Fish Friday - deliciously simple fish for Friday supper

Fish Friday Flavours


There are many different theories as to the origins of eating fish on Fridays and other holy days.

One such feeling is that a powerful medieval pope made a secret pact to prop up the fishing industry to transform global economics.

The result: Millions around the world end up eating fish on Fridays as part of a religious observance. Dan Brown himself would have struggled to come up with this plot line.

The 'economic' reasoning has been denied rather than disproved in favour of the more generally accepted theological associations with the death of Christ.

Demand for fish was such that its supply became a major problem inspiring clever thinking. Herring was most readily available but was tasteless when smoked or salted to preserve it. Well, there was no Stokes Tartare Sauce or Creamed Horseradish Sauce way back then.

Cod became popular and the Vikings' ability to preserve it was adopted. So the search for cod was on.

The route the Vikings took at the end of the first millennium across Greenland, Iceland and Newfoundland matched up with the natural range of the Atlantic cod.

Historical clues suggest that fishermen from Bristol headed out for Newfoundland around 1480, even before Columbus and Cabot set sail.


Fish Fingers

How times have changed but not our hunger for seafood. Now though we reach into the freezer, fry a few fish fingers, pop them in a sandwich (or this fish finger tortilla wrap) with Stokes Real Mayonnaise and our award-winning Tomato Ketchup.

If that's not tempting your taste buds try this:

Fish Finger Pie: 

Fry slices of red pepper until soft then add a tin of baked beans to heat through. Cook the fish fingers as directed. Now build the layers in an ovenproof dish - peppers and baked beans; several good glugs of Stokes Tomato Ketchup; the fish fingers next; then cooked mashed potatoes on top with a grating of Cheddar cheese to finish.

Pop the whole thing under a hot grill until the cheese browns and bubbles ... gosh it's good.

Fabulous Fish 

What are your Fishy Favourites?

What is your favourite fish dish for Fish Friday and what tips can you share from your kitchen to ours. Tell us anything that might make our friends and readers think ... 'of course', what a wonderful idea.

Let us know on Facebook or Twitter and we'll send something tasty to the 'family flavourite' we most want to try.


Simple Sea Bass

Here's how:

Use 1 fillet each for a starter, 2 each for a main course. Dust both sides of your fillets in a little seasoned flour. Melt a good knob of butter in a frying pan.

Put the fillets in the pan skin side down and fry for 2 minutes, initially pressing the fillets flat with a spatula. Carefully flip the fish over and cook for another 2 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and set the fish aside, keeping it warm.

Put more butter in the pan returning it to the heat then de-glaze it with a glass of white wine. Add the zest and juice of 1 lemon and 2 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce creating a sweetly spiced lemon sauce for the fish. Serve with green beans and new potatoes, all in season locally now.

Comforting Cod

This is another dish that shows just how quick and easy it is to enjoy a healthy piece of fish.

Here's how:

Use a good skinless cod loin each, about the size of the palm of your hand.

Grate the zest of 2 oranges and segment them (so there's no pith or membrane). In a pan, fry 1 finely diced onion in oil for 5 minutes then add a handful of pitted olives, the orange zest and segments, 1 tbsp of chopped thyme leaves, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam and 2 or 3 tbsp of Stokes Tomato Ketchup.

Let this bubble gently for 10 minutes with the lid on then add the cod pieces, replace the lid and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes more until the fish is just cooked.

Try serving this with thick pasta such as buttered pappardelle.

Stuffed Lemon Sole

These delicate little sole fillets are stuffed with seasonal British leeks. This makes a wonderful starter with 1 fillet each or a main course of 2 each served with new potatoes.

Here's how:

First the leeks. Finely slice 2 or 3 leeks (according to size) and fry them in butter.

After 5 minutes, when they are soft, stir in a glass of white wine, the juice of 1 lemon and 2 tbsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard, season and cool.

Spoon the leeky mixture onto the middle of each sole fillet, roll them and secure each with a toothpick.

Put the sole rolls on a buttered baking tray and cook for 12 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180°C/Gas mark 5. 

Awesome Autumn - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







Love British Food - delicious vegetables, fruits and fungi here.










 

National Cake Week - simple Autumn baking to enjoy here.











