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The best slow cooker ever, handy frozen herbs, nuts and seeds for sprinkling, desserts for Valentine's Day, a brilliant chilli jam and more... By Delia Online editor Jo Hill

Taking it slowly...
Slow-cooking is a great way of preparing winter meals, so I was delighted to try the stylish new Morphy Richards Flavour Savour. One of its best features is that it browns the meat before slow cooking it, so you don’t end up with an extra pan to wash up! I made a lamb tagine in it and was really impressed by the results in just a few hours. The cooker has several programmes from 1.5-hour fast stew up to a 10-hour slow cook, plus a useful keep-warm feature if some family members are eating later than others. Why not enter the Morphy Richards slow cooker challenge at www.homeofthehouseproud.com – just send in a slow cooker recipe for four people that costs no more than £4 to make and you could win £200 worth of Morphy Richards products.

Unearthed for Valentine’s Day?
For something special on Valentine’s Day, why not cheat with great ready-made products from Mediterranean food experts unearthed®? Their tapas-style dishes are really good: start with Hot Chilli Olives (£2.49), then maybe move on to White Bean Tapas with Manchego - tender Gigante beans smothered in a tomato and onion sauce, topped with manchego, parsley and chilli (£3.49) and Chorizo in Mojo Pepper Sauce. For dessert, try unearthed® indulgent recipe for Chocolate Chip Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding using Chocolate Chip Panettone (£1.99 for 2).

Lovely Linwoods
Many of us should be eating more nuts, seeds and berries for their essential fatty acids and selenium. If you want to up your intake, try Linwoods superfoods. Milled and ground, their fine texture makes it easy to add them to breakfast cereals, pancake batter, soups and salads. The range includes Linwoods Milled Flaxseed, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds & Goji Berries and Linwoods Milled Organic Flaxseed, Walnuts, Brazil Nuts, Almonds & Q10. From healthfood stores, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s you can buy a 450g pack for about £5.00 or mini pack from 49p-99p. I’m going to be sneaking some into my teenage son’s meals to help with his dyslexia, as dyslexics often have a lack of EFAs, selenium and zinc in their diet and flaxseed is a rich source of omega 3. 

It has to be Chilean...
We recently ran a promotion with Wines of Chile on the site, promoting the idea of Chilean Carmenere with curry. I sampled some Carmenere from Errazuriz and was delighted to find that the spiciness of the wine was a great match for a beef curry made with cinnamon, cardamom and chilli as well as a cheeseboard. My absolute favourite wine from Errazuriz was the Carmenere Single Vineyard 2008 – a luscious blend of Carmenere, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon which would compete well with a French Chateauneuf du Pape any day with its combination of herby, dense, dark berry fruit. An excellent wine if you’re thinking of splashing out for Valentine’s Day - £15. For stockists details visit www.winesofchile.org

Hot stuff from Tracklements!
In time for Valentine’s Day, Tracklements have brought out a pretty limited-edition, heart-shaped jar of chilli jam – definitely hot stuff! Fabulous with cold meats, a cheese plate, with shellfish and stirred through Singapore noodles or pad Thai, it’s also delicious ‘the morning after the night before’ in a bacon sandwich. As with all Tracklements products, the chilli jam contains only the best fresh ingredients with no preservatives or additives. The joy of this type of product, too, is that you can add a chilli kick without having to handle fresh chillies and seeds. From £4.85 for 350g from delis and www.tracklements.co.uk

Perfectly seasoned...
Donald Russell has brought out a fabulous new seasoning – The Perfect Seasoning (£4.90 for 110g) which is salt-based with a sweet note, supported by cumin and herbs. It certainly adds exciting flavours and is a great way of making a piece of meat, chicken or fish seem less plain if you are simply pan-frying or grilling it. It’s also a great addition to a prawn cocktail and other seafood!

Herbs from the freezer
Birds Eye have brought out a range of handy freshly frozen Field Fresh Herbs – useful at this time of year when the fresh variety on your windowsill may well have wilted or you forget to buy some for a specific recipe! The range includes Garlic, Chilli, Italian Mixed Herbs, Basil, Parsley and Coriander. They’re convenient too: the handy resealable pack allows you to use as little or as much as you need for any meal. Around £1.69 from major supermarkets.

Spring is in the air!
Not long to go now... so if your thoughts are turning to spring cleaning, why not make it a visually appealing process with this new set of brushes, rubber gloves and a mop and bucket from Charles Bentley, featuring spring flowers with a colour scheme of white, yellow and green that certainly says spring to me. The brushes are great quality too so will get your home clean in no time at all! From £2; For stockists contact 01509 232757 or visit www.bentleybrushware.co.uk

A zing of ginger
This month, Rachel’s is introducing a lovely new ginger variant to its range of Greek-style yoghurts – the first ginger yoghurt on the market, in fact. I found it quite addictive, with chunks of hot, zingy preserved stem ginger in the creamy yoghurt.Would be fantastic with rhubarb dishes, such as crumbles or compotes. £1.89 from major supermarkets. (And is that Delia's favourite cake - Preserved Ginger with Lemon Icing - in the background?)

Clippy’s apples
It's quite unusual for us to use apples in this country when making preserves - apart from apple sauce to go with the roast pork, of course - so it was interesting to try the range of preserves from Clippy's Apples. All recipes have been created in Clippy's kitchen using apples from her backgarden and she was recently described by BBC Countryfile as the 'pick of the best. preserve makers'. I particularly loved the Apple Pie Jam which has added cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, and Apple and Plum Chutney. Available from Ocado, Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason.

Mezze to enjoy!
There’s a new range of Mediterranean mezze called Aleyna that’s recently launched in the UK. Free from artificial colours, the Roasted Red Peppers, Sunkissed Tomatoes, Chilli Peppers and Cherry Peppers are all delicious served as appetisers or added to pasta sauces, casseroles or salads. The Sunkissed Tomatoes were juicier than a sun-dried tomato and had the most wonderfully intense yet sweet flavour – well worth looking out for. From £1 at Morrisons and Asda.

New cheese on the block...
If you’re looking for a cheese that’s great for cooking and eating straight from the pack, you should try new Le Dore cheese from Coeur de Lion which has recently won a Bronze award in the New Cheese Category at the World Cheese Awards. Produced in the cheese-making heartlands of Normandy, it joins Coeur de Lion’s other products, such as Camembert and Brie. Its sweet mild taste and delicate texture reminded me of Gruyere and it also had Gruyere’s same excellent melting qualities. In a block or slices, from £1.49 at Morrisons and Waitrose.

Lasting memories...
Leaving the best til last is easy when Donald Russell’s desserts are on the menu – and they’d make a great impression on Valentine’s Day! They have introduced a really good Dessert Taster Box – usually £17 but on special offer for £15. The box includes cheesecakes in various flavours: lemon meringue, blackcurrant, white choc and ginger plus three crumbles: Bramley apple, raspberry and Bramley apple and Rhubarb and Bramley apple. Visit our shop to order.

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