Slow Braised Pork with Fire Apple Chutney (by G)

I have one massive disappointment to get off my chest - I bought big chunky strips of pork ribs (from a butcher) and only discovered when I went to cook them today that the skin had been removed... no crackle!

The meal is rindless pork ribs braised in cider, miso, apple cider vinegar and thai chilies served with potato salad, radicchio and apple chutney.  The potato salad and apple chutney were particularly good in my opinion.  The salad has potatoes, mayonnaise, dill pickle, dill and capers - the chutney consisted of apples chunks simmered for a couple of hours in apple cider, dried chilli flakes, hot curry powder and a touch of sugar.

The radicchio was as bitter and unpleasant as I get when my pork has no crackle.

Buffalo Chicken Wings with Smokey BBQ Sauce and Blue Cheese Aioli (by Biggs)

I wasn't home for dinner tonight. After work I met some friends at the pub for some drinks and food. I was really in the mood for beer and deep fried meats so I ordered many many pale ales and many many chicken wings from Archive Beer Boutique. There was also some beer battered fries and a bocconcini, cherry tomato and fresh basil pizza on offer. I'm drunk and full right now so I guess it all went according to plan.

Curry Pork Pie (by G)

I had a few left over things to use today - pork, curry sauce, puff pastry, beans - dinner basically made itself.

Cubes of pork neck were simmered off in the curry sauce from the other night thinned down with water. After about an hour and a half (once the sauce had thickened back up) I added some little pieces of beans.  All of this was mounded on a round of puff pastry and finished off in the oven - half way through cooking in the oven I remembered we had some left over goats cheese so I added a few chunks of that on top as well.

This was a good one - mostly due to the magic curry sauce - but the tender pork and crispy pastry played no small part... shitty photo though.

Mushroom Pie with Mashed Potato (by Biggs)

I bailed on cooking last night which, reflecting on the awesome Philly Cheese Steaks, was an excellent decision. But, that meant vegetarian night was tonight. Vegetables on a Friday night is unheard of in our household (unless the blog states otherwise) so I didn't want to disappoint.

I made this mushroom pie because I had some success with it a while back and G seemed to enjoy it. Success was had again tonight. It's really just mushrooms, carrot, onion, vegetable stock, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce, thyme.....and some time.

I used the classic chef trick of 50% butter for the mashed potato. G didn't add any sriracha so I guess dinner was pretty good.

Philly-style Cheese Steak (by G)

Some time ago a Philly Cheese Steak place opened up in West End. I was so looking forward to going but, ultimately, the Cheese Steaks were disappointing (the onion rings were good though).

Tonight I made the Cheese Steak just the way I like it - cheesy and steaky.  First I fried off some thin sizzle steaks (I'm not sure exactly what part of the cow is the sizzle) then removed them from the pan and fried off a mix of red onion, red capsicum and some left over spring onions.  When they were tender I added strips of the cooked steak back into the pan and fried off for a few minutes then added a lot of cheese... a lot.

The steak mix was piled into some soft, cheap, cancer causing white hot-dog rolls and served with a side of oven fries.  I added some pickled jalapeno slices to mine but left them off Biggss's (shown below).

Cheese & Mushroom Paratha (by G)

The first thing I ever tasted in Singapore was a cheese & mushroom paratha from a dodgy 24 hour indian restaurant situated in the heart of the red light district. It cost me about $3 and it was one of the best things ever. I bought a tin of mushrooms about a week ago and have been putting off making this dinner since then.

The paratha dough is a bit of a pain in the biceps - we don't have a mixer. Flour, water, oil, sugar, salt and an egg mixed then rested for 20 minutes, then mix for 20 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes, then mix for 20 minutes, then ball it up and rest it again.  The next thing to do is stretch the dough out paper thin then fill it and fry it. It is quite a talent stretching the dough - and I don't have it. I tried the best I could but still had lumpy edges which made for doughy bits in the finished product.

The sauce was a mix of sweated onions, potato, cinnamon, star anise, clove, chilli powder, paprika, curry powder and vegetable stock (the recipe didn't call for paprika but Biggs is a bit of a softy when it comes to heat so I substituted some of the chilli out). Once the potatoes were cooked the hard spices were removed and the rest blended to a paste - then coconut milk was added. The sauce came out very well I thought - very authentic.

