Chinese New Year - celebrating Chinese culture & cuisine

Welcoming the Year of the Pig

In China the New Year is also called chunjie (春节), or the Spring Festival. It’s still very wintry, but the holiday marks the end of the coldest days. People welcome spring and what it brings along: planting and harvests, new beginnings and fresh starts.

Because it is the Lunar New Year there's no fixed date for the holiday which can range from January 21st to February 20th.

This year it is on 5th February.

The celebrations are marked by a day of prayer to the gods and to chasing off monsters. Across the world, the greatest number of fireworks than for any other occasion will be set off to scare away the monsters - they obviously work.

To celebrate the event, we will be sharing some simple but tasty Chinese style recipes with you. We've created a special collection of sauces to help create authentic tastes with minimal fuss.

AND we're running a competition over the period.

For details of the COMPETITION
and to ENTER, click here

(or the image above). 

Let's celebrate

Prawn Chow Mein

An absolute classic - and as easy as they come.

Here's how:

Preparation is the key to any Chinese cooking as usually the 'main event' is a fairly swift, hot stir fry. The more finely you slice the ingredients, the faster they will cook.

(TIP: if you don't like the vegetables too crunchy, par-boil them first, particularly broccoli, cauliflower, carrots etc.)

For this, slice 5 or 6 spring onions, 1 carrot, a good handful of mange tout and about an inch of fresh ginger. Fry them in a wok or large pan in a little vegetable or sesame oil and add 200 to 250 g of fresh peeled prawns.

As they start to turn from grey blue to pink, add 1tbsp each of Stokes Sweet Chilli Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Chilli Ketchup and Tomato Ketchup. Meanwhile, cook 225 g of medium egg noodles to the packet's instructions, drain and set aside.. When the prawns are cooked, add the noodles, combining all the ingredients well and serve.

Beef in Hoisin Sauce

This is as mouthwatering to write about as it is to read about - and loses absolutely nothing in the mouthwatering eating.

Here's how:

Again - slice, chop, prepare. Grate a garlic clove and slice about an inch of fresh ginger. Slice an onion, 2 or 3 courgettes, 2  small bok choy and 100 g of mushrooms (oyster if you can get them).

Finely slice 200 g of sirloin steak (removing the fat and sinew). Make a marinade for the meat using 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of dry sherry, the garlic and the ginger. Coat the steak well and leave it for half an hour.

Fry the onion in sesame oil for 3 minutes then add the courgette, bok choy and the steak (marinade and juices too), stir frying it for 3 or 4 minutes before adding the mushrooms for 2 minutes more. Stir in 3 tbsp of Stokes Hoisin Sauce for 2 final minutes and serve with noodles or plain rice.

Steamed Sea Bass

This might sound quite a big step forward but it's simpler than it sounds and really worth trying. If you can get whole sea bass, do, but it works with fillets too.

Here's how:

If, like me you don't have a steamer, use the grill tray with boiling water in it, the fish on the rack and loosely cover with foil (TIP: leave the foil loose so that  you can check on the progress of the fish).

If using fillets, 2 each makes a good main course. Preferably, 2 medium sized whole fish will serve 4. Slice lots of fresh ginger into thin matchsticks, Score the skin 3 or 4 times and rub the fish with Stokes Sweet Chilli Sauce.

Stuff the cavity with ginger and put a layer of ginger on the top. Lay the fish on the rack then the rack over steaming water (not boiling), then cover with foil. Now very carefully put the tray in the oven pre-heated to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

Timings will vary according the the fish. For fillets, 4 or 5 minutes will be sufficient. Two small whole fish will need 12 to 15 minutes. Larger, 15 to 20 minutes. Check the fish by running a knife down its rib line (on the side) where the flesh will start to flake. Serve the fish on a bed of stir fried vegetables with boiled rice on the side.

Stokes 'Chinese New Year 5' Collection

Buy your collection here 

and save 10% off the individual product price.

More foodie thoughts for the week:






Chinese New Year Competition - aromatic duck, hoisin sauce and much more here.








 


'The Simple Life' - easy 'just add inspiration' suppers here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

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