Italian Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese

Italian Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese

2 slices sour dough

2 Tbsp butter, for bread

6oz pulled pork mix

4 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced

2 sprigs of basil, leaves only

Salt and pepper

 Butter one side of bread.  Spread pork mix on one piece of bread. Layer basil leaves. Layer mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining piece of bread. Toast until warmed through and crispy. Serve and enjoy.

Pulled Pork

1lbs Pork Butt

16oz stewed tomatoes

10 garlic cloves

½ tsp red pepper flake

1 tsp fennel seed

2 sprigs fresh basil

½ tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

8oz tomato paste

Combine all ingredients in crock pot, except for the tomato paste. Cook in crock pot for 12hrs until fork tender. Remove pork from liquid and rest for 20 minutes. Shred pork and set aside. Using immersion blender, blend remaining liquid with tomato paste. Combine pork, tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Chill.

Tomato Cucumber Salad

3 plum tomatoes, diced

1 English cucumber, diced

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp fresh dill, chopped

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

½ tbsp fresh chives, chopped

1 tsp roasted garlic paste

2 dashes tobasco

Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine and serve.

Created By Chef James Bingham

Kites Virginia Ham

Growing up in Madison County, Virginia makes you appreciate the small things in life. There are a few things I will never forget about my hometown- Blue Ridge Mountains at my heels, miles and miles of beautiful rolling hills, Friday night football games and Kites Country Hams. Jim Kite inherited the recipe for his special cure from his father--and he’s kept it in the family ever since. Compared to other hams on the market, Kite’s hams tend to be meatier and leaner.
When you start with a fantastic product like Kites ham you don’t want to do much to it. When the meat is picked off the bone it is not over yet, you can still utilize what is left. I use the bone and scrapes to make a rich delicious broth that I used as a component in this clam chowder dish.

Kites Ham Bone and Scrap
Carrot
Garlic
Onion
Celery
Bay Leaf
Thyme
Black Peppercorns
1% by weight of gelatin sheets

Put all the ingredients in a large stock pot and cover with ice. The ice helps draw out the gelatin from the bone to make the broth rich and thick. Simmer the stock for 8 hours, skimming as you go.  Strain and transfer to a smaller pot. Simmer the broth until it is reduced by half, skimming as you go, season with salt. Once you get to this point take it off the heat and let the broth cool for 20 to 30 minutes. Mean while get the desired bowls you want and place them on a level surface. Weight out, in grams, the desired amount of broth you want and set it to the side. Take that weight in grams and figure out one percent of gelatin that you need. Bloom the gelatin and stir it into the broth. Pour the broth into the bowls and let set for one hour. If you don’t want to use this broth in this application, this broth makes a great base for any type of soup or sauce that you want.

Kites Ham Gelee
Kites Ham
Broken Egg
Poached Clams
Chives
Preserved Lemon
Garlic Chips
Clam Crème Poured Tableside

Pasta Dough

2 1/2 cups flour
4 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt

Pour the flour onto a work surface and shape into a mound. Form a deep, wide well in the center and add the eggs, sprinkle with the salt.  Beat the eggs lightly with a fork, then gradually work in the flour, moving from the inside of the well in a circular motion.
Set the dough aside, clean and flour the work surface, then knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  Shape the dough into a ball, dust with more flour and wrap with plastic wrap. Let rest for at least 30 minutes.  Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and cover. On a floured work surface, flatten 1 dough piece. Using a pasta machine, feed the dough through the widest setting, then feed through the same setting 3 more times. Change to the second-widest setting and feed the pasta sheet through twice. Repeat this pattern until you reach the thinnest setting, lightly dusting with flour as necessary, then feed the pasta sheet through once; lay the pasta sheet on a lightly floured kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.  Let the pasta sheets dry, about 10 minutes. Set the pasta machine to the flat noodle or "tagliatelle" setting and feed the sheets through the machine. Transfer the cut pasta to kitchen towels. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, 3 to 5 minutes

Butter Poached Lobster
Lobster Cream
Chive
Red Vein Sorrel
Picked Parsley

Heirloom Beets, Meyer Lemon Curd, Black Garlic

What does heirloom mean: Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated, meaning that unlike hybrids, seeds are collected from one year will produce plants with most of the characteristics of the parent plant.

