Thursday 21 January 2010

I won, I won!

It's not often that I win competitions but just before Christmas I won! I entered a competition run by a new company called Unearthed to win a hamper of food and a cookbook by Silvana Rowe (of Saturday Kitchen fame) called Feasts: food for sharing from central and eastern Europe.The hamper I was sent was fantastic! Unearthed produce a really wide selection of traditional foods from around Europe such as barrel aged Feta cheese, chorizo, Milano salami, and olives with manchego and whole chilies. The hamper I was sent contained all of these and a whole lot more besides. I was particularly pleased with the mini cooking chorizos they sent me which I have been searching for for a long long time with no success. The Catalan mini cooking sausages with fennel sound really interesting too and I have the perfect recipe lined up for those...
Unearthed are a new company that are bringing out new products all the time, the food is of really high quality and is a joy to cook with and eat! If you're in the UK you can find their products in Waitrose or get it from Able and Cole. If you're not in the UK then sorry, you can't! but there is a great blog that's worth checking out, it even features a couple of my recipes!

Now, on to the cookbook.I was really excited to get the cookbook as eastern European food is something I know virtually nothing about. There are recipes for strudel, goulash, poppy seed cake and a whole chapter on dumplings! I was thoroughly impressed by the book, the layout is attractive and easy on the eye, the pictures are fantastic, and best of all the recipes are different to what I'm used to and that makes them interesting and exciting to cook.

The recipe I chose to cook from the book was Chicken Imereti, it's Georgian recipe containing a whole lot of garlic, chili, cumin, saffron and walnuts. To make it the walnuts are ground to a paste along with the other ingredients then cooked up as a stew with some chicken pieces and stock, the result is chicken cooked in a spicy, almost satay like sauce. The recipe was a big hit, it's only down side being the cost, saffron and walnuts aren't cheap!
I whole-heartedly recommend the book, it really is brilliant, if you want to try something different then give it a go!

My thanks to the people at Unearthed for the brilliant prize!

17 comments:

Alicia Foodycat said...

Those mini cooking chorizos are fab. Since late summer they have been a pantry essential for me - their other products are good too (did you get any of the saucisson sec?) but the chorizos are superb. Great prize!

Karen said...

Congratulations on the win! So much fun!

♥peachkins♥ said...

Congratuations! Those goodies are really something..

Focus Factor said...

Congratulations, the items look great. I am jealous. :-)

The Caked Crusader said...

Well done you! What a lovely selection of goodies.

Katie said...

Congratulations!

Hopie said...

Wow that does look like an exciting hamper. Can't wait to see what you make with those ingredients. That chicken dish looks so yummy!

Anne said...

Congrats on winning all those lovely goodies, I really like their products.

Am also intrigued by eastern european cuisine and was googling recipes the other day! Will look forward to seeing your postings :)

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Congrats. I've just been sent a few things by them (see most recent blog post) and have been v impressed.

Katie said...

Congratulations on winning the hamper. Its always nice to get unexpected gifts. Love the sound of the cheeses

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

What with all that food plus the book, you're going to be busy for a while! Congrats! :)

Maggie said...

Well done for winning such a great foodie hamper!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Sam - on what I do with the chorizos... Well. The mini ones are cooking chorizos, so they aren't so good just with bread but they are magic in dishes. There is a Rick Stein chickpea, calamari and chorizo salad that is to die for with it. I slice them, fry them and deglaze the pan with red wine as a snack. I add them to spicy tomato sauce and serve with pasta. I put them in jambalaya and paella. Totally versatile!

Nic said...

Yay congrats! I entered that one too as I had my eye on that book, but I'm glad you won it Sam.

Choclette said...

Oh well done, what a fantastic prize.

James B said...

Congratulations - nice one on the win. Have to say unearthed foods are just sublime, so i'm sure your going to have a great time trying them.

SEHardman said...

Sam: thanks for your Chicken & Chestnut Pie recipe, we had it as a non-Christmas festive food for Isaac's 18th birthday party, and it fed 9 comfortably! Tasted WONDERFUL too!
Have you tried a flaky topping, or filo, to make it seem even fancier? I guess not, cos, although it tastes really fancy, you'd invented it for anyday.