*Updated with winners, please see below*

My darling readers, are you as exhausted as I am? Crazy doing the Christmas shopping in an effort to make Christmas dinner special? Well allow me to don an elf outfit and help you out a little bit as I introduce you to the things that I’ve been sent over the last few months that I love. The lovely people at these companies agreed to send out a pack of these items to some lucky Not Quite Nigella readers so that you too can sample their goodies instead of just reading about them!

Just leave a comment at the end of the story telling me which product you’d like to try and why. I’m very sorry overseas lovelies but these can only be posted within Australia. The giveaway ends at Midnight AEST on the 17th of December. And one important thing, I will announce the winners here on this story on the 18th of December and post the winner’s names. Now the difference is that it is up to you to contact me (the reason why doing these have been such headaches is chasing people’s details). So come back on the 18th and look for your name and who knows, you may have won something delicious! If you contact me quickly, you could be feasting on your selection for Christmas!

Endeavour Vintage Beer

Ask hubby his favourite beer and he will answer Endeavour. The first time we tried it amongst friends the most hard bitten, critical mate of his declared that it was his new favourite beer. But don’t just trust the opinion of these two guys, it has also collected up a slew of awards this last two years. There are two types of beer, the reserve pale ale and the reserve amber ale.

Thanks to Endeavour Beer, five lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will receive a mixed pack of four beers!

Game Farm

If you want something a bit special and fancy this Christmas (because let’s face it not all of you suffer from the enormous family syndrome that afflicts many of us) quail is a gorgeous game meat option! For those that don’t like the bones in quail, Game Farm sell quail fillets ready to cook. Game Farm are based in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW and specialise in game birds. They breed Japanese quail as well as spatchcock, duck and corn fed chicken. I used their spatchcock when I made  my brick birds and it was lovely and tender.

Thanks to Game Farm, three lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will receive a pack containing Game Farm quail breasts, quail eggs and a recipe book! Due to the fact that the quail needs to be refrigerated, delivery is within the Sydney metropolitan area only.

King Island Dairy

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So what does Bill Granger know about Asian food? Well, to be honest I wouldn’t have thought he’d know much about Portugal but his recipe for Portuguese custard tarts is one of the most delicious and used recipes ever. And it stands to say that Australians eat plenty of Asian food -and cook it too!

Bill’s Everyday Asian is a glossy hardback cookbook the simplifies Asian cooking-there are Chinese, Korean, Malaysian and Singaporean, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, Vietnamese cuisines all in one book. Bill starts off explaining the basic Asian pantry ingredients and then follows with recipes like Thai green chicken curry, pork baguette with meatballs,  Vietnamese pork chop, stir fried chilli pork, char-siu style barbecued pork ribs, beef rendang and bibimbap  It’s more modern Australian Asian cuisine than hard core Asian cuisine but the recipes are mouthwatering nevertheless.

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How do I solve the mysteries and complexities of a hectic day? Why by sitting down to a cup of tea and a biscuit thankyouverymuch. I do believe that this helps to cure most small niggly ills and can right the world gone a bit askew. So when I was told about a new rare tea I got a little bit excited The Dilmah Uva 2011 Seasonal Flush – a very special and rare tea that would be classified as a prized possession amongst tea discerning tea fanatics !!

This year on August the 9th was a special date. This is when the first flush or the first picking started at the Uva Highlands estate situated in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka in the Uva Valley. Located at an elevation of
4000 to 4300 feet, Uva Highlands produces some of the finest teas. This Uva Seasonal Flush Pekoe offers the
sublime experience of one of the world’s finest teas. This rare tea is the product of a unique phenomenon in which the interaction of Nature and the art of the Teamaker produces tea of extraordinary quality. Every year they wait for the chill winds to pass through the valley. These seasonal winds that fan Sri Lanka from its East at this time, with the dry, chill gust producing rare and unique changes in the leaves.

At 8am on the 9th of August, the tea pickers started handpicking which ensures that only the two leaves and bud are harvested. This assures the quality of tea by leaving out coarse leaf and twigs that can affect the taste of the tea.

By 9am the tea leaves arrived at the factory to be sorted and by 11:30am the “Withering” had commenced. Withering reduces the moisture content of the freshly picked leaf to 42% – 45% so that the leaves becomes rubbery and can withstand rolling without breaking up into flakes. By 1:30pm that very afternoon they had started rolling the leaves and by 2pm the tea was being fermented which is a process that influences the taste, character and health benefits of the tea. At 2:30pm the tea was dried and at 4:30pm a Dilmah grader goes through the tea to assess the 500kgs total of tea produced from this single day where the winds, climate, humidity and sun were just right.

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