Family Flavourites - enter our foodie sharing competition here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

Love British Food - for the love of great taste

British Food Fortnight (part 2)

We're half way through British Food Fortnight, a celebration of the fantastic foods we grow, rear and fish and the wonderful people that do the growing, rearing and fishing for us.

Not only has our fruit and veg not had to travel half way round the world, but it tastes good too.

As the leaves colour and Autumn dawns, the variety of fresh local goodness is the best it could be.

Indulge in local cauliflowers, courgettes, leeks, carrots, sweet corn and runner beans. Brussels sprouts are back, hooray, but they don't need to go on for Christmas lunch just yet.

Beetroot is getting much better press with lots of simple recipes using the earthy flavours and vibrant colour of this wonderful root.


Glorious Food

Chicken Corn & Peppers

We had a beautiful free range roast chicken on Sunday; cold cuts with gravy and roast potatoes on Monday and this delicious 'instant' casserole on Tuesday.


Here's how:

In oil or butter, gently fry sliced onion, peppers and celery for 6 or 7 minutes until it softens. Add a handful of roughly chopped mushrooms (we actually tear chestnut mushrooms in chunks for a better texture to the dish when cooked).

Now add the kernels cut from a fresh corn cob (or 2), 1 tsp of chopped thyme leaves and 1 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam (the peppers love it). Stir in 1 tbsp of flour, some lovely dry English cider and enough leftover gravy and / or chicken stock to develop a simmering pan of vegetables, fruit and fungi.

Add 2 or 3 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce (to deepen the flavour with its sweet molasses, dates and spice). Now add the leftover chicken cut or torn as you prefer for 5 minutes.

When the meat has warmed and the flavours married, serve spoonfuls of your chicken corn & peppers with fresh runner beans, peas and new potatoes.

Spicy Cauliflower Steaks

Cauliflower cheese is top of the pops in our household, particularly with Stokes Classic English Mustard in the cheese sauce, but this has become a recent hit.

Try it with baked Cod or grilled Tilapia.

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 6.

For the spicy marinade mix 1/2 tsp of ground cumin, 1/2 tsp of ground turmeric, 1 tsp of crushed fennel seeds, 1 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam, 1 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce and 2 tbsp of Stokes Hot & Spicy BBQ Sauce (or our Chipotle Ketchup for similar smokiness and a little less heat).

Slice a medium cauliflower head vertically into 4 tree-shaped 'steaks' about 2 cm thick. Rub the marinade onto the cauliflower steaks coating them well, particularly into the grooves.

Cook each steak in a little British rapeseed oil for 5 minutes each side then transfer them to an oiled baking sheet and top them with halved small vine tomatoes. Put them in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until the steaks give when prodded with a knife.

Brussels Sprouts & Sweet Potato Hash

Colourful, tasty,  and good fun, topped with poached egg and mock Hollandaise sauce. This is fabulous mid-week seasonal goodness. If anything spells Autumn it's this.

Here's how:

Peel and chop 2 large sweet potatoes into chunks and plunge them into boiling water for 7 or 8 minutes until they are soft, drain, cool and set aside.

Thinly slice 2 red onions and fry them in rapeseed oil. After 5 minutes add thinly sliced Brussels sprouts for 2 minutes.

Now drain and add the sweet potato to the pan, roughly crushing them with a fork. Stir in 2 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce and 1 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard and leave the hash on the heat until the bottom starts to caramelise (burn!).

For the Mock Hollandaise:

Mix 4 tbsp of Stokes Real Mayonnaise with 1 tsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard, 3 tsp of lemon juice. Melt 50 g of butter in a pan and gently drizzle it into the mayonnaise mixture, whisking as you do. Stop when you reach the 'runny sauce' stage. Season and add more lemon juice to taste if needed. Spoon the sauce onto a poached egg on a plate of seasonal no-meat hash.

Awesome Autumn - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







Fish Friday - try these simple, tasty fish suppers here.










 

National Cake Week - simple Autumn baking to enjoy here.











Family Flavourites - enter our foodie sharing competition here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

Autumn Baking - for National Cake Week

Oh for a slice of cake


A mug of tea, slice of cake, curtains closed, a bowl of shiny conkers on the table and The Navy Lark on Radio 4 Extra - welcome to Autumn.

