Missie Cindz World PudInn 2013 at the Rutland Arms
Myself and lovely Hannah as my pudInn sidekick. HUGE smiles all round!
Handmade paper fortune cookies for #MissiesPudInn. Success is in the details.
‘Around the World’ in five sweet courses
We travelled Around the World on Saturday 16th March with our sell-out ‘Missie Cindz Pud Inn Club’ – serving diners a delicious taste of the world’s delightful offerings in five sweet courses! A big thank you to our guest chefs and bakers who pulled out the stops with their generous and wholesome puddings, all capturing the world’s taste of culture and differences in their own unique way.
For those who aren’t sure what Missie’s Pud Inn clubs are (aka #MissiesPudInn), these are seasonal events I organise to bring people together to eat, drink, connect and enjoy. It’s based on the principles that supporting your local pub, local chefs/bakers/restaurants, and local talent will contribute in brightening up the community; all at the same time appreciating great puddings! I believe enjoying the little things in life are generally the best. The full pudding menu (keep reading and you’ll find out the courses) was reflective of the enthusiastic Sheffield makers, bakers and creators our city has to offer as well as to give our diners super delicious desserts, of course.
I like to add touches of Missieness to the event, so I always include a ‘Score and Comments’ sheet to get diners talking and interacting with their desserts, along with a sweet Pud Inn World quiz so everyone can work in their table teams to win foodie prizes. This time round, I also wanted to include an ‘Around the World Desserts Table’ – this was a table where diners could voluntarily bring in some of their own favourite homemade (or shop bought) food treats with a World theme for everyone to try. FIVE courses of puddings AND a desserts table? there was going to be a lot of sugar sweats indeed!…
Keeping with the theme, for decoration, I hand made 40 brightly coloured paper fortune cookies to use as place cards, each had a ‘fortune’ quote placed inside. The little details and touches like these helps in contributing to a more playful and charming PudInn experience – plus it’s all fun too :)
What’s for pudding at Missie Cindz Pud Inn?
Red Bean Dessert – a popular Chinese sweet dessert soup made with red azuki beans.
Course One: first up was a traditional Chinese dessert and a popular dish among the Chinese, red bean soup dessert made with red azuki beans made by myself. Most Chinese and cafe-style restaurants will offer this dessert soup at the end of your meal (usually complimentary too) and to me, it’s one of those desserts that reminds me of home and thought it would be lovely for our diners to try it too.
This dessert can be served hot or cold, I served it warm and the recipe is very straight-forward; including red azuki beans, water and sugar, but some people will also add lotus seeds, glutinous rice balls and various other ingredients to make it more rich and wholesome.
Comments from diners from their score sheets included:
- “Different but really enjoyable!”
- “Lovely flavour and texture, but I feel like it could have had a complement of some sort”
- “Liked the fact that it was served hot”
- “Much better than I expected. Not usually a bean fan.”
- “Sorry, not to my taste!”
Course Two: Taiwanese Mango Pudding made by LOL Bubble Tea at West One Plaza
Next up was course 2: Refreshingly cool Taiwanese Mango Pudding made by LOL Bubble Tea, West One Plaza (twitter: @LOL_BubbleTea). Oli from LOL tells me that their mango puddings are made with milk rather than water and in a specific set temperature to get the tofu-like texture produced correctly. The Hong Kong styled mango puddings are a different texture to the Taiwanese styled version, and he thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce this course for Pud Inn diners to try – afterall, people are more adventurous these day and looking for exciting types of food to try!
LOL’s mango puddings are available from their tasteful bubble tea shop in West One Plaza. If you haven’t tried bubble tea before (because of the tapioca balls floating at the bottom) then I reckon you should pop over and say hi this weekend.
Comments from diners included:
- “Nice light dessert – good mango flavour, the ideal dessert to a heavy meal”
- “Like mini milk lollies”
- “Amazing flavour”
- “Really enjoyed something different”
- Pleasant taste and texture. Fruit pieces would improve the taste”
Course Three: Russian Fruit Celebration Gateaux made by Cossack Cuisine
Hanging out with Cossack Cuisine's head baker, Leeza
Next up was Course 3: Russian Fruit Celebration Gateaux made by made by Cossack Cuisine (twitter: @CossackCuisine)
It was fantastic having Leeza and Stephen from Cossack Cuisine sat in with us for the whole event. I was still really pleased they could both join us, having the food producers and chefs sat in with us plays an important element to why Pud Inn happens and its success.
I asked Leeza to tell me why she went for this particular course… “I picked the Russian Celebration gateaux to take Pud Inn diner’s taste buds to all four corners of Russia. In one spoonful experience the sharp Lingonberries of the North, the liqueur-soaked sponge fields to the West, head South through the pungent pomegranate forests, ending up on top of the biting cold, meringue peaks of the East”.
The gateaux was absolutely stunning to look at, from the cake details and arrangement of the fruit right through to the size, and it tasted just as good as it looked too. This course in short was a fresh fruit celebration cake with fresh fruit mousse, white sponge, laced with liqueur, covered in a fresh cream meringue.
Comments from diners included:
- “I know want to get married – just need to find a partner!”
- “Perfect!!!”
- “Delicious and light”
- “Indulgent, gorgeous zings of fruit – made me happy!”
- “That will take some beating! Heavenly.”
Silversmith's Creative Chef Lee Mangles keeping the puddings under control
Flavours of Yorkshire Rhubarb on a World Tour made by Silversmith’s Creative Chef, Lee Simon Mangles
Flavours of Yorkshire Rhubarb on a World Tour – the Rhubarb lassi
Next up was Course 4: Flavours of Yorkshire Rhubarb on a World Tour made by Silversmith’s Creative Chef, Lee Simon Mangles (twitter: @LeeSimonMangles / @Silversmiths). This was a very charming and playful dessert – cleverly pieced together by Lee using seasonal Rhubarb. His course served up Rhubarb creativiely with a Yorkshire Rhubarb crumble pot (representing Yorkshire, UK) accompanied with a rhubarb flavoured lassi in a shot glass with straw (India, an alternative to mango lassi) and a side of rhubarb with orange flavoured biscotti (representing Italy). We couldn’t fault Lee for effort here! I love rhubarb, it’s one of my favourite vegetables and love that when cooked rhubarb goes an irresistible pastel pink. Plus, its distinct tartness was a perfect compliment to the creamy lassi shake. Yum!
Comments from diners included:
- “I wouldn’t normally order rhubarb but you’ve converted me! Very interesting ‘Italian’ version. Just right sweetness for the crumble and the lassi was a lovely smooth finish”
- “Loved the lassi – going to try to do that one!”
- “Great zingy rhubarb, orange biscotti was delicious!”
- “Lovely texture to the crumble pot, could have done with some custard”
- “So many subtle flavours. Amazing.”
Course Five: Gulab Jamun (popular Pakistan dessert) served with Cardamom Ice Cream and Mango Coulis made by Rutland Arms Chef Koko and Rico
Last but not least, Course 5: Gulab Jamun served with Cardamom Ice Cream and Mango Coulis made by Chef Koko and Chef Rico of the Rutland Arms (twitter: @sweetKomal / @RutlandArmsChef).
Chef Koko tells us more about her pudding course…“I made it because my mum used to buy fresh gulabs for me and my sisters from Asian shops and I have loved them ever since. I knew it would fit in and be an usual food which would be new for some people. I added pistachio ice cream and mango coulis to compliment the flavour and textures of the dish. It was team work, chef Rico made the gulabs and I made the ice cream and coulis”
Comments from diners included:
- “Good mix of flavours”
- “I liked the gulab and coulis”
- “Nice doughnutty style. Very nice ice cream! Coulis personally didn’t go with the ice cream but was lovely with the gulab jamun.”
- “This was very different! Liked the textures and delicious ice cream”
- “Didn’t really do it for me. I applaud the effort at the exoticness though”
So there you have it. Another Missie’s Pud Inn Club: Mission Completed. Sugar sweats or not, Sheffield’s sweet-tooth has definitely being pulled!
A personal big thank you to all our pudding makers for the afternoon’s courses – plus, not forgetting the Rutland Arms for being the ideal place to have PudInn club – puddings and local beers are definitely making its way to becoming the new fish and chips! Everyone made a contribution to Pud Inn in their own time for the love of a good pudding and to bring pudding enthusiats together.
So who was voted diner’s ‘favourite’ pudding I hear you ask? (drum rolls please…..) – Pudding no 3 made by Cossack Cuisine, our diners were really impressed and in awwe with Russia. Look out for Cossack Cuisine at this weekend’s Nether Edge Farmer’s Market in Sheffield this Sunday 12 noon – 4pm. Do pop along and support our city’s markets and talented producers.
Congratulations to our diner Carol Greene for being an awesome, incredibly sweet and enthusiastic PudInn diner. You truly captured the fun and meaning of Missie’s PudInn, from the way you participated in the event’s dessert table and lovely pictures/comments – everything you did embodied the fun and togetherness of #MissiesPudInn. Your complimentary Rutland Arms meal and drink voucher is on its way to you now.
I’m sorry to those who weren’t able to purchase tickets to our World Pud Inn and wanted to join. We had a lot of interest for this event and tickets were literally sold out within hours! I will be planning our next event very soon and hope you will be able to join me for that.
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The amazing array of Around the World treats baked by generous PudInn diners. You're all such a talented bunch of bakers!
Creating memories, new experiences and making new friends like these that makes #missiespudinn all worthwhile!
Course no.2's taiwanese mango pudding polished off nicely
Finally….
To me, creating memories, new experiences and making new friends are what makes PudInn club all worthwhile in organising. It’s always a pleasure cooking up exciting stuff for people who appreciates what I do. Thank you to everyone who attended and look forward to seeing you all again really soon! – Missie Cindz :)
{All photos courtesy of all our lovely diners – Clare Farmer (@PinkLittleBean), Carol Greene, Stephen, Tracey Howe. Thank you for your lovely Pud Inn snaps! – there are more photographs of the event on my facebook page here, scroll right down to the bottom}
