An inexpensive French cut of beef

Posted on 06/02/2015 by streetfood1340

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.

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”

First farmers market for the year

Posted on 23/01/2015 by streetfood1340

Yes we are back at the Tunbridge Wells Farmers Market tomorrow (Saturday) and we have a busy day today preparing. We are simmering Brisket for Salt Beef, Smoking Pork Shoulder for our famous pulled Pork with home made BBQ sauce, and cutting chilli for our robust and warming Chille con Carne (served hot with a dollop of sour cream and chives)

Our famous Salt Beef Sandwich – served Chipolte Coleslaw and Pickles on Rye

Tomorrow I am also pinching a recipe from the Mr. Jamie Oliver and producing gallons of his hot scrumpy mulled cider served piping hot with all the usual suspects – cinnaman, nutmeg, vanilla pods, star anise, etc etc.. So come and join us for a least a hot toddy and if you in a hungry mood grab one of our home made super tasty hot sandwiches. We shall be at the TWBC Farmers Market from 0900 ’till 1400. We’d love to see you all.

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

How to cook the best Pulled Pork

Posted on 02/01/2015 by streetfood1340

If you’ve wondered how we make our pulled pork so tasty and authentic then check out this video. A lot of people claim to make pulled pork, but cook the pork in the oven and add a chemical “smoke in a bottle” to give it a smoked flavour. The only authentic way is to smoke over coals with real wood chips – It take much longer and you have to tend the fire every 20 minutes or so for up to 8 hours – But the flavour is incomparable.

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.

Deli Truck debuts at Tunbridge Wells Farmers Market

Posted on 07/10/2014 by streetfood1340

Great excitement as the Deli Truck appears at the Tunbridge Wells Farmers Market this Saturday for the first time. We have a special gourmet menu for the occasion with a selection of our big hits including our homemade Salt Beef on Rye, our famous 8 hour smoked pulled pork, BBQ ribs with potato salad and our renowned Cajun Sea bass Sandwich. Miri will be making her outrageous chocolate brownies as well. We’ll be parked up on Civic Way, just outside the Town Hall from 9 am through to 2 pm this Saturday. Hope to see you.

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.

Getting ready for our one night at “taste” in Brasted

Posted on 11/08/2014 by streetfood1340

This saturday coming we are teaming up with “tarte” restaurant to bring the taste and flavours of the Deli Truck to the public. This is a special one night only affair starting at 1800 and ending when everybody is full. The Deli Truck will be parked outside the restaurant, opposite the village green, for service from 6.00 PM on the evening of the 16th of August. We have created a classic Deli Truck menu for the evening including our famous pure beef bacon and cheese burger, our spicy Cajun blackened Sea Bass sandwich served with our home made potato salad and finally our very successful 12 hour smoked pulled pork sandwich.

The Deli Truck at Camden Market in London

As many of you knowThe Deli Truck tries very hard to be a responsible and eco minded food truck. For example all our disposables – that’s takeaway plates, cutlery and cups – are all bio-degradable and compostable. A number of clients have asked me what a compostable plate or cup means. So to clear up any ambiguity – the plates and cups we buy, if shredded and put into a compost heap, will have disappeared within 3 months. They are made of either vegetable starch for cellulose starch.

We try to be a responsible with our food sourcing. For the event at taste this Saturday – our burger meat comes from one 11.5 kilo piece of beef from the topside. ThIs will make around 65 x 6oz burgers. We cut the beef into manageable pieces that will fit through our grinder. When the beef is ground we form it into 6oz patties and add absolutely nothing to the meat at all. A good burger with good meat should be treated like a steak, add nothing to mixture – with only salt and pepper on the outside added during cooking.

The same for our pulled pork – we get many compliments about this dish mainly because we take the time to do it traditionally. There are no shortcuts. we roll whole bone-in shoulders of pork in our special rub texas rub. 24 hours later we smoke it for up to 12 hours over oak and cherry wood. We then “pull” it apart and serve it with our spicy rich BBQ sauce, also home made to our own recipe. Our pork is locally sourced from Batchelors the butcher in Riverhead.

Deli Truck pulled pork – 3 large shoulders of pork covered in our special texas rub for 24 hours before hitting the smoker for up to 12 hours.

Hope you can join us on Saturday night – if the restaurant is booked out we will still be able to have some of the fastest American Style food in the South East – as will also be doing takeaways.

The Deli Truck

The tastiest, home made, sustainable streetfood in the UK

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