I was personally disappointed in the paratha themselves - it would be easier to fly to Singapore and buy them than make them from scratch... and that's what I plan to do in a few weeks.

Pork Butt Tortillas (by G)

I enjoyed cooking with the pork collar-butt that was used in the curry last night - it tendered up good in a pretty short time - so I thought it would be good to use in tortillas.  Confusingly the collar-butt is a cut from the neck of the pig (apparently).

As I'm still very tired and lazy I went with a classic tortilla combo. Pork, onions, paprika, cumin, diced tomatoes, chicken stock simmered for a long time and mashed.  The salsa is a mix of coriander, cucumber, red onion and some red capsicum seasoned with salt and lime juice.

I thought these tortillas were pretty tasty... a bit of a pain in the neck for the pig though.

Curry Duo (by G)

It was time to use up some left over meat so I got some lamb mince and an irregular bit of pork neck out of the freezer. I wasn't sure what to do with it but, at some point today, hit on a duo of curry.

For the lamb curry I fried off the meat, some onion and garlic with the following powders - coriander, cumin, turmeric and garam masala, some salt and pepper, dried chilli flakes and some tinned tomatoes. Spinach and  peas were added at the end.

For the pork curry, the pieces of pork were simmered in plain water for about an hour until tender then added to a blended and fried mix of Thai chilies, lemon grass, kaffia lime leaves, spring onions, sesame and vegetable oils. Once that looked okay I added some fish sauce, coconut cream, green beans and lime juice.

The yin and yang curry combination was pretty good - the pork was nice and tender, quite rich with the coconut cream.

Thịt Nướng (by G).

I was looking around the internet last night and found this Vietnamese grilled pork dish.  I bought a big chunk of pork neck from the butcher and sliced up most of it and marinaded it in a mix of shallots, garlic, lemongrass, sugar, salt, pepper, honey, fish sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, vegetable oil and my old friend Monosodium Glutamate. I also found one of those hinged meat barbecuing cages in the grocery store today so I was able to grill the meat to perfection over charcoal.

The meat would usually be served over rice noodles but I was excited by a new hot and spicy variety of instant noodles and have been looking for an opportunity to use them for a couple of weeks. Sadly I might have been a bit cautious in trying to keep the spice of the noodles in check and they ended up tasting like regular plain noodles.

Shredded Beef Tacos (by Biggs)

If I was asked what my favourite thing to do on a Saturday night is, I would quickly answer "dinner at a friend's house". It's great... there's all the good things - food, wine, great chats. And, that's exactly what I had tonight at Bonnie's house.

Interestingly, G and I both had slow cooked beef tonight. Mine (made by Bon) was slow cooked to perfection, shredded and full of flavour. Piled on soft tacos with cheese, salad, salsa and sour cream for the win. It's no secret I like Mexican. It's no secret I like wine. And, now it's no secret I loved my Saturday night. And, I haven't even mentioned the awesome Gabriel Gate chocolate pudding we had for dessert... Thanks Bonnie!

Beef Short Ribs (by G)

This is the 100th post for Tortilla Tuesday so I thought it should be something special - when I saw beef short ribs for sale I jumped on them (well, I just bought them but I was pretty happy about it because I don't see them in the supermarket very often).

These ribs were simmered in the slow cooker for 5 hours - I'd saved the braising liquid from the pork belly adobo (as 10 people worldwide will be aware Biggs and I enjoyed that particular dinner on 03/05/2013) - the ribs got so tender that the bones slid out of their own accord.  After frying them off for a couple of minutes they were glazed with a mix of tomato ketchup, sriracha, tamarind paste, apple cider vinegar, miso paste, honey, sugar and toasted sesame seeds.

For sides there was creamy mashed potato, blanched spinach and crispy sweet potato chips. I was pleased with the way everything came out - particularly the ribs, tender and flavourful, a perfect pairing with mashed potato.

Mizu (by Biggs)

I was out for dinner tonight....not just to avoid that wacky thing that G cooked....but also to see my friends Fi and Dan and celebrate it being Friday.

We went to Mizu, a Japanese restaurant that has opened up on Hardgrave Road in the old Red Hen which had opened up in the old Tongue and Groove. I've established that any business opening in this address is awesome.

We put Dan in charge of ordering which was an excellent decision because delivered to our table was: sashimi, goma-ae (green beans in sweet sesame dressing), agedashi tofu, takoyaki, isobe age (tempura fried fish cake), chicken kara-age, miso soup and koshihikari rice. I don't know what koshihikari rice is but it was sort of sweet with black sesame seeds. Oh, there was a chicken thigh thing too that was super tasty. It was all super tasty. Then we had azuki, banana and chocolate in spring roll form for dessert with green tea ice-cream. I could have taken a photo of a table full of awesomeness but I didn't want to be a wanker so here is just a teaser.

I can't recommend this restaurant enough....friendly, tasty, affordable. Speaking of which, I'm convinced that Fi and Dan always shout when we go out to eat as they did tonight so I'm officially recording here on the blog that it's my shout next time.

Kimchi, Mince and Rice (by G)

When the work day was done and my mental energy turned to dinner I thought I'd like to try something with pork mince and rice - not fried rice but a mix of browned mince and boiled rice - the texture should be interesting. I remembered we have quite a bit of kimchi that needs eating so I wondered what pork mince, rice and kimchi would be like... sadly I still don't know - my mind was on something else at the supermarket and somehow I ended up with lamb mince instead of pork...  I didn't realize this mis-step until I was too far through cooking to change the dish.

Anyway, I browned off the lamb mince, added some jalapeno chillies from a jar, kimchi from a tub, tabouleh (and whatever else Biggs had mixed into it yoghurt, olives, tomatoes) from a tub (for an added layer of grainy texture), sriracha (for extra heat), boiled rice and a dash of soy sauce for seasoning.  Sounds disgusting... actually wasn't - though I think pork mince would have been better.

Falafel Kebab (by Biggs)

Everyone needs a party trick and mine is making kebabs. My first job when I moved out of home was working in the local kebab shop and it's probably the most useful skill I've learnt in my 32 years on this earth.

Due to mid-week laziness I didn't make the falafels or the tabouli but don't doubt me for a second....I can make the shit out of them if required. These were "large falafel with cheese, tabouli, tomato, extra mushrooms, olives, jalapenos, yoghurt garlic and chilli sauce, please". Or, if you're G "TWO large falafels with cheese, tablouli, tomato, extra mushrooms, olives, jalapenos, yoghurt garlic and chilli sauce, please".

Just like a magician I'm unfortunately unable to disclose how the kebab trick works but just rest assured - they were awesome.

My one minor tidbit is, that if you're going to make kebabs you must, must, must use Byblos Bakery Original Lebanese Bread. It's "Ideal for Kebabs!" and they "cater for businesses, fetes, functions and festivals" so you can't go wrong.

Risotto Rainbow (by G)

I couldn't get to sleep last night so I was thinking about what to make for dinner tonight - and then it came to me (possibly in a sleep deprived hallucination) - a rainbow of risottos.

For this eye-catching trio I cooked one risotto (shallot onions and garlic fried off in oil and butter - rice mixed through to coat with the oily stuff, a dash of wine then stock, stir, stock, stir, stock, stir...).  I thought I'd killed it when I underestimated how much stock I had left and dumped it all in, but it turned out okay.

Once the risotto was cooked I split it three ways and mixed through the colourings. The orange one is a mix of carrot and cumin, the green is pea and mint and the purple is beetroot and goat cheese.

I'm not sure if they turned out as I'd expected (I'm not sure I knew what to expect) but the rice was cooked and the flavour was good so I'm pretty happy.

BBQ Chicken Tortillas (by G)

I bought a barbecue chicken on my way home from work thinking I would give myself an easier time making tortillas this Tuesday... I was wrong... it didn't save much time, but it was an interesting new tortialla variety.

For the chicken I just cut the breast and thighs into cubes, quick marinaded them in the reddish looking stuff with the Korean writing on the container that we have in our fridge and soy sauce then re-warmed it in the oven.

The salsa comprises finely chopped coriander, red onion and red capsicum flavoured with salt, rice wine vinegar and lime juice.

I also did a mild hot sauce of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, sriracha and some other chilli sauce that Biggs (I think) bought from the good folk at the Bun Mobile.

The tortillas were not quite right (at least I know what I did wrong - too much baking powder) and the barbecue flavour of the chicken was a bit lost... I'd have a variation of these tortillas again though. 7.775 out of 10.

Pork Schnitzel (by G)

We were watching some cooking show on the weekend and Biggs (seeing them prepare chicken schnitzel) commented, 'I hope we're having that tonight'.

We were not (see below), but I did get a sudden hankering for schnitzel - not chicken though, too fiddly to pound out, so I went with pork.

Not too much effort went into this one (well the crumbing turned out to be a bit traumatic - in theory though the whole thing is simple).

Pounded the pork then floured, dipped in egg wash and coated in panko. The schnitzels absorbed much more butter than I expected them to do when frying off so I just kept feeding them the good stuff until they were happy.  Then I made the mistake of putting them on a tray and popping them in the oven to keep them warm - they did stay warm but the crumbing got soggy so I had to refry them prior to serving.

The sides were not complicated, oven fries with boiled peas and carrots, packet gravy and... because  we had peperoni... a couple of pieces of peperoni (non-traditional).

Despite not getting the schnitzels quite to my exacting standards it did taste pretty damn good - those people from German speaking countries know what they are doing.

Calzone (by G)

I had meant to make my favorite childhood meal (Jane's Pizza Roll) but I could not find the book with the recipe and somehow went astray. Instead of processed salami I used pepperoni, I forgot to use spring onions and added rocket because I had it... the bread casing also turned out not as expected.  With all this the result was unequivocally not Jane's Pizza Roll.  The mix of pepperoni, rocket, mozzarella  green and black olives and tomato paste was pretty tasty though.

Pork San Choy Bow (By Biggs)

This is what I meant to have for dinner last night. Today went a lot more smoothly so I had time to head down to the butcher and grocer. $8 later and I had the fixings for at least two nights worth of San Choy Bow. Stick that food cost in your pipe and smoke it, Curtis Stone!

After a vet visit today I also tried my hand at raw canine antibiotic meatballs (made for dogs not from dogs) and my friend Patrick the Dog thought they were excellent. However, my dinner was even better!

Non-traditional in that I fried off the rest of this week's eggplant with the pork mince - it had to be used up and I thought it would add a nice smoky flavour which it did. Then I added onion, garlic, shitake mushrooms, shallots, capsicum, bamboo shoots and chilli along with soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. The hardest part was working out how to spell San Choy Bow....and, I still don't know.

Chilli Fries (by G)

As Biggs was returning the next day I thought I should live a little and make chilli fries. We had this some time ago and I think it nearly killed Biggs - it was, to put it mildly, quite hot.

This one is a mix of fried onion, garlic, beef mince, green chillies, dried red chilli flakes, paprika, pepper, whole thai chillies, kidney beans and tinned tomatoes... in short, I don't know how to make proper chilli.  This one turned out a bit more like a pasta sauce than a chilli (with all the tomatoes).

It was hot though - and filling. There is a layer of grated cheddar cheese between the fries and the chilli. I also made the inspired decision to put a couple of warmed factory tortillas down first to catch any stray mince - with the added bonus of saving on washing up.

Apologies for getting this one in late, but I'm sure anyone tuning in earlier would have enjoyed the place holding picture of 'Naked Bourdain and His Massive Bone'.

*** Actually, now that I think on it - it was chilli dogs that nearly killed Biggs. There is some left over chilli and it has been a while since we had chilli dogs...

Lamb Pizza (by G)

Still in the spirit of using leftover meats tonight I had to use lamb mince - and I wanted to make something that actually looked good damn it! The night before I'd seen a show where a couple of wacky funsters are travelling through 6 countries and showcasing a spice in each one - the show I saw was cumin in Turkey - they made lamb pizzas so I decided to rip that off as cumin is my favourite spice.

I fried the mince off with garlic, green chilli and a small white onion (finely chopped) added ground coriander root, paprika and a lot of cumin.  When the mince was brown I spread it on a commercial tortilla with tomato paste then baked in the oven for, oh I'd say... a little too long. The tortilla got a bit dark and super crispy.

Once cooked the pizzas were topped off with thinly sliced red capsicum, rocket and sliced olives.  The pizzas were really good - could have had a bit more cumin though.  I drizzled a little sriracha on the second pizza and that was even better.

Pasta with Feta and Capers (by Biggs)

I had a specific plan for dinner tonight but a random series of events prevailed resulting in me being home later than expected, very very tired and feeling very very lazy. So, a new plan came together fairly quickly after checking out the contents of the fridge/pantry.

Dinner is a simple bow-tie pasta with a tomato-based sauce flavoured with capers, roasted capsicum (from a jar), feta, oregano and pepper. I also couldn't resist the lurid green habanero chilli sauce I found in the fridge. A wacky decision I know but a few drops really provided a nice warming finish to every bite. It would have been better if I'd gone downstairs and picked some basil from the herb garden but, like I mentioned....very very lazy. Instead I chopped up some shallots. They didn't go very well with the dish but....they need to be used.

I was worried the sauce would be way too salty but once the pasta was added, along with a slosh of starchy pasta water, and a glass of red wine was poured, all was well.

Changjorim (by G)

Sticking with my current trend of using up the leftover meat from the 6-in-1 barbecue I decided tonights dinner would utilise the left over beef cubes - and I thought Korea would know what best to do with it.

Changjorim is basically beef stewed in soy sauce - 1 part soy, 4 parts water, 2 green chilies, 2 whole cloves garlic and a dash of sugar simmered for 2 hours (I also added a teaspoon of the reddish stuff in the tub with the Korean writing on it that we keep in our frige).  For the last 5 minutes a boiled egg was added to the pot.

I a brilliant stoke of forethought I bougt some kim chi from the asian grocer on my way home from work - unfortunatley, despite looking brilliant, it was quite bland.

I don't know how to make rice cakes but I boiled off some rice, formed it with a cookie cutter, sprayed it with olive oil and oven roasted it until crispy and it turned out pretty well.

The Changjorim was really tasty, the chilli didn't add much heat - more a capsicumy aroma. As you'd expect it was salty as shit but it is meant as a side dish... and I can handle a lot of salt.

Fish en Papillote (by Biggs)

Urghhh...a few things didn't go quite right with dinner tonight. I've seen a bunch of people on cooking shows make fish en papillote and I really like the idea. Throw some tasty things in baking paper, a touch of liquid, a fillet of fish, wrap it up, 7 minutes in the oven and dinner is served.

It started out okay. I chopped up some shallots and lemon, poured in a dash of white wine, placed the fish on top with some more lemon slices and capers. It smelt incredible in the oven but after 7 minutes was still completely raw. So, about 23 more minutes and it was a lot closer. After that the fish seemed poached and slimy and tasted like river water. I didn't eat all of it but the puppy I'm looking after this week sure seemed to appreciate the leftovers. The salad however was super tasty - peas with some left overs from last night....olives, tomatoes, eggplant, dukkah. It was well and truly the highlight.

In saying that, the absolute best part of dinner prep was a visit to the brand new Asian grocer that has opened in China Town. They asked me to spread the word so....get yourself down to Valley Big Fresh Market and Tommy's Seafood Market on Little Street in Fortitude Valley.

Spagetti and Meat Lumps (by G)

Today I got the great idea to have spagetti and meat balls for dinner - mainly because I had most of a tin of tomatos left over from Tortilla Tuesday and mince in the freezer.

The tomato sauce was good - a mix of red onion, tomato, spices blitzed together and cooked off. Sadly the meatballs did not keep their shape when I fried them off - they really had too many corners to be called balls, they did taste nice though - spiced with paprika, cumin, oregano... some other things I can't remember... then simmered in the sauce and topped with cheese.  The only negative is that the beef mince was very lean and dried out a bit - such is the price of the current fear of fat (for some of the population at least - the remainder appear to eat junk food exclusively and likely do not influence supermaket buthering policy).

