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Missie's Pud Inn Club. Save the best for last and give in to sugary bliss.

Puddings and desserts are definitely an irresistible treat for everyone around the world, whether it’s served hot or cold, in the form of a piece of fruit, syrup, hard or soft and sponge-like or crunchy – moderation is key, and the choices on offer are endless. Serve up, share and enjoy!

With my next Missie’s Pud Inn club being tomorrow, I thought I’d share with you my ‘Dream Around the World pudding menu‘ – if I could have any chef I could ever want around my dining table in my home, I wouldn’t hesitate to get these guys in….one day, I hope, I will get the opportunity to invite them to join us for Pud Inn Club. Dreams, do come true, right? #MakeItHappenCindz

• Course One: Chocolate Pot de Creme made by Chef Gregoire Michaud (twitter: @gregoireMichaud, Hong Kong-based)
  I first stumbled across Gregoire’s Chocolate Pot de Creme on Instagram, a dessert literally made in 5 easy steps, you can find his recipe here and it involves one of my most favourite ingredients, chocolate. Looks rather too good to eat too!
• Course Two: Brown Sugar Buttermilk Pie made by French baker Valerie (twitter: @GamineCuisine, France)
  Valerie’s baking is incredibly gorgeous, and I wouldn’t hesitate in hoovering up any of the crumbs! but she also has a creative flair with the ingredients used. Valerie’s baked treats definitely ooze “lovely” and “subtle” – take a look at the sweet choices to choose from on her blog here. You can find her pie recipe here. Served with some ice cream. Sorted!
• Course Three: Sticky Toffee Pudding made by the Rutland Arms Chef Mike (twitter: @moonlitpanda, United Kingdom/Sheffield)
  I first met and came across Chef Mike’s beautiful desserts when he kindly took part in my first ever Pud Inn Club back in September 2011 (how time flies!). The first course/time he woo’d me with was his version of the Sticky Toffee pud; a moist sticky treat that myself and other Pud Inn diners loved – it had a lovely natural toffee flavour too, and wasn’t too incredibly sweet or heavy-like.
• Course Four: Classic Dutch Apple Pie made by Weekend Bakery (twitter: @weekendbakers, Holland/Amsterdam)
  A traditional, comforting dish where simplicity is the key to success – a slice of happiness or one for all the family. You can find their recipe here. I’m really curious to find out what the differences between the Dutch version to the ones I usually make at home or find in British bakeries. However, I am sure I could get used to their version quite easily too – looks great!
• Course Five: Black Sesame flavoured ice cream made by Yee Kwan (twitter: @YeeKwanIceCream, Asian-inspired/UK)
  A melt-in-the-mouth dessert with the nutty taste of black sesame seeds, a favourite at Chinese and Japanese restaurants. The flavour of black sesame always conjures up those warm and comfortable childhood memories; the days when mum would make me and my brother fresh black sesame dessert for the family. Thanks Yee for taking me back to those scoops of comforting moments.

Brown sugar buttermilk pie by Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. Photo courtesy of Valerie.

The Rutland's sticky toffee pudding made by Chef Mike

So there you have my dream ‘Around the World’ pudding course menu. I suppose this wouldn’t be impossible to achieve, I do have two out of the five producers/chefs not too far from me, and good things are indeed possible! Gregoire, Valerie and Weekend Bakers; come to the UK very soon, I smell a Missie’s Pud Inn club cooking up when you all do!

Finally…
Tomorrow’s Pud Inn tickets/spoons have all been sold out but if you would like to put your name on our waiting list or to express your interest in future events then please join my colourful mailing list to be kept up to date with my tasteful food adventuring or alternatively follow me on twitter and facebook.

I’ll see all our enthusiastic Pud Inn diners tomorrow and am really looking forward to it! – Missie Cindz :)

Salted caramel chocolate shots – perfect for entertaining party guests!

Sweet party Ideas just for you

Forget sweet and sour, I love combining sweet and salty flavours together especially when chocolate, toffee and salt is involved. I first made these cute party-styled shots at Missie’s Party-themed Pud Inn back in September – you can read the blog post here from fellow food blogger @PinkLittleBean. These are best served in individual portions and the presentation of these are bound to impress your friends!