Tomorrow is Macmillan's - 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning' -  and we will be having coffee, cakes and cookies in the office at Stokes.

For cake baking and loving, Lynn Hill founded the Clandestine Cake Club and started National Cake Week in 2011. This year it runs from 1st to 7th October - what a good excuse to get baking.

Well, who wouldn't celebrate a gooey chocolate cake, fresh fall apple bake and 'oh so lemony' lemon drizzle cake?

We're going to celebrate them right now and bake them this weekend.


Autumn Baking

Autumn Fall Apple Cake

You'll need:

• 225 g of self raising flour
• 175 g of butter
• 175 g of golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp of Cinnamon
• 3 tbsp of Stokes Bramley Apple Sauce
• 3 apples, peeled and cored

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5

Beat the butter and sugar then add the apple sauce and the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sieve the flour and cinnamon into the wet mixture, stirring it in. Cut one of the apples in half and save it for dressing.

Roughly chop the rest of the apples and stir them into the mixture.

Spoon the batter into a greased 2lb loaf tin, slice the reserved apple and press the slices into the top of the cake mixture before baking for 40 to 45 minutes.

Oozing  Chocolate Cake

You'll need:

• 135 g of butter
• 55 g of cocoa powder
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 350 g of sugar
• 110 g of plain flour
• 1 tbsp of Stokes Blackcurrant Extra Jam
• 1 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 3 eggs

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 5.

Melt the butter and set the pan aside. Add the cocoa, sugar, flour and vanilla to the butter and stir it all together.

Lightly whisk the eggs and fold them into the mixture. Add the jam and chilli jam and combine the mixture well.

(The deeply sweet blackcurrant jam with its tart finish works so well balanced with the chilli jam and the gooey chocolate loves them both - so will you.)

Spoon it into a lined, buttered 7 - 8 inch springform cake pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

The top should just crack to a gentle touch. The inside should be truly runny, so be careful when removing and cooling it then dust with icing sugar. 

Lemon Drizzle Cake anyone?

You'll need:

• 225 g of butter
• 225 g of caster sugar
• 225 g of self-raising flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 lemon, finely zested
• 3 tbsp of Stokes Lemon Curd
• 2 lemons, juice of
• 85 g of caster sugar

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/Gas mark 4.

Beat the sugar and butter together then add the eggs one at a time beating each in well before adding the next.

Stir in the flour, lemon zest and lemon curd. Once the mixture is well combined, spoon it into a lined, greased loaf tin and bake it for 45 to 50 minutes.

For the drizzle: Mix the juice of 2 lemons into 85 g of caster sugar.

When it has cooled, prick the top of the cake with a fork and drizzle the glorious icing all over it.

Awesome Autumn - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







Fish Friday - try these simple, tasty fish suppers here.












Love British Food - delicious vegetables, fruits and fungi here.











Family Flavourites - enter our foodie sharing competition here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

Family Flavourites - sharing tips and fishy favourites

Family Flavourites


What are your Fishy Favourites?

In the main newsletter - here - we're sharing some very tasty recipes for Fish Friday. What is your favourite fish dish for Fish Friday and what tips can you share from your kitchen to ours. Tell us anything that might make our friends and readers think ... 'of course', what a wonderful idea.

Let us know on Facebook or Twitter and we'll send something tasty to the 'family flavourite' we most want to try.

Click on the picture to share your Family Flavourites

What's happening 
on Facebook & Twitter


Mrs @StokesSauces shared her cod bake recipe using the wonderful Asian flavours of Stokes Sweet Chilli Sauce to give it a fresh new dimension. Very tasty.

How's this for breakfast on Saturday. A great idea from The Table Cafe, runny eggs, sweet bacon, toasted bread and Stokes Tomato Ketchup. You don't win awards making 'ordinary' ketchup - what a mouthwatering marriage.

More thoughts for Fish Friday. The only real decisions to make are what sauce to have with your fish 'n' chips - not easy.

Hey you guys - yes you. Keep all this food talk down will you, we're trying to watch  the final episode of Bodyguard on catch up. I don't know, it's all ketchup this and ketchup that with you humans. OK, press play, we'll try again.

More foodie thoughts for the week:







Fish Friday - try these simple, tasty fish suppers here.



