Cheese-Tastic. A new taste and new friends

Posted on 02/02/2015 by streetfood1340

It’s always a joy to find something new and unheard of in the food business and I thought I knew the cheeses of France pretty well after 40 years of sampling the curd in all it’s magnificence. But on an ingredients buying mission to the south of France I came across a little backstreet cheese shop in Nice, well-off the tourist routes. The passionate and knowledgable owner suggested I try a Cheese that he said is usually sold only at Christmas. He makes this himself – This is how he described it – Get a wheel of the best unpasteurised Brie at its honking best – slice it in half horizontally and fill it with a mixture of mascarpone, pepper, salt, diced truffle and real truffle oil (and other things he wouldn’t tell me) – put the other half back on and let mature for two days before serving. I am not kidding this is sooooo good I nearly collapsed onto the floor of the cheeses shop on first taste.

Cheesy, truffle delight -an incredible cheese.

He also introduced me to another cheese I had never tasted called a Boulette D’avesnes – odd taste at first but weirdly pleasing – its in the shape of a cone – Originally made from butter milk, the cheese is mixed with parsley, tarragon, cloves and pepper. The clove flavour is very predominate – The cheese is then shaped into a cone and dusted with paprika. My new best friend at the cheese shop says this cheese is best consumer with a good strong beer. You can find the La Ferme Fromagere at 27 rue de Lepante, Nice. And seriously try the truffled Mascarpone Brie……

What I call the “Cone of Pleasure” but the much more mature French call it a Boulette D’avesnes

The “cone of Pleasure” dusted with paprika. Then slightly taupe colour is due to the addition of cloves, pepper and tarragon

My new best friend – The cheese shop “La Ferme Fromagere”

Fresh wild mushrooms – there is no better

Posted on 21/01/2015 by streetfood1340

Yep – its wild mushroom time in Europe and of course every little regional bistro in France is celebrating the fungus – cooking up a storm with beautiful fresh Girolle, Morel, Porcini and Cep. Just got back from Nice with this delightful handful foraged from the National Park du Mercantor in the mountains behind Monaco. (Needless to say I didn’t do the foraging – way to much work – but I know a guy who knows a guy) Sautéed lightly in butter with garlic, salt and pepper, then finished off with a dash of cream and parsley served over egg tagliatelli. A simple but sensational meal – got to be in my top ten favourite dishes of all time.

Selection of wild mushrooms

Tagliatelle with wild mushrooms

Great day at Bicester Heritage

Posted on 04/01/2015 by streetfood1340

Our first time at Bicester Heritage as a quest of Ludo Parayre who owns vintage car company “Lap63”. Ludo wanted us to feed his clients and potential clients at Bicester Heritages’s first vintage car, bike and plane open day for the year. Despite the cold an amazing number of people turned out to see a fine array of vehicles. I popped around the corner of one building and found three pre 1960’s Ferrari’s sitting in the hazy frosty sunshine – around another corner was a fine collection of historic British motorcycles and in another building a TR7, a Stag and an early 1970’s Porsche Turbo… Sadly because of the overcast the 40 historic aircraft that were scheduled to fly into the former RAF Bicester for the day had to cancel, but they will have another attempt at the next open day in April. We fed over 200 people during lunch outside Ludo Parayre office and showroom space. What a great day.

Queues at Bicester Heritage for Deli Truck food – the building in the background was used extensively in the just released film “The Imitation Game”

Queues at Bicester Heritage for Deli Truck food

Two fabo old cars outside the Deli Truck

Serving our famous pulled pork sandwich to the crowds

Menu for Saturday at Tunbridge Wells Farmers Market with a special Christmas treat

Posted on 11/12/2014 by streetfood1340

We have a special Christmas recipe along with our all time favourites this Saturday the 13th of December.

Our famous pulled Pork and our big selling Salt Beef on rye will, as usual, be on the menu – along with a lovely warming spicy Chilli con Carne – very beefy, very spicy and topped with a cooling dollop of sour cream. We are selling our chilli in two different sizes – For those not up to our large pot we have a smaller dish of chill for just £3.50.

But our big Christmas treat this Saturday will be a Texas smoked Turkey in a wrap for easy eating. Along with the our spicy Turkey meat we will add our scrumptious cranberry, bacon and walnut stuffing. All of this will be topped with a “bread sauce and cranberry gravy”. This is a superbly tasty dish with many textures and flavours and all for £5.50. Also join us for a lovely warming sherry to go with your wrap – on us. And of course for the brave we will still be selling our pickle-back cocktail.

So all in all a great day and a great menu – I hope you can join us outside the council offices this Saturday from 0900 to 1400.

Our smoked Turkey as it comes off the rotisserie. We break this up and dunk it in gravy before we serve it in a wrap with bacon and cranberry stuffing.

Great night at “tarte” in Brasted

Posted on 18/08/2014 by streetfood1340

We’re resting up today after an very very busy night at “tarte” restaurant in Brasted. A huge success with well over 100 customers satisfied by our food and the ministrations of the wonderful “tarte” wait staff. A great evening. we set up outside the restaurant on the High Street and first orders started at 6.30pm.

The Deli Truck set up outside “tarte” in Brasted about an hour before the crowds turned up all at the same time. Crazy first hour of service.

