Street food pop-up promotes creative use of lamb on menus
AHDB Beef & Lamb has held a street food pop-up event to promote the use of lamb on menus.
The event, which featured four street food retailers cooking lamb dishes, was designed to celebrate the versatility of Quality Standard Mark (QSM) lamb and inspire chefs to try different cuts and flavour combinations.
Hugh Judd, foodservice project manager for AHDB Beef & Lamb, said: "The street food phenomenon has swept the UK by storm, with more and more traders offering a wide variety of global cuisines springing up all the time.
"As lamb works so well in many different types of cooking, we thought what better way to showcase its versatility than invite four very different operators to show us what they could do with it. The results were truly inspirational and I hope they will encourage chefs and their suppliers to rediscover lamb."
The four street food operators were the Cheeky Indian, Cheeky Burger, Shoot the Bull and the Moocher. They cooked Indian-inspired prime lamb chops, marinated in a blend of spices and honey, served with flatbread and a Punjabi slaw; Moroccan lamb burger; 36-hour-cooked lamb breast with smoked Jerusalem artichoke puree, roasted salsify and rosemary pesto; and hay-baked rough fell hogget with foraged herb and heritage tomato salsa respectively.
Judd added: "Another benefit of featuring lamb on menus is that, at this time of year, lamb is at its best and is in plentiful supply, which makes the price more attractive. So it makes economic sense to sell a product that consumers love when there is so much good-quality, added value product around.
"However, chefs do need to get creative and use a range of different cuts in order to appeal to diners and keep menus fresh, interesting and exciting."
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