Our first wedding of the 2016 season got the Deli Truck off to a great start for the year. We were asked by the lovely about-to-be newly weds to feed up to 90 people at an outside venue on the windswept but amazingly romantic Romney Marsh. What a great bunch of people – and they appreciated our menu.
A queue for the Deli Truck on the Romney Marsh
The young couple wanted a “Route66” theme for their wedding and menu so we came up with a mixed menu of Southern US greats.
Our host wanted an unforgettable shared birthday party – a 50th for his wife (she looked 35) and a 21st for his daughter. The venue was fantastic – a series of barns and outside dancing areas with an enclosed courtyard area for covered dancing and partying. Our client also wanted a fun festival feel to the event with a number of food trucks sited beside the main barn.
The Venue four hours before the party begins
Our client wanted pre dinner nibbles for his 130 guests – so we started our preparation for the evening producing 500 individual canapés. We always make our canapés fresh, just minutes before they are needed, so they don’t wilt or loose their crispiness and flavour.
Dennis preparing canapés on site for 130 guests.
Piping Mackerel Mousse into Vol-au-Vente cases. very yummy – these disappeared very quickly.
We also supplied a whole Jamon ham for the party which we carved as requested by the guests – this was a big hit as you can see below. We worked with a very professional party organiser for this event –
“Thank you for your kind words and importantly for doing such a wonderful job with the Deli Truck. It has been such a pleasure to work with you over the weeks. Your enthusiasm and knowledge left me in no doubt the catering would be a huge success. The Deli Truck looked gorgeous and the food was delicious. Thank you Dennis and Miri. I do hope we get the chance to work together in the future.” Lizzie Smith
Queue for the Deli Truck beside the whole Jamon – cut for clients on request. Beside is mini tubs of coleslaw.
Menu card for a joint 50th and 21st birthday party in Kent – supplied by the Deli Truck
Dennis Carving Jamon Ham off the bone guests
Four very happy guests at the Deli Truck
Queue outside the Deli Truck – Late night after dancing and drinking for a second helping of our specialities.
Guests deep in concentration wondering what to order at the Deli Truck
The Deli Truck on site in the Weald of Kent
Preparation still going on – What a great idea – to turn an out side courtyard into a dancing tent with an ancient Olive tree centre stage. A magical room.
Ready for service in a magical position just outside the main bar.
A new source of sweet sweet smoking wood – one of the limbs of our very old apple tree at Deli Truck HQ, finally decided to break off under weight of this years crop and dropped into our track. Miri, showing her skills with the chainsaw, cutting it up to use as wood for our smoker. Will give a very sweet delicate flavour to our pulled pork.
Miri with chainsaw chopping applewood.
We have just finished making 60 “individual chocolate mousses on top of fresh raspberry, morello cherries, and cherry brandy jelly” The jelly base was made from the juices from the morello cherries and about half a bottle of Cherry brandy – in that mixture we have added fresh raspberries and morello cherries – so a very fruity and adult flavoured jelly base – with home made chocolate mousse on top. Takes 3 blocks of chocolate for very 12 servings of Mousse.
Morello and raspberries in cherry brandy and sugar waiting to go into our mousse dessert
Melting the chocolate
Adding egg white to the chocolate, egg yolk and cream mixture
The end result – Chocolate mousse over a morello cherry and cherry brandy jelly studded with fruit.
One of our party clients wanted an informal day but some fairly formal food as a lot of the guests were coming from culinary school in Switzerland for her party. They clearly wanted different salads, instead of the usual, for their gourmet guests. We suggested our own home grown lettuce and leaves for a green and red salad, the leaves to be picked on the day of the event from the Deli Truck HQ garden. We also suggested an old favourite from the south of France – a fabulously simple red pepper, fresh basil and garlic salad with a side of anchovy fillets.
Stacks of Peppers ready to be prepped for the grill
We char the peppers under a very hot grill, then in batches let them sweat in plastic bags, so the burnt skin just brushes off. It’s wonderful at this stage how the peppers completely change flavour to a deep nutty richness. They also start producing their own oil, we just add a bit of extra virgin olive oil to help things along, oh and fresh garlic of course. And with many many peppers to do – this will be a half day bake and make – but the smell at Deli Truck HQ is worth the effort. I personally don’t think there is a better smell than peppers being charred.
