Everyone thinks they’re a badman in the kitchen.
Especially DJs… Whether it’s their creative vibes over-spilling into other areas of their lives or the fact they get to dine in restaurants around the world, most players we chat to have a penchant for the gourmet groove. So we’ve decided to lay down a challenge. Kitchen-minded DJs come holler: show us how good you are in the kitchen with your own recipes! The first up to answer our challenge are DC Breaks who have given us a recipe each! Two for the price of one, let’s tuck in… “I don’t get anywhere near enough time to cook at the moment,” sighs Dan, one half of the Bristol/London Ram duo. “It’s really annoying. But if I’m playing in Europe then I’ll always try and get the first flight back so I can cook a little roast in the evening. Bottle of wine and a Sunday roast… Perfect.” While Dan’s forte is the classic roast and rustic Italian flavours, his partner in crime Chris is more of a spice aficionado – thus creating a similar full spectrum of techniques that you find on each of their releases. “My approach is to write some punchy beats, get out a bass sound and try and write a loop. Dan works more off melody and lets the bassline flow from that,” explains Chris. “My tunes tend to be more techy, Dan’s are more melodic; once we’ve thrown them back and forth a bit hopefully there’s some common ground between the two.”
You can hear this expert balance on their current EP, Firez. Out this week, it features four peaktime missiles, each one reflecting the vast variety of ingredients on their sonic spice shelf. Now signed exclusively to Ram, the spotlight is shining brightly on DC Breaks right now. “It’s the one label we’ve always loved,” grins Chris. “I’d never expected to be signed to it, we’ve been into them, buying the records for about 15 years. We had tunes on Frequency a few years back, so we’ve worked with them for quite a while but when Andy called up and asked whether we wanted to do an album and work together and we said yeah!” Look out for more Ram releases later this year, plus a podcast for UKF and a mix on Annie Nightingale’s Radio 1 show. In the meantime, let’s get cooking!
DC Dish One: Pork Fillet & Rhubarb
“Mine is super simple and only has a few ingredients,” says Dan. “It’s very important to get good meat from the butchers. Forget the supermarket meat! I’m not sure if you can get rhubarb now, it’s a bit seasonal. You can make balsamic glaze by reducing balsamic down with some sugar but you can buy it. It’s a bit different, but an interesting take on the roast.” Ingredients Pork Fillet – 600g or so. Olive Oil Salt Balsamic Glaze Pepper Rosemary Rhubarb Method Heat the oven to 190C. Heat a little oil in a roasting tin in the oven for five minutes before adding the pork. Roll the pork in the oil and cook for 20 mins, Then add the rosemary, turn the pork over and cook for a further 10 mins. Meanwhile cut the rhubarb into smallish pieces and add to the tin with 100ml of water and cook for 5 mins. Then squirt a load of balsamic glaze over the rhubarb and cook for another 5-7 mins. Remove the pork from the oven and let it stand for 5 mins. Serve with asparagus and mash potatoes. Dig in!
DC Dish Two: Thai Curry
“My recipe is a curry I picked up when I was in Thailand,” says Chris. “It’s a coconut based chicken curry. I don’t measure stuff for this… Just use your sense of flavour. I love it!” Ingredients Coconut cream, 1 tin. Thai curry paste Lemon grass Ginger Onions Shallots Tomatoes Chicken (chopped into bite sized pieces) Sugar Soy Sauce Chillies Kaffir lime leaves Nam pla (fish sauce) Method Boil up some coconut cream. When the oil starts to separate from the main coconut that means it’s ready for the curry paste (green or red; whatever you fancy) Stick the curry paste in, stir well and let it boil for a while. Then chuck in lemon grass, ginger, onions, shallots, tomatoes, chicken and to balance it out chuck in a bit of sugar, soy sauce, chillies, kaffir lime leaves (or if you can’t find them, lime rind) and nam pla fish sauce. Then it’s just a case of a weighing up the flavours depending on how hot you like it, how sweet you like, how much you want the fish sauce to influence the dish. There are quite a lot of ingredients but it’s really easy and done in about 30 minutes. Enjoy! Do YOU think you’re a badman in the kitchen? Get in touch… Let us know what your kitchen’s saying!