is really nice, although hard to immitate and hard to find in this country in restaurants. And it's great for veggies. Tunisian fodo si interestign cos it is quite basic yet tastes so fresh and yummy. They use a combination fo Middel Eastern Arabic influence and Meditteranean. It's light and simple and spicy.

Yep, that's the thing. There was little around back in the 80s. So much more choice now. That's one reason i kicked being a veggie cos I could never get a decent meal in a restaurant - it was always the poor realtion on the menu, and still is in many places. :( Shame cos I don't want meat all the time, and so many vegetables are great flavour carriers that you can cook almost anything with them. They do seem to whack everything in cheese or eggs and they are nto always the most health conscious choices - nto that I'm a saint with fodo cos I'm not but it annoys me when I'm forced to eat fatty food and don't fancy it.

that's fairly unusual these days i must say - a lot of places have very good veggie menus and come up with interesting ideas. Most places will have a veggie alternative to a Sunday Roast as well - with varying success. A lot of of it does come down to cheese and eggs, but you've gotta remember that actually veggies need eat cheese and eggs fairly regularly because it's how they get a lot of the protein that they lose from not eating meat. A lot of the stuff which is based on cheese tends to be a vegetable pasta bake or whatever, which kind of balances itself out.

Gotta say, they're worse up north for not having decent selections - but most will at least do you an ommlette.