pop up at cherry reds

Hey there ravenous readers, welcome back to my food blog!

This week's blog is a little different from usual as over Sunday and Monday this week I got the chance to help out with my great friend, and all around barbecue pit-master , Andy Stubbs with his first ever "pop-up" restaurant night.

For those of you that don't know, a "pop-up", in cooking terms, is when either a restaurant opens up for a short term of, perhaps, 6 months in a disused shop or unit (there's a really good one in Birmingham at the moment called Adams restaurant. Where the Michelin starred chef, Adam Stokes and his wife, have opened up for a limited time.) Or, as in this case, when a street food vendor takes over the kitchen of a restaurant for a night and serves their own food.

It's a great idea, if you ask me. The restaurant capitalise on the popularity of the street food scene, and fills it's dining room with hungry diners on nights where they might usually be quiet and the street food vendor gets to showcase their food to a new audience and experience a professional kitchen, sometimes, as in Andy's case, for the first time. Everyone's a winner!

MEAT THE BOSS!

So, a little bit about Andy and his street food stall first.

He and his partner Donna started trading as  Low n' slow American style street food. 
just last year in June. After working in various mundane jobs, and doing a bit of Djing on the side Andy found himself at a loose end when he got made redundant, and, as he had always been interested in food (Andy always supported me with all of my restaurant ventures after I was on Masterchef.) Decided to see if he could make a living from it.
He began experimenting with different foods and cooking methods until it became clear that American style, properly smoked, street food was the way forward. I daresay that he was influenced by the popularity of the brilliant TV show "man V's food" which, I must admit, made me want to go out and start an American diner myself!
So he and Donna started to work out a business plan and applied for a business loan which, together with his redundancy and Donna's wage got them off the ground.

Meanwhile he started cooking and using family gatherings and parties to gauge opinion on his food, each time adjusting recipes and using different cuts of meat to improve his product. After a few Saturday afternoons of selling pulled pork and chilli cobs from his garage, and a bit of a stint at a local pub selling burgers and more pulled pork it was time to take things to the next level so, it was off to Digbeth Dining Club to meet the owner and take him a sample of brisket chilli with a view to becoming one of the regular traders there.

I can still remember how nervous he was, I'm sure he was visibly shaking when he handed over his chilli to owner and runner of the Digbeth Dining Club, Jack Brabant. all the way home he was saying "that's not the best chilli I've ever done, I wasn't happy with the seasoning, I don't even know if Jack will taste it, it won't be as nice when it's re-heated, etc, etc,etc!)

The boss and his boys!

Andy needn't have worried, I had tried it and I thought it was great, and this was before he had even got himself a proper smoker. Inevitably, the phone call came from Jack and Andy started trading at Digbeth a couple of weeks later. he invested in cool livery for his stall, all the equipment he needed and, most importantly of all his first smoker. he now has 2 of his
own and another he has to regularly borrow from
another of the traders at Digbeth, the excellent
 The Mexican Bean.

Andy's portfolio of smoked goodies now extends to smoked beef ribs, smoked ox cheeks, brisket chilli and his own bacon. And he makes his own recipe BBQ sauce, BBQ beans  and various types of slaw to accompany the meat. His popularity amongst the other street food traders is phenomenal, as it is with his customers.
All of them know that his passion is second to none, and that passion always shines through in his food. He also does regular stints at Warwick university, In Birmingham city centre and does festivals, weddings and birthday parties, all in all, its been quite a year for Low n' Slow!
And to top off a fantastic first year he has been nominated for trader of the year at the midland leg of the street food awards, an event which will see almost 20 street traders descend on Digbeth this Friday ( 2nd may.) to ply their wares.

Well that's enough back story, so lets talk about the smoking process. It's really quite simple, the meat is cooked in a sealed unit over various types of wood and charcoal,  at a low temperature, around 80-90 degrees c. for a long time.
The joints of pork ( called cross-cuts.) that Andy uses for his pulled pork are rubbed all over with a secret blend of salt, sugar and spices and then smoked for around 18hrs, all the time the temperature has to be regulated, so, for instance, if the temp drops too low at, say, 4 o'clock in the morning, an alarm will go off and Andy will have to get up and tend to his smoker, just like any parent has to do with a new born baby! The smoke created in the smoker will form a "bark" on the outside of the meat which, at first glance, may look like it's burnt but believe me it isn't. The "bark" is, obviously, the most smoky tasting part of the meat but when the joint is pulled, and the bark distributed through the inner softer juicy meat then the smoky flavour gets into all of the meat. It's not overpowering and doesn't taste like a bonfire but it really does give a unique taste. If you've got the time, patience and dedication then any meat can be cooked in this way, although its things like brisket, ribs, both pork and beef,pork belly, fillet of lamb and other cheaper, tougher cuts of meat that benefit the most from the slow cooking process of smoking.

So, onto the pop up then!
Andy had been asked to do a night at  Cherry Reds Cafe.
in Birmingham, and he asked me if I could go over to help him, so i booked the Monday off work and gave my chef's whites a good wash!

I went to see Andy at his house on the Sunday to take some photo's for this blog and see if I could relieve him of any secrets, unfortunately, I did learn quite a few things but as I'm now part of the low n' Slow inner circle, I cant tell you any of them! apart from a recipe for the BBQ beans which I've adapted to make it easier for anyone who doesn't have a smoker and ll share with you later in the blog.

Andy's BBQ beans, ready to go on the smoker.

For the smoked ribs Andy had imported racks direct from the USA where, because of the grain fed cattle, you get a magnificently marbled piece of beef that you just can't get with beef from Britain.

















