We joined the rest of the amazing Eat St collective traders at The Real Street Food Festival over the Royal Wedding weekend.  It was a total success and loads of fun……….

Me and my scallopettes……

We were so worried in the lead up to the weekend with the weather reports looking terrible, but it didn’t rain once, it was glorious British weather……

These two scallops drummed up quite a bit of attention dancing out front to ‘Holiday’ and ‘Like a Virgin’ ……..

We tried to keep the menu simple, offering a bavette steak sandwich, a line caught mackerel sandwich and our scallops.  The scallops one hands down, we had sold out half way through the duration of the festival!  When we announced that we were on the last tray, scallop lovers were literally running to the stand, it was a sad moment when we did our final flambe!!

We tried, but stuck cooking behind the scenes instead….. this was a lovely little number organised by the very together Briony from 2AM. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTN5n1hBYl4

How much do we love our Mum’s……. My special Mum created this little surprise for my birthday last week!!   Not a bad homage to our Elvira May eh………

Mum, you’re the best! xx

When designing menu’s our first port of call is the British seasonal produce chart.  Working around seasonal produce allows you to get the very best out of each component.  If the key items are at their best there is no need for complicated recipes, you just need to find a good pairing of flavours.

Here are some of our examples:

Seared Bavette steak, horseradish mousse and rocket. 

Bavette is a cut from the abdominal muscles and therefore can be tough.  It has an incredibly gamey flavour and if you make sure that you cut the meat very thinly (if searing) you get all the flavour and no sinew.

Heritage tomato concasse, braised celery and lovage.

Although the technique involved with concasse can be a little time consuming, this is a perfect example of a good marriage of flavours and simplicity.  Heritage tomatoes are available from most farmers markets or good grocery stores in the summer and offer fantastic flavour and diversity in colour.  Celery, lovage and tomatoes are a match made in heaven – simple but beautiful.

Lemon thyme shortbread with cream.

We often add flavours to a shortbread dough as it has the perfect texture to take on flavour.  Although if I’m adding flavour I tend to roll the shortbread out very thinly rather than the traditional thick cut.  We add orange blossom water and orange zest when accompanying chocolate mousse, or black pepper with strawberries and cream.  Here we’ve added some lemon thyme, we’ve used very little mind – it’s quite potent but if you get the balance write it’s very good.

Naturally smoked mackerel, roasted beetroot and rye.

The earthiness of the beetroot cuts through the oily fish beautifully.  When roasting beetroot always leave the skin on and place in some foil with a little sea salt, this will bring out the flavour of the beetroot.

Sea Buckthorne and fig tart.

Sea Buckthorne is a very hostile plant!  In western Europe, it is largely confined to sea coasts where salt spray off the sea prevents other larger plants from out-competing it, although it can be found elsewhere. 

I think of this plant as the UK’s answer to the citrus fruit.  If only it were easier to harvest….. it’s covered with poisonous spikes.  The only way to harvest is to freeze the branches then, wearing gloves shake each branch in a box until all the berries are removed.  You must then juice the berries.  Kilos of berries yield little juice.

The one saving grace is that the juice is extremely potent and so a little goes far.  The flavour is incredible and changes dramatically when cream is added, it is not so tart and totally unique.  We use a classic posset recipe, although we seriously reduce the fruit juice.

Woolsery, lambs lettuce and croutons.

This one demonstrates the importance of texture.  The lambs leaf and the soft goaty tones of the Woolsery cheese only need to be matched with a little crunch!

Cranberry, hazelnut and pistachio nougat.

Bitter / sweet !

Naturally smoked trout and pickled cucumber.

You cannot compare a naturally smoked fish to one that has been chemically enhanced or forced.  The flavour is incredibly delicate and the texture is much lighter.  I wouldn’t normally jade the flavour of the fish with a pickle, however our head chef Toby has struck a chord here.  We’ve used a very light and sweet pickling method which complements the fish beautifully and adds the texture required.

Pork belly, quince and sage.

There is a bit of a process involved in weighting the belly pork so that it sits pretty like this but it’s only a technique used if you need the belly to take a form or have more structure. 

If you make your own quince, reduce the sugar added to give it a tartness.  Good pork belly will produce a lot of sugar so you want to marry it up with something carrying a little edge.  The sage when lightly fried produces a nutty flavour only slightly reminiscent of it’s former self that works well.

We were thrilled to bits when we received a call from food critic Richard Johnson explaining that after months of research he had 20 finalists for the “British Street Food Awards”, we were included.  This meant that we had a free stand at Ludlow’s Food Festival to take part in a ‘cook off’ for the title.

Richard specifically asked us to bring Elvira May (our Bedford CF), we were a bit dubious as we weren’t sure if she’d make it all the way to Shropshire from London. 

There were a few trying moments, hills mainly but we found that if we didn’t look at the mile or so traffic stuck behind us we wouldn’t feel guilty!   And as you can see, she arrived spotless……

We had no idea what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised to see thousands of people lining the streets of the town, the sun was out and we were getting geared up for a fun weekend.

Our theme for the weekend was Britains wild coast, we dressed our stand with wind breakers, bunting and sea plants and played 40’s and 50’s music with seaside sounds mixed in.

Our dived scallops were on the menu alongside some sea buckthorne posset tarts and slow berry and crab apple presses.

People were intrigued and genuinly interested in our foraged items.  We really enjoyed this part of it, it was a chance to talk about our passion and promote our incredible suppliers.

We had a large crew of family and friends on board, all of whom are so supportive.  Getting up at stupid o’clock, working horridly long days and travelling for 100’s of miles….

The judges:  Mark Hix, Antony Worrall Thompson, Tomasina Miers, Bob Fox and Richard Johnson

And the girls were very pleased to have Michelin star chef  Will Holland from La Becasse support!!

Winners!!!!

Winning item…..

Some nice words from one of the judges:

“I loved their sea buckthorn tart, super citrusy, a great healthy yummy.  Everything they do delivers sustainability, seasonality and ethical sourcing in a nutshell or rather, as they did in Ludlow… in a scallop shell!

I was really impressed with their operation, so much attention to detail; they’ve even found a way of recycling their scallop shells with local charities.  One to watch out for in the future. “

Antony Worrall Thompson

And here’s a short film of the event:

http://britishstreetfood.co.uk/

I think the film really captures the essence of what this street food revolution is all about.

For more information about British Street Food and members of the collective go to:

http://www.eat.st

And a double page spread in The Independent by Mark Hix to boot:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/moveable-feasts-mark-hix-celebrates-the-renaissance-of-healthy-delicious-and-reasonablypriced-british-street-food-2099557.html

The weather rarely shines on us when out on location, this day however was different.  We were booked to feed the cast and crew for a Plan B video.  120 People for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the most beautiful surroundings. 

Our locations aren’t always this glamourous…….

On our arrival at 4.30am we were driving down the final drive way to the estate, dodging pheasant all the way, we were very excited to say the least, it was stunning…..

Service with a smile !

As the sun came up the mist was lingering, it left everyone in a dreamy state…….

We thought the estate had their own burial site until we noticed the names on the head stones!!

There were big dogs….

Helicopters…..

And our contribution to a late afternoon break, home-made chocolate eclairs YUM

Friend and fellow street trader Yianni (The Meatwagon) and food photographer Jason Lowe came up with the idea to use his small piece of wasteland on the canal opposite Jason’s cafe the Towpath for a get together.  I’m sure at the time they weren’t aware of their brilliance!  They invited a small group of caterers who are all totally committed to their product, some dj’s, bands and mixologist Nick Strangeway to keep the cocktails flowing and all in aid of WarChild.

We were asked to come along and sell our dived scallops.

The whole day was magical, we were surrounded by our friends and family, the crowd loved our food and when we ran out we headed over to the roaring fire for a dance by the canal.  We had such a laugh my face was aching, it was fabulous.

Me and Jason Lowe…… (I do have a book in the pipeline!!)

I take my hat off to these lovely guys…… people in London need this!  To eat good food, drink, dance by the fire next to the water OUTSIDE in London is a rarity. 

So when I was asked to help arrange Towpath 3, there was no hesitation!  I’m not sure how but Jason has magic’d up a bigger and better spot for the party, with a license and a blessing from British Waterways!!!!! 

Full details are on Yianni’s site:   http://www.themeatwagon.co.uk/?page_id=424

Plus you can follow our progress on Twitter:   www.twitter.com/healthyyummies

 Nx

What a gorgeous summer we are having, we all have ‘T’ shirt sun tans and donning smiles all round.   Every week we are blessed with more new produce to squeeze into our menu’s, one that springs to mind is heratage tomatoes….. they are absolutly superb right now,  packed with flavour and look incredible on the plate with the different array of colours and shapes and sizes. 

I got a call from Louise at Katy Baggott (RIP) with a request for some afternoon tea at Hampton Court for a shoot that Juergen Teller was doing.  They wanted some healthy, light snacks for their crew and models.  I didn’t ask who the client was.

When I arrived apart from being blown away by the palace kitchen, (where Heston Blumenthal had filmed)  I realised that it was for Vivienne Westwood!!

I am so proud of our work, that in such little time (6 months) we have proved ourselves to such a level that we are getting these jobs.  It was a pleasure working with the whole team and with Vivienne who, having achieved so much, could have been the girl next door.  Unlike others she has nothing to prove.  It’s like the ‘old money’ and the ‘nouveau riche’!

I was delighted when she quizzed me about the nettle and watercress soup and how did we manage to keep it so vibrant and green.  We always over-cater as there are normally a few stragglers on shoots, so I was equally delighted when she asked for doggy bags to take the left overs into the office the next day.  Seeing the wastage is a horrible part of my job.

We have also fed the gorgeous Kate Moss twice this month.  The first was funny as it was at a 50th wedding anniversary party put on by my old friends Charlotte and Fran Cutler for their Mum and Dad.  They had booked a Shirley Bassey look-a-likey to do a full on set…  It was a proper old fashioned knees up with everyone hitting the dance floor straight away in true ‘Cutler’ style.  Was very sweet too, 50 years is a long time! 

We then got to feed Kate again on a shoot for ID last week, Ragi and her team fell in love with our ’summer on a plate’ salad…. I’ll hold on to the recipe until we sign a publishing deal!

We were also lucky enough to feed Elle Macpherson and the 10-4 production crew on a shoot last week.  The job was out of town, but Head Chef Toby was more than happy to do it.  We had set out a seperate meal for Elle’s dietry requirements and whilst Toby was setting it up she went and had a word, I think Toby’s head went numb……. Elle Macpherson and Kate Moss in one week – all too much for him!  When he came back I heard him saying “I think she fancies me” !!!!

Our company is undergoing some big changes right now, we are re-structuring our business model in order to take on more work.  The business has grown much quicker than ever imagined and unfortunately due to our set up we have had to turn a lot of jobs down, we are very sorry but please bare with us as we are addressing these problems.

We are eternally grateful for all the work we have had, thank you!

Nichola and the Healthy Yummies team

Well what can I say apart from CORRRR!!  Facial hair and a Scottish accent – lovely, anyway back to business!

Producer Lizzie Campbell asked us to feed her cast and crew for Biffy Clyro’s new release “God and Satan” on a farm in Uckfield, Sussex going through the night.  Although we had 3 consecutive night shoots that week we said a huge ‘YES’, as we are all fans of the band – for numerous reasons!!

Here’s a link to the promo:

 http://www.biffyclyro.com/news,watch-the-new-video-for-god-and-satan-now_338.htm

And most importantly, a link to the ‘behind the scene’s’ video where they talk about us!! It’s about 2 minutes in…..

http://www.biffyclyro.com/user-area/members,home.htm?md=registerfull

After a horrid journey we were pleased to see the lovely location, we were parked up by a barn where we served the food and next to the tour bus for the boys……

Our lovely Lizzie having a nibble on the hoof….

Corin Hardy directed this promo with 1st AD James Dyer for Academy Videos.  With three locations, the band, 100 extras, incredible wardrobe and make-up and a horse and cart there was so much going on, really exciting.  The filming was so time sensitive due to the 3 scenes being filmed at certain lights during the night.

Here are the band in their prestine dressing gowns!

One very happy hair stylist…… she had no time to get tea, so we took it to her

The 100 extras get out of the cold and re-tox with coffee for the next scene.  The set design was so fantastic for the shoot (by art director Byron Broadbent) that we were a bit jealous, so we made our own little set in the barn with bales of hay, tea lights etc !

Us getting prepared for the next course around 1am…..

I had kept hold of the skin that we took off the pork earlier in the evening so I cooked it and took the crackling down to the forest for a little pick up, they were all beside themselves, couldn’t believe it.  Good old fashion treats never fail.

The forest was covered in wild garlic, so we grabbed a basket and took as much as we could carry back to our unit for cooking the next day.

The next scene was filmed in a pond a few miles away at around 5am.  The band had to get into the pond so we were there with hot butties to warm them up and thankfully we got a lift accross the feild….

Menu:

DINNER
M: SLOW COOKED BLADE OF BEEF WITH STOUT GRAVY AND NETTLE RISOTTO
V:   BRAISED BLACK BEANS WITH ROASTED ROOT VEG AND WATERCRESS PESTO
MIXED SALAD
SUMMER FRUIT PAVLOVA

HOT HAND HELD BREAK
M:  24HR SLOW COOKED GLOUCESTER OLD SPOT PORK AND APPLE SAUCE ROLL
V:   GARLIC MUSHROOM AND GRUYERE ROLL

BREAKFAST
M:  SCRAMBLED FREE RANGE EGG, GLOUCESTER OLD SPOT BACON AND HOME-MADE SAUSAGE BAGELS
V:   SCRAMBLED FREE RANGE EGG AND ROASTED TOMATO BAGELS

We started at 5pm ish and left at 11am !!  Very long, with both high and low moments but overall an amazing shoot with a fantastic crew.  Plus the added bonus of seeing some old friends, Von Adams (video playback) and Smiler, Richard Simpson (band stylist).

Huge thanks to Lizzie and crew x