Chinese New Year

2012-01-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

Monday, 23 January 2012 is the beginning of Chinese New year and is the year of Dragon. Some people say 2012 is a Black Dragon or Water Dragon year. This is because the Stem-Branch Calendar is connected to the Five Element theory. Chinese calendars used the Stem branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth).

The Stem sequence order is

Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin Metal, Yang Water and Yin Water. Branches use animal names.

The Branch sequence order is

Rat, Cow, Tiger, Dragon, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig.

Stem and Branch are used together to form a cycle of 60 counting systems which begin with

Wooden Rat and end with Water Pig.

Year 2012 is Male Water Dragon the 29th of the Stem-Branch in the system. Because Water is connected to Black in the Five Element System, Year 2012 is also called the Black Dragon year.

CONFUSED ??

So why not celebrate Chinese New Year with this delicious recipe:

SALT & PEPPER PORK - serves 4

500g diced lean pork shoulder or pork fillet

2 teaspoons light soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice wine or dry sherry

large pich salt

1 teaspoon of tosated sesame oil

2 teaspoons cornflour

vegetable oil for frying

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

2 teaspoons of crushed Sezchaun peppercorns

1 teaspoon of ground five spice powder

1/ teaspoon of chilli powder

Method

Mix together the pork, soy sauce, rice wine or sherry,salt, toasted sesame oil and cornflour.

Heat a wok with enough oil just to cover the pork when added.

When it is medium hot deep fry the pork until golden brown.
Remove the pork with a slotted spoon and put onto kitchen paper
Pour off the oil apart from 1 tablespoon
Reheat and add the garlic, stir fry for 10secs, add the peppercorns and chili powder and stir fry for a further 10 seconds, return the pork to the wok and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Serve with rice or noodles. ENJOY

'Kung Hei Fat Choy'

New Classes Nudge

All our latest classes are on the web site

www.thecookingrooms.com

and you can

book online or by telephone.

There is still time to take advantage of our 20% discount

if you book

two places on one of the classes, so why not

come with a friend and

enjoy 20% discount.

Places still available on the first of our new bakery classes

on Fridayevening February 10th ' How to Cook - Pastry'

and also just a couple of places left for the Patisserie Workshop

on Puff Pastry Creations with Florian Poirot on

Saturday 11th February.

We hope to see you soon - Happy Cooking.

NEW YEAR FOOD RESOLUTIONS

2012-01-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

My food resolutions for 2012 have not been reached easily, but after much heartache and thought here they are, maybe you have some as well, why not share them with us.

1. Don't buy too much, thinking that you will use it up tomorrow, you don't because who want's to eat the same thing for two days.

2. Eat more fruit,........if Tarzan's chimp can live to be 90 there must be something good in fruit.

3. Stop complaining about the price of fish, there's only so much fish in the sea.

4. Stop buying the carrots at the farm-shop which come from the field next door, and are twice as expensive as the supermarket ?? in fact why is everything twice as expensive in a Farm shop ?

5. Eat meat only twice a week.

6. Get the sour dough starter going again and make more sour dough bread at home.

7. Be more outspoken when I get served rubbish in a pub that they are passing off as 'Home Made Food'

8. Drink more beer when eating out, it really does complement robust flavoured food, instead of paying a ridiculous mark up for an average bottle of wine.

9. Ask for tap water before the waiter brings a bottle of 1,222 year old Molton Icelandic Glacier at £4.50 a bottle.

10. Cook a steamed Steak and Kidney pudding, seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, before the spring.

What's new at The Cooking Rooms for 2012

If you want to see our complete list of classes at The Cooking Rooms go to www.thecookingrooms.com but here are some of the highlights.

February half - term has classes for Junior and Young chefs and also a Sushi class with Simon Phillips suitable for all ages.

We have some great classes with Florian on Patisserie and Confectionery and also a ' Best of Baking Series of classes for those of you who are keen or budding bakers.
Our new ' How to Cook' series of classes are for aspiring cooks who want to learn the basics.

As usual we will be offering classes in ethnic cuisines, including, Thai, Indian South East Asian, Spanish and |Moroccan.
After some requests we have bi-monthly demonstration sessions which will have lots of tastings and of course top quality information and tips as well.