The peppers after 10 minutes under a very hot grill
The blackened skins being peeling off the peppers
Peppers getting a big slurp of extra virgin olive oil
And the final result – peppers with Garlic on the buffet. We made 150 individual pieces of peperonata they all disappeared with in 45 minutes.
A bowl full of 70 percent chocolate over the double boiler.
Spent the last hour making our chocolate fudge sauce for our “Ice Cream Bar” next Saturday. To make it fudge we melt 70% coco solid free trade chocolate with a little bit of evaporated milk and a drop or two of cream. We thought we may be able to find a very good quality commercial sauce – but it seems all the chocolate sauces available in the UK are made to a budget. Some where OK but most tasted more of sugar than chocolate. So we felt we really had to make our own. The difference using pure high grade chocolate with no preservatives or additives is worth the extra 20 minutes it takes to make.
Chocolate saucecooling down after being made.
Just finished making our own Morello Cherry Ice Cream for a 21st Birthday party this Saturday. Been experimenting with lots of interesting ingredients to try and get the Ice Cream we like – and finally found a fabulous concoction at Sainsbury’s called Morello Cherry Compot. Never even knew it existed until researching for this ice cream. Brilliant flavour. So we blitzed the compote with real cherries in kirsch, Cherry Brandy, and a tiny touch of white chocolate. This turned out to be the winning set of ingredients. It really tastes sensational with that lovely little bit of bitterness from the berries – sweetness from the Ice cream custard and chocolate, and a zing from the booze. The colour is almost neon…
Morello Cherry Ice Cream
Growing our own salad again this summer for our clients parties. This year we have come up with a slightly different way of growing. Because this year we are almost booked out all the way through to October, we can plan our salad growing period for each individual party. For example – salad in photos below is just becoming perfect. We planted this lot specifically for a large 21st birthday party in 8 days time. Salad will then be at it’s best – so we will pick on the day of the party. It will be crunchy, fresh and additive free. Also adding beet leaves this year to our usual “green” salad. A large percentage of the young party goers attend a culinary school in Switzerland – so they know their food and expect the best.
This year we are growing yellow beets and using the leaf for our green salad selection. A slightly bitter leaf, works well with an mustard based emulsion vinaigrette, with a little bit of palm sugar added.
This years selection of leafs for our green summer salads.
Among other things I brought back from our latest trip to France was a very inexpensive cut of meat that has become quite expensive in the UK. In the UK and America we call it Short Rib – in France they call it a Plat de Cote and it’s rise in price in the Anglo Saxon countries is due to the explosion of Gourmet BBQ and Steak houses and the rise and rise of the Texas style BBQ food trucks.
2 Plat de Cote – as you caee it is quite fatty but this is redered out during the long “low and slow” cooking process. Keep the beef dripping for roasting potatoes.
So far the French haven’t taken on board the whole comfort food/BBQ/Steak House thing that’s happening elsewhere. So Plat de Cote is still really really inexpensive. So this how you can make the most costs effective and luscious winter dish ever. The great thing about this cut is that it comes form a hard working part of the beast so it tastes really beefy.
Short Rib seared to caramelise the outside.
Short Rib being seared then pan deglazed with a lovely Baturrica Gran Reserva 2007 Tarragona from Spain – a perfect full bodied wine for the beef.
So first off – sautee the beef hard in a small amount of vegetable oil to get a good coloured, caramelised crust on the beef. Then add sliced onions and carrots and bring some colour to them (about 5 minutes) then add half a bottle to good red wine (we used a Baturrica Gran Reserva from Spain and its robust almost sweet flavour was perfect for the beef) Let the alcohol boil off and add a litre of beef stock to cover the meat.
Ingredients for short rib braise – a good beef stock, onions carrots and bay leaf
Add bay leaf, 10 pepper corns and thyme put the lid on your casserole and place in the oven at 150 degrees C for 3 hours. The meat should be cooked by then so take out the meat strain the liquid – take off the beef fat from the top (keep it as it’s great for baking potatoes) return the cooking liquid to the pot and reduce and reduce and reduce – until you get a thick caramelised unctuous sauce that is red winey, beefy and rich. Best served with Mash or simply billed white rice. So next time your in France for the day and your passing a butcher shop ask for some Plate de Cote and get cooking you’ll love this.
Cooked short rib – Deep flavours and very very yummy.
The Deli Truck 