Meyer Lemon Curd
200g sugar
3 Meyer lemons zested
250g Meyer lemon juice
3 whole eggs
250g cold sour butter
6g salt

Mix the sugar, zest juice and eggs in a small pot and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently so the mixture doesn’t burn.  Don’t be afraid when it curdles, it’s just fine. Remove the pot from the heat source and let stand untouched for 5 minutes. With an immersion blender blend in the cold butter and salt until the mixture is emulsified. Pass the Meyer lemon mixture through a chinois then cover with plastic and chill overnight. It will be thick and read to use in any application you imagine.  

 

 

Heirloom Beets in Verity of Ways

Meyer Lemon Curd

Blood Orange

Nitrogen Sugar Beet Sorbet

Perigord Truffle

Perigord Truffle

Impossible to describe, amazing to experience the most prized truffle in French cookery is the black Perigord truffle, which is said to have first enchanted diners in the 15th century.

Winter black truffles are often called the "Diamonds of Perigord." They are simply exquisite, and from December to March, delectable Perigord black truffles characterized by a subtle aroma and an earthy flavor reminiscent of a rich chocolate. They reach their pinnacle of fragrance and flavor in January and February.

Like other varieties of truffles, the Perigord black truffle, Tuber melanosporum, grows beneath the surface of the soil among the root systems of specific types of trees and develops a symbiotic relationship with those trees, which primarily consist of oak, but also beech, hazelnut, chestnut, birch and poplar. With the exception of the white Alba truffle, Perigord truffles are scarcer, more desirable and higher-priced than other truffles. Within the last 100 years production of these almost incomparable delicacies has significantly diminished from previous levels, but demand among discerning epicures remains justifiably strong

Not only are Perigord truffles amazing to eat, truffles are amazing to look at the outer structure and the vein interior. It is like looking at a diamond catches ones eye, captivates,  intrigues and leaves you breathless.

Perigord Black truffle
Prime Beef Carpaccio
Deviled Egg
Toasted Brioche
Olive
Shallot
Red Pepper
Herbs
Espelette

Food Photography

After Reading a lot about food photography-background, tabletops and lights are the three most important aspects of taking a good photograph. Ever since I was a kid food was my only huge passion, now that I have discovered the art digital photography I have grown to love it and made it my second passion in life.

Background:
I like to shoot with a black background it makes all the colors pop in the picture. What you need is about 3 yards of black felt and a lint roller. Play around with the lighting you will get your favorite positions very quickly.

Tabletop:

Very inexpensive sheet of black Plexiglas will elevate every picture taken. With the sexy reflections and popping color your photography will turn heads. What you need is 4’x4’ black Plexiglas and Windex. Keep your glass clean and shoot some amazing pictures.

Lighting:
I like to use three LED lights at various angels to show different shadows, textures and color. It’s easy to play around with the technique of positioning and buffering the lights, put your own twist with every photograph to make them your own unique art.

Butter Poached Lobster
Salsify
Hearts of Palm
Lobster Corral
Picked Herbs

It's Only A Sandwich!

Truffle Brie and Black Forest Ham Sandwich, Kettle Ribbon Chips, Port Poached Figs

Sandwiches are one of the most versatile foods on the planet. Every culture has a sandwich Cuban from Cuba, Doner from Turkey, Banh Mi from Vietnam, Grilled Cheese fron United States, the list could go on forever. Anyone of us has made and eaten a sandwich in our life time. When you have great ingredients and passion about food anything is possible, like an awesome sandwich. Crunchy bread, gooey warm cheese, salty black forest ham with super crunchy chips and sweet soft poached figs will make anyone a sandwich lover. And it is as easy as this....

Grilled Cheese

12 ea. 1 oz. sliced Brie
24 ea. 1/2 oz. thin sliced Black Forest Ham
12 Whole Grain Seeded Bread
6 each 1 oz Soft Truffle Butter
 
Heat a nonstick sauté pan. Butter both side of the whole grain bread place into the hot pan. Lay the brie cheese on one side of the pan and the sliced ham on the other side. Toast the bread and once the cheese is melted sandwich the two sides together. Place on cutting board and cut in half. Serve with chips and poached figs.

Ribbon Chips with Smoked Maldon Sea Salt

3 Large Idaho Potatoes
6 each 1oz portion of melted butter
TT Smoked Maldon Sea Salt
 
Wash the Idaho potatoes and dry. With a spirooli slice the potatoes into ribbons. Immediately put the ribbons into a 300 degree fryer and fry until crispy. Place the chips into a stainless steel bowl pour melted butter and toss while seasoning with the smoked Maldon sea salt.
 
