Baked Bean Pies (by Biggs)

I've been watching some super shitty cooking shows of late and one of them presented me with the excellent concept of baked bean pies. G and I are a bit cash poor at the moment and I thought this dinner would suit my current budget. I baconised the pies and added a bit of parsley. This was an exercise in using up some things in the fridge hence them being puff pastry pies served with a tomato and avocado salad.

All round pretty good. Unfortunately I blew the budget on buying a muffin tray to make these babies but, now we own a muffin tray.

Drunken Pasta (by G)

BLAT Tortillas (by Biggs)

I had the day off work today so knew I wanted dinner to be pretty chilled to suit my relaxing day. I bought these white corn tortillas from the Essential Store at the markets where the truffle festival was last week. Probably not as good as the others we've recently tried but still pretty great.

I decided on bacon tortillas because....well, bacon...and the obvious combination was a BLT. Avocado is an common choice for tortillas so I extended it to a BLAT.

Given bacon was about the only ingredient being used tonight I decided to use The Good Stuff. I went to a swanky butchery and the guy was super nice.....he had half a pig in the window and took it down to slice me some chunky belly bits.

It was very obvious to all the consumers that the bacon was The Good Stuff. We should invest in more of it I think.

Truffle Risotto and Truffled Cheese (by G)

I got a truffle at the markets and was pretty excited to use it, but Biggs had to go away for a week and I thought it would be a dick move to use it in her absence. From internet research I discovered the truffle should last for up to a week if I stored it in some rice in the fridge, the bonus being that the aroma would also permeate the rice. In reality the truffle dehydrated and shrunk to about a third of its original size. I had to shave and chop it into little bits just to scarcely cover a couple of modest serves of risotto (the same risotto I had practiced earlier). There was a little nubbin left which I grated and sandwiched into some brie cheese.

The flavour of the risotto was probably a bit overpowering in any case. One day I will get me another truffle and serve it right.

Pizza (by Biggs)

Returning from Bendigo I realised I'd be home in time for dinner (on my cooking night) but not in time to actually cook dinner. Instead I just ordered some pizzas en route to be delivered at the appropriate hour. We're quite fortune to have a pretty good pizzeria up the road and I went with two of our favourites - a quite spicy salami with chili and a stock standard something with nice ham, olives and anchovies.

I can't remember if we've had the garlic bread from here before but it was quite excellent.

The Dispensary (by Biggs)

The plan in Bendigo was to do some solid eating and so, we did. We went to a nifty little cocktail restaurant and did all the eating. They had one of those 'feed me' menus that I quickly becoming quite a fan of.

Generous amounts of olives, little duck wing nibbly bits that were delicious, a crispy chicken pork bun, a chicken roulade in broth, some lettuce salad and the absolutely best thing on the menu - a fuck off fucking excellent seared beef with hot sauce. Delicious.

Dessert was a chocolate tart with ice-cream which revealed Red's unknown love of ice-cream. Unknown to me at least. I've filed that information away in case she has to be happified one day.  Ice cream. If I need to be happified one day please note that you can feed me some more of that excellent seared beef.

It was a cocktail restaurant so we had some cocktails. Many in the end I think!

Practice Risotto (by G)

I bought a truffle at the weekend and decided that on Biggs' return I would serve it on top of some risotto. It has been a while since I cooked a risotto so I thought it best to have a bit of a practice go so as not to fuck it up at the critical moment.

The recipe was pretty standard except that I cooked the onions low and slow until they had pretty much fallen apart, then just some wine, the rice, stock, a butt load of butter and some parmesan - and topped off with a couple of types of mushroom. Interesting note - I didn't have any prepared stock so I used a Vietnamese soup stock cube. The flavour and texture of the risotto were most excellent, far better than the stuff you get in a can.

Fried Eats and a Corn Salad (by Biggs)

Aaaaahhhh - working week in Bendigo is DONE! I'm not leaving though. Red came down to spend the weekend with me, we've hired a cottage and plan to have some fun.

We were keen for a pub eats and live music and found the perfect location 500 metres down the road from our house.

We ordered everything. A hot dog, some chilli cheese fries, some popcorn chicken and a mac and cheese. Some of our favourite things! I also ordered a corn salad to freshen things up a bit. I'm becoming quite a fan of corn but I mainly ordered this because it featured puffed wild rice. That stuff is great!

The music was great too - a perfect accompaniment to a brilliant feast.

Roast Chicken & Noodle Rolls (by G)

I guess I'm going through a 'every meal should be served on bread rolls phase'. Combined with my 'I can't really afford to eat anything but noodles' situation Roast Chicken and Noodle Rolls were an obvious dinner option.

Bits of roast chicken mixed through instant noodles with some cabbage and garlic shoots for green. It is what it is.

Chicken (by Biggs)

There is a Thursday tradition forming of a few of us going to a pub on a Thursday night for a few beers and some pizza. I'm away for work so couldn't attend but decided I would have my very own solo Thursday Club in Bendigo - I had a pub picked out and everything.

Then, the rains came. It was torrential and I couldn't face making my way into town for a beer so instead went to the closest eating establishment to my hotel - Red Rooster.

Look - I don't mind Red Rooster, I have a particular fondness for their late 80s/early 90s Summertime jingle but, eating it alone on my hotel room bed was a touch depressing. Not the Thursday club I had hoped for.

Bahn Mi (by G)

There is a new theory I'm working on that if I have something to eat before I drink copious amounts of alcohol I may improve my standing and walking abilities later in the evening.

As I was planning to drink copious amounts of alcohol this evening I stopped in at a bahn mi place very near my work and ordered up a roast pork roll. I've only tried one Bahn Mi since I've been in Melboune - it was pretty terrible so I went off them for a bit. The good news is that this one was very good. So good infact that to celebrate an evening of not falling over I had another one the next day - the classic meat version, that is even better than the roast pork.

Indian (by Biggs)

On my first night in Bendigo I clocked an Indian Place nearby my hotel. Tonight was super chilly so I thought I'd warm myself up with some Chicken Tikka Masala. