Stokes Sauces: Continued Chinese New Year Celebrations

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Continued Chinese New Year Celebrations

Culture, Cuisine & Competition

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/page/chinese-new-year

The Spring Festival is technically 15 days. But celebrations start on New Year’s Eve (making it 16 days).

You can also say that the holiday season starts in (lunar) December with the Laba Festival (腊八节—là bā jié). That’s around 40 days of celebrations!

QI: Showering isn’t allowed New Year’s Day. Sweeping and throwing out garbage isn’t allowed before the 5th February. This is to make sure you don’t wash away the good luck!

What else is taboo during Chinese New Year?

Hair cutting (before February 2)
Using scissors, knives and other sharp things
Arguing, swearing
Saying unlucky words (such as “death” and “sickness”)
Breaking things

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 Eat

Char Siu Pork

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/product/special-collections-and-gift-packs/chinese-new-year-collection

Here's how:

This is so simple and truly delicious. First make a marinade using 2 tbsp of honey, 5 tbsp of Stokes Hoisin Sauce, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tbsp of Stokes Tomato Ketchup (or 1 of Tomato and 1 of Chilli Ketchup), 2 inches of fresh ginger (grated) and 2 tbsp of rice wine or dry sherry.

Spoon this into a sealable food bag and put a 500 g fillet of pork in the bag. Leave it to marinate at least overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 5.

Pour hot water into a roasting tin with a rack. Put the fillet on the rack (save the marinade) and roast it for 45 minutes.

While the meat is resting, put the marinade in a pan with a little of the cooking liquor to make a pouring sauce. Serve it with rice or noodles, they're equally sensational.

Ginger Tofu Stir-Fry

Here's how:

First the marinade. Mix 1 tbsp of Stokes Sweet Chilli Sauce, 1 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce, 1 tsp of Chinese 5 Spice, 2 inches of ginger (grated), 2 tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of soft brown sugar.

Cut 250 g of firm tofu into cubes and pop them into the marinade. (TIP: Use a toothpick to prick holes in the tofu. This will help it take on the marinade.)

Stir-fry 200 g of sliced pak choi with 1 inch of ginger (finely sliced) in very hot groundnut or vegetable oil for 2 minutes, then add 125 ml of dry white wine for 2 minutes more and set the vegetables aside.

Add a little more oil to the wok and gently cook the tofu for 7 or 8 minutes (retaining the marinade). Add the marinade to the tofu and simmer for 2 minutes. Serve the tofu over the greens with plain boiled rice. Enjoy.

Teriyaki Salmon

This is a very simple way to add 'wow' to humble salmon steaks. Serve the salmon with noodles combined with the stir-fried pak choi (above). The soft noodles and the moist salmon go really well together.

Here's how:

Use 2 x small or 1 x large salmon fillet each. Make a marinade of: 2 tbsp of Stokes Sweet Chilli Sauce, 2 tbsp of Stokes Hoisin Sauce, 2 tbsp of honey, 2 tbsp of dry sherry, the juice of 1 lime, 4 tbsp of soy sauce and - yes you guessed it - 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated.