British Egg Week - no puns, just great food

British Free Range Eggs

We are in the middle of British Egg Week with tomorrow, 12th October, being World Egg Day. This is a little celebration of eggs, their versatility and frankly, the joy of eating them.

Britain consumed 12.2 billion eggs in 2015 and demand is growing but the number of free range eggs are few and British Welfare Standard free range laying hens far fewer still.

That's probably why we are so proud of the fact that we only use eggs from British Welfare Assured free range hens in our award-winning Real Mayonnaise.

Eggs feature in many ways. They can be the star on the plate, topping a burger or oozing down the side of a bacon & egg sandwich. And of course they are a vital ingredient in many many recipes.

How do you like yours: 

...in Yorkshire puddings, omelettes, scrambled, poached, fried, as a frittata, en cocotte - for breakfast, lunch and supper. Tell us your Family Favourite egg-based recipe, a secret from your kitchen to ours, and we’ll send something tasty to the idea we most want to try ourselves. 

Share your kitchen secrets on Facebook or Twitter.

Omelettes

Mushroom Perfection

Here's how:

Whisk 3 eggs in a bowl with a teaspoon or two of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard then let it rest while you cook the mushrooms.

Add sliced mushrooms to foaming butter in an omelette pan, softening them for 2 or 3 minutes before adding a couple of good glugs of Stokes Brown Sauce. Set them aside in a bowl, wipe the pan clean and pop another knob of butter in it.

Be sure to rotate the butter round the edges of the pan. Add the eggs and move the pan around to spread them out evenly. Gently push the eggs from the side to the middle letting the softer centre roll out to the edges.

Spoon the mushrooms onto one half of the omelette, roll the other half over and slide your omelette onto a plate.

 
Smoked Salmon

Here's how:

Beat 3 eggs with a fork and add: 1 tsp each of finely chopped parsley and coriander.

Whisk in a drop of single cream and 1 tbsp of Stokes Mustard & Dill Sauce.

Put a knob of butter in an omelette pan and when it begins to foam add the egg mixture and swirl to coat pan.

Push the liquid and tilt the pan for about 2 or 3 minutes until the omelette is almost set.

Add a generous grating of Gruyere cheese and flakes of hot smoked salmon steaks, fold and serve with a scattering of chopped chives.

Autumn Berries

Here's how:

Mix 3 tbsp of Greek yogurt together with 2 tbsp of Stokes Lemon Curd and set aside.

Whisk 3 eggs with 25 g of muesli and a pinch of cinnamon.

Put a knob of butter in an omelette pan etc etc as above ... until the omelette is set, then transfer it to a plate.

Spoon the lemon yogurt onto one half of the muesli omelette with assorted seasonal soft fruits.

Fold to create egg-wrapped berries and drizzle with runny honey.

It's amazing !

British & Free Range. 

They are in our luscious Lemon Curd too !

More foodie thoughts for the week:








RNLI Fish Supper - tasty Fish Friday to toast to the RNLI here.

   









Deliciously Autumn - more seasonal recipes for you here.

  

   




 

How do you like yours - share your eggy secrets with us here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

 

Awesome Autumn - a harvest of colour and taste

The season of buttery mash 
& glossy gravy

My local butcher had trays of home made faggots behind the glass once again - it must be October.

All we have to do is make the gravy, mash the potatoes and sautée the peas with celery & fennel, adding a spoon of Stokes Dijon Mustard and poaching with a little chicken stock.

I just can't stop adding Stokes to big up the flavours and harness the taste.

For instance, the mashed potatoes here are finished with a couple of spoonfuls of Stokes Creamed Horseradish Sauce and the gravy is given a sweet, date puree and spice twist with a couple of good glugs of Stokes Brown Sauce.

 
Awesome Autumn Suppers

Lovely Lamb Shanks

The beauty of this dish is that once prepared, you just pop it in the oven and forget it for a couple of hours then - wow.

You'll need:

• 4 lamb shanks (1 each)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 celery sticks, chopped
• 2 carrots, ditto
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 2 x cans of chopped tomatoes
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved 
• 2 tsp of Stokes Mint Sauce
• 4 tbsp of Stokes Tomato Ketchup
• 175 ml of beef stock
• 1 tbsp of thyme leaves, chopped

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/Gas mark 4.

In a frying pan, sear the shanks on all sides and set aside. In a large ovenproof casserole with a lid, fry the onion, celery, carrots, garlic and thyme until the onion has softened.

Stir in 2 tbsp of flour then add the tinned and fresh tomatoes, the mint sauce, ketchup and the stock.

Place the lamb shanks into the simmering tomato gravy making sure they are well covered (add more stock if you need to) then put it in the oven with the lid on and find something to do for a couple of hours.

Remove the meat just before it literally falls of the bone, set it aside and reduce the liquid to a luscious gravy. Serve with piles of buttery mashed potatoes, or this cheesy celeriac bake.

Cheesy Celeriac Bake

Delicious with anything.

You'll need:

• 2 banana shallots, roughly chopped
• 1 stick of celery, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard
• A grating of nutmeg
• Mature Cheddar cheese for grating
• 2 tbsp of thyme leaves, crushed
• 500 ml of milk (ideally full fat)
• 150 ml of crème fraîche
• 1 large celeriac sliced to 2mm thick pieces

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5.

Now we're going to infuse the milk by simmering it with the garlic, onion and celery for 10 minutes.

Strain of the solids, leaving the infused milk. Add the celeriac to the milk, simmering for 10 minutes only.

Lift the celeriac out of the milk and layer it into a buttered baking dish. Add the crème fraîche, thyme and mustard to the milk, stir it together then pour it over the celeriac to just cover it.

Grate lots of lovely Cheddar over the top and bake for 40 minutes until the celeriac is soft below a blanket of bubbling golden cheese.

Chicken with Mushroom Gravy

Well, it's a little more than that. The mushroom gravy is flavoured with brown sauce and grainy mustard and the dish is served with a vegetable and apple hash.

Here's how:

Roast a chicken breast joint each on a bed of thyme, limes and orange (sliced) to give it a delightful citrus finish.

For the vegetable hash, crush any leftover vegetables (or create a new batch of leftovers, cooled and crushed).

Thinly slice an onion and an apple. Fry them gently in butter and 3 tbsp of Stokes Bramley Apple Sauce for 10 minutes until caramelised. Tip the crushed vegetables into the apple sauce and fry until the base browns.

Make a rich gravy and whilst it's bubbling, fry off a punnet of mushrooms with some thyme leaves, 2 tbsp of Stokes Brown Sauce and 1 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard, then literally just tip it all into the gravy and simmer for 5 minutes to marry the flavours.

Make Autumn Awesome - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







RNLI Fish Supper - tasty Fish Friday to toast to the RNLI here.








 




British Egg Week - no puns, just very tasty recipes here.







 





How do you like yours - share your eggy secrets with us here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

The chat, the tweets and more Family Favourites

Family Flavourites 

How do you like yours: 

Eggs feature in many ways They can be the star on the plate, topping a burger or oozing down the side of a bacon & egg sandwich. And of course they are a vital ingredient in many many recipes.

How do you like yours ... in Yorkshire puddings, omelettes, scrambled, poached, fried, as a frittata, en cocotte - for breakfast, lunch and supper. Tell us your Family Flavourite egg-based recipe, a secret from your kitchen to ours, and we’ll send something tasty to the idea we most want to try ourselves. 

Share your kitchen secrets on Facebook or Twitter.

Click on the picture to share your Family Flavourites

What's happening 
on Facebook & Twitter


Paul here responded to last week's Family Flavourites and shared his quince recipes with us here. I can see how it's delicious sweetness works with Stokes Chilli Jam as he suggests.
 

If you are going to the Suffolk Farmers' Market at the Trinity Showground on Saturday13th October, then come and say hello and taste something new perhaps.

Not just an Everton fan it would seem. You have good taste in quality sauces from Stokes too. 'Come on you ketchup...'. 'Come and 'ave a taste if your taste buds' up to it'.

Ooooh, nice reminder Mrs @stokessauces this is a very tasty combo. I think the prawns love Bloody Mary Rose Sauce as much as I do.

More foodie thoughts for the week:







RNLI Fish Supper - tasty Fish Friday to toast to the RNLI here.











 British Egg Week - no puns, just very tasty recipes here.












Deliciously Autumn - more seasonal recipes for you here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

 

Autumn fruit and vegetables - shred it, roast it, bake it.

Autumn on a plate

One day I found two pumpkin seeds.
I planted one and pulled the weeds.
It sprouted roots and a big, long vine.
A pumpkin grew; I called it mine.
The pumpkin was quite round and fat.
(I really am quite proud of that.)
But there is something I'll admit,
That has me worried just a bit.
I ate the other seed, you see.
Now will it grow inside of me?
(I'm so relieved since I have found
that pumpkins only grow in the ground!)

Minded to this child's poem, I found the words but not the author - if anyone can help with that?

Vines, gourds, pumpkins - they are all synonymous with Autumn and there's so much we can do to enjoy them and the other great fruits, roots & veg we're blessed with at this time of year.


Autumn Fruits, Roots & Veg.

