PING ISLAND STRIKE

photo by PFE Husk Shrimp and Grits with Crispy Pig Ears and Preserved Tomato 

A Cool Pic from my friend Paul

Squash Pickled Ramp Flowering Herbs

Pineapple Cashew Puffed Rice Spice Tea

Pickled Shrimp Radish Frozen Buttermilk Pepper Cress

Scallop Rhubarb compressed with Rhubarb Bitters Ginger-Meyer Lemon Jelly Coriander Berries and Flowers Cilantro Ice Celery

Strawberry Gazpacho Frozen Olive Oil Wood Sorrel Stone Crab Green Strawberries

Country Pate glued to  a Pork Loin, wrapped in Caul Fat

Braised Lamb Ragout San Marzano Flowering Brassicas Ramp Top Pasta

Crab, Saffron, Apple, Wood Sorrel, Vadouvan

I have always wanted a green house on the roof to grow garnishes.  This will have to do for now.  …
Continue reading

White Chocolate, Yoghurt, Blood Orange, Strawberry

Ecofriendly Foods, Sir Bev Eggleston, outrageous

  I am crazy about stuff harvested by hand in the forest

  Thanks to our friend Mr. Thackeray these made incredible porchettas.  Raised on Wadmalaw

  we have recently launched a new bar snack program.  Chalkboard menu, changing daily come check it out and have …
Continue reading

Brined, Cleaned, Glued, Rolled, Poached in Milk, Rolled

studded with pork skin and flavored with cinnamon, mace and clove we serve it on toasted bread smeared with a …
Continue reading

Frozen Sea Urchin Powder, parsnip, wood sorrel, leek

  After this was cured we cooked it in Pork Stock and rerolled it.  It gets sliced paper thin and …
Continue reading

  Black Sesame Crystal Lettuce Seaweed (2 types) Basil Seeds Ginger-Togarashi Snow Frozen Nasturtium Leaf powder

There is just something amazing about tasting a ham from an animal that you raised personally.  These hams were from 7oo …
Continue reading

Proof that the vita prep is actually tougher than nails I bet it would turn nails into a powder if they …
Continue reading

Scallop, Matsutake, Pine Nuts, Black Garlic, Black Truffle, Bitter Cress, Spruce Custard photo credit: paul cheney

  About to go into the vita prep to make a frozen powder.  The resulting texture is wonderful. photo credit: …
Continue reading

Clam Ikura Roe Borage Ginger Australian Finger Limes Marsh Grass Grapefruit meringue frozen Black Sesame powder

Apple Celery Buttermilk Seaweed

There is nothing more satisfying than preserving food.  These were pickled with fresh picked dill, mustard seed, celery seed, tumeric, …
Continue reading

these came from our pigs…cooked them in lard at 55 c for 8 hours.  we then portioned them into steaks …
Continue reading

lots of curing to do….these were too big for the scales….I’m guessin 750-800 pounds live…..tasty stuff, kinda like kobe pork

free roaming, wadmalaw foraging goodness these pigs are raised the right way, thanks to shawn for hookin us up with …
Continue reading

Foie Gras with Milk, Walnuts and Huckleberry thanks to john for sharing the crispy milk technique

I love the broth this technique yields…slow cooked with a little butter and some really good vedge stock….everything is cooked …
Continue reading

  Triggerfish with a pistou of garden vedge and herbs, braised pine nuts

Stone Crab with Tropical Flavors

Pickling 220 pounds of sunchokes, that’s alot of jars

A couple of days ago we added a new egg dish to our tasting menu.  Inspired by drunken-late nights at …
Continue reading

Fudge Farm Pork Jowls Brined for 24 hours and cooked SV for 36 hours at 71.1C, pressed and then fried. …
Continue reading

A good time was had by all…. congrats to chef hat, well done sir

Just picked radish and borage

Buy Some from Tyler   super cool, lots of ideas bouncing around

    Saba, Balsamic and Apple Cider Vin   A great way to add acid to a dish….

  These things are very sneaky.  They taste so good and look so innocent….and then the heat comes….wow these are …
Continue reading

One of the most important ingredients in southern cooking.  It just feels good to be around these things growing.  Thank …
Continue reading

We really do owe alot to the chicken.  They provide us with so much.  These guys provide us with incredible …
Continue reading

   almost ready to transplant

      I really like wood sorrel and it’s free, this stuff grows like crazy on the farm

just a reminder, I am updating almost daily with pics from my phone, check out the pics from my california …
Continue reading

I can’t even begin to tell you how rewarding it is to slice into something like this.  Waiting one year …
Continue reading

for star chefs

These are really cool.  Great flavor.  We are turning them into capers.