Poached Black Mission Figs

24 black mission figs cut in half
1 c. sugar
16 oz. port wine
4 oz. red wine vinegar
TT Salt and Pepper
 
Place the cut mission figs in a pot with all the other ingredients season with salt and pepper. Simmer the mixture on medium low heat until the liquid becomes a glaze. Cool and adjust the seasoning if needed.

King Crab, Bergamot Orange, Black Trumpet

I Ordered some products from Hunt and Gather this past week- Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Yellow Foot Chantrelles, Hedgehog Mushrooms, Finger Limes, Bergamot Oranges, Huitlacoche every product was awesome and so fresh the best mushrooms I have ever used. I back Hunt and Gather 100%. This dish features Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Bergamont Oranges, with such great products you don't have to manipulate them to much.

 Hunt & Gather is a specialty food distribution company based in Denver, Colorado. Our focus is to provide quality, wild foraged ingredients to restaurants and local retail locations. We carry a large variety of wild mushrooms and seasonal produce. We work closely with foragers across the country to provide the freshest product available. If you would like to place an order or would like more information on what we currently have available, please email us at huntandgathercolorado@gmail.com.

King Crab
Black Trumpet Mushrooms
Bergamot Orange Preserve
Bergamot Orange Supremes
Bergamot Orange Creme
Bergamot Orange Vinaigrette
Nitrogen Sesame Pudding
Breakfast Radish
Finger Pepper
Pressed Avocado
Maldon

What I Think About In Motion

Salmon, Beet, Lemon

Microwave Beet cake

200g Whole Eggs
25g AP Flour
20g Beet Powder
Salt and Pepper

Blend ingredients with a hand blender and strain through a chinois. Put all of the batter into an ISI canister and charge with 2 charges. Shave well and chill for two hours. Poke a few hole in the bottom of a 16 ounce deli container and microwave the batter for 30-40 seconds or until set. Keep in an air tight container until needed.
 
Line Caught King Salmon
Beek Micro Cake
Smoke
Golden Beet Puree
Red Beet Puree
Shaved Beets
Buttermilk Gel
Shoyu Salmon
Lemon Comfit
Roasted Golden Beet
Roasted Red Beet
Dijon Cream
Charred Leek
Nasturtium Leafs

Monkfish, Escargot, Yukon Gold

 Yukon Gold Purée 
Wash and peel your potatoes then large dice them. Put them in a pot and cover the potatoes with cream and season with salt. Simmer the potatoes and the cream until the cream reduces by half check the seasoning. Push the potatoes through a tamis then and the smooth potato mixture and cream into a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment and mix. Add butter slowly to the whipping potatoes, my ratio is 75% butter to 100% total cooked potato weight. Once all the butter is added adjust the seasoning and pass the potatoes through a chinois. Heat as needed.

Monkfish
Escargot 
House Cured Bacon
Yukon Gold Purée
Confit Tomato Vierge
Olive
Black Garlic
Potato "Chip"
Pork Hock Jus
Nasturtium Flower and Leafs
Chive Blossoms
Snap Dragons

Tonkotsu

Tonkotsu
3 pounds pig trotters, split lengthwise
2 pounds chicken backs and carcasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
12 garlic cloves
One 3-inch knob ginger, chopped
2 whole leeks, chopped
2 dozen scallions, white parts only
1 lbs whole mushrooms or mushroom scraps
1 pound slab pork fat back
4 oz kombu
3 inch knob of ginger, chopped
1 head of garlic cut in half

 

Rinse the trotters and chicken bones under cold water to wash off all blood. Place the bones and trotters in a stock pot cover with cold water and slowly bring to a boil. Meanwhile char the vegetables, onions, garlic and ginger in a 400 degree oven. After the stock has come up to a boil reduce heat to a light simmer, skim off all the scum, discard, add the charred vegetables, leeks, green onions and fat back in to the pot. Simmer the stock for 12 hours adding water to the pot to keep the bones covered. In the last hour of cooking add the kombu, fresh ginger chunks and one head of garlic. Carefully remove the tender back fat, strain the pork broth, discard all bone and vegetables. Cut the back fat into small pieces put in a blender with the pork stock blend until emulsified, season with white shoyu, miso, chili oil etc., whatever you like. Serve with garnishes and noodles.

 

Tonkotsu
6 minute egg
Seared Foie Gras
Smoked Pork Belly
Sweet Corn
Tempura Oyster Mushroom
Pickled Cabbage
Chili Pepper
Sunflower Shoots
Cilantro
Green Onions
Fresh Jalapeño
Burnt Garlic Oil

 

Kitchen Time Lapse

Tuna Crudo, Nitrogen Cucumber, Curry

James Beard Video 5 course Dinner 2014

A video my team and I created for a summation to have the chance to cook at the James Beard House in December 2014.

