What secret/special ingredient do you add to certain food/dishes?

mama67

I add a Kalo organic Garlic & herb stock cube to pretty much everything. I gives a very subtle garlic taste without being too intense.
Also use it when cooking both rice and pasta, just dissolve in the water first.

Olliebeak

A good dollop of HP Sauce in my Cottage/Shepherd's Pie gravy.

A good dollop of Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce in my Minced/Diced Turkey Chilli.

jackieglasgow

I add a sachet of barbeque sauce from Burger King to my fajitas, just the one, and it adds a nice sweet tangy taste without being overpowering, the kids always notice if its not there!

meritaten

I love roasted garlic veg - and ALWAYS sprinkle over it a good dessertspoon of sugar before putting it in the oven. the sugar seems to help bring out the vegs natural sweetness and also helps it caremelise so the veg can be nicely browned BEFORE it turns to mush!

lucid

To one punnet of prepared strawberrys i add I tablespoon of vanilla sugar and I teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and leave for about an hour before serving. It makes them taste sublime.

Tartare sauce. tomato ketchup and pepper to make a sauce for prawns.

Homemade damson vodka, cointreu and orange juice in 1 part, 1 part , 2part mix shaken with lots of ice to make a fab cocktail that we cant think of a name for yet ( being as the amount of this i make tend to be quite large cant think of much at all afterwards) mabee as it turns a wondefull shade of red I should name it " The bloody forgetfull"!

Hippeechiq

I use 3 dessertspoonfuls of original Branston Pickle in my Corned Beef & Potato Pie

Love the sound of the balsamic vinegar and vanilla sugar over strawberries :drool:

Vaila

might sound a bit weird, but i always add some black pepper to raspberry yoghurts

stiltwalker

Some good ideas on here that I shall have to try.

Mine are

Cummin in chilli con carne.
Thai sweet chilli dipping sauce in lots of things from sausage casserole to marinades for chicken thighs/drumsticks.
Spread a thin layer of chutney onder your cheese for really yummy cheese on toast.
Horseradish sauce in mayonnaise dressing for potato salad

Sure I've got loads more but that's all I can think of for now.

emiff6

The only thing I think I do different is to put dessicated coconut in treacle tart instead of breadcrumbs. And when I make custard tart, I put the nutmeg in the heating milk, rather than sprinkle it on top of the tart, so the whole thing is infused with nutmeg flavour.

Whenever I don't have all the ingredients I substitute, but never write down what I do, so if it turns out great, I can't usually recreate it.

Numptys_lass

I like a tiny sprinke of salt on my Banana Sandwich, It's much nicer than it sounds, it brings out the Banana taste