"Arabic" Breakfast (by Biggs)

So, I've been wanting to make this dinner for vegetarian night for quite some time but felt it wouldn't be a substantial enough meal for G so I took the opportunity whilst house-sitting to invite Fi over for dinner and try it out.

If you happen to live anywhere from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia I must apologise in advance. I suspect there is no way that this is even vaguely a representation of what you have for breakfast but it was tasty nonetheless.

It consists of ricotta and mint wrapped in grilled eggplant drizzled in honey served with olives, cucumber, tomatoes, boiled eggs and dukkah, all sprinkled with crumbled feta.

Whether authentic or not, this combination of flavours was great.

Quesadillas Rancheros (by G)

I was looking around for something new to do with tortillas and came across 'Quesadillas Rancheros'. Basically they are normal quesadillas with an egg on top - genius.

I thought maybe that would not be too substantial so I got a can of refried beans and fried it off with blended red onion, coriander, tomato and lim juice then spread this mix onto the tortillas before topping with a helping of cheese and another tortilla then fried them off. Some of the red onion and coriander mix was held aside for extra sauce.

This was a nice, savoury Mexican style dinner and only 3 1/2 calories per serving.

Chicken Salad Wraps (By G)

Being a public holiday and having a lot of meats left over from the 6-in-1 barbecue, I spent much of the day eating (a lot of pork chipolatas).  For dinner I thought it would be good to have something pretty simple.

The chicken salad is  a mix of boiled potatos, grilled chicken, lettuce, grain mustard and mayonaise.  The first one didn't turn out too flavourful so I topped the second one with sriracha - which really hit the spot.

Squash and Broccoli Lasagna (by Biggs)

I'm doing a stint of house-sitting this week and was encouraged to eat anything in the fridge or pantry...particularly anything that may spoil.

What I found in the fridge was some squash, broccoli, shallots, milk, cheese and a glass or two of wine. After a quick hunt in the pantry I also found tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic and lasagna sheets.

You may have already reached this conclusion yourselves but for dinner I had vegetarian lasagna with a glass or two of wine. I'm usually not too good at 'shoot from the hip' cooking but this turned out beautifully (despite the photo). 

6 in 1 Barbecue (By G)

For reasons I won't go into here, I was required to barbecue six things.

I decided on a nice piece of steak, chicken tenders with satay sauce, pork skewers with a red onion and coriander relish, a hamburger, lamb koftas and pork chipolatas with mashed potato.

I was not much looking forward doing so many barbecued items because I know from painful experience that it's a bit tricky to cook different kinds of meats at the same time, make sides and serve everything warm.  Today everything was cooked pretty well, the chicken was pretty overdone but - most importantly - not raw. The kofta and hamburger needed more flavour, the satay sauce needed less flavour (it reduced down too much and got very salty - I didn't realise it was still on the heat).

All in all though I'm pretty pleased with how long weekend barbecue turned out.

All-you-can-eat Sushi (by Biggs)

Earlier in the week G and I decided we were going to go out for Sushi and tonight was the night. We headed to Kimono on Melbourne Street because:

1. We know it's good

2. The Korean chef there loves me so makes us up special plates, and

3. They offer all-you-can-eat sushi

Turns out all-we-can-eat is 10 plates of sushi and a bowl of miso each, followed by a tray of sashimi for dessert. 

I say "it was great". G says "it was unctuous".

G wants his last bite of food before he dies to be salmon belly so he's good to cark it in his sleep tonight with no worries and, given the amount of sushi he just ate, it's actually fairly likely he will. 

Pork and Fennel Sausages (by Biggs)

I'm working in Chinatown at the moment so a stroll across the Story Bridge and I found myself dining at the Jazz Club again this evening. I was technically there to welcome home my friends Fi and Dan from their holiday in Japan but in reality just saw it as a great opportunity for some friends, food, tunes and booze. All of which was delivered.

For food I had Pork and Fennel Sausages. They were served with sweet potato puree, baby peas, candied red onions and red wine jus. The sausages were super fuckin' tasty. Meaty and satisfying with just a subtle but flavourful taste of fennel. I never get too excited by sweet potato but it was pretty good and peas are my favourite vegetable.