Chef Michael Paley of Proof on Main in Kentucky sent me this ham. Super smoky, super delicious.  This thing is …
Continue reading

This is a simple green jalepeno hot sauce.  My friend Linton Hopkins taught me this technique.  Make sure you give …
Continue reading

Found this on the side of the road today out at Wadmalaw.  There is this one little spot where it …
Continue reading

this is agar and olive oil….thanks to john shields for the inspiration and knowledge…if you haven’t been to townhouse…make a …
Continue reading

of pickling enough ramps to get me through an entire year…..200 pounds and counting

she continues to blow me away with every encounter….we are very fortunate!…look at the care put into these lettuces

for a short period of time in charleston the local shrimp can be harvested carrying roe.  and man are they …
Continue reading

This is “buster”, Celeste Alber’s raised this animal for two years.  She was kind enough to sell half of him to …
Continue reading

The great thing about this dish is that it is going to be different everyday it’s a celebration of the …
Continue reading

Bourbon-Banana Puree blis Maple Fried Chicken Liver terrine red may waffle   photo by joan perry

Chocolate Covered Carrots Brown Butter Caramel Ice Cream cocoa Crumble photo by our friend joan perry

Seaweed Puree Marintated Seaweed Cvap Spot Prawn Spot Prawn jus frothed mango vinegar togarashi

Yuzu Curd Strawberry Puree Fresh Strawberries Cara Cara Oranges White Chocolate Cup Crispy White Chocolate Pearls

Morels  Charleston Stone Crab Nasturstium Butter Ramp Pasta Pickled Ramps

http://www.twitter.com/hseanbrock keep up with my ramblings, this should be interesting, especially after 2am

The guy on my left shoulder hates creating dishes on the fly and the guy on my right shoulder lives …
Continue reading

I travel alot and get to eat at some incredible restaurants.  recently I was eating at one of my favorite …
Continue reading

we used miso instead of salt to cure this bacon…we added some thai red curry paste for spice

thinkin braised in mustard consomme and paired with honey vinegar and smoked steelhead roe with a puree of cauliflower leaves

4 horsepower what a pleasure to use, this thing is a monster really, really awesome

deboned, glued together and crusted with chicken skin.  We cook this until the internal temp in 60c..then press a la …
Continue reading

Has a blast cookin with Tyler Brown, Andy Carson and Dan Latham…. always thankful for the incredible hospitality of Anne …
Continue reading

http://www.charleston.net/news/2009/apr/02/sean_brockfrom_dumplings_mccradys77207/

Tonight at the restaurant a guest found the smallest inch worm I have ever seen on a leaf of lettuce.  …
Continue reading

http://goodstoneblog.blogspot.com/ One of the best chefs I know, he is missed dearly in Charleston can’t wait to hang out on …
Continue reading

Foie Gras Puree trapped inside white chocolate and grapefruit

My first attempt at growing strawberries….fingers crossed

The aroma that is released from turnips when they are pulled from the ground is one of my favorite things …
Continue reading

We created this dish for a vegan tasting menu we were doing for our friend Billy a couple of months …
Continue reading

I luv the idea of using dehydrated vegetables as a coating for proteins.  Especially for meats that are just poached …
Continue reading

you rarely find rhutabegas in the baby stage.  these took a really long time to grow.  This is an old …
Continue reading

  we planted a shit load of onions this year…..we staggered them so we can have them in various stages…this …
Continue reading

saduchi and smoked honey glazed with pickled winter squash

  my favorite thing in the world is cheeseburgers…. thanks to amy and rathead for allowing me to be their …
Continue reading

  Well, raising pigs is real easy until it’s time to get them into a really small trailer after they …
Continue reading

our attempt at making a tighter looking plate with simple roasted mushrooms….agar

pictures speak for themselves…     special thanks to travis and chris d for stickin it out and the biggest …
Continue reading

sorry for the delay in posts for a little while I decided that I wasn’t going to blog anymore then …
Continue reading

