Stokes Sauces: 'At Home' with Stokes - simple, tasty, honest home cooking

Wednesday 3 October 2018

'At Home' with Stokes - simple, tasty, honest home cooking

From freezer & fridge to the plate

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/page/sauces/ketchup-and-sauces

It's always fun trying something different - a new recipe, twist or ingredient you haven't tried before or want to make more of. Our busy lives don't favour us with the time to play though. Sometimes it's a struggle just to get something tasty on a plate.

Well, that's where Stokes comes in. Our sauces, mayonnaise, mustards, preserves, chutneys and other condiments are all intended to make good, honest food taste better still.

And this is not by simply spooning it onto the side of the plate. That works too of course. It works very well indeed.

Because our ingredients are so good and such care has been taken to find, test and include them in our own home-grown recipes, you can trust in those ingredients when planning a meal.

If your casserole flavours need beautiful ripe Italian tomatoes with gentle notes of sweetness and spice - just add Stokes Tomato Ketchup to it. If you want a pepper sauce with smoky depth and a warming chilli hit, add Stokes Chipotle Ketchup and our Chilli Jam to the basic roux.

Why, because the ingredients we use in our award-winning sauces are the ingredients you need to build the flavours you're looking for.

Bring on the flavour

Simple Sausages

We love a deliciously warming sausage casserole but often, particularly when using good butcher's bangers, the casseroling spoils their texture.

So, make a wonderfully thick vegetable soup whilst the sausages are baking in the oven, then add them to the soupy vegetable for a few minutes before serving. You get the best of both worlds.

Boil thickly cut carrots in a pan with a chicken of beef stock bouillon, lid on.

While this is happening and the sausages are roasting on a medium heat, in a casserole or pan soften sliced onions, fennel and big chunks of celery.

When the carrots are soft, stir 2 tbsp of flour into the onion mixture with 2 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard. Tip the carrots and their cooking liquors into the casserole, stirring well. As it thickens, add 3 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce and 2 tbsp of our Tomato Ketchup.

When the vegetable casserole is the consistency of a thick soup and the sausages are cooked, add the sausages and let the whole thing simmer, lid-on, for 10 minutes and serve.

Frozen Lasagne Plus

Last night's supper was lasagne, shop bought chilled, frozen and defrosted during the day. They are usually quite good as they are but this lucky lasagne got a Stokensian lift.

Before putting it into the oven as directed, I spread Stokes Classic English Mustard over the top and grated Cheddar cheese over this. Then, into the oven with it.

That gave me 35 minutes to make a flavour-packed additional sauce. In a tall, narrow pan goes a good knob of butter (or oil), chopped onion, celery, fennel and two red peppers (deseeded and chopped).

After 5 minutes, stirring regularly, cover the contents with boiling water and half that depth again of more water. Add a beef stock bouillon, 2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam, 3 tbsp of Stokes Tomato Ketchup and 2 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce.

With a hand blender (much used in our kitchen) blitz the contents to a smooth, thick sauce. If it needs thickening, add a slice of bread and blitz again.