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H*A*M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can we NOT use this track??????   

H*A*M  has been announced as a bonus track on the much anticipated Jay-Z and Kanye West Album "Watch the Throne" which will drop August 8th.  Are you kidding me?!?!?! It's On.  Art Anyone? Text Anyone?  Reach out and touch us, damn!

Pork Loin Blunt w. purple berry jam, torched peaches and watermelon ruins






This experiment helped hone the system a great deal and allowed us to hash out the direct correlations we've been after for 6 months!!!

Here's some of our music analysis:

"This is the Life" by Curren$y

Lyrics of note:
           you break down, you roll up
           double stuffed oreos
           pheasants, under wraps like presents
           Pool sides, and rooftops
           steady paper twisting
           smoke from the bone
           fools get ejected

Mood:   carefree, summertime party, cocky, dangerous, dreamy
Tempo/rhythm: slow bounce,
Texture: squishy, liquid in the base sound, refrain very soft refrain is very soft and smooth, beat is light and crispy, high crystalline piano hook, sweeping piano base
Themes: smoking weed, driving around, picking up girls for a party, being on top of your game

Food Equivalents:
      Texture: (creamy, juicy, crispy, crystalline)
       Flavors: (smokey, sweet, bright/citrus, watermelon, herbal/vegetal)
       Techniques: (en papiote, roulade,stuffed, flambe, grille, slow cooked "under glass")

        Ingredient refference: (oreos, pheasant, bone in)

Rolling Pork Blunts w. Lukas Southard! (mustard greens, dandelion greens, fennel pollen and sea salt)



Nick Butchering the pork loin before brining...

The Dish; overhead view





THIS WEEK'S WORK

http://purple.fr/magazine/s-s-2011-issue-15/0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p5P4uxJNKA

http://www.peter-owen.com/



Here's what we have put together: From Fashion Designer Jill Lindsey (Purple Fashion Magazine Travel Section article on  Montana) From Pitchfork.com's best new tracks of the week (Curren$y "this is the life) and a Painting from Brooklyn Artist Peter Owen. 

Ingredients:

Mustard Greens
Field Greens
Dandelion Greens
Blackberries
Gooseberries
Heritage Pork Loin
Fennel Pollen
Watermelon
Blueberries
Chives
Ginger Root
Maple Syrup
Spanish Smoked Pimenton

Stay tuned.  We're rolling out on Friday 7/22.

SMITH AND MILLS COLLABORATION

Foo Fighters "Best of You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_L4Rixya64

NY Times Monday July 11th "Despite Violence, Mexico Plants hum at Border"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/world/americas/11matamoros.html?pagewanted=all

Alexander McQueen "Dress No. 13"  from Metropolitan Museum Savage Beauty Exhibition
http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/dress-no-13/

Here's What we're looking for

Music:  Texture, Dynamic, Lyric, Rhythm
Art:  Color, Mood, Shape
Article: Region, Theme, language.


Here are our Ingredients:  (assume we have a full spice rack, herb drawer, and french kitchen basics (vinegar, butter, oil, flour, sugar, mirepoix)

Duck Breast
Chorizo
fava beans
rhubarb
sweet corn
blackberries
red bliss potatoes
pickled jalapen
red onion
blood orange
scallions

High Road Pork Shank Recipe and Method

HIGH ROAD PORK SHANK w. golden berries and the sea below

INGREDIENTS:

2 Heritage Pork Shanks, trimmed and trussed

2C Ham Stock

3oz Tomato Paste

3T Rendered face bacon fat

8ea Sicilian white anchovies in oil

8oz Canned sweet corn (and corn water)

3 ea spring garlic, rough chopped

4oz face bacon lardon

10ea golden berries

1C pea tendrils

4oz Unfiltered Sake

2T Unsalted butter

1t fresh pressed olive oil

tt salt and black pepper

EQUIPMENT:

3Qt La Chamba Clay Casserole with lid

Or, any similarly sized unglazed clay vessel with lid

METHOD:

-Fill clay pot half way with water and place in oven to pre-heat

-Pre-heat oven to 350, and heat vessel for 30min.

-Remove Vessel from oven drain water and heat on stop top at medium heat

-Cook Lardon until slightly crisp and reserve

-Season Pork Shanks with salt and black pepper, and sear on all sides, reserve

-Add spring garlic and 1/2 of the sweet corn to vessel, cook until corn is browned and garlic is charred.

-Deglazed with Sake, and reduce au sec

-Add ham stock, lardon and bring to simmer

-Coat pork shanks in tomato paste, and add to vessel

-Cover and place vessel in oven, adjust temperature to 300

-Cook 2 hours 30 minutes or meat begins to pull away from the bone and jus is nicely reduced

-Reserve pork and keep warm, resting before cutting the trussing away.

-Puree the contents of the vessel with sicilian anchovies, butter

-Serve in wide bowl with puree, and remaining sweet corn at the base, Whole shank in the center, and garnish with raw pea tendrils and quartered golden berries, drizzle with fresh pressed olive oil.

April 5th 2011, DMM, Ysabel Lemay, NY Times

"At 84, a City's Last Geisha Defies Time and a 4th Tsunami," NY Times 4/5/2011.

"In the Cool of the Day" Daniel Martin Moore 2011 http://www.danielmartinmoore.com/

"Metamorphose" 2010 Ysabel Lemay, courtesy KiptonArt.com

INGREDIENTS: Minute Steaks, Pork Shank, Chili Lardo, Face Bacon, Skate Wing, Korean White Tuna Sashimi grade, Sicilian White Anchovies, Celeriac, Golden Berries, Rhubarb, Redcress, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Purple Fingerlings, Baby Turnips, Boiled Quail Eggs, Canned Sweet Corn, Acorn Squash, Oyster Mushrooms, Red Finger Peppers, Watermelon Radish, Garlic, Lemon, Ham Stock.

