New Contest: POM Wonderful Comment to Win Giveaway and Recipe Contest
Nov, 24 2009
Do you love POM Wonderful? Would you like to be their 2010 Featured Blogger? POM Wonderful is running a recipe contest through November 30, 2009.
Also, to promote this contest, POM will be giving away 4 boxes of their products to one lucky Foodie Blogroll member per week, for the next four weeks. Scroll down for more details!
Here’s how to enter:
- Submit an original recipe using POM Wonderful Pomegranates along with a photo of your recipe.
- Enter from October 15th thru November 30, 2009
Here’s how submissions will be judged:
- An internal panel will begin judging on December 10th. This panel will select 10 finalists based on the recipe itself as well as the quality of writing.
- The POM Community will vote on their favorite. The winner will be the recipe that receives the most points and will be featured on the POM Wonderful website. They will also receive a ‘POM Pack’, a goody bag filled with all things Wonderful.
- Grand Prize winner will be announced on January 15th, 2010.
- Winner will become the 2010 POM Featured Blogger and will receive $4,000! This will be paid in equal installments of $363 every month from February thru December 2010 upon receipt of his or her monthly blog post.
Here is an interview with Peter Krause from Foto Cuisine, 2009 POM Wonderful Featured Blogger about his experience this past year!
- What was the inspiration behind your winning POM dish?
POM was kind enough to send us a case of juice, so I tried a sample and tried to work with the flavors. Pomegranate juice tastes like pomegranates of course, but there are also hints of raspberry, cranberry, and cherry. Strong fruits like that go well with duck, so the duck part was a pretty easy match. I was just worried that duck fat fried potatoes wouldn't be acceptable for such a healthy ingredient, but really, duck fat is healthier than a lot of other fats!
- What was your thought process like each month as you came up with a new recipe? Did it get harder or easier as time went on?
I tried to keep things seasonable. Braises in the winter, a little lighter in the summer. I tried to match some holidays -- chocolate mousse in February for Valentine's Day, cookouts in July. I don't think it was ever hard, but there were a few months where I combed cookbooks or magazines just to focus a bit on what I could adapt. I tried to keep things refined and savory if I could get away with it, just to keep things challenging.
- Were you surprised with some of the creations you came up with? Tell us what your favorite one was and why.
Well, the initial duck one was pretty good, and I've used that sauce a few times (once with you and Roberto over grouper when you came to visit!) October's crème brûlée turned out much better than I hoped. I was really hoping the bottom layer wouldn't melt and be incorporated in the custard in some sort of pink vanilla pudding. The layers stayed separate and I was really pleased with it. I dumped the custard in quickly over the chilled pomegranate jelly and the separate bites on one spoon really worked out. And that was a sweet dish instead of savory, imagine that!
- Did you try anything that just didn't work?
I was never happy with the POM gnocchi, another sweet dish. It should have been completely decadent, the dough recipe is pretty much what éclairs and popovers use. Think of éclair dough, ruby red and fried in butter, with chocolate sauce. How could that go wrong? It ended up being kind of brown and bland looking. We actually had to make and shoot that one twice, because the first time, I put too much sugar in the butter to sauté the gnocchi and it just burned black and was really acrid. We scrapped the whole shoot and we tried again the next day. The second attempt tasted much better even though it looked bland, but the POM ganache completely made up for the gnocchi. Man, that is good stuff. I've made the ganache every month since then, and it's excellent over ice cream with some chocolate chips. I should have just stuck with the sauce, it was simple but worth it, but I tried to use POM in a couple ways each month.
- Would you say that now you know how versatile POM is in the kitchen that it will remain a frequent ingredient in your recipes beyond your year as POM's featured blogger?
I think it will show up from time to time. After thinking up twelve recipes, it might not show up every month on FotoCusine, but it's a wonderfully high-quality ingredient with a lot of layers. It works well with so many different foods, from fish to poultry to beef.
- Any words of wisdom for bloggers who might want to experiment with POM in their own kitchens?
The biggest discovery I've made is that POM juice works as a really good substitute for fruity red wine. It doesn't have the alcohol obviously, but it reacts the same way in reductions or braises -- it has that tannin and mouth feel and complexity, especially when reduced. Protein works well to cut the tannic astringency, so there's another reason it works well with savory ingredients, especially with normally beefy ingredients like dijon mustard. Find a classic red wine dish like beef bourguignon or coq au vin and run with it.
- What words of advice would you give to bloggers who are going to enter the contest this year?
Give it your all. Think a little outside the norm, and follow the Top Chef and Iron Chef rules for wowing the judges: no one knocks over a judge by serving a salad. Then again, POM is so versatile, someone might actually pull off a salad if it's original enough -- throw in bacon tempura or something. Also, read the rules. For my contest, 30% of the point scoring was on the recipe, the rest was on history and nutrition and appearance and writing style of the blog entry -- a one-cup/one-tablespoon recipe with a cellphone pic wasn't going to cut it. You're going to be a big part of the public face of this company and you need to show them you'll be a great ambassador.
Foodie Blogroll Giveaway:
Prize:
To promote this contest, POM will be giving away 4 boxes of their products to one lucky Foodie Blogroll member per week, for the next four weeks. Each prize package will contain: 1 bottle of each flavor of POM Juice (100%, Blueberry, Mango, Cherry, Kiwi, Nectarine) 1 POMx Tea, 1 POMx Iced Coffee, a POM branded journal, a POM pen and a POM branded tote bag made from recycled goods. Winners will be randomly chosen from all entries.
Eligibility:
1) Leave a comment on this article to let us know your favorite way to use pomegranates.
Just scroll down and leave your comment. Please Note: You have to login to your Foodie Blogroll Account first.
2) You also must currently be a current active member of the Foodie Blogroll having the latest version of The Foodie Blogroll Widget on your blog.
3) Products ship only within the Continental U.S.
Legal Notice: No purchase necessary to enter. Contest void where prohibited. Contest open to members who are 18 years or older. Contest open only to currently eligible Foodie Blogroll Members. Contest open only to continental US residents. Shopping spree prize Restrictions may apply. Winners will be announced on 11/27/2009, 12/04/2009, 12/11/2009 and 12/18/2009..
Contest is closed. Ended on 12/18/2009
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