Preparing for another party – with yummy salt beef

Posted on 04/07/2014 by streetfood1340

This party is being hosted by a very generous boss who is thanking his staff for a years hard work by spoiling them with a Deli Truck feast on Saturday morning. This menu has my personal favourite on it – our outrageously brilliant salt beef. We have been busy this morning making sweet almond pastry flans for our traditional strawberry tart filled with Creme Patissiere and organic strawberries. Since posting the “how to make” of one of these tarts on the 26th of May we have had endless requests from customers to have it on their menu. We make the pastry as short as we can with loads of butter and the addition of Almond Meal. Gives it a real kick. Also this morning (for tomorrows party) We will be starting the 4 hour simmer of our salt beef – for our famous salt beef sandwich. As you can see the brisket has been brined for 8 days in a selection of pickling spices and is now being simmered. The basic simmering flavours are a mirepoix (carrot, celery, onion) and crushed peppercorns, juniper berries and bay leaf. Also making the individual wild cherry and chocolate mousse puddings this morning. All good fun. Can’t wait to taste the salt beef when cooked.

Wild Cherry and chocolate mousse pudding

Pastry case for strawberry tart. loads of butter and almond meal

Simmering components

Spices for Salt Beef

Salt beef slowing simmering for 3 to 4 hours

Deli Truck now grows it’s own organic salad

Posted on 02/07/2014 by streetfood1340

Deli Truck has always been about quality food sourced responsibly. OUr aim is to cut as much of the chemical additives from our food as possible. We think the best way to get crispy, just picked, organic (no artificial fertilisers, no insecticides) lettuce leaves is to grow it ourselves. Our test patch has been hugely successful. We decided to grow all our edible leaves above ground, in terracotta pots to keep it off the ground – away from the crawlies that love our lettuce.

Growing our own organic lettuce

The taste is fantastic – we have a slightly bitter Italian variety and two other varieties of softer texture and tasting lettuce. Over the next weeks we will be supplying all our clients salads from our own garden – in Kent.

Testing the best lettuce varieties for our burgers and salads

Radicchio style lettuce growing on Deli Trucks lettuce test stand

Deli Truck organic Lettuce farm

Fabo hill top party with great views and spectacular Deli Truck food.

Posted on 30/06/2014 by streetfood1340

We organised a relaxed and fun party yesterday for great clients who tasted our food last summer and decided to use us for their own party. The venue had the most fantastic views over the Weald of Kent. Sun was shining food was fantastic. With a new member of staff on board the truck service was much more relaxed even when everybody wanted a cajun fish sandwich at the same time. Thanks Laura you were great. As the weather was so warm we decided to try our home-made Deli-Truck lemonade on the party – 45 large juicy lemons to 10 litres of water, with just a little sugar syrup – seriously good and it disappeared very quickly. A great day. The menu was simple but tasty and to our surprise the Cajun fish sandwich “sold out” very very quickly. For a party of 48 adults it’s unusual to sell more 10 pieces of fish – we sold all 25 pieces on board the truck. But it did look good and we think that’s what started the rush.

Deli Truck clients eating

Deli Truck puddings

Deli Truck Menu

Deli Truck view

Deli Truck trifle

Deli Truck view 2

Deli Truck home made tomato sauce

Deli Truck crowd

Deli Truck clients ordering food

Deli Truck "home made" "tomato sauce" onto her burger

Deli Truck client drizzling our home made tomato sauce onto her burger

Our burger ready to eat

Showbiz Party for 50 in Wimbledon

Posted on 26/05/2014 by streetfood1340

We were asked to feed fifty people for a summers day lunch in the gardens and grounds of a well know showbiz personality in Wimbledon in London. The menu was complex for the truck but it worked a treat and was a success because of organisation and premium ingredients.

A garden party menu for 50 people

Can’t say who it is but a large garden in Wimbledon is our destination. Starting at the end – dessert first – we have just finished making a gallon of two fabo home made ice creams. We use only organic milk and cream and made a fun one for the kids made up of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream layered with marshmallow and chocolate sauce. The second half gallon is made for the adult guests with a vanilla base brimming with a laughable amount of Disaronno liqueur for that lovely boozy almond flavour. Three layers of the ice cream are separated with a dark, compote of raspberries and then swirled. Kind of like the raspberry ripple we used to have as kids but with a serious kick and a little almond and berry bitterness to make it very grown up.