Today's sights are set on 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 sides, and as always, the menu is inspired by the textures, language, composition and relative moods of the three elements above. This is what's on our collective mind, inescapable, moving, and Curr^nt. Image comes from Amanda Luginbill, online editor and more at KiptonArt.com. I caught up with Daniel Martin Moore this weekend after his performance at Bowery Ballroom, and the relevance and beauty of this morning's article from the NYtimes could not be ignored. So, without further ado...Let's get satisfied!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT......

"In the Cool of the Day": Air, Slow, Rolling, Reverence, Sparse, Earthy, Soul vs. Body, Popular Welfare, Piano Strings, Balance, Solid Chords, Green, Gardens, "feed my sheep", Cool, Daylight, Solitude, Fulfillment, Expectation, Tendon, Negative Space.

"Metamorphose": Water, White, Splash, Berries, Negative space, Explosions, Nature vs. the Unnatural, Speed of Life, Delicate vs. Agressive, Fresh, Billowing, Soft, Floral, Herbal, Tart, Cool, Warm Bursts, Blooming, Wild

"Geisha": Delicate Bones, Silk, Rolling aftershocks/ waves, depth of earth, solitude of the aftermath, life beyond time, "wide open mouth that swallows everything", white make-up, silver hair, sake, uphill, Shamisen strings, #3, washing away, smell of ruin, dust, steel, guardianship, young and old, dance, down home Japan, yakuza ink, "Kamaishi Seashore Song"

MENU

Apps and Sides:

Whitewash of Tuna w. pickled Celeriac, baby turnip, red finger chili

Country Fried Steak through the garden

Mushrooms after Meltdown (oyster mushrooms, chilis, chanterelles, Lardo)

Barbeque Acorn Squash w. yuzu aioli, face bacon brittle, redcress and tendril salad

Duck Tartare w. pickled quail egg, red finger chili, spring onion, and crispy duck skin

ENTREES:

High Road Pork Shank w. mountain berries and the sea below

Geisha Skate Wing w. Rhubard Yakuza and purple potato tatoo

Duck and Cover

Tasted with:

2007 Faust Cab

PHOTOS from 1st experiment. Check back soon for tasting notes, input from DMM, and new source material from Nathan Silver and Kia Davis.

An Introduction to the task at hand

"This is it, the beginning of time. We are after a method from which ideas can flow and individual expression can flourish within the boundaries of the popular palate..."

As a chef, one of the most difficult aspects of life is creating inspired cuisine year after year, season after season. You find yourself stealing from your last kitchen, cribbing on yourself and hoping ingredients will speak for themselves. If you're cooking regionally specific and seasonal food there are only so many amalgamations of ingredients and techniques one can apply to keep things fresh in the mind and interesting in the kitchen. Yet, from the outside one of the most interesting things about a dining experience is understanding how the chef created the plate. Where did the ideas come from? What are we eating? More often than not we are eating someone's childhood memory, reinvented by professional technique and higher quality ingredients than available to the general public. Often we are sampling cleverness on a plate with some aesthetic sensibilities garnishing the old standby flavor combination. There is nothing wrong with either of these things. It is quality food and deeply satisfying when served with kindness and prepared with pride. But, when it comes to the cooking the well can run dry. So how do we prevent that from happening?

We are striving to build a method that puts the creative process at the forefront of cuisine and removes it from being an individual moment of alchemy. The method is the goal, and to make it a strong working tool we must examine our cuisine and experiment tirelessly. So, what do we want from our cuisine? We want it to be relevant to our lives and the lives of those we serve. Relevance here means that the food is complimentary to the environment, culture and climate in which it is being served and consumed. We want to use the best ingredients available at the time of service. This thought is the basis of farm to table, eating local and other such sustainable mantras if you remove the weight of their socioeconomic moral code. We are not so much concerned with loyalty to small producers because we share the same stomping grounds. Rather, if there is a higher quality product that can be sourced in cost effective way, rest assured we'll be using it over our neighbor's heirloom cranberry beans. We want our cuisine to be visually appealing; beautiful but not rarefied. Finally we want our cuisine to transcend the process that created it, by creating bold flavors and unique textures that are humble, approachable and inspiring rather than challenging and confrontational. That's it. So how do we make it happen?????



EXPERIMENT ONE: Periodical, Music, Art.

"Wary of Egypt Unrest, China Censors Web"

Edward Wong and David Barboza, NY Times; February 1st, 2011

Twin Shadow's "Forget"
Title track from Twin Shadow Full Length Debut 2009 release (Terrible Records)



Photograph by Guy Bourdin
Originally published in Vogue Paris May 1970, taken from "In Between" Steidl, Berlin 2010.


MENU:

Hand pulled noodles w. Ras al Hanout beef tendon, red roe, bamboo shoots and Nile River stock

Crispy Crab Crackers w. cherry paste and smoked oyster oil

Crocodile Bites Camel (10k points)

One Up Mushrooms

Lipstick Pigs

FORGET LYRICS:

Forget

They’ll give us something; they’ll give us so much to forget

Or enough rope to deal with it

With pencil and knife you heard your love again

You wrestled your nightmares, the sweat in your bed sheets

This is all of it; this is everything I’m wanting to forget

When winter sets in, it has a way of crystallizing the bad times

The fevers, the heart aches

This is all of it; this is everyone I’m wanting to forgive

They’ll give us something; they’ll give us so much to forget

Or enough rope to deal with it

With pencil and knife you heard your love again

You wrestled your nightmares, the sweat in your bed sheets

This is all of it; this is everything I’m wanting to forget