Clotted Cream, Rhubarb, Honey

Clotted Cream

500g unpasteurized cream

In a pot bring the cream to 160*F pour into a container and cover with cheese cloth. Keep the cream in a warm place over night, it will separate and the whey will be clear at the bottom of the container. Carefully scoop the thick cream away from the wheyy and put the cream into a blender. Blend the cream until very smooth and strain again over night through a coffee filter. You will have very thick rich cream season with salt and keep cold until needed.

Charred Clotted Cream
Local Illinois Honey
Pickled Rhubarb
Rhubarb Puree
Honey Pecan
Shaved Apple
Honey Lavash
Poached Apple
Aged Asigo
Ruby Streak Mustard Greens
Maldon Sea Salt

Spring is Coming!!!

English Pea Puree

Freshly shuck English peas keeping the pods to make pea water. To make pea water put the pea pods in a stainless steel bowl with cold water, enough water  to come up about a quarter of the way up the pods. Tightly cover the bowl with a few layers of plastic wrap and one layer of foil. Cook the pea water double boil style, placing the covered bowl on top of a boiling pot of water and cook the pea pods for 35 minutes. Take off the bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature. To make the pea puree double shuck the peas and reserve the pea skins for another component, blanch the double shucked peas until tender in salted water with a touch of sugar. Put the peas in a Vita Mix and blend with the room temperature pea water and crème Fraiche, season with salt and adjust the acidity with lemon juice. Pass thru a chinois and keep the puree in the cooler until needed.

142 Degree Egg Yolk

English Pea Puree

Sous Vide Yellow Carrot

Roasted Orange Carrot

Pickled Turnip

English Pea Salad

Microwave Herb Crouton

Spiced Carrot Gastrique

Salted Marcona Almonds

Garlic Chips

Miners Lettuce

Carrot Greens

Maldon

Chicken, Ploenta, Beets Many Ways

Beet Pickled Eggs

Wash and peel medium sized beets and set aside. Make a pickle for the beets and simmer the beets in the pickle until tender.  Place eggs in boiling water and cook for 6 minutes after done cooking place the eggs in ice water and then peel. Drain liquid from the beets into saucepan. Place beets, onions, and eggs into a large bowl. Pour sugar and vinegar into the saucepan with the beet liquid and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer 15 minutes. Pour the beet juice mixture over the beets, eggs, and onions. Cover the bowl and refrigerate. Refrigerate for at least one to 3 days; the longer they are allowed to sit the better they will taste.

Pressed Chicken Thigh

Beet Pickled Egg

Beet Green Puree

Shaved Radish

Crispy Polenta

Roasted Beets

Salted Shallots

Fried Beets

Chive Tips

Chicken Jus

Borscht, Beet Textures, Apple

Borscht

Scrub the beets, rub them with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and put them on a sheet pan for roasting.  Roast until the beets are tender, about 1 hour. Set aside. When the beets are cool enough to handle slip off their skins, and cut them into large chunks. In a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, add butter. Put in onions, carrots, garlic, apple and thyme sprigs and cook until softened and just starting to color, about 10 minutes. Add the beats cook until dry and deglaze with a dry red wine. Add chicken stock just to cover and reduce to a glaze and repeat the process three times. Add chicken stock and a touch of cream just enough to blend to a soup. Bring to a simmer. Remove the thyme sprigs and blend until smooth, add more stock if the puree is too thick. Add the banyuls vinegar and honey, to taste, season with salt and pepper. Borscht can be served hot or cold.

Roasted Beet Borscht

Apple

Quail Egg

Pickled Beet Puree

Crème Fraiche

Sour Dough

Roasted Beet

Cress

Flowers

Oxtail, Potato, Onion,

Pierogi Dough

12 oz flour

1 oz salt

1 egg

4 oz soft butter

¼ oz baking powder

Sift together flour and salt on a work surface; form a mound with the flour and make a well in the center. Mix together sour cream and butter, put into the center of the flour. Work the dough until smooth. Let it rest in the cooler for an hour. Fill it with any mixture you would like savory or sweet.

Pierogi

Braised Oxtail

Buttered Potato

Crème Fraiche

Purple Potato

Yolk Jam

Stewed Cipollini Onions

Pickled Chive

Chive

Flowers