A Sheffield Christmas at PJ taste
01 December 2011
PJ taste's Chef Ian showing us how to stuff a Turkey (chicken) leg
PJ taste's Peter Moulan showing us how make cured salmon for Christmas
I reckon Our Cow Molly would be quite proud and happy with this shot!
John Lord showing us how hand-raised pork pies should be made
A big thanks to all the PJ taste team who put on a tasty event for us last Thursday at their shop on Glossop Road, which got me all in the mood for Christmas – I had a really enjoyable night with lots of tasty food and good company. With nibbles and drinks on fast flow, food demonstrations which included preparing cured salmon, stuffing a turkey (well, chicken) leg, along with brimming festive decorations at the venue – it was hard not to feel Christmas Day hadn’t arrived already! a special mention for the King of Pork Pies, John Lord (and his wife Jean) from Take and Bake Pork Pies for a great food performances on showing us how to pastry up nicely a wholesome pork pie. A very important thanks to all the guests who came along and helped to raise a fantastic sum of £146 for Cavendish Cancer Care – it was great to meet new people and to put faces to the food producers involved.
Cindy getting ready with the Missie Cindz for her Sheffield Hampers launch
Yup, I go on and on and on and on about.....food!
Things taste better at home – Missie Cindz Sheffield Hampers
At the event, I also unveiled my ‘Sheffield Favourites’ food hamper – where I did a 5 minutes presentation explaining who I was, how these items in the hamper were chosen and explaining how my journey with food led me to the curation of ‘Missie Cindz – the food enthusiast’ (my alter-ego) – this year’s enjoyable journey finding out and learning about food produced from my city, meeting the food producers who make it – has given me the opportunity to meet a range of new group of people who helps to build a real sense of community (I call this my ‘Sheffield Food Adventure’). Spending most of the year, ‘fooding around’ has led me to build on a visual directory of talented food producers whose artisan food and services I’m proud to know and be part of. I’ve been given a valuable insight on some of the obstacles independent food retailers face and struggle with against society’s changing taste, lifetstyle, income and multi-national supermarkets.
My Missie Cindz Sheffield Favourites hampers reflect my passionate view about artisan and local produce and I know that there are many people like me who share that passion too, whether they are buying it or making it, I’m sure we’re all intrigued about where our food comes from? You’ll find each hamper is in the Missie Cindz whimsical signature with, of course, to give pleasure to the hamper recipient’s taste buds. I believe it’s important to connect people with the producers – after all, who doesn’t want to know what we are really eating and where it comes from? plus, it’s only good manners to say thank you to the person who’s just spent their whole day in the kitchen, garden or farm for us.
How to order the Missie Cindz Food hampers
Hampers are available at all PJ taste stockists priced £22.95. Orders can be reserved now using the order form here: Missie’s Hamper Order Form or ready to collect at their shop, a £5.00 deposit confirms your order. Go on, end the year tastefully with some added Missie-ness and sparkle! :)
The PJ taste food menu
Welcome nibbles at the event included:
- Squash shots with a pumpkin garnish (using Woodhouse Grown Butternut Squash, Sheffield bottled Pumpkin Oil), Cured Salmon on Cat Lane Bakery sour dough, (Fish that was from Mann’s fishmongers)
- PJ taste pork rilletts made with Moss Valley Fine Meats pork
- To drink, we had a choice of Tea Box Sheffield Brew or local cider punch or Kelham Island Pride of Sheffield
One of the many key messages from PJ taste’s Taste of Christmas event were to highlight that we can all find ways to eat nutritiously amazing local food for each meal on Christmas Day – it might take a little bit of planning and organising but who said cooking a Christmas dinner would be easy!? There’s a post on the PJ taste blog with full recipes of the food made at their event along with meal suggestions to enjoy a real ‘Made in Sheffield’ Chrimbo dinner – click here to find their recipes: A taste of Christmas – the recipes, there’s also links to the suppliers they used as well. If you have any trouble or questions obtaining any of their produce I’m sure the PJ taste team will be more than happy to help.
Squash shots with a pumpkin garnish (using Woodhouse grown butternut squash, Sheffield bottled pumpkin oil)
PJ taste pork rilletts made with Moss Valley Fine Meats pork
Missie Cindz with John Lords enormous porkie pies – these were huge!
A beefy food test
Everyone also participated in PJ taste’s slow cooked Beef Stew Test, where attendees taste tested two beef stews, one made using beef from a leading supermarket brand and another using Rivelin Valley beef from Sheffield’s Coppice House Farm, both beef casserole dishes were made with Pride of Sheffield beer. PJ taste reassured us that they treated them identically and cooked/chilled/re-heated simultaneously with exactly the same times and temperature and ingredients through-out. I’m not usually a beef eater and to be honest, I was a little hesitant about the test (what if we voted the wrong dish!?) – but the result was almost every single adult in the room on the night voted for the Rivelin Valley beef!! (I only saw one hand go up for the alternative). You could definitely taste the difference, maybe not by looks as it was covered in the tasty tomato-flavoured sauce, but the Riv’ Valley beef was more succulent and moist (I didn’t even need to chew the meat to swallow it, quite bad of me though I know, I could’ve choked! :)
As a society, we are constantly being encouraged to source the basic ingredients locally – adopting a ‘grow local, buy local’ approach and hopefully with Missie Cindz (what i do) and collaborating with people like PJ taste will help to highlight the importance of Sheffield’s tasteful food scene – introducing to you a taste of the food range and producers we have available right on our door step…it’s important to start and experience our own unique food adventure. I’m enjoying mine, I hope you do too!
{Photos by Toby Dodwell at We Are Fine – thank you Toby!}
Missie Cindz
