It will soon be Christmas – a time of joy but also of culinary anxiety! One wants to provide comforting food. Delicious food. Well-presented food. Stokes might not be on hand to cook the turkey, but they do support those little additions that help elevate the festive season’s tables.
Stokes was founded in 2004 by Rick Sheepshanks, these days producing over 50 different lines, all hand produced to carefully created and closely guarded recipes. Based at Rendlesham Hall, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, Stokes uses only the finest ingredients and produces their condiments, sauces and relishes using traditional cooking methods.
Special dinner
What could be more festive than cranberry sauce? It adds that distinctive tang to the holiday bird, which can be rather bland. There, I said it and you all know it’s true. That special dinner needs some help. Cranberry and Orange Sauce is a little different but it still has that familiar delicious flavour. Well worth trying. I note it has a touch of Port too!
But then there are those leftovers on Christmas night and all through Boxing Bay and likely for many a day between then and New Year’s Eve … when we start again! Stokes comes to the rescue. Red Onion Marmalade is perhaps my favourite of the Stokes range I have tried so far. This is a must-have on the buffet table where it will be the preferred partner to all those cold cuts and sausages. This savoury jam also adds so much to a cheese board, and makes a great spread when rippled through a block of cream cheese. This is perfect with mature English Cheddar.
Stokes has a delicious range of condiments and sauces, and any of them would be a welcome addition to a Christmas gift hamper for any lover of good food. Buy extra jars, as you won’t want to give them all away.