Serve them with a grissini/bread stick and you’ll be reminded of those retro KP Nuts chocolate dip pots back from your school day’s tuck shop – and that’s always a good memory! I always couldn’t decide whether I was more in love with the biscuit sticks, or the creamy chocolate dip I dunked them in :)

Find the recipe below for you to make at home for that all-impressive Christmas party sweet snack – and make sure you do the sprinkles round the edge look, it’s worth the time, the end result is bound to make your friends smile!

Ingredients / makes 20-25 shots glasses

• 1 can of Carnation Caramel
• 1 tsp sea salt, plus extra to serve
• 300g luxury milk chocolate, broken into squares
• 75g hundred and thousand sugar strands
• 300ml double cream, at room temperature
• 50ml milk
• bread sticks to serve

1. Melt 300g milk chocolate in a glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Dip the rim of a shot glass into the melted chocolate (not too much just enough to wet the rim) and then dip into the coloured sugar strands. Repeat until about 20 shot glasses have colourful looking rims.
2. Mix the caramel with the salt. Mix really well. Divide between 20-25 small glasses and chill (I placed a generous teaspoon into each glass).
3. Stir the double cream and milk into the remaining melted chocolate until smooth – if the chocolate’s gone thick, turn the heat back up and make sure the chocolate is nice and smooth before mixing with the cream, then scrape into a jug.
4. Slowly pour on top of the caramel, around the edges first. Chill the pudding shots for at least 2 hrs.
5. To serve, scatter a little more sea salt on top of each glass, then give each guest/diner a grissini/bread stick to dip into their delicious salted caramel shots …a shot of sweet happiness that’s bound to make them swoon! Enjoy :)

{Photos by Cindy Cheung and Keri Rowsell}

Homemade Chorizo and Butternut Squash Wraps recipe

Step 2: Peel & dice the veg into into small cubes & slice the chorizo into coins. Add all ingredients to a large pan over a medium/high flame.

These easy-to-make wraps are delicious, versatile, portable and filling!

Recipe provided by Kevin Munns.

There are many variations of this dish cooked in my household – it is a family favourite, easy to cook and pretty cheap. Cost is one thing we are all concerned with in times like these and feeding a family of four decent food at a cheap price can often be tricky.

I like to buy quality produce whenever I can but most of the time I end up in Tesco or Aldi looking for reasonably priced items that are tasty and not too time consuming to prepare. Chorizo is available fresh, dried or semi-dried from Spanish shops, delicatessens and good supermarkets. The chorizo I’ve used is a reasonably priced Sainsbury’s offering – it’s good and does the stuff, costs less than £2 (and you only use half of it). If you don’t mind spending £6 then Waitrose’s Iberico chorizo is amazing! This whole recipe meal costs around £7 for 4 people – and to me, that’s pretty decent!

These chorizo and butternut squash wraps are full of flavour and contains one of my favourite cooking spices – cumin, it has a great affinity with squash and also complements well with the chorizo – something that is really tasty and used pretty regularly up here in Banner Cross (Sheffield)! Give it a go and let us know what you think.

Note: often recipes using chorizo doesn’t need additional oil to be added to the pan since it provides its own. The fat can then be used to cook the remaining ingredients.

Ingredients (average amounts – add or replace as you please, cooking is all about experimenting)
Servings: makes 4 servings

• Half a chorizo (or the whole of it if you love your meat!), casings removed
• Half a large butternut squash (or 1 whole sml squash), peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• I large onion
• Bunch spring onions
• A leek
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2-3 Capsicum peppers
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 4 large Tortilla Wraps
• Tin Chopped tomatoes or passata (possibly 2 depending on how much sauce you like!)

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170°F, have to hand a glass oven dish lined with greaseproof paper to put the folded tortillas in
2. Peel & dice the onion into into small cubes & slice the chorizo into coins. Add the chorizo to a large pan/wok and cook over a medium/high flame, turning a few times until looking crispy and brown. Set aside retaining a tablespoon of leftover oil/grease in the pan.
3. Add the squash to the pan with some salt/pepper & the cumin. Fry, stirring occasionally until semi softened.  Add the remaining ingredients, saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes. You’ll have to make a call on whether you will need to add extra oil to the pan to make sure the mixture doesn’t stick to the pan. Taste for seasoning.
4. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Add the chopped tomatoes/passata to a saucepan and add the cooked chorizo (from step 1). Cover and simmer over a gentle heat for 5-10 minutes, until the sauce is thickened. Season to taste (the flavours of the paprika from the sausage will permeate the tomatoes nicely).
5. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the vegetable mixture in the middle of the totilla wrap, fold in either end and close the gap by folding over the other 2 sides. Place this in the oven dish, faced down. Repeat for the remaining three wraps. Generously pour the tasty chorizo tomato sauce over each wrap. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
6. To serve. Place a mound of salad in the middle of a plate and position each wrap on the top (or at the side, whichever you prefer). Delicious!

