February is a marvellous month for feasting, what with Candlemas, Chinese New Year, St Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras - better known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day

So where are you going to shop this month? The 12th to the 14th of February is Chinese New Year, so why not treat yourself to a visit to your nearest Chinatown and experience the thrill and bustle of the preparations, particularly the culinary ones?

You'll also be able to decorate your table appropriately, as all the Chinese supermarkets will also be full of auspicious flowers, slender wands of peach blossom and small orange trees. Look out, too, for red and gold new year decorations and the traditional 'lai see' - or red packets - in which to tuck a crisp new banknote or two for the children.

Food of love
Or perhaps go pink for St Valentine's: try a chilled borscht, followed by griddled organic salmon fillets. Complete the romantic dinner with the classic 'coeur a la creme' - a sweet cream cheese made in a pierced-heart-shaped mould - and a compote of fresh pink rhubarb or a coulis of raspberries made from frozen fruit.

Pancakes do duty both for Candlemas at the beginning of the month and Shrove Tuesday on the 19th. Sweet or savoury, simple or elaborate, the pancake is an excellent standby, and it's worth making extra and keeping them in the fridge. Use them for marvellous lazy breakfasts, as a first course for a dinner party, as an elegant dessert such as crepes Suzette, or as a teatime snack, fresh from the frying pan, dabbed with butter and sprinkled with lemon juice and light muscovado sugar.

Ground force
Root vegetables, such as parsnips and beetroot, are good in the winter, as are the 'stalks', such as leeks and celery. This means plenty of vegetable soups. And, if you're a fan of the deep fryer, try making vegetable crisps instead of potato crisps.

Alongside the wealth of citrus fruit, especially the delicious juicy navel oranges, southern hemisphere summer fruit is making its appearance - look out for Cape cling peaches and Chilean cherries. I prefer to wait for our own summer and buy fruit that has not clocked up quite so many air miles. My own feeble justification for buying tropical fruit, which, too, has come long distances, is that we've always imported tropical fruit. So mangoes, limes and papayas continue to go into my shopping basket.

Over the page: February's fish and shellfish

Mussels
My absolute favourite for this month is mussels. They're such an amazingly delicious shellfish and yet so undervalued. They're also quick and easy to cook, and you need about a kilo each for a main, one-pot meal.

All you do is scrub the mussels under cold, running water, tug off the 'beard' or byssus and knock off any barnacles with the back of a knife. Rinse the mussels and discard any that remain open after this rough treatment - they are dead.

Put the mussels in a lidded saucepan with some finely chopped shallot, parsley, chives, some freshly ground pepper and a glass of white wine. Cover with a lid and cook on a high heat until the mussels are cooked - that is, when they all open, about 4 to 5 minutes. Holding the lid on firmly, shake the pan from time to time. Stir in a handful of soft breadcrumbs and a little butter and transfer to a large tureen, or serve them from the pot in which they were cooked.

The whole thing takes longer to write about than cook: from the time you put them on the heat to the time you tip them into a heated tureen, it should take no more than about 5 minutes.

Meat and game
Finally, the weather is still cold enough to enjoy some classic winter stews. Try oxtail, for example, or hare, which is really the only game left this month. Although it doesn't have a closed season like much other game, it's generally only sold in the winter months, between October and March.

Hare is always exceedingly good value as it's relatively meaty. You can usually buy the whole hare from a traditional butcher, who'll be happy to joint it for you. Use the hind legs and saddle for jugged or casseroled hare for four, or roast the saddle for two, and use what's left to make a delicious sauce to serve with pappardelle or other pasta. Use the forelegs and trimmings to make a richly flavoured stock.

Over the page: Frances' Chinese New Year menu

February menu: Chinese New Year
This is based on the meals Tom and I have shared with my brother and his family in Hong Kong over the years. You can readily find the ingredients in Chinese supermarkets, and many high street supermarkets.

When I'm shopping with my sister-in-law in Hong Kong's street markets we buy Chinese wind-dried sausages (called 'ap cheung'), barbecued pork and spare ribs. The sausage and barbecued pork are added to the fried rice, which forms part of the evening meal. The spare ribs are cooked in a homely stir-fry with 'hairy cucumbers'.

For fish we choose a grouper, which, simply steamed with ginger, garlic and spring onions for flavouring, is, in true Cantonese fashion, the highlight of the meal. Vegetables will probably be stir-fried broccoli - or Chinese leaves and mangetout - and the dessert a refreshing mixture of fruit, coconut milk and tapioca: Malaysian rather than Chinese in origin.

Shrimp-stuffed Shi’itake Mushrooms

Steamed Fish With Oriental Flavours

Stir-fried Cucumber and Pork

Mango Melaka

Tom Bissell's wine recommendations
Harmony through contrast is the main element of Chinese food. It is above all a subtle cuisine and varies from region to region. In the colder north, wheat is eaten more than rice, there's more use of chillies and the food is richer in fat and oil. Thus, you need a weightier wine. In the tropical south, where Frances' menu originates, food is steamed, much more use is made of fish and vegetables and the food is more delicately flavoured.

Too often a Gewurztraminer is suggested as a 'catch-all' wine, but our experience of dinners in friends' homes in Hong Kong as well as banquets in restaurants convinces us that you can plan a Cantonese meal around your finest wines, starting with white Burgundies and moving on to Cote Rotie or Grange Hermitage. Equally, you can plan for more modest wines, a New Zealand or South African Sauvignon Blanc or Australian Semillon, followed by a Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux or a Chilean or South African Cabernet Sauvignon.

What food and drink do you most look forward to in February? Share your thoughts with Frances Bissell on the
All About Food & Drink message board.