October Coleslaw

You'll need:

• 4 tbsp of Stokes Real Mayonnaise (or Garlic Mayonnaise)
• 3 tbsp of natural yogurt
• 2 tbsp of Stokes Dijon Mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp of chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp of chopped coriander
• 1 celeriac, grated or finely julienned
• 3 carrots, grated (lengthways)
• 1 small red cabbage, de-cored and thinly sliced
• 2 apples, sliced thinly
• 1 lemon, juice only

Here's how:

Core and slice the eating apples thinly, leaving the skin on for texture. Put the slices in a bowl and cover them with the lemon juice.

This stops them browning and infuses a little sharpness from the lemon.

Shred or julienne the vegetables into long strips and add them to the apples along with the chopped herbs.

In a separate bowl, mix the mayonnaise, yogurt and mustard. Add this to the vegetables, apple and herbs and combine well.

If you like nuts, this works well with seasonal walnuts stirred through the coleslaw.

Squash & Tomato Gratin

You'll need:

• 1 kg of squash, peeled and de-seeded
• 500 g of large tomatoes, sliced
• 50 g of butter
• 2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam
• 2 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard
• 4 tbsp of Panko breadcrumbs 
• 2 tbsp of chopped parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 120 g of Cheddar cheese, grated

Here's how:

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

With the mustard, gently fry the squash in butter until it colours and softens. This will take about 8 to 10 minutes, perhaps more depending on the size of your cubes.

Season it when it has softened and spoon it as a bottom layer in a gratin dish.

Now fry the tomatoes with the garlic and chilli jam for 2 or 3 minutes, just to combine the flavours.

Layer the garlic and chilli infused tomatoes onto the squash. Mix the breadcrumbs and cheese together and cover the tomatoes with this and the parsley.

Now put it in the oven and bake the gratin for 40 minutes until the cheesy breadcrumbs bubble and brown.

Roast Autumn - Fruit & Veg.

Here's how:

You can basically use anything to create a colourful tray of a roast Autumn harvest. First choose your fruit and vegetables - perhaps squash or pumpkin, carrot, parsnip, potatoes, courgette, apples, pears, red onion wedges and chunky slices of fennel.

Where appropriate, peel, core and de-seed.

Herbs - well, thyme is a favourite; sage works also but use it sparingly as it's a big flavour. A good sprinkling of fennel seeds adds texture and an aniseed twist.

In a large bowl, mix 50 ml of olive oil (or British rapeseed oil) with 2 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard with 1 or 2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam (more if you like more heat).

Put all the vegetables and the fruit, the fennel and chopped herbs into the bowl and mix to cover well with the oil, mustard and chilli infusion. Spread everything on a roasting tray ( you may need 2) adding more oil if you feel it's necessary.

Now roast your Autumn collection in an oven, pre-heated to 180°C/Gas mark 5 for 30 minutes.

TIP: If you are using 2 trays, swap them around half way through to balance the heat. If you are using courgette, add it half way through, skin side up. If you want to make a real feast of it, put half a dozen beautiful sausages in the tray amongst the vegetables.  

Make Autumn Awesome - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







 National Seafood Week - Fish Friday, Saturday, Sunday...here.












'At Home' with Stokes - simple, honest, tasty recipes here.












Family Favourites - tasty family secrets from your kitchen here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

Seafood celebrations - during National Seafood Week

Fish is the Dish

National Seafood Week runs from 5th to 12th October and is intended to promote sustainable fish as part of a weekly balanced diet.

We know many Stokes friends and followers love fish because of the interest you show in our 'Fish Friday' newsletters. If you want to know more about Seafood Week from 'Fish is the Dish' click here.

The good news is that fish & seafood is low in calories, high in protein and rich in vitamins, minerals and natural oils. Our coastal waters are rich with a huge range of piscatorial prizes.

The best news for oyster lovers is...

There's an 'R' in the Month

Oysters are fished all around Britain now there is an 'R' in the month, having been left to replenish since April. Well-known beds lie off Essex, Kent, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, the west of Scotland and Ireland.

The Pacific Rock Oyster was introduced to Britain 30 years ago to boost oyster numbers as they reproduce and grow at a far faster rate than native oysters - no sex please we're British oysters.

We have been playing with a couple of ideas to let Stokes grace these jewels of the sea. To a base of very dry white wine, finely chopped shallots and a squeeze of lemon juice - try the following. For smoky warmth add a dash of Stokes Chipotle Ketchup. For a good chilli hit, whisk in a touch of Stokes Chilli Jam. And for a hint of Bloody Mary, add a dash of Stokes Bloody Mary Tomato Ketchup.


