Wednesday 28 January 2009

JEKKA BOOK GIVEAWAY GIVEN AWAY!














So the Baklava Standards Committee dictated that I should publish this image of our due and careful competition process, to assure our readers of its fairness under public scrutiny. 

As you can see, after much debate we went for the old "scrunched up names in a Sainsbury's bag" technique; old, but effective. And the winner was...

Alex from Shedworking, a fine figure of a blogger and possessor at least half an allotment where hopefully he can put some of Jekka's favourite herbs to work. 

Thank you to everyone who entered and I'd like to think it was the laws of chance favouring Alex who was such a regular poster on Garden Monkey. 


12 comments:

Alex Johnson said...

I'm very pleased to accept this book on my behalf and promise to send in photos of my new and improved herbeage later in the year. I like to think that - although it's very much mine and I'm not lending it to anybody else except maybe for a quick look - it's an award for all of us who enjoyed GM and hope (s)he will be back with us before too long.

VP said...

Congrats Alex - will you be combining herbeage with your shed?

And I hope GM comes back too.

VP said...

Any yay! Zoe's fundraising's topped £450 today :)

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Rats! I really wanted that book. ;-) Hmmmmm, are we sure that Alex will be able to live up to Jekka's book? If not, can we reposess it?

emmat said...

Yolanda, Het spijt me! I think repossession might be a bit impolite, but he has promised photos... maybe we could get him to run a few excerpts...

Catherine said...

Drat, I missed all the excitement! Alex, would you swap it for a copy of Sophie Grigson's Herbs? The Wild Garlic bubble and squeak is a meal in itself...

emmat said...

WE NEED TO GET OUR HANDS ON THAT RECIPE!

Catherine said...

I hope you meant that, because here it is...and it's a bit long. Sorry!

Sophie Grigson's Wild Garlic Bubble and Squeak

10oz green cabbage, Savoy or kale
2-3 tbs beef dripping, bacon fat or butter
1 chopped onion
about 2oz wild garlic
2oz prosciutto or pancetta cut into thin strips (optional)
salt and pepper

For the mash
Approx 1lb 5oz floury potatoes
1oz butter
2 tbs milk

Cook and mash the potatoes. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add cabbage or kale and simmer for about 4 to 5 minutes until just tender. Drain and then squeeze to make sure all the water's out. Shortly before serving mix the potato with the cabbage and adjust seasoning. Heat half the dripping in a wide frying pan until is foams or sizzles. Add onion, wild garlic and proscuitto and fry gently unitl the onion is tender and the garlic limp. Scrape out and mix with the potato and cabbage. Add the remaining fat to the pan then dollop (Sophie's word)in the potato mixture and smooth down. Fry over a moderate heat for about 8 minutes until the underneath is browned. Carefully slide the bubble and squeak out on to a dish then return the pan to the heat. Invert the bubble and squeak onto another plate then slide back into the pan. Cook until lightly browned underneath and serve piping hot.

She also has a fantastic recipe for a spring green wild garlic sauce which is lovely with lamb.

emmat said...

gosh thank you so much! I have copied this straight into my recipe folder... amazing that actually it's not very much wild garlic - a flavour rather than a stinking mass... I love wild garlic and have some growing in an old butler's sink in my back garden, so in a few weeks I'll be able to make this!

Anonymous said...

I love it too. It's wild and free, a bit like an old rocker! The woods round here will be full of it soon. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

VP said...

Yum. Gosh that's almost worth growing cabbages for!

Presumably the wild garlic should be the green leafy bit? If so, I'm off to the local woods in a couple of months - you can almost smell the ransoms from here in April as there's carpets of the stuff.

BTW WV is advising it should be cooked al dente.

Catherine said...

Sophie Grigson describes the consistency as 'miserably limp'. Just a small amount of heat is needed. BTW, did you know that it's also known as ramsons, and according to SG many place names are derived from it? Ramsbottom (wild garlic valley and Ramsey (wild garlic island)for example.