The Deli Truck at the end of service -a very successful first night at Taste

We had started preparing for our one night only appearance at tarte 4 days before the evening – as we rested our pork shoulders (for our pulled pork) on our secret Texas rub for 48 hours before they went into our smoker for ten hours over oak and apple woods.

Our special rub is used to flavour the pork for 48 hours before cooking . Made up of paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin, oregano and a few other things…

The burgers we made came from one large piece of Black Angus top side.

We cut the topside from a 10 kilo lump into a five 2 kilo strips so we can hang them in our commercial fridge in the Deli truck. This dries the meat out and ages it for a couple more days. The dryer meat means a much better texture to the burger – it holds together better – and great flavour.

The topside has been minced and formed into largish 7oz burgers. Thie went well with our other menu items for our night at “tarte” in Brasted – We served our famous spicy pulled pork sandwich and our cajun blackened Sea Bass.

OUr menu board on the truck for the night.

A garden Party for 100 people in an idyllic setting

Posted on 11/08/2014 by streetfood1340

The organisers of this very stylish birthday party wanted a relaxed atmosphere in the garden and they got just that. With outdoor lounges and coverings for a shill-out area, a fully staffed wet-bar and the Deli Truck – the feeling was informal, chic, elegant and fun. And the guests certainly had fun. Guests started dropping in from 4.00 PM until 9.00 PM, with mosts staying on to drink and talk the night away until well into the small hours. We served a hot menu selected by the hostess from the truck with an accompanying buffet of salads and our home made lemonade – later we served freshly brewed coffee and tea.

The menu was chosen in consultation with the hostess (it was her husbands 50th birthday) and turned out to be a real winner. We ended up cooking our spectacular burger which everyone seems to have heard about and always wants. We accompanied this with our 12 hour smoked pulled pork which was a huge hit and chicken breast stuffed with chorizo and parmesan cheese, then poached in chicken broth, white wine and butter – served with a dollop of home made pesto on top. More details on the Menu are listed below.

A big thanks to the most gracious and delightful hosts for their many kind words and support. We had a ball.

I’ll leave the final words to the hostess who emailed us 48 hours after the party. She said “Thank you for such wonderful food and ambience at our Garden Party – wow what a wonderful day. Everyone was blown away by the Deli Truck and I am sure you must have run out of your info sheets. Thank you also for organising such thoughtful and helpful assistants – it meant we could both relax and enjoy the company of our guests.”

Smoked Turkey over a Charcoal fire

Posted on 07/07/2014 by streetfood1340

One of our more unusual requests. An American client has asked me to feed his creative team for lunch tomorrow. It’s a surprise for their hard work. He specified smoked turkey cooked on a rotisserie accompanied by mac & Cheese, our special coleslaw, biscuits and gravy. Finished with key lime pie and pecan pie. A great American menu. But the turkey is certainly the king. We used charcoal for the fire and Oak and Apple wood for the smoke. It Looks fantastic.

Garden party a great success

Posted on 06/07/2014 by streetfood1340

Giving the beloved Deli Truck its usual power clean this morning after yesterdays garden party for the staff of a very generous boss. Most of the guests came down from London and they went crazy over the salt beef. Unusual venue for us, as the hosts had a very large back garden that couldn’t be accessed by the truck – and they had a very small and steeply climbing front drive. (see photo below) So we parked the truck right outside their front door – with guests ordering their food and walking through the house to the lovely tree lined and very spacious back garden. A great result.

The Menu for our guests most of which you saw being made in my last post

Truck on a difficult slopping site – but it’s true the deli truck can go any where you want.

Deli Truck for the public – one night only at “tarte” in Brasted

Posted on 04/07/2014 by streetfood1340

“tarte” of Brasted and the Deli Truck are bringing American style Gourmet Street Food to Brasted as a special summer celebration for one night only. “tarte” is well known for introducing innovative new menus and guest cooks to its Brasted eatery just opposite the village green.

On Saturday the 16th of August you will be able to enjoy the renowned New York Style Deli food from the Deli Truck, while tarte will provide sides, desserts, wines and beers.

All the food on the Deli Truck is made in house, even the BBQ and Burger Sauces are made by us.

No Additives, No preservatives, No Chemicals. All our meat is sourced from Batchelors the Butchers in Sevenoaks and is guaranteed to be from the UK. Table reservations are recommended and take-aways are also available. Contact tarte on 01959 565446

The Deli Truck has been hailed by one London critic as producing – “some of the best modern American street food in the UK”. So enjoy one of our hand ground double cheese and double bacon burgers – or our authentic 8 hour smoked pulled pork sandwich or our spicy cajun blackened fish sandwich.

tarte – is opposite the Village Green on the High Street in Brasted (TN16 1JE) next door to the White Hart Pub. You’ll see the Deli Truck parked outside on the A25. Service will get underway at 06:30pm

All the disposables on the Deli Truck – that includes cups, plates, knives forks and spoons are all biodegradable at least and in many cases are fully compostable as well. our plates are made of sugar starch and will compost in just 6 weeks our cold drink cups are made of plant starch and are fully compostable and biodegradable. But we don’t rest on our laurels – we are forever striving to bring you better quality food, with less additives and funny chemicals. We have just started our own gardens for suppling organic lettuce for our burgers and salads – and we hope this is just a start.

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.