Also Try…

• you could omit the chorizo by adding some feta cheese to the wraps, giving you a great vegetarian alternative.
• adding fennel seeds and ground coriander to the mix too for extra flavour works well.
• squeezing fresh lime juice and jalapenos to the top of the mixture before wrapping.
• using the tomoto/chorizo mix as the base for a wholesome vegetable chilli – it is very tasty!

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Kevin Munns in Our Bake-In/Cook-In Stories.

{Thanks Kevin for sharing your tasty recipe with us!}

The classic, cheesy baked beans on a jacket spud never looses its flavour to me.

Can I have fries with that? It’s National Vegetarian Week

This week has been like Christmas for veggies! marinated tofu, mushrooms, hummus, crunchy beetroot, butternut squash, pumpkin & spinach curry? ALL sounds like yum stuff to me. Monday 21st May 2012 marked the start of National Vegetarian Week (@vegsoc), the UK’s annual awareness-raising campaign promoting inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle.

According to the Vegetarian Society, the word vegetarian has nothing to do with vegetables. It apparently comes from the Latin word vegetus which means lively, fresh and vigorous. There’s a lot of stigma of vegetarian dishes being bland or boring, but I’d disagree. Vegetables are so accessible these days, great value for money and filling too! My mum is fond of growing her own vegetables and I must say she’s really proud of her gardening talents too - bless! She has fresh spring onions, beds of Chinese bak choi and kai-lan (also known as Chinese broccoli) currently growing – I’ve asked mum and the people from Allot In A Box to provide some gardening tips for me, so heads up, expect some gardening experimenting from me this summer too…can’t wait!

National Vegetarian Week is also about challenging yourself to try new things – so how about going out to find the most interesting looking vegetable at the market and try experimenting in the kitchen? – I’ll be giving it a go at the weekend and will let you know how I get on.

Enjoying a bowlful of homemade spicy butternut squash soup from Harland Cafe.

Plus, you can find out what’s happening in your local area here: www.events.nationalvegetarianweek.org – thanks @VeggieAdvisor for the link :)

Vegetarian recipes/ideas to fill a healthy appetite!
There’s plenty of colourful meat-free recipes and meal ideas found on the Great British Chefs website; and please meet The Ethical Chef (specialists in local, ethical, vegetarian and vegan cooking) who on a daily basis, I find myself on a vegetarian ride with their passionate knowledge on all things vegetarian and colourful tweetings. Here Deri Reed (aka The Ethical Chef) shows us how to make homemade hummus with a twist: Wild Garlic, Nettle and Leek Hummus – I love hummus!

Here, Sheffield’s Beanies also provides us a delicious recipe for a quick and tasty Courgette and Halloumi Salad or perhaps their Courgette Soup with Bruscetta for today’s lunch might be a more substantial alternative? Love Food Hate Waste has their Top 10 Favourite Veggie Recipes – great meal suggestions to incorporate more vegetables into today’s lunch and dinner.

There are some amazing things happening in and around Sheffield. I’m told Fusion Organic Cafe, The Wick at Both Ends with their Wick & Mix Menu and The Forum all have new meat-free additions to their food menus – “smoked halloumi salad?” sounds delicious! Plus, PJ Taste has also launched the vegetarian version of their Sheffield Egg with their fresh boxed salads.

Giraffe in Meadowhall shopping centre are offering 2-for-1 on all vegetarian main courses from 21-25 May to coincide with National Vegetarian Week and the launch of their new menu. To indulge in the green Giraffe grub print off the voucher from their website: www.giraffe.net where if you order two vegetarian mains – the least expensive dish will be free!

So there you have it, there’s so many tasty eateries and people pushing their veggie options for us to try! Give vegetarianism a go this week – tweet me and let me know what you’ve tried, the more interesting the better – I’m always looking out for meal suggestions.