The party is set to kick off at 12.30 Saturday, so running out of time – more posts as the preparations continue.

Our two special home made ice creams.

For the vegetarians – we made a very slow cooked confit of peppers, onions and leeks, added with steamed broccoli and cheddar cheese to our home made tart base. V tasty

home made vegetable pie for the vegetarians (or any body else for that matter)

The host wanted the best – so we roasted 4 rib-eyes for the parties main course. I have to say this was one of the best pieces of beef I have ever ever had. We aged it for nearly 40 days, so it was super tender. This meat comes form our normal supplier, who I think is one of the best butchers in the UK. Graham Batchelor from Batchelor’s the Butchers (3rd Generation) in Sevenoaks.

Preparing the beef feb-eye before a low, slow cooking.

We kept prepping for the party on Saturday morning including finishing our strawberry tarts the traditional way with our homemade almond short crust pastry with Creme Patissiere and fresh strawberries. We also completed our hot smoked salmon entree. We cleaned four whole sides of salmon and hot smoked over apple and oak wood then served at room temperature over crispy salad leaves. great smoky flavour but cooked..

preparing strawberry tart for the party

Another favourite was our fish pie – that went down a storm

Fish pie at front of photo – jam packed with pollock, smoked haddock, salmon, prawns and mussels

Christening Party overlooking the weald of Kent for 40 adults and 15 children

Posted on 29/04/2014 by streetfood1340

We were asked to prepare a luxurious American style menu for a Christening Party in the grounds of a grand country house overlooking the Weald of Kent for 40 adults and 15 children. The host wasted smaller portions so that their guests could come back to the Deli Truck again and again if they wished to taste the whole menu – Diner style. Hot dishes like the salt beef sandwich and the sea bass sandwich were made on the spot as the guests requested. Served this way the guests received their food at it’s freshest and best. We become the Gourmet Takeaway in the garden.

garden party, catering, kent, Deli truck

Menu for 40 adults at a Christening Party. The 15 children had a separate menu.

The Best Burger Bun – Ever

Posted on 16/04/2014 by streetfood1340

Our home made burger buns fresh from the oven

We think this is the best burger bun in the world – why? because we make it ourselves. We spent months trying to find the perfect burger bun, but keep being disappointed. Believe it or not there is quite a lot of science involved in getting just the right bun. Firstly it has to be tough enough to handle a super heated 8 oz piece of pure beef, it has to soak up meat, cheese and bacon juices with out disintegrating and it has to have a warm doughy interior for taste and “mouth feel” We finally decided, after talking to friends in the US, that we would try a burger bun made out of “soft pretzel dough” This is a wonderful dough – but to make it into a bun takes a lot of work because just like a bagel, this bun is simmered in water for 60 seconds before it’s popped in the oven for a further 20 minutes. The genius behind this way of cooking is that the outside of the bun becomes firm, but pliable – in other words it doesn’t break up and the inside is still delightfully bready and rich and soft. So finally we have found our perfect burger bun and we hope you enjoy it next time you come and see us. The next set of pictures show how we made our first small test batch.

Forming the dough into small balls before the second rising.

Arty shot of me forming buns.

uncooked bun dough then goes into a pan of simmering water for 30 seconds on each side.

rolls being poached, see how much they puff up

Poached buns are lifted from the water and glazed with an egg and milk mixture.

The rolls are then sliced into a cross cut, because the outside of the roll is now cooked and has killed the yeast, but the inside is still raw and needs to expand rapidly once it gets in the oven – these slits allow the expansion without the roll exploding .

The end result and they were soft and doughy inside. Fantastic

Brand New Menu for Next BMW Truck Feast.