    







 Love British Food - delicious vegetables, fruits and fungi here.












National Cake Week - simple Autumn baking to enjoy here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

The Great British Roast - the classics making Britain Great.

Looking forward to Sundays

The Sunday Roast is a truly British foundation with roots going back to the late 15th Century. Current meat based favourites (there are some lovely vegetarian alternatives these days) feature Chicken, Lamb, Pork and Beef.

Beef is considered the 'authentic originator'. King Henry VII's Royal Guards chose and were given roast beef each Sunday for lunch after church. Their association with beef reflected in the name of Beefeaters which they proudly adopted and keep to this day.

Beefeaters went on to have Prawn Cocktails for starters and Black Forest Gateau to finish!

Whilst the meat on the plate is crucial, much work goes into creating the finest of roast potatoes.

White and fluffy on the inside, golden and crunchy outside. Parboiling, cooling, shaking to fluff them up, goose fat and patience.

And the pièce de résistance - the Yorkshire Pudding. Once it was only associated with roast beef but now, most Brits enjoy it with every form of roast.

As a Yorkshireman, our family always had a Yorkshire Pudding as a starter. The size of a large side plate, the roasting tins were revered, wiped with kitchen roll (never washed) and kept in a special drawer.

The supreme tick in the taste box is the gravy - quality and quantity. Covering the soft bottom to be mopped up with the crisp pudding sides - wow - is it Sunday Mother?


What are your Sunday Roast essentials?

Please - we are asking you to share your favourite roast dinner components; your family secrets; amazing recipe ideas; how to make the perfect roast potatoes; anything that our readers might think - 'of course', what a wonderful idea.

Let us know on Facebook or Twitter and we'll send something tasty to the 'family favourite' we most want to try.


Roast Chicken

It's difficult to beat a juicy roast chuck. We all have our favourite ways of preparing, cooking and serving our bird.

We like moist white flesh, delicious brown meat and a crisp brown skin.

Here's our tip:

The combination of steaming the bird as she roasts gives us the juiciest results as well as a perfect stock gravy.

Make a vegetable trivet in the roasting tin by criss-crossing celery sticks, fennel wedges, onion slices, a lemon (quartered) and a red pepper (thickly sliced).

Add a few sprigs of thyme and pop the chuck on the top. Pour boiling water into the trivet just below the bird.

Cover tightly with foil for the first three quarters of the roasting time and remove it for the last. Pour off the ample cooking juices to use as the stock for a gravy.

To a roux, add 2 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard and 175 ml of good dry west country cider. Use your cooking liquor and a chicken stock bouillon to make the gravy - lots of it.

Roast Beef

"Super succulent every time" is what Jamie Oliver likes from his roast beef and this is how he does it.

Jamie's method:

Drizzle the beef (1.5k topside) with olive oil and season it well with salt and pepper then place it on a bed of assorted root vegetables in a roasting tray.

Put the tray in a pre-heated oven at 200°C/Gas mark 6. 1 hour will give you a medium finish so if you prefer medium-rare, take it out 5 or 10 minutes earlier.

Yorkshire Puddings:

There's only one chap for Yorkshire pud reference and that's James 'all butter' Martin. He puts 200g of plain seasoned flour in a large bowl, stirs in 3 eggs (one at a time) then slowly whisks in 300ml of milk to make a smooth batter.

Chill it for at least 30 minutes in the fridge. Put 4 tbsp of vegetable oil in the holes of a 12 hole muffin tin and get it really hot in the oven, pre-heated to 220°C/Gas mark 7 for 5 minutes.

Carefully ladle the batter mix into the the holes and bake for 30 minutes until they have browned and risen.

Stokes Creamed Horseradish Sauce:

We get our horseradish from a lovely chap called Robbie in Essex. He mixes half wild root with half cultivated root, shredded and washed.

The cultivated root gives it consistency and the wild root builds the perfect flavour.

We add cream to smooth the texture and harsher flavour, leaving a warming beef-friendly sauce.

Stokes Creamed Horseradish Sauce - it's a delight for discerning palates. We love it.

Coca Cola Gammon Joint

If you haven't tried this you really should. The coke cooking makes this sweet joint sweeter still. Then, when finished in the oven with a honey and mustard glaze, it is pure joy on a Sunday, Monday and Tuesday too.


