This week I offer a few oriental flavours to see in the Chinese New Year (Year of the Horse) on January 31. For some years, during the 1980s and 1990s, we spent a good deal of time in the Far East, where I was invited as guest chef in hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, as well as in Thailand and the Philippines.

When I was not cooking, I was spending time in other people’s kitchens learning all I could about local food, recipes and gastronomic culture. Extending our travels to Singapore, China and Taiwan gave me such a wealth of recipes that I wrote a book called Oriental Flavours.

With so many of the spices, herbs and flavourings now available, I especially like to cook orien-tal at this time of year, as it makes a fine antidote to all that rich end-of-year holiday cooking.

Fragrant with ginger, lime leaves, lemon grass and star anise, with a touch of heat from chillies and Szechuan pepper and a fresh note with spring onions and coriander leaves, little meat or fish is used. An added bonus is that these dishes are relatively inexpensive, as well as easy to prepare.

You may well be able to use leftovers for some of the dishes. One year I cooked goose, and as there were only two of us to eat it, leftovers went on for some time.

I served cold goose Chiu Chow-style, which is truly delicious; the recipe adapts very well to chicken. The secret is to marinate it when freshly cooked and still warm; steaming or poaching give the best results rather than the drier methods of grilling or roasting.

The recipes can be served together as a Chinese meal, which I would supplement with a dish of mixed seasonal vegetables, thinly sliced and cooked with slivers of fresh ginger and garlic.

Or you can incorporate one or two of the dishes into your planned menus.

The steamed fish, for example, is very good at any time. And the method for cooking the pork can even be adapted to your Sunday roast.

As well as oriental flavours on the table, you might want to think about decor.

Auspicious flowers, such as slender wands of peach blossom, or a small orange tree for the balcony or terrace, could be displayed, as well as some red and gold decorations – the colours associated with Chinese New Year – and the traditional lai see, or red packets, in which to tuck a crisp new banknote or two for the children.

Steamed fish

(Serves 6)

You can change the flavourings if you wish, adding coriander leaves, star anise, or dried tangerine peel. Sea bass, grey or red mullet, grouper, scorpion fish (skorfna) or bream can be cooked in this way.

1.25 to 1.5 kg round fish, gutted but left whole with the head intact
1 bunch of spring onions or baby leeks
5-centimetre-piece fresh ginger
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
3 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps good dry sherry or rice wine
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Rinse and dry the fish thoroughly. Wash the spring onions or baby leeks, cut off the roots and remove the tops and outer skin if necessary. Split them lengthwise and lay half of them on an oval plate or dish large enough to take the fish and of a size to fit your steamer. Peel and thinly slice the ginger and garlic, lay a few slices on top of the spring onions and a few slices in the fish.

Put the fish in the dish and sprinkle the remaining ginger and garlic on top. Cover with more spring onions. Pour over a tablespoon of soy sauce and place in a steamer.

Steam the fish for eight to 12 minutes. Boil the rest of the soy sauce and sherry. Remove the fish from the steamer, transfer to a serving dish and put the spring onions around it. Pour the hot soy mixture over the fish and sprinkle on the sesame oil. Serve immediately.

Chicken Chiu Chow-style

(Serves 6 to 8 as a first course)

2 or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and still warm
2 tsps five-spice powder
100ml strong black tea, such as Oolong
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps toasted sesame oil
2 tbsps rice wine or sherry
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
3 spring onions or leeks, washed, trimmed and shredded

Rub the meat all over with the five-spice powder and place in a bowl. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken.

Leave it for 48 to 72 hours, although it is good after 24 hours.

Remove from the marinade, thinly slice the meat and serve on a bed of cooked noodles dressed in groundnut oil with the marinade poured over it. Alternatively, serve the chicken on a bed of crisp salad, including blanched bean sprouts and shredded Chinese leaves.

Mango and tapioca

(Serves 6)

I usually make this with melon, but as they are not in season, try it with mango.

100g tapioca
600ml semi-skimmed milk, plus extra
175g coconut cream
Sugar to taste
2 ripe mangos

Cook the tapioca in the milk until soft. Remove from the heat. While still hot, stir in the coconut cream until melted. Add more milk or coconut milk to obtain a soupy consistency. Peel and slice the mangos.

When the tapioca is completely cool, stir in the mango slices and chill the dish until required.

Cantonese fried rice

As the rice for this recipe is best cooked the day before required, it is a good use of leftover rice. Use Thai fragrant rice, Basmati or Patna.

6 tbsps groundnut oil
4 eggs beaten with a little salt
500g cooked rice, fluffed and separated
200g peeled raw prawns
4 tbsps chicken stock
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 to 2 tsps traditionally brewed soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
200g barbecued pork or cured ham, diced or shredded

Heat half the oil in a wok and when hot, pour in the eggs and scramble them thoroughly before heating up the rest of the oil and adding the rice.

Stir and cook this for about four minutes before adding the pork, prawns, stock, spring onions, soy sauce and sugar. Cook for a further four to five minutes, add the pork or ham and cook for a minute or two more before serving.

Char Siu barbecued pork

For the marinade:
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp ginger juice – squeezed from grated ginger in a sieve
½ tsp five-spice powder
2 tbsps dark muscovado sugar
2 tbsps rice wine or Amontillado sherry
500g boneless pork shoulder or tenderloin in a piece
1 tbsp traditionally brewed soy sauce
2 tbsps clear honey

Mix the marinade ingredients; rub them all over the pork and leave to marinate for two hours, or longer if more convenient. Before roasting, brush the meat all over with soy sauce. Roast on a rack in a roasting tin in a preheated oven to 220˚C, for about 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with honey and the marinade.

The pork can be served on top of rice as a garnish for noodle soup, and any leftovers can be used in fried rice.