Demos, Recipes and a Competition with a2 Milk

Show me some skin

'The cow is of the bovine ilk; one end is moo, the other is milk.'

Wise words I am sure you will agree and words that belong of course to Ogden Nash, a funny named chap from New York, USA. Who once penned some fine lines of witty, humorous poetry. And then, he died.

Alright, I don't profess to know much about Mr Nash at all really. I am vaguely aware of his work but I just wanted to kick off this post with something related to milk and stumbled across the quote. So yes, milk, milk is on the agenda and after a period of ruminating in the wilderness (writing largely about MasterChef: The Professionals) I have got a hamper of joy to put on the table today; in the form of news, recipes and a competition. Hallelujah!

The news is that I shall be doing my first cookery demo at the BBC Good Food Festive Fayre at Hampton Court this weekend, working for, you've guessed it, a2 Milk. There have been numerous occasions where I have stood and wittered on in front of large groups of people before, so I have no qualms going into this exciting venture. But there is always the chance of falling flat on my face (and I have done that before) and therefore it would be nice if some familiar faces, or any sort of faces, could pop along and say hi and say that I am doing 'really, really well!'

I am talking to you Mum by the way.

The recipes, the ones I shall be demoing, are to be a spiced rice pudding with cherry compote and basil (yes, basil) and some savoury custard tarts, filled with shallots, peas and pancetta. Both are pretty nifty recipes in my estimation. The former delivers a delicious twist on a traditional recipe and the latter is the perfect suggestion for the party season. I am done with sweet custard, bring on the umami. These recipes will also be appearing on the a2 Milk recipe page soon enough. I just need to sort out some decent photos to replace the ones I lost on a corrupt memory card. Damn you San Disk and damn you long, dark winter nights.

The competition is two-fold. First up for grabs is a bundle of a2 Milk goodies and a £75 voucher for John Lewis and to enter, all you simply have to do is leave a comment on this post saying what your favourite recipe is that uses milk as an ingredient.

The second prize is a pair of tickets for the Festive Fayre this weekend (Saturday or Sunday) and will be run via Twitter. To enter, just retweet this post with a link. A little bit like this -

'RT to win a pair of tickets for @BBCGoodFoodShow at Hampton Court, this weekend, courtesy of @a2MilkUK #competition'

The closing date for the bundle and voucher is Friday 11th December at 12:00PM and the draw for the tickets will end this Friday 4th at 5:30PM. All entries will be selected at random.

And there you have it.

Bon chance.