Here's how:

Put a 2 kg gammon joint in a deep pan, cover it with water and bring it to the boil. Simmer for 5  minutes then drain off the water. This removes any excess salt.

Cover the joint with coke (about 2 ltrs) and chop an onion into the pot with it. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Then let it sit in the hot liquor for a further 20 minutes.

When you're ready to roast it, pre-heat the oven to 240°C/Gas mark 9. Cut the skin off, leaving a layer of fat which you score, criss and cross to create diamonds across the joint.

Put the traditional cloves in each diamond and brush with 2 tbsp of black treacle and 2 tbsp of Stokes Classic English Mustard. Put the joint into a roasting tin then into the oven for 15 minutes to brown the bubbling glaze.

Hot or Cold ~ just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:






Cold cuts & cool pies - from 'lush' to luxurious here.







 



Chocolate & Beetroot Cake for British Food Fortnight here.












Family Flavourites - sharing the yum in your family's tum here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

British Food Fortnight - celebrating our glorious garden

Our island of glorious food

#lovebritishfood is sponsored by the Co-op and is a celebration of the fantastic foods we grow, rear and fish and the wonderful people that do the growing, rearing and fishing for us.

We thought we knew all the good reasons to buy British and buy local but these husbandry facts endorse that wholly:

Did you know that British meat is produced to the highest welfare standards in the world. Our pig farmers operate to UK law which is higher than every other EU country.

Britain's cattle passport system means each animal can be uniquely traced to its dam and place of birth. Our chickens are the safest in Europe with just 2% showing manageable salmonella against 30% of European chuks.

Eating British fruits and vegetables in season is so good for you. Apparently, such foods in season contain nutrients, minerals and trace elements that our bodies need at particular times of the year. (Source ('Love British Food').



The Best of British - starter, main and pud

Poached Salmon

This succulent piece of Scottish salmon is poached and served as a starter on a seasonal salad of goodness. It's worth it just for the dressing.

Here's how:

Assemble your ingredients for the salad. Cook and cool your green beans. If you plunge them into iced water as soon as you lift them from the boiling water they will keep their distinctive colour.

Combine this with slices of seasonal fennel, red onion and radish. Chicory works well here too.

Gently poach your salmon steaks in vegetable stock until just done and set it aside to cool down to 'warm' rather than 'hot'.

For the dressing:

In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp of Stokes Mustard & Dill Sauce; 1 tsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard; and a good drizzle of rapeseed oil whisked in to combine the mixture to a runny dressing.

 British Pork Tenderloin

You'll need:

• 1 pork tenderloin (or more depending on size)
• The juice of 2 lemons and the zest of one
• 1 tbsp of runny honey
• 1 tbsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard
• 1 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard
• 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp of chopped thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp of chopped rosemary.

Here's how:

For the marinade mix the lemon juice, zest, honey, oil, mustards and herbs, then season. Pour this into a sealable bag with the pork and marinate for at least an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/Gas mark 7. In an ovenproof pan, seal the meat in hot oil for 6 or 7 minutes, turning the meat to seal all sides. Put the pan in the hot oven for 20 minutes or so. Check that the juices run clear when pricked with a skewer.

Serve with seasonal vegetables and new potatoes - and enjoy.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

This is one of those 'must try it to believe it' recipes. It's so moist it can be served as a dessert course with cream or more chocolate as a ganache.

You'll need:

• 75g of cocoa powder
• 175g of  plain flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 250g of caster sugar
• 250g of cooked beetroot
• 2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam
• 3 eggs
• 200ml of rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Sift the cocoa, flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix in the sugar.

Blend the beetroot to a smooth paste and spoon this into a bowl. Beat in the eggs, chilli jam, vanilla extract and oil, beating to a smooth paste.

Now fold in the dry ingredients, beating them well together. Pour this into a lined, greased 20 cm cake tin and bake for 50 minutes.

When it has cooled, dust it with icing sugar and be proud to have made it and dared to serve it for tea. You won't be disappointed.

September sensations - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







The Great British Roast - tips and techniques to share here.





 

 


Cold cuts & cool pies - from 'lush' to luxurious here.




 






Family Flavourites - sharing the yum in your family's tum here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150