I need to spend a little more time thinking about this particular hydrocolloid.  I think there might be some different possibilties …
Continue reading

we treated coconut milk like a granita and then dipped the shaved ice into ln2 here it is served with: …
Continue reading

http://www.napleswinefestival.com/chefs.cfm I am honored and really excited to be a small part of such a prestigous festival.  Thanks to my …
Continue reading

it looked like mozz, so I marinated it like mozz..we were really happy with the results

it eats like popcorn handfuls of delicous, wonderful, flavor packing crispiness except its pork rinds and not popcorn screw popcorn…… …
Continue reading

We cure alot of meat at the restaurant.  It goes without saying that we really enjoy it.  Curing has really …
Continue reading

something I have been tinkering around with for a while for some reason manipulating fats feels rewarding here we wanted …
Continue reading

this thing was made out of tin roofing, old lumber and highway signs thanks to randolph for babysitting our pig …
Continue reading

  it sure takes alot of patience to wait one year to taste something. it was well worth the wait. …
Continue reading

Cruze Farm buttermilk makes the world go round and some mighty tasty cornbread, this particular one is studded with Alan …
Continue reading

fat and lazy enjoying a gorgeous day on wadmalaw

aerated buttermilk liquid nitrogen my favorite way to enjoy buttermilk is when it’s ice cold, or colder…..

traditional style recipe, pulled at 63c and whipped with gelatin

ever wonder what a color tastes like? I have been wanting to do this dish for quite some time and …
Continue reading

Our smallest pig dressed out at 195.  I am guessing the biggest is well over 400 pounds.  This has been …
Continue reading

I have been really enjoying the flavor of birch lately.  We recently served it with country ham wrapped quail and …
Continue reading

check out this survey that I was asked to participate in… looks like NOMA is the hottest restaurant in this survey among …
Continue reading

make sure you check out these pics that john and karen just posted really, really cool stuff click here

Just ran across an article about a guy that I admire a great deal. We are very fortunate to have …
Continue reading

this turned out to be one hell of a dinner.  these guys showed up so prepared it was silly, they …
Continue reading

pugdog

you can never grow enough onions

it tastes so much better when you grow it yourself!

I planted this just for it’s pollen

our pigs don’t have it so bad…well, at least for now

Please join us in welcoming John B. Shields and Karen Urie to Mccrady’s on December 7th for a guest chef …
Continue reading

  http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/nov/12/brocks_star_rising_fast61247/

anybody know where to get these seeds??

a wonderful fish our friend mark marhefka catches these for us

http://www.mccradysrestaurant.com   thanks to green olive media for doing such a great job!

Sunday, November 9th, 2008…7:30pm   Join the McCrady’s Team in the restaurant’s newest space, the gallery, for a special evening …
Continue reading

these are some stats from El Bulli 15 – Tables per day 50 – Guests per day 160 – Days …
Continue reading

Always a highlight of the SFA Symposium. Their slogan is “Eat or we both starve” The best catfish that I …
Continue reading

This ham is over 2 years old. We use the fat to braise fall greens and to flavor a sauce …
Continue reading

Poached, Seared, Poached Scallop Sunchokes cooked SV Barigoule Style with Black Truffles Braised and Raw Radishes Black Truffle Blanket Truffle-Barigoule-Veal …
Continue reading

From our garden..these seeds came from Baker’s

TG

Autumn is such a great time to be a chef and a farmer.

Seared matsu Black Garlic Milk Sweet and Sour Turnip

Snapper Crudo Warm Lardo Pork Rind Fennel Pollen Compressed Fennel Bulb

My two favorite things in one glass…..

one of my favorite oysters   here we serve it with raw apple consomme , pickled pears and frozen horseradish

this dish was really tasty   passion fruit powder spray dried coconut lychee sorbet   lime basil

Black Cod, tightened up!

Still not as good as Mr Benton’s but pretty tasty.  This was cured with honey from our farm.  I look …
Continue reading

We now offer two tasting menus, 5 for 55 and 10 for 90

Bacon Poached Potatoes Crispy Potato Sheet Pernod Compressed Celery Benton’s Bacon Shellfish Vin Blanc Poached Clams Onion Soubise Glued Trout

Chilled Scallop Warm Lardo Vinaigrette Compressed Fennel Fennel Pollen

Raw Oyster Miso-Dashi Yuzu White Soy Pearls Wild Steel head Roe Tart Apples

these are part of our on going seed saving project.  These were given to me by the master himself, John …
Continue reading

they are gettin bigger and lookin mighty tasty, check out those hams!!

thanks to everyone for all the emails and text messages concerning last night’s show.  I truly appreciate the support, man …
Continue reading

Broccoli Puree Fried 64 degree egg yolk pork fried rice (belly, lard, braised shoulder) really, really delicious, props to Andy …
Continue reading

Coppa wrapped in Spicy Soprasatta Aged for 4 months

Pickled Radish Miso-Buttermilk Dressing Wood Sorrel Crispy Nori

Kona Kampachi Spiced Saduchi Puree Puffed Kelp Miso Powder Shiso Apples compressed with Sake

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food-network-challenge/challenge-the-next-great-chef/index.html Full broadcast schedule as follows: Oct 05, 2008, 8:00 PM ET/PT Oct 06, 2008, 3:00 AM ET/PT Oct 08, 2008, 7:00 PM …
Continue reading

  Just got back from the annual star chefs trip.  Trying to backtrack and reflect.  This is such an important …
Continue reading

A Celebration of Southern Lifestyle click on the link below http://gardenandgun.com/stories/features/best_of_the_new_south-166

Come and experience a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Julian Van Winkle will be at our restaurant to tell stories …
Continue reading

designed to be a crispy garnish for bacon ice cream with buckwheat soil

Milk with sucroester..a little to silly to serve but fun to make

It doesn’t get much better than this.  In my opinion you can’t find a better pig.  Every time I order …
Continue reading

Thackeray Farms “Wadmalaw Fuglies”…you can clearly see how pumped up I am to eat this gorgeous tomato

We made this with no food additives…just the natural pectin from the seeds and pith…We served it with Foie Gras …
Continue reading

Dehydrated, dropped into ln2 and then blasted in the vita…I suppose a pacojet would work as well….or a hammer

these tasty truffles garnished a stone crab bisque with celery and nasturtium

We created this for a whiskey tasting…. Foie Gras Terrine with smoked butterscotch and tart apples Perfect with Whiskey

I have always wanted to be able to create bubbles like you get when you are washing dishes.  I finally …
Continue reading

these are some really incredible black velvet apricots…I love stumbling across ingredients that are perfect in their raw form….

compression is such a great tool..I wanted to serve the beets raw but wanted them to be a little softer…this …
Continue reading

  today the heat index was between 102 and 110…no bueno

Such a nice staple to have on hand.  It’s amazing how complex pickling can be and what a pickled element …
Continue reading

Yuzu-Black Truffle Puree, Celery I love they way the natural pine flavor of yuzu tastes with black truffles…they actually seem …
Continue reading

Smoky Hollandaise, Leek Puree, Beets

I recently met a really cool chick named Winborne (no, not our pastry chef Winburn) who was nice enough to …
Continue reading

I love our new set up..so many positives..you live and you learn, that’s what keeps me going

i have recieved alot of requests for the Jimmy Red seeds.   If you really want them call the kitchen …
Continue reading

We really enjoy cooking for people who are serious eaters check out chuck’s recent experience with us http://www.chuckeats.com/2008/07/15/mccradys-charleston-sc-ingredient-fetish/ if you …
Continue reading

this is one of my favorites it’s an old pea introduced in the late 1800’s the flavor when they are …
Continue reading

we finally harvested our jimmy red… anybody want to grow some next year??   we now have a ton of …
Continue reading

I am doing a participation cooking demo at Charleston Cooks on July 31st.  Charleston cooks is right across the street …
Continue reading

We have decided to take a different approach to gardening.  I have pulled inspiration from Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello.  …
Continue reading

Since attempting to raise vegetables and pigs my daily checklists have changed a bit. Fish Carcasses (tomatoes) Egg Shells (tomatoes) …
Continue reading

The peach is compressed and then bruleed.  We serve it with a brown butter crumble and honey-mascorpone cream….

