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By The Dinner Service: The Spag Bol report
Tuesday 22 July 21:05
Tried the Spag Bol for tea. It was OK but it still had that taste of something that's come out of a tin. I don't mean I never use tinned stuff - I use tinned tomatoes all the time for example. But with something like minced beef, as soon as it goes into a tin, other things have to be added such as thingydextrose or whatever it is and even if it's M&S, the flavour is impaired. I now have a taste in my mouth which I wouldn't have if I'd made it from scratch.

By Broomstick: I mean (2 Replies)
Sunday 20 July 16:53
pil pil of course

By Broomstick: Piri piri prawns
Sunday 20 July 16:51
Anyone else done this? I did it today, with lovely fresh large raw prawns, but it didn't taste as I wanted it to taste. Somehow the garlic didn't come through, I don't know why. Used fat ones as per recipe. I wondered if it might help to steep the garlic in the oil a bit first. Praps it's just us and our taste buds today, but was disappointed. Anyone have any thoughts or tips?

Having a big cheat day (1 Reply)
Sunday 20 July 15:36

Just made Spanish tuna salad with peppers, olives & artichokes. Absolutely lovely. Don't be tempted to miss any of the ingredients out as they all play a definite part. Highly recommended.

Having braised steak with mushrooms and madeira sauce for supper later.

Lin

By Maryyem: cream
Sunday 20 July 11:32
Forgot to click the notify me box! oops!

By Maryyem: Cream (1 Reply)
Sunday 20 July 11:31
It's me again, out in Yemen! I want to make a lemon tart today, I have everything except double cream, I do have whipping cream (French, I think it is longlife) would it work in a tart?? Have used it in an onion tart and it was okay. Anyone out there got an idea? Thanks

By The Dinner Service: Spaghetti Bolognese (2 Replies)
Saturday 19 July 16:45
One of Matty's requests this week is for a Spag Bol and as I knew I was passing an M&S yesterday thought I'd try Delia's. So that's on the menu for some time this week. Couldn't believe how much the mince was though - £2 a flippin' tin! The Dress sauce however is on offer this week in Asda - down from £1.64 to £1. had to steal the 2 tablespoons of red wine from OH's bottle when he wasn't looking and popped it in the freezer. Tee hee.

By oscarthegrouch: Lemon Tart (1 Reply)
Friday 18 July 10:27
How easy could this be? Assembling the ingredients, mixing all of them together, pouring mixture into the tart case, baking, cooling. Hey presto! It does look & taste good as well.
Will definitely make this again- this time with meringue.

By gi gi: Vietnamese spring rolls with dipping sauce (1 Reply)
Thursday 17 July 09:35
Watched and loved Delia's 'How to Cheat' program on telly. Decided to make the spring rolls for my ladies' bridge night as an alternative to sandwiches. First stop Waitrose - managed to get all ingredients except for the spring roll wrappers. Proceeded to Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Costcutter and Co-op. None of these stores carried the wrappers. Costcutter and Morrisons were on Delia's cheat product list. What is up with this? BTW, I made the 'thick onion tart w/cheese & sage' on pg. 205. Delicious!!!

By The Dinner Service: Cauliflower Cheese & Broccoli Soup (8 Replies)
Monday 14 July 15:20
had this last night and it was lovely. Of course I ended up doing the non-cheat's version, buying a whole cauli and broccoli florets and grating my own cheese, to save money. Had some mascarpone left over in the fridge so replaced some of the milk with a few dollops of that. had to put more than double the quantitiy of cheese in though as no matter what recipe I use for things like cauliflower cheese etc, I never find them cheesy enough. Quite delicious though. Finished it off this lunchtime with Grilled Spanish Onion Salad, a recipe from my Bible but I'm sure that's one of Delia's too.

By Jameseybaby!!!: So, we've done this before but who cares...... (29 Replies)
Saturday 12 July 11:45
What are our own cheats???????????????

By Pam: Shrimp Dip (1 Reply)
Thursday 10 July 13:55
Ooops I think I put this in the wrong area!
(Couldn't find any 'posting a new recipe' instructions!)

By Pam

Shrimp Dip (1 Reply)
Thursday 10 July 13:52

This is a great dish to have with barbecues! (Or anytime of the year come to that!)
It's not really a 'dip' as you put it on crackers!
(I normally have to multiply these amounts by 3 or 4 as it's very popular!)

Please note these are American measures, but quantities don't have to be that accurate.

1 8oz. pack of soft cream cheese. ( i.e. Philadelphia or similar.)
Half a cup of mayonnaise. ( I just guess this!)
3 hard boiled eggs. ( mashed.)
1 small finally chopped onion.
1 4oz. can of shrimps.( I always use frozen prawns, ( thawed & drained.)
A pinch of garlic powder.

Mix all the ingredients together & bake in a reasonably shallow dish,( pie dish, lasagne dish etc. will do.) at 350degrees F. ( 180 C. Gas mark 4.) for approx. 20-25mins. ( until it resembles a scrambled egg type texture.)
Allow to cool & serve with crackers.
This can be covered in foil & frozen if needed, & then just allowed to thaw when required.

