dirty french fries
with table salt

You can’t have a hamburger without fries. I call these dirty fries cause I like to leave the skin on, cut them any which way, fuck them up (a process in which I’ll explain in a bit), and fry them in oil that had already fried a bunch of other shit like bacon, pork, and other goodies.

The best fries are made from kennebec potatoes, but you can also get a decent fry out of russet. Cut it, soak it in a light brine with sugar and salt, fry it at 325 F for 2 minutes, and then drain it. At this point, toss them in a bowl to release some of the starches and let them coat the fries. We used to make breakfast potatoes at work using this method; my words of wisdom to my breakfast cook at the time was, ‘fuck them up’, and that pretty much explains the process. So, just fuck them up and don’t be too concerned about how they look. The more cracks and broken bits, the lighter and crispier the fry will be. After you’ve done this, crank the heat up so that the oil reaches 375 F and then fry it again until crispy. Toss them right away in salt.

Oh, and you gotta use table salt. The iodized crap with the girl holding the umbrella. This is the only time I would ever use the stuff, but it’s really the only choice when it comes to fries. Fancy sea salt just doesn’t stick. Kosher salt seems to disappear on your palate. Iodized salt stands out and let’s you know it’s there.

the perfect hamburger
with garlicky mushrooms, cabot white cheddar, & dijonnaise

Here is a cross-section view. Notice that the grains run straight up and down. This makes every bite super tender and light. You can scarf down a 1/2 lb burger and won’t feel stuffed. To do this, the beef needs to be formed into a giant log as soon as it comes out of the grinder and the grain kept running parallel to the table that it’s being worked on. Then you wrap it up tight like a giant tootsie roll, freeze it, then slice to the desired shape.

the perfect hamburger
with garlicky mushrooms, cabot white cheddar, & dijonnaise

Gotta post this recipe someday; it’s quite long and involved. Seriously though, this burger was absolute perfection—the Kate Upton of burgers.

sous-vide steak & lobster
with truffled matsutake rice

A random combination of stuff I had in the fridge-rator.

faux caviar
with sodium alginate & calcium lactate

Fucking around with molecular shit…

flaked artic char & angel hair pasta
with lemon essence, butter, and parsley leaves

Something simpler for a change. Artic char is closely related to salmon and trout and share the characteristics of both. I had some left over and sous-vide. Just a quick toss with some butter, pasta, garlic, and picked whole parsley leaves and you’ve got some Sunday dinner.

california halibut ceviche
with fried butter beans & leche de tigre foam

Another view.

california halibut ceviche
with fried butter beans & leche de tigre foam

This was obviously Peruvian-inspired. It’s local caught halibut cured in fresh lime juice, salt, and coconut milk. After 12 hours, you strain the marinade and what you end up with is leche de tigre or tiger’s milk. Peruvians will occasionally serve this on the side of a ceviche dish in a goblet, but it’s a bit strong for my taste, so we foamed it.

We couldn’t get those giant hominy kernels that traditionally accompany ceviche so instead I had one our of cooks (our only cook at the time…sorry Tyler) meticulously peel and split cooked butter beans, and then fry them. Very time consuming, but it gave the dish a nice effect.

Garnish with a little bit of lemon oil, micro-cilantro, and fresno chilies, and the plate is finished.

ham & eggs
with sweet potato hash & jamon iberico foam

It took two weeks but the hind quarter of the pig we got from Marin Sun Farms had finally finished brining for our ham. We flavored the brine with the basics, plus a shit ton of rosemary and just let it sit in the walk-in until it was ready. We used it in this dish with a sous-vide egg, a simple hash using the ham scrap and sweet potatoes, and then we made a foam out of jamon iberico trimmings to dress the plate. Shit was ridiculous.

kalua pork slider
with habanero papaya slaw & hawaiian sweet bun

Made these for a party. Hawaiian-style pulled pork with a tropical coleslaw.

'longsilog'
longanisa sausage, torta, garlic rice, & fried egg

This Filipino breakfast is a nice change from its tired American cousin. Egg yolk is the simplest, most delicious sauce. This would be amazing in burrito form.
 

kobe steak & kasugai wasabi peas
with dashi demi & pickled onions

okonomiyaki corn dogs
twice-fried corn dogs, bonito shavings, okonomiyaki batter, kewpie, okonomiyaki sauce

I cooked these the same morning as the Green Eggs & Ham Takoyaki. They’re fried Costco corn dogs dipped in okonomiyaki batter, and then fried a second time.

Kind of tasted like a Japa-dog, but in corn dog form.

green eggs & ham
tako-yaki style

This is not a true takoyaki, of course (since ‘tako’ means octopus and there is no octopus present in these), but mini-omelets made using a takoyaki pan. It’s just green eggs (blanched scallions blended with scrambled eggs), cubes of swiss cheese and ham, and more chopped scallions. They’re cooked just enough on the outside so that their insides are still nice and gooey.

kobe beef & matsutake stir-fry
with maitake mushroom butter

I had a bunch of random scraps leftover that I made a stir-fry out of. Seem like a waste considering the price and quality of the ingredients, but, hey, it was good.

limoncello & poppy seed sorbet
with meyer lemon gastrique & basil flowers

One of the first food pictures I took like 5 years ago when I first planned to blog…but never did, until now, at least. I love poppy seeds in sorbet.