Generic Beef Curry (By G)

I've titled this 'Generic Beef Curry' so that I have scope to do other beef curries in the future - and it is pretty generic.

This was made by browning off the beef and sweating off some onions. To that I added a large teaspoon of my do-not-touch-fuck-off-hot-homemade-chili-paste, fried it off then popped in some chunks of potato and carrot and covered with chicken stock (our beef stock is frozen into a solid block and unusable without a bit of forethought).  The curry was simmered for an hour and a half with coriander stirred through at the end then served with boiled rice dusted with paprika.

The do-not-touch-fuck-off-hot-homemade-chili-paste is called that for a reason - it is not to used under any circumstances.  It was made from a combination of fried chili, garlic and onions mixed with tamarind paste and chili powder.  As a consequence, tonight's dinner - while quite tasty - was unconscionably hot. From experience I know that what is pleasant and scorching on the way in is going to be unpleasant and scorching on the way out.

Thai Patcharin (by Biggs)

Tonight I went to the Multicultural Development Association's Lantern Parade Walk for Refugees. It was most excellent. On the way home I picked up a Pad Ki Mao from Thai Patcharin. It was also most excellent.

Usually hardly anyone is in this restaurant but given the Greek Tavern next door is closed for renovations it was pumping making me feel more confident to order some take-away. I was really in the mood for Thai tonight so even though I meant to order a rice noodle dish, but mistakenly ordered a egg noodle dish, I was most satisfied. I perfectly paired dinner with a tallie of Coopers.

Interesting that both G and I went with a take away option this evening but a Domino's down-spiral was bound to happen at some stage. I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner.

It's a long weekend this weekend so stay tuned for a further descent.

Pizza Delivery (By G)

I'm tired tonight and Biggs is not home for dinner so I decided to have the local pizzeria deliver me a couple of Italian pies and some chicken wings.

As you can see below, the result was spectacular - a vibrant Supreme pizza with mushroom, capsicum, various kinds of what may be meat, something orange in colour that I can not identify and (how exotic) pineapple.  Paired with the Supreme is a Pork BBQ Meatlovers pizza. I requested the chef substitute BBQ sauce for regular tomato sauce and s/he did just that.  Lovingly topped with dry brown lumps of what is presumably pork but could well be dog, circles of unnaturally red protein, vaguely bacony looking stips of grey and cheese product.

The chicken wings were excellent - certainly the brownest I've ever tasted.

Domino's slogan is 'The Pizza Delivery Experts' and (disregarding the fact that the delivery guy got lost and I had to leave the house to find him - and assuming what was delivered was pizza) they certainly did deliver.

Spatchcock (by G)

Someone at work told me there was a special on spatchcock at the supermarket so I picked up a couple on my way home.  

I buttered and oiled the birds and sprinkled over some salt and white pepper and oven roasted them for about twice the time required - I don't really like roasting chickens - after an hour the birds still looked a ghostly white but when I skewered the leg a jet of clear liquid came out so they appeared done. I stuck them under the grill to give them some colour.  

For sides I boiled and roasted some large potatoes then scooped them out and mashed the flesh with butter, milk, salt, pepper, spring onions and a couple of cloves of black garlic - the last ingredient giving the mash a caramelly appearance.  The mash went back into the potato, was topped with cheese then the whole lot went back into the oven.

The other side red onion and garlic fried in butter with red and white cabbage then braised in chicken stock and cider vinegar with brined green pepper corns added at the end.

The spatchcock came out nice and moist but I should have done more to add some flavor... the potatoes on the other hand, were (in my opinion) excellent.

Korean Style Beef Tortillas (by G)

This tortilla recipe was inspired by Roy Choi - I was following his recipes but did not really have all the ingredients (or time).  The meat is supposed to be short ribs but they were not available - I thought I'd bought thin cuts of Pork - at least I had meant to... but my eyes apparently wandered into the beef section and got thin cuts of beef instead - probably not a bad thing, I've been hitting the piggies a bit hard lately.