For more information about National Vegetarian Week visit: www.nationalvegetarianweek.org

Happy forking! :) – Cindy/Missie Cindz

{Photos by Cindy Cheung}
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Beautiful festive mince pies homemade by Ryan Swift and Lauren Swain for this month's Missie's Pud Inn event

I love a good mince pie – those small, tender tarts that somehow manages to hold the very essence of Christmas in its short crust pastry shell; the flavours, fruitiness, scents and spices, the luxury and richness of it all. It’s strange because when I was a kid, I used to hate the stuff, the taste of the brandy put me off and I remember, I used to eat the crust but left out the rich mincemeat! (how taste buds change…)

But now, with its buttery pastry and filling of rich fruits, sugar, candied citrus peels and alcohol – making them the essence of Christmas in a mouthful, scoffing these really makes my tummy smile. Last week I had a mince pies which had a pastry so fragile that it collapsed in the palm of my hand, with mince stuffing that wasn’t overpowering that made me feel boozy and the pastry lid, instead of a hard pastry shell, was a buttery almond frangipane-type topping making them so much better. I adore mince pies, I’ve never attempted to make my own (yet!) and will do very soon after tasting the frangipane mince pies made by my design colleague, Lauren Jones. I simply fell in love with the flavour combinations and the almondy frangipane mix makes a perfect topping for a mince pie. Simply a great idea, where mince pies just got better!

Do you make the perfect Christmas mince pies?
A few weeks ago I asked you all to share with me your top tips for the perfect mince pies (maybe you’ve got a special ingredient for the pastry?) let me know them all in the comments box below, afterall, this is a post for the Ultimate Festive Mince Pie! :)

Thank you to those who replied and commented – I really enjoyed reading your tips, keep these coming:

• Anne Kelly Parmee “Well, top tip one…make them smaller using mini muffin tins. Top tip two…use grated rind and juice of an orange in the pastry.”
• Christopher Baldwin “If using shop made mincemeat add a grated apple to the mixture to reduce the taste of the acetic acid.
  Yes orange zest in the pastry is gorgeous! If you’re running short of pastry use a star cutter to make the tops and give a good dusting of icing sugar when they are cold.”
• Sarah Garth “Make your own mincement I follow Delia’ recipe, (http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/mincemeat/home-made-christmas-mincemeat.html) all butter pastry is a must, add a festive look with a light covering of edible glitter and inject them with brandy…delicious!”

Homemade festive cheese and onion scones

I enjoy baking first thing in the morning because I like to grab those morning bright stars! #Opportunities

I go mad for the scone, whether they’re sweet or savoury, served with a cuppa – these treats never disappoint me.

Have these savoury cheese and onion scones with a nice hot winter-type soup like creamy mushroom or French onion. They only need to bake for 12-15 minutes to come out soft and golden. Remember, you can also make these as edible festive treats for friends and family – they’re bound to bring sparkles to any Christmas party…

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) self-raising flour
• Pinch salt
• 55g (2oz) butter
• 50g (1oz) grated Cheddar cheese
• 150ml milk plus a little extra for glazing
• ½ tbsp poppy seeds
• 1 medium 0nion, chopped
• ½tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 220ºC (425ºF, gas mark 5) and lightly grease a baking tray.
2. Mix together the flour and salt, then rub in the butter.
3. Finely slice the onion and gently fry them over a medium heat along with the sugar and salt until nice brown caramel colour and darkened at the edges. This should take about 5 mins. Now transfer it to a plate to cool.
4. Stir in the grated cheese, poppy seeds, milk and cooked onions to the flour mixture and form a soft dough.
5. Turn out on to a floured surface and lightly knead, the mixture might be a little wet, if so, sprinkle some flour onto the palm of your hands to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands. Pat the dough out to form a round 2cm thick circle.
6. Using a 5cm ‘star’ or ‘Christmas tree’ shaped cutter stamp out the scones until all the mix is used.
7. Place scones on baking tray, brush with milk and bake for 12-15 mins. Best served slightly warm. NOM!!

Cindz Tip: These scrummy scones can also be served as part of a buffet or party food selection. When the scones have cooled, halve, spread with butter, then sandwich with cress, cheese slices and chutney – whatever tickles your taste buds really!

Click here to download my Cindz recipes: Festive Cheese and Onion Scones – they’re NOM!

Click here to download my Festive Cheese and Onion Scones recipe – they're NOM!