Reader recipes is back! Forget your celebrity chefs Bake Off, Masterchef and all the other TV Cook-alongs, we want you to share your favourite recipes so we can publish them for the pleasure and culinary inspiration of the Great British public.
The last time we invited family favourites, we got a bumper selection of goodies from readers. We hope you’ll dig in and send us your quick wins, showstoppers, go-to mid-weekers and even guilty pleasures.
For your chance to see your recipe on 50connect, email [email protected].
Here’s a selection of previous reader recipes with everything from Turkey stew to delicious berry cocktails. Enjoy!
Our favourite reader recipes
Theresa’s Coronation Chicken
“This is one of the tastiest versions of Coronation Chicken and is one I am always asked for, for buffets.”
Ingredients
- 3lb cooked chicken
- 2 oz butter
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion
- 1 level tbsp curry powder
- Flour to thicken
- ½ pint stock
- 1 rounded tsp tomato purée
- 2 rounded tbsp apricot jam
- Juice ½ lemon
- ½ pint Hellman’s mayonnaise
- 3 tbsps single cream
For the sauce
- Heat oil and butter in a pan, add chopped onion and soften.
- Stir in curry powder, add flour and cook.
- Stir in stock, tomato purée, lemon juice and jam.
- Stir until boiling then simmer for five minutes.
- Place in a bowl and leave to cool.
- Add mayonnaise and cream, stir well then blend.
- Pour over diced/chopped chicken.
- Be careful when reheating – mayonnaise curdles.
Louise’s chocolate cherry marzipan bites
If you’ve iced a Christmas cake and have marizipan left over, this is a great way to use it up. The festive bites can be used as a gift as well as a treat for guests or yourself.
Ingredients
- Glace cherries
- Marzipan
- Dark chocolate
Method
- Roll out the marzipan.
- Take some glace cherries, and wrap each one completely with a piece of marzipan, pinching ends together.
- Melt the chocolate. A minute in the microwave, then stirring and testing every 10 seconds, seems to work well.
- Skewer each of the wrapped cherries and dip into the chocolate until coated.
- Place on aluminium foil and leave to set.
Alan’s turkey stew
- Strip turkey carcass and put meat aside
- Boil carcass in water for about 2 hours, then strain
- Keep the stock and dispose of bones
- Add approx 250g each of lentils, mixed beans, pearl barley that have previously been soaked overnight and cooked as per instructions on bag
- Add chopped onions, herbs, garlic, salt & pepper to taste
- Bring to boil, add prepared herb dumplings – recipe on ATORA packet, chopped turkey meat and simmer for 20 minutes
- This needs to be cooked in a stockpot. It will freeze well.
This recipe also works well for chicken and rabbit but not with rabbit stock, use chicken stock.
Jeanette’s 10 minute microwave dumpling
Put the following in a pot:
- 4 oz Brown Sugar or Castor Sugar
- 8 oz Sultanas
- 8 oz Currants
- 4 oz Margarine
- ½ Pint Water
- 2 Teaspoons Mixed Spice
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
Method
- Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes
- Remove from the heat, let cool slightly.
- Add 8 oz Plain Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
- Mix Well
- Line at least 2 pint size, casserole dish with cling film.
- Put mixture in casserole and cook on high in Microwave for 10 Minutes
- Remove from casserole to oven plate – removing cling film
- Gently dry off in oven to form skin
Anna’s berry vanilla twist cocktail
Ingredients
- 25ml freshly squeezed orange juice
- 25ml spiced winter berries cordial
- 25ml raspberry liqueur
- 75ml vanilla vodka
- 1 tbsp plain natural yoghurt
- 25ml sugar syrup
- 2 ice cubes, for shaking
Method
- Place the orange juice, spiced winter berries cordial, raspberry liqueur, vanilla vodka, yogurt, sugar syrup and ice in a cocktail shaker.
- Shake thoroughly, strain into an old-fashioned glass, garnish with boozy berries and serve.
Anna’s spiced banana & walnut cake
Ingredients:
- 250g (8oz) self-raising flour
- 125g (4 oz) butter/margarine
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 125g (4 oz) caster sugar
- Grated rind of one lemon OR hearty squeeze of lemon juice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 bananas, mashed to within an inch of their lives with a fork – the squishier the better – it helps if they’re softish to begin with
- hearty handful of walnuts
- hearty handful of sultanas
- 6 heaped tbsp honey
Method:
- You will need a cake tin, or a loaf tin. Alternatively, double the quantities of everything and use a roasting pan.
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
- Mix sieved flour, nutmeg and cinnamon into a big mixing bowl, and rub in the margarine with your fingers. Yes, your fingers, those things on the ends of your hands. Make sure they’re clean and then rub the dry stuff with the marg until you end up with a sort of breadcrumb mixture.
- Use a big wooden fold in the sugar, eggs, lemon, sultanas, walnuts, mashed bananas and honey. The mixture will seem too dry at first, and very sticky. Once you add the bananas, it will get all gloppy, not to worry!
- Pour the whole gloppy lot into the cooking receptacle of your choice and then bake for about 70-80 minutes, depending on how efficient your oven is. My fan oven is like a furnace at any temperature, so it only takes an hour. Your mileage may vary. You’ll know it’s done when:
a) the top is golden brown, the colour of, um, white toast and
b) when you jab it with a sharp knife (I’m going to assume you don’t own a skewer, because really, who does?) the blade comes out clean, or just a little bit moist. - Leave it to cool for a bit (the nuts and sultanas are like molten lava when they come out of the oven) and then chop into slivers and eat lightly buttered with a nice cup of tea.
You can justify the fact that you’re eating cake by reminding yourself that it’s actually got bananas in it and therefore it can count towards your daily fruit and veg quota. Honest.
Where to send your reader recipes:
All we need from you is an email with your reader recipes and an image of your dish. It would be really helpful for the 50connect community if you could list the ingredients and also the steps to follow (method) when making it. If you are clear on that, just send it all off to [email protected] and we’ll let you know when we publish it on the site!
For more recipes like this visit our Food & Drink channel.
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