Putting the deli in delicious

Purefoods recently launched its Premiere Deli Club and no, it isn’t an exclusive, invitation-only group like Google Plus, but a line of franks and cold cuts made with premium meats.

Purefoods’ Premium Franks include German, cheese, beef and smoked turkey variants, while the Premium Cold Cuts encompass salami, spiced ham and bologna.

These deli items are aimed at young professionals on the go who need quick and easy meal options.

“We wanted to offer customers a premium line of meaty deli indulgence,” said Purefoods marketing manager Jogee Cruz. “The difference starts with the recipe: we share formulas with Hormel, and only use certain grades of beef and pork.”

At the recent launch at Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, Purefoods invited celebrities to collaborate with chef Jessie Sincioco to come up with seven dishes — each highlighting one of the new products — demonstrating that not only do these deli meats make ideal sandwich fillers, they can also be incorporated into tasty dishes that are easy to prepare and pack as baon.

Purefoods marketing manager Jogee Cruz with chef Jessie Sinsioco’s

Amazing Race alum Rovilson Fernandez did German franks with a spicy BBQ sauce, inspired by American barbecue. “It’s the taste of home,” said model-host-magazine editor Fernandez, who grew up in California. “The best part is it’s grilled so it’s also healthy. It’s better than the usual hotdog.”

His dish, in which the German franks were cut into bite-size pieces and speared with toothpicks, is not only portable but also good as an hors d’oeuvre; the barbecue sauce was superb.

Model Kelly Misa did spicy ham wraps in a tamarind-vinaigrette dressing. “It’s refreshing and light, easy to make, and not really spicy,” she said.

Indeed, her wraps were everything she claimed and more. Instead of the usual method of wrapping meat in lettuce, she wrapped vegetable greens in ham and tied it with chives — clever, with a gratifying vegetable crunch.

Swimmer-turned-TV host Christine Jacob-Sandejas did cheese franks monggo soup with malunggay, rainy-day comfort food that was the crowd favorite even if it was hot and sunny. “It’s a soup so it’s something healthy, and I love monggo so it’s like a stew,” Sandejas said.

Azkals stars Aly Borromeo and Anton del Rosario show off their Purefoods Smoked Turkey Franks in whole Wheat Bread Basket creation

It’s not unknown for sausage products to be added to soups — Spanish lentejas (lentils) comes to mind — and, like the chorizo in the lentejas, Purefoods’ cheese franks added a nice savory punch to the soup’s flavor.

Host Tessa Prieto-Valdes did salami linguini al pesto. “It’s a wonderful carbo dish,” said Valdes, who runs and therefore needs to carbo-load on a regular basis. “You can whip this up in 10 minutes, add pine nuts if you want.”

No pine nuts necessary — the salami made this pasta dish so tasty I’d definitely eat it again, even if I didn’t need to carbo-load.

Chef, actress and model China Cojuangco, who co-hosted the event along with JM Rodriguez, submitted two recipes using the beef franks — risotto and paella — but Purefoods went with the risotto, another nicely cooked dish that boasted refined flavors you wouldn’t normally expect from hotdogs.

Philippine Azkals football players Aly Borromeo and Anton del Rosario did smoked turkey franks in a whole-wheat breadbasket. “This looks a lot prettier than what we made last night,” joked Borromeo, who says he’s always on the go so he usually wraps wheat bread around his franks.

The Azkals’ dish was attractively presented and good for dieters limiting their carbs, with just one thin slice of grilled whole-wheat bread wrapped around the smoked turkey frank, asparagus and eggplant spears, basil and mustard.

Area manager Mira Calaranan noted that Purefoods’ Smoked Turkey Frank is its first less-fat frank, and thus lower in calories and guilt-free.

Lastly, chef Jessie Sincioco herself created a baked fruit tart with crispy bologna vermicelli, a classic fruit tart in a pastry shell filled with pastry cream. “I thought of cutting bologna into strips and baking it till crispy so it’s like vermicelli,” said the chef, whose out-of-the-box creativity was on full display for the entire menu.

Hers was a beautiful plate that seamlessly merged salty and sweet; you couldn’t really taste bologna but that was the point — the crispy topping just provided the right accent of texture and flavor.

You’ll never look at baon the same way again.

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Purefoods Premium Franks and Cold Cuts are available at all leading supermarkets.