Gone Fishing

Macaroni Cheesy Crab

You'll need:

• 2 dressed crabs (or 2 tubs of mixed brown and white crab meat)
• 400 g of Macaroni
• 400 ml of milk
• A good knob of butter
• 175 g of Cheddar cheese
• 1 Mozzarella
• 1  1/2 tbsp of Stokes Classic English Mustard
• 75 g of breadcrumbs 
• 2 tbsp of flour

Here's how:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6. Cook the pasta as directed on the pack.

Make a roux with the butter and flour and add the mustard before gradually whisking in the milk, adding it in about four parts. Stop when you have the right consistency, if the sauce is too thick, add more milk.

When you are happy, grate in the Cheddar and tear the Mozzarella, adding this too. Add the brown crab meat and cooked pasta to the cheese sauce and combine the ingredients together well.

Spoon everything into an oven dish, cover the top with the white crab meat and breadcrumbs and bake for 15 minutes.

It is delicious served with Stokes Bloody Mary Ketchup on the side.

Sea Bass & Leek

Here's how:

For a main course use 2 sea bass fillets per person. They are so quick to pan fry, we'll get everything else done first.

We'll serve this with crushed baked new potatoes. Crush them with the back of the knife to coarsely split them. Put them in a roasting tin, drizzle with oil and a scattering of thyme leaves and bake on a medium high heat for 30 minutes. They should be soft inside and beginning to brown on the skin.

For the leeks: In a large frying pan or wok, gently fry sliced leeks (2 or 3 according to size) for 5 minutes. Add a glass of white wine, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add 2 tbsp of flour, 2 tbsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard and stir gently while adding up to 350 ml of milk. Stop adding the milk when you have a leek 'sauce' rather than leek 'soup' consistency and cook the flour out for 8 or 10 minutes uncovered.

In a pestle and mortar, crush caraway and fennel seeds and add 2 tsp of this to butter foaming in a frying pan. Put the fillets in skin side down for 3 minutes then gently turn them over for just 2 minutes more and serve.

Poached Salmon Frittata

You can follow the simple basic recipe using peas, mint and potatoes and add anything you want. The combination works particularly well with asparagus for instance.

Here's how:

Cook and cool about 500 g of new potatoes then slice them thickly into a frying pan with a little hot oil, butter and thyme leaves.

Cook them until they begin to brown then flake 2 or 3 fillets of poached salmon into the pan with the potatoes. Add 2 tbsp of fresh chopped mint leaves, 1 tbsp of Stokes Mustard & Dill Sauce and sufficient frozen peas simply to colour the mixture.

Whisk and season 8 eggs and pour them into the pan.

Leave the pan on a gentle heat until the edges start to colour and stiffen, then pop it under a hot grill until the top colours and the frittata stiffens but still has a bit of a wobble.

A frittata is always best served warm rather than hot, with a nice salad of leaves and tomatoes. 

Make Autumn Awesome - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:







 Autumn on a Plate - cooking lovely fruits, roots and veg. here.












'At Home' with Stokes - simple, honest, tasty recipes here.












Family Favourites - tasty family secrets from your kitchen here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150

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

From freezer & fridge to the plate

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.

Let it simmer, then serve with the lasagne and a simple salad.

Make Autumn Awesome - just add Stokes

More foodie thoughts for the week:








 Autumn on a Plate - cooking lovely fruits, roots and veg. here.











National Seafood Week - Fish Friday, Saturday, Sunday ... here.














Family Favourites - tasty family secrets from your kitchen 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 secrets from your kitchen

Family Flavourites


What are your Autumn Favourites?

Vines, gourds, pumpkins - they are all synonymous with Autumn and there's so much we can do to enjoy them and the other great fruits, roots & veg. we're blessed with at this time of year.  

What are your 'family favourite' Autumn fruits, roots and veg and what family recipes can you share with us. 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


Taste lovers are discovering the 'wow' of Stokes Sauces all the time. Duncan and his family here have just discovered Stokes Bloody Mary Ketchup - what a life changing event that seems to have been.

Another self-declared fan of our Bloody Mary Ketchup. It's one of my own favourites too. Have you tried it mixed with Stokes Real Mayonnaise for a Bloody Mary Mayonnaise sauce or dip - peeled prawns adore it.

Ah, Autumn, Duck and Stokes Hoisin Sauce - need we say more.

I see Stokes lovers are on tour again. Wherever you are planning to go this weekend, remember to take your Stokes favourites with you - just in case.

More foodie thoughts for the week:






'At Home' with Stokes - simple, honest, tasty here.

   









Autumn on a Plate - cooking lovely fruits, roots and veg. here.












National Seafood Week - Fish Friday, Saturday, Sunday ... here.

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

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150