These were simply to be rubbed with salt, pepper and a little sugar before being smoked for 7 hours each.

He also showed me some pork ribs that he had been smoking, just to use the meat in the BBQ beans, which smelled incredible and were fall-off-the bone tender. With all of the meat prepped and the beans on the smoker there was nothing else for me to do but to come home and do some BBQ style beans of my own to share with you, so here's my recipe:

BBQ beans Recipe, ( enough for about 8 portions.)

Equipment:

1 large saucepan.

Ingredients:

4 rashers of well smoked fatty bacon.
1 large beef shin bone, sawn in half. ( ask your butcher, they will give you some bones. I like to use Westwoods butchers in Cheslyn Hay, just by the church as they have an abattoir round the back and will give you as many bones as you want, and will even cut them up for you if you ask nicely!)
3 tins of cannellini beans in water.
1 stick of cassia bark, or 1 stick of cinnamon.
2 red onions, finely diced.
2 tablespoons of tomato puree.
2 tins of chopped tomatoes.
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika.
3 cloves of garlic, crushed in a press or finely sliced.
1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
1 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves.
1 teaspoon of crushed dried chillis.
juice of half a lemon.
Dried chillis, 1 of each. ( I used 1 ancho chilli, 1 Morita chilli and 1 guajillo chilli, you can get them easily on line and aren't too hot, but they do add a good deal of smoky flavour to the beans.)
1 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds.
1 beef stock cube.
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped.
salt and pepper.

Method.

Heat a large saucepan to medium, chop the bacon into lardons and drop them in the pot. fry for 3-4 minutes then add the chopped red onions, the cassia bark or cinnamon stick, and all of the dry herbs and spices.
after about 5 minutes put in the shin bones.
Add the tomato puree, crushed garlic, stock cube, tinned tomatoes, brown sugar and dried chillis, turn up the heat  and allow to come to the boil.
Add the cannellini beans, with the water from the tins and bring back to the boil.
Turn down the heat to low and simmer gently, uncovered for about 30 minutes.
Remove the shin bones and scrape out as much of the bone marrow as you can into the beans.
add the lemon juice and taste.
season with salt and pepper.

READY TO COME OFF THE SMOKER.

These beans are great served with anything from fried fish to steak and eggs, or even just on liberally buttered toast!

Okay then, on with the story.

I arrived at Andy's on Monday just in time to see some of the beef ribs coming off the smoker.
I gotta say the smell was incredible, the beefiest beefy smell you could ever imagine! and for a change, when i walked into his house it was them i could smell, rather than the smoking pulled pork that usually permeates the entire neighbourhood! ( in case you hadn't guessed, Andy does all his cooking at home and keeps it in hot boxes to transport to wherever he's setting up his stall. don't worry though, he's been well and truly inspected and has got a 5 star hygiene rating!)




While he packed his hot boxes I got on with the chopping for the slaw, not the kind of coleslaw you get in shops, drowned in cheap mayonnaise, but fresh vibrant red cabbage and white cabbage slaw with a simple oil, cider vinegar, white wine vinegar and lemon juice,sugar, salt and pepper dressing.
 When we were all prepped up we loaded up the van and set off to a secret bakery destination to pick up Andy's bespoke brioche buns, then it was on to Brum and Cherry Reds!

We unloaded the van and introduced ourselves to Laura who would be in charge of service for us, then had a look round the small kitchen.

with it's window facing out onto the street! ( a new one on me, I must admit!)



While we faffed about with the equipment  I got my first look at the menu.





The delicious and rich sounding dessert, by the way was made by Andy's mom, and, I can confirm, was as good as it sounds!








 So, we got ourselves set up, met the waiting staff and stood on our guard for the first orders.
We didn't have to wait long, as the first order came through within about 10 minutes and it was go, go, go from then on all night! As Andy hadn't worked a proper kitchen before I got on with doing the pass, and frying off the chips whilst he portioned up the ribs and built the pulled pork buns, the brisket chilli cobs, dressed the slaw's and served the beans. There weren't many chances to take photos as we were busy all night, but I managed to squeeze in a few, especially of the beef ribs which were, and I'm not even joking about this, THE BEST PIECE OF MEAT I HAVE EVER TASTED!!!!

Juicy to the point of the meat actually dripping with it!
Savoury and rich, and sooo tender the meat cut like butter. I could actually hear Andy giggle like a schoolgirl every time he took a fresh rack out of the hot box to slice.

There's not much more I can say really, it's all a bit of a blur! but we did 50 mains, 20 sides of brisket and pulled pork and plenty of that gorgeous rich, heady tart Andy's mom made.

After a clean down of the kitchen I took a few photos in the bar and we went upstairs to where the Low n' Slow diners had eaten and met a few people, all of them had a really good meal and were full of praise for Andy's food. I gotta say at this point that it was the best time I've had in a professional kitchen for a long time and it sparked a feeling of satisfaction in me that i haven't felt for a long time, It made me want to be a working chef again!
So, after saying our goodbyes, collecting the money and loading up the van again we were off home, both of us deliriously happy! I'm going to be working with Andy more and more over the coming months and I hope to do more of this kind of thing, it's exciting, it's rewarding and it's so much fun, I can't tell you!

Well, that's it for this weeks blog, back to normal service next week but this Sunday I've got a helper in my kitchen at Chez Barnos so there should be some better pictures!

Thanks for reading, dear friends and see ya soon.

until next time,

Happy Eating! 

Mat.