By toadinthehole: Mushroom Risotto
Wednesday 09 July 23:04
My goodness this is good. Seems it can't really be possible - risotto in a frozen bag from Asda - but wow how wrong can you be. I did all the fancy bits - soaking the porcini in wine and it honestly tasted as if I had done all that standing at the hob stirring for ages and ages and ages. Nice if you can lol about just sipping wine and chatting to your friends - but when 2 hungry youngsters were back soaked from school and one smashing 73year old nan shattered after a long journey to visit us - did this hit the spot!! Go and get some now and don't buy one bag (contains four small packets inside) buy two!! I would say we must be a little hoggy though as we ate rather larger portions than Delia recommends.........best freezer standby so far.

By The Dinner Service: Michael's Club Sandwich for lunch.... (20 Replies)
Monday 07 July 13:32
.....but then again one might argue it wasn't Michael's Club Sandwich at all - I grilled my own bacon, cooked my own chicken breasts, just put all the fillings between two slices of bread as I didn't have toothpicks, didn't have any cornichons left so used the bigger gherkins. But boy did it taste good! I do love a good sandwich - with decent bread and REAL butter!

By samcat-lynlet

goulash - results (7 Replies)
Monday 07 July 12:50

i made the goulash on friday. i was a bit disappointed really, it was a bit bland. my m-in-law didn't really eat much of hers.

has anyone else found this? if i make it again i'm going to be tempted to ramp up the amount of paprika (sweet and hot) quite considerably!

By Essex Girl: Aunt Bessie, etc. (3 Replies)
Saturday 05 July 07:02
My extremely- new-at-cooking husband did some of the Cheat roast potatoes with melting cheese and they were delicious! He has also done the oven-sauteed potatoes with onion. Loved those, too!

By Joyce: Mini Chocolate Tarts (4 Replies)
Friday 04 July 19:57
I made chocolate tarts, (using the Fairtrade choc truffle sauce from M & S) using the mini tartlet cases, sold in 32's, also from M & S. What a great party piece. I made them as part of a buffet meal and they were a huge success. Size of jam tarts, but filled with the lovely choc mixture.
Joyce

By Merrie: Pineapple Mint ... (3 Replies)
Friday 04 July 16:53
... I have some and it smells lovely but not sure how or what to use it in. Anyone any ideas ? Thanks.
Merrie xxx

By classixuk: One whole nutmeg for grating (12 Replies)
Friday 04 July 13:58
This keeps appearing in the cheat book.
And I have to say, it doesn't feel much like cheating to me.
I understand that Delia says ground nutmeg isn't the same, so does anyone know where you can buy ready grated nutmeg?
I mean honestly, Delia even says buy grated cheese to save time, but I think I could probably grate a block of cheese faster than half a nutmeg! What's going on?
Should I just use ground nutmeg? If so, how many teaspoons are equivalent to one whole grated nutmeg?

By classixuk: Cornichons! (9 Replies)
Thursday 03 July 23:10
If you've stopped to read this, you must be wondering what on earth they are?
Or perhaps you have discovered that Sainsbury's are the only one of the big 3 that sell them (even though the staff have never heard of them either).
So I'd like to ask some of the more experienced cooks/chefs...what is the difference between a cornichon and a gherkin?
By the way, I sit here typing this to the divine smell of Delia's Lightening Lasagne and Potato, Roquefort, Sage bread cooking in the oven! God I hope it tastes as nice as it smells. :)

By The Dinner Service: More comments on some of the "How to Cheat" recipes (11 Replies)
Wednesday 02 July 11:39
I tried the recipe (can't remember the name but I think it's the first one in the book) with the roast potatoes, cheeses and spring onions for dinner last night. We both thought it was pretty awful. How Delia can say that everyone likes Aunt Bessies Roast Potatoes I have no idea. They are so incredibly dry and tasteless. I threw some top quality dry cure smoky bacon in, cut up into strips and we had fried eggs on top but it didn't help much. Just in case you think I only come on here to slag off Delia's recipes, I thought the Garlic Prawns were yummy as was the Pomboli and my partner loved the Black Forest Ham Soup.

By samcat-lynlet

goulash (3 Replies)
Wednesday 02 July 10:12

any tips?

making it on thursday and wondered if anyone has anything to add to the HTC recipe?

By jeni_hope: 5 minute Panna cotta tip
Tuesday 01 July 18:40
I made this for the second time today, but with strawberries this time. I haven't got any mini pudding basins only big ones so I used 350g containers that the wild mushroon sauce came in for the braised steak recipe.
There are 3 of us so the full quantity recipe made 3 decent puddings half filling the tubs - and with the tops snapped back on they stacked nicely in the fridge.

By The Dinner Service: Coffee Ricotta Mousse (5 Replies)
Monday 30 June 23:45
Has anyone else tried this cheat recipe. I thought it was disgusting - so incredibly bitter. It felt like I was eating raw coffee powder. I went back and checked the recipe again in case I had made an error. I am so disappointed.

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