Git yerselves down to my local, The Rye pub in Peckham this Sunday for a humdinger of an opening party. The Meatwagon in association with Carnal Chef presents ‘Bourbon and Rye’: live music, meatwagon burgers, drinks from Soulshakers plus some serious American ‘que. Bourbon! BBQ! Cornhole! My liver quivers at the memory of Meateasy but my mind and heart say TAKE ME BACK AND HIT ME ONE MORE TIME. Let the fun begin…

The Rye
31 Peckham Rye
SE15 3NX

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t spend all my time eating jerk pork and barbecuing things in the rain. I do other stuff, okay? No really. Here’s some things I cooked, ate and felt happy about in the past couple of weeks.

Firstly, a little tooting on my own trumpet as I point you in the direction of The Independent’s ’50 Best Food Websites’ article. They said nice things about Food Stories and 49 other sites, including blogs, online suppliers and all-round giants like Chowhound. I’m flattered to be included.

And while we’re talking about ME, I’ll take a moment to point you once again, this time in the direction of my recipe column at AoL Lifestyle. The latest recipe is a very easy smoked mackerel ‘pâté’.

I’ve been out on the town too, as per. Sometimes a woman has to step outside of Peckham you know. Last weekend I made what was frankly a humongous schlep up to the wild wilderness of Seven Sisters to the Akhaya Cookery School, for a Nigerian cookery class. What with Peckham being ‘little Africa’ and all, I wanted to find out more about the ingredients I see in local shops every day. During the 3 hour class we made egusi (a soup thickened with melon seeds), jollof rice (rice cooked in a spicy tomato stew) and akara (black eye bean fritters). The akara were my favourite; very light, savoury fritters, which are incredibly easy to make. I’ll be experimenting with those so expect a recipe soon. The classes cost £75 per person, you cook 3 dishes per class and take home more than enough food for 2 people. Here are some pics:

The bright and airy classroom.

 Very familiar ingredients for the Peckhamite; dried shrimp; chilli flakes; black eye beans; palm oil.

Egusi soup. The white stuff is the egusi (ground melon seeds), mixed to a paste with water then added to the soup. The green dried stuff is afang (a dried leaf which is a little like Spinach). 

Fried plantain chips. You can’t hear a thing when you’re eating them – that crunchy.

I’ve been eating out too. Last night I perched very happily for several hours around the bar of the Maille Mustard Pop-Up in Spitalfields Market. They kindly invited me down to try the ‘mustard menu’ cooked by Kerstin Marmite Loving Rodgers. I had rather too much fun; the market was buzzing, the wine was flowing and the food was great. It’s on tonight and Sunday too. Here’s the lowdown in pics:

If it’s mustard you’re after…

A ‘Mustardy Mary’  = the best ever bloody Mary. I can’t ever drink one again unless it has wholegrain mustard in it. A brilliant idea.

Steamed artichoke with mustard mayonnaise.

Smoked haddock with mustard and cheese and Asian mustard greens. The fish was umami-packed and delicious. The name of the yellow flower in the middle escapes me but Kerstin picked them from her garden; they surprised everyone by tasting incredibly sweet and delicious. A flower actually worth eating.

Amazing cheese board featuring Langres, Moustardier, Charollais and Comté surrounded by palmiers.

Mostarda tutti frutti ice cream with berries, mint sugar and mustard candy floss. Kerstin and I are both of the opinion that tutti frutti ice cream should be BROUGHT BACK IMMEDIATELY.

And in between all that, I’ve been rapidly expanding outwards due to my extremely close proximity to The Rye pub, which is serving Meatwagon food for the summer. In addition to my favourite chilli burger I’ve been packing away the following, at least 3 times a week.

Smoked pork sandwich

Pulled pork sandwich

Baby back ribs with slaw and deep fried okra. I will be deep frying okra very, very soon.

Smoked buffalo wings with blue cheese dip.

What can I say, get yourself down there.

The Rye
31 Peckham Rye
SE15 3NX

So there we go. Ooof. I think I need to go and exercise now.

Here’s the low-down on this week’s street food at The Rye pub, Peckham. Last week I stuffed myself with tacos from Buen Provecho, choc fudge sundaes from Choc Star and dawgs from The Dogfather. I saw a fair few of  you lot over there too. Here’s to another belly busting week of feasting, kicking off tonight with Tomatu. Oof.

I sharpened my elbows and scythed through the hoards of tourists lining the South Bank, eyes firmly on the prize: Pitt Cue Co. Stationed underneath Hungerford Bridge, a purpose built van is serving up American-style BBQ for the next four glorious months; be still my beating heart. A friend and I have been waiting for this place to open for weeks, following their every move on Twitter, waiting for that call. As said friend is currently living it up in Japan eating warm cod’s sperm (I’m told), I took it upon myself to check it out and report back.

This food is different to the BBQ style we are used to in the UK; Americans, as far as I can tell, tend to dry rub large pieces of meat then smoke them for a long time, cooking indirectly, before finishing with sauce. Pulled pork with slaw and pickles anyone? Brisket with beans and more pickles? Ribs? Rotisserie chicken? Smoked corn? Hello!

No woman should plunge into a meat feast without lining her stomach appropriately; we ordered two ‘picklebacks’, which come either with, or without, ‘skin’. A pickleback for those of you who don’t know (I didn’t), is well popular in the Deep South, and consists of a shot of Bourbon (never too early) followed by an equal-sized shot of pickle brine. The ‘skin’ is strips of pork crackling. You drink the bourbon first, its peaty warmth shooting down your throat, soothing anaesthetic; you follow quick smart with the brine, sweet and really pleasant, extinguishing the effects of the bourbon like it never happened. I felt momentarily sad and empty until a little pot of bubbly pork crackling arrived; we demolished the salty pig snacks in seconds.

Attention turned to the brisket, billed as a special. Cooked for 12 hours plus, the meat was, in the words of my boyfriend, ‘so tender it’s like beef spaghetti’. See for yourself below…

Each bite exploded with juice, sauce and all round BOOM, flavour. Wearing white trousers while eating this = major error. It came with slaw (you can choose between beans and slaw) and sweet, crunchy, spiced pickles: inhalable. On the side, two slices of rye, made by Bridget who runs Wild Caper deli in Brixton; she bakes it every morning in the burning furnace of Franco Manca’s pizza oven, before they start service.

The pulled Gloucester Old Spot pork had also benefited from 12 hours plus in the smoker. I marvelled at the tender strands which swerved any danger of claggyness. Beans too; baby-food comfort with bite. A hunk of bread is necessary to soak up juices but doesn’t dominate; a wise decision not to serve the meat in buns in my opinion.

We chat to Zeren Wilson as we eat, perching on stools out front. He tells us that  Tom Adams, the chef behind the show has worked at the Blueprint Cafe before embarking on this and he’s only 22. He cheers as we order two picklebacks, “the first two of the day!” and he seems bursting with excitement, as he should be. There are drinks too, Brew Dog’s Punk IPA, now in cans (one of my all time favourite beers); The Kernel, a London pale ale; Sambrook’s Wandle; Burrow Hill cider. We are strongly encouraged to think about picklebacking ‘Fighting Cock’ bourbon next time we visit. These people are talking my language. Go.

Pitt Cue Co.
Under Hungerford Bridge from 1pm to about 10pm, Wednesday-Sunday.

Starting tonight, Eat. St will be kicking off the London summer of street food excitement at The Rye pub in association with the Meatwagon. As of June 1st, The Meatwagon will be serving their burgers and other things that made me put on so much weight recently but until that date, it’s a 16 day street food bonanza with a different hawker every day. These will include some of my favourites such as Angus a.k.a Mongo Denoon and The OK Catering Success (Kolkata street food) and Cooper, a.k.a The Dogfather.

If you’re not familiar with Eat.St, then listen up. I’ll step aside and let the woman behind it, Petra Barran, do the talking,

“Eat. St is driving British street food forward, helping to change the foodscape of London through flavour driven, personality driven curbside cuisine. We are about transforming urban spaces into convivial places – giving London’s food culture a bit of SWAG and picking up the food hawking traditions that London lost to licensing laws last century.

This is London style street food, revolting against the bland, the spoon-fed and the choreographed. Eating in the open air brings out a new side to the London experience and it tastes good!

We are thrilled that The Rye is hosting us – they know a good thing when they eat it.”

As Scott from Capital Pubs (now running The Rye) quite rightly teased me on Twitter, this probably marks the end of PROJECT BIKINI (my diet) as the pub is a 30 second walk from my house. What a way to go out though, eh? Peckham just gets better and better…

The Rye
31 Peckham Rye
SE15 3NX
Tel: 020 7639 5397

See on map.

I arrived at this recipe after a week of experimenting with lahmacun, or ‘Turkish pizza’. Lahmacun (pronounced lah-ma-jun) is a thin, flat disk of dough smeared with minced lamb (or beef), spices and aleppo pepper, cooked and then finished with a sprinkle of lemon juice and fresh herbs. I’ve made a few variations over the past 7 days and they’ve all been delish, particularly when scattered with chopped pickled cucumbers. As time went by though I found the recipe evolving into something a little more locally influenced.

As you all know, Persepolis is one of my favourite local food shops and I nip in at every opportunity. The shopkeeper, Sally has a recipe for ‘Persian Pizza’ in her cookbook, which bears many similarities to lahmacun but does away with dough faffing and uses ready bought bread instead. Feeling fatigued, I was having me some of that. I would just cook the lamb mixture before spreading it on the bread and cut about 2 hours off the prep time.

I ditched the aleppo pepper too for a jar of  ‘gongura red chilli pickle’; a highly addictive paste of sour gongura leaves, fierce hot chillies, garlic, tamarind and spices. For post-cooking pimpage, it had to be finely chopped Iranian cucumbers, which have a curious mix of musty/sharp/sweet flavours and are justifiably world famous. To finish, a swirl of cooling yoghurt and the essential fresh herbs.

The way to eat this is to roll it up, grasp it and show it who’s boss. My boyfriend was in raptures over it and I have to say I’m very pleased with the recipe; the bread works better than the dough ever did and the pickle adds an exotic tangy and hot flavour. Crisp bread, spiced meat, chopped pickles, cool yoghurt, fragrant herbs = contrast-tastic.  It’s packed with flavours of the Middle East and is therefore oh so very Peckham.

Peckham Pizza (makes 4)

4 naan breads
500g minced lamb
2 tablespoons gongura chilli pickle (or you could substitute chopped pickled chillies)
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Garnish
2 pickled cucumbers, finely chopped
Lemon wedges
Fresh herbs (I used parsley and coriander)

Soften the onion in a little oil then add the minced lamb. Stir it, breaking it up until it is all browned. Meanwhile, skin the tomatoes by covering them with boiling water and leaving a for a few minutes. Drain them then cover with cold water for a further minute. Rub the skins off, quarter them and remove the seeds. Blend to a paste in a blender or chop finely.

When the meat is browned, add the spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or so. Add the chilli pickle and tomatoes and let cook for around 10 minutes on a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Spread the topping over each naan, making sure to really press it down and spread it right out to the edges. Cook for around 5 minutes, until the edges of the naan are nice and crisp. I find the best results come from cooking the pizza directly on the oven rack (i.e without a baking tray).

Artfully dollop on some yoghurt, scatter with fresh herbs and serve with wedges of lemon.

I’ve got a new Saturday lunchtime habit and it’s called The Dogfather. Nothing sorts a hangover quite like a ‘Mexican Elvis’, which is a chilli dog of extreme tastiness.

The man dishing up the dogs is Cooper who, like all maverick street food traders, wouldn’t tell me where he buys his ingredients, revealing only that the dogs are made by “a Jewish guy.” What I do know however is that they’re 100% beef, kosher, halal and contain no mechanically reclaimed meat, sulphates and something else I can’t remember the name of; whatever nastiness it is though you can rest assured it isn’t in there.

The taste of that juicy dog is to die for and I wonder if he uses the same supplier as Yianni from The Meatwagon. Yianni and Cooper’s chilli dogs are totally different in the dressing though. Yianni uses much more chilli and cheese while Cooper keeps it a bit lighter. I love them both.

The dog is packing: fried onions, 100% beef sausage, a glorious chilli with meltingly tender beans and shreds of meat, cheese sauce, tangy jalapenos and a cheese slice. The bun, as ever, is key and it’s perfect; soft but with enough stamina to finish the race. Hot sauce, French’s and extra fat jalapeno slices are optional.

It’s all about the show with street food and as I watch Cooper (dressed like Elvis) flip, squeeze and fry we chat about the dogs and how he got started; he tells me he used to work in a diner and just got the bug for the style of food. It’s as good a reason as any.

There are 4 dogs on the menu at The Dogfather: The Mexican Elvis (chilli dog, my favourite); The Snoop Dog (pictured above, beef dog, bacon, BBQ sauce and creamed corn mayo); The Slum Dog (a curry based dog with saag aloo and onion bhaji flakes) and a 4th dog I can’t remember. It’s okay though as Cooper’s just signed up to Twitter, so I’ll find out soon enough. Let’s face it, I’ll be back there on Saturday anyway, inhaling my weekly treat.

The Dogfather
North Cross Road Market
East Dulwich
SE22 9EV

North Cross Road Market is now open Monday-Saturday.