I quick marinated the steak in soy sauce, sugar, honey, sesame oil, garlic, toasted sesame seeds and some yuzu (as substitution for Korean pear). This was fried off and cut into little cubes.  The coriander/onion relish is a mix of those two things along with rice wine vinegar, lime juice and salt - I only just realized it was supposed to be a relish - I thought it was supposed to be a salad, that explains quantity.

The slaw is a mix of lettuce and cabbage with a dressing of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger and sirarcha.  Finally, the BBQ sauce was an amazing mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, more rice wine vinegar, more sriracha, sugar and (in substitute for gochunjang) I used some of the chunky, reddish looking stuff that comes from the tub with Korean writing on it that we have in the fridge that I sometimes use when I want savory to happen.

The tortillas were a bit dry.

This was well worth the time and effort to make - great zingy flavours. It really makes me want to try the real thing.

Cheese, Risotto and Salad (by Biggs)

My incredibly generous friend Nancy took me to a cheese class at Black Pearl Epicure tonight. The very charming Will Studd had a chat to us about various things including raw milk cheese being smuggled across the Brazilian border, the best way to keep cows happy, what types of grass make milk tasty, why cheese eating is limited in the land of Oz and a fair bit about lactation timeframes of various milk-bearing animals. He then fed us so much cheese I started sweating curds and whey.

My favourite cheese was the Woodside Goat Curd which was tangy and custurd-like in texture, Nancy's favourite was the Wisconsin brewed Upland Pleasant Ridge and we both loved the super smooth and delicious Carles Roquefort  but there were plenty more to choose from including wine-drenched oven baked Le Conquerant Camembert.

After eating our weight in cheese we were served a Risotto of Cauliflower and Cave Ripened Taleggio and a Salad of Fattouche, Haloumi, Pomegranate and Sumac Dressing. They were both brilliant with the best part being the risotto topping of toasted anchovies and breadcrumbs. Nancy and I have unsuccessfully dabbled in cheese-making a few times but we learnt the secret tonight....."buy the cheese, eat the cheese"....I finally have a life mantra.

Porky Rice (by G)

As unpleasant as this looks this was pretty awesome. There were 3 types of pork in the freezer so I thought I would throw them all into one dish and, as Biggs is out for the evening, I can bust out the rice.

I fried off some bacon and pork mince, added some spring onions and yellow capsicum. Once the mince was brown I threw in some rice that I'd cooked previously and dried out a little in the oven then cooked the shit out of it at maximum heat adding just a splash of light soy sauce and sesame oil at the end.  The rice was topped with left over carnita meat and zucchini.

In hindsight it was a mistake to top the rice with anything - the rice alone was most excellent, crispy and chewy and savoury good. I've tried fried rice many times in the past and only done it correctly once before so I'm super pleased with the result tonight.

Breasts (by G)

As Biggs is coming out of early retirement tomorrow I thought it might be nice to make her something special for her last meal.  I was looking for Quail marylands at the supermarket but they only had breasts so I went with that.

I marinated the breasts oil, garlic, fresh chilli, spring onion and coriander. I'm not a big fan of super rare quail but didn't want to over cook them so I put them in a super hot pan skin side down for a couple of minutes then kept them moving after that until they appeared not raw. I was pretty happy with the result.

The salad is just a packet salad mix with cucumber, red and orange capsicum, coriander added and a dressing of lemon infused olive oil, cider vinegar and lime juice.  Unseen is a dipping sauce of sour cream and sriracha.

Biggs was unsure what the protein nuggets were, 'Are they innards?'.  The second guess was heart of some kind.  On tasting she settled on chicken... so if you're ever feeding Biggs I'd recommend cooking chicken and calling it quail.

Pork Chop with Vegetables (by G)

I don't have much to say about this one except that from now on I'm buying my pork chops from a butcher because those hog knobblers at the supermarket keep trimming the crackle off the meat - it enrages me so much that I can almost feel the aneurysm forming in my brain.

The potatoes I sprinkled with onion powder and oven baked. The vegetables are a mix of red and yellow capsicum, zucchini and spring onions fried off in lemon infused olive oil and finished with red wine vinegar.