Posted on 15/04/2014 by streetfood1340

Working on the menu for our next appearance at Coopers BMW motorcycles in Tunbridge Wells on the 26th of April. I have attached our menu boards for you to drool over. It’s just 11 days away and as you can see we have brought back some old favorites like our Salt Beef sandwich – but we have introduced two new dishes including our Steak Sandwich. This is amazing as we use a large rib-eye steak grilled, and served up in a Baguette with salad, a confit of onion and our special homemade Russian dressing. This is taste- tastic. We are also introducing our meat ball sub this month. This is a half baguette stuffed with four beef meatballs surrounded by a rich tomato sauce and topped with Italian or Swiss cheese. This really is a cheesy, beefy sandwich of pleasure. We will also be serving freshly brewed Fairtrade colombian coffee this time round as so many of you asked for coffee last month. So I hope to see you all at Coopers BMW on Saturday the 26th from 1100 to 1600.

Our steak Sandwich Menu board for our next Gourmet food outing at BMW Tunbrige wells

Our Famous Salt Beef

OUr famous Meat BAll Sub, in a rich and thick tomato sauce and a good strong Italian cheese

Picnic at Penshurst point-to-point a great success

Posted on 13/04/2014 by streetfood1340

After all the work the picnic was a great success. The client was delighted and a steady stream of their friends dropped in for a chat and bite.

A tasty picnic of light bites. From Left to right – A cheese board with grapes, home made sausage rolls, a salad of roasted red peppers, olives, feta and pesto – a galantine of guinea fowl, quail eggs with celery salt fresh heritage tomatoes, potato salad. Dessert (not on the table) fudgy chocolate brownies, fresh strawberries and cream

A delightful setting at the Penshurst point to point.

Galantine, sliced and ready to consume. You can see the darker duck breast meat in the middle of the galantine

Picnic at Penshurst point to point

Posted on 11/04/2014 by streetfood1340

Another picnic favourite – a bowl of quail eggs. Pick one out and dip lightly in celery salt – it doesn’t get much better. All shelled and ready to be packed in our huge hamper. We had to try a few of course – and they are fantastic

Quail eggs in a bowl of water cress – a great picnic favourite.

A posh picnic for a point to point (part 1)

Posted on 11/04/2014 by streetfood1340

An old client has hired us to make a posh picnic for their visit to the “Penshurst Point to Point” meeting tomorrow in Kent. Today we started the laborious task of boning out a selection of birds to create a classic old fashioned French dish called a Galantine.

The Final Result – Guinea Fowl out of the oven and glazed with a mixture of highly reduced meat jus and apricot preserve.

Photo2: We boned out a Guinea Fowl and two small poussin and after discarding the carcasse we reformed the birds into their original shape with the help of a forcemeat stuffing made up of lean pork meat, chicken breast, mushroom and duck breast strips. The forcemeat is traditionally herbed with tarragon and chicken stock and Brandy.

PHOTO 2. The boned out bird looks a bit odd without any of it’s bones, but it means it can be stuffed with wonderful forcemeat.

The start quality of this dish is that at the table the bird looks normal but it can be carved without concern for bones. This dish isn’t produced much these days because of the boning out process which takes time and skill. When the bird is finally boned out the skin cannot have any puncture marks in it, or it will leak forcemeat and look terrible. So the art is in the boning and for a bird as small as a poussin – this amounts to very careful micro surgery.

This is a close up of the cross section of strips of Duck Breast and very fine forcemeat that forms the centre of this bird. This runs right through the centre of the bird from front to back.

Even though this dish does get a mention around the time of the French revolution in the 1790’s – this dish was at its apogee during the 1890’s to the 1930’s, when it was seen on the plates of European plutocrats and aristocracy. In those days the forcemeat was usually a very finely minced lean veal, which was whipped over a bowl of ice to bind the proteins, with as much cream added as the minced veal could absorb when super cold – which was a lot. It was then herbed usually with tarragon and the forcemeat typically would have been formed around a block of Foie Gras before it was inserted into the bird. This is just way way to rich for todays modern palettes. Our lighter forcemeat is held together by the addition of a very reduced stock made up of all the discarded carcasses. This produces a very rich jelly which helps binds the meats together. I also use this rich savoury jelly, mixed with apricot preserve to glaze the top of the birds.

Guinea Fowl ready to be stitched up for baking

Guinea Fowl stuffed and trussed sitting on a bed of onion ready for the oven

The guinea fowl beside its much smaller Poussin. All glazed being chilled for tomorrows picnic at Penhurst.

The Deli Truck

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