This has been an incredible project on many different levels.  This corn is from James Island, here in Charleston.  Jimmy Red Corn …
Continue reading

my piggies love milk.

  http://www.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2008/07/photos-of-mccradys.html here is a link to some pics from the dinner with the guys from ideasinfood.. what a great …
Continue reading

August 31st, 2008   Richard Blais   100 per person 50 wine pairing reservations can only be made through me.. …
Continue reading

this should be interesting…. Our newest project is raising pigs for the restaurant.  These pigs are our responsibility and will …
Continue reading

the great thing about growing produce for the restaurant is the learning curve involved.  Today I realized that 700 tomato …
Continue reading

some seats have opened up…..who wants them?? june 29th…….75 bucks for 12 courses is a pretty darn good deal reservations …
Continue reading

  discovered a new foie terrine technique…rather easy..   temper the foie and clean it….cure it for 24 hours…push it …
Continue reading

  one hint……it’s totally natural

The heads are salt cured for 24 hours, then braised in pork stock in the cvap for 24 hours. We then …
Continue reading

the scallops are cooked sous vide in olive oil until they reach 50 c…then they are chilled and sliced…we then …
Continue reading

Coconut, Curry, Nasturtium and Artic Char Roe    

  Travis Grimes loves to cure meat, Thank God, he is damn good at it too

What an incredible thing to be a part of.  Congrats to all the nominees and winners.

this city really never sleeps…which works out good for me!!

  This event is so much fun….pretty funny seeing newyorkers going crazy over BBQ….my favorites were the ribs by my …
Continue reading

reservations at: Tailor Yankees Stadium Eleven Madison Park Wd-50 Bar Boulud Back Forty can’t wait, I’ll take lots of pictures!!

  Our tomatoes are struggling a bit right now……hope that they can pull thru, we shall see.  They sure are …
Continue reading

This was one of the components of a dish that Micheal Ginor cooked at the Share our Strength dinner in …
Continue reading

just got back from a great trip to my old stomping grounds.  I did an event with the Southern Foodways …
Continue reading

  these grow cylindrical instead of spherical…tonight we served them poached in strawberry consomme with whipped blue cheese, cocoa nibs …
Continue reading

this is proof that if you follow Maria Thun’s planting calender you will get straight, consistent carrots….when I pulled them out …
Continue reading

  These came straight from the boat and were still moving, one scared the crap out of me when it …
Continue reading

these edible succulents are really neat.  What a cool texture

the may garden is great because you are still harvesting some things from the late winter garden but you also …
Continue reading

  Sometimes it pays to be impatient.  Most of the time it doesn’t.  One of the best things about our …
Continue reading

We finally harvested our farro.  What a cool experience.  You certainly cook it with more care after you see the …
Continue reading

  we are fortunate enough to make jowl bacon out of emile’s pigs from caw caw creek.  The quality of …
Continue reading

Insipred by the local shrimp arriving with it’s roe local shrimp, avocado, white soy, red miso powder, perilla

This technique allows us to get the olive oil on the plate exactly where we want it and the guest …
Continue reading

  this is so good….really well balanced. 

      Something tells me this will be served with zucchini puree

Yesterday I picked a few squash and zucchini…nothing to speak of, most of them were small

  what a great snack…….these were wonderful dipped in Frank’s Red Hot

the tornado killed our scarecrow

  liquid center english pea soup encapsulated with crispy carrot puree

  We really like this dish…the scallops are poached until the reach 50c and then chilled..then we slice them and …
Continue reading

Today we cooked beets in the pressure cooker under vaccum in strawberry consomme….really tasty…once this dish is complete it will …
Continue reading

Haven’t posted anything in a while………..been on the road, but I’m back!..promise to post more often

The garden is growing like crazy..lots to look forward to.

I am proud to announce Chef Todd Richards as our May guest chef.  Todd is a great guy and one …
Continue reading

these were on the tv show deadliest catch, they came form the boat “the time bandit”…super cool   they taste …
Continue reading

Puffed Fish Skin with Vinegar Powder, fish and chips anyone??

  I planted this on January the 21st….and all of a sudden it decided to grow the other day…great lemon …
Continue reading

Date Puree, farro Verde, Thackeray Cabbage   Thanks to Damon Campbell for prepping and cooking the lamb neck.

<

We started picking these a couple of weeks ago. Super Tasty

It doesn’t get much better.  What a fun thing to make.  We used local milk from grass fed jersey cows

I’ve had some new thoughts on rice recently.  I am still quite obsessed with cereal production.  We wanted to create …
Continue reading

We had some uni left over from our David Chang dinner.  I thought it would be fun to make a …
Continue reading

Thanks to Emile for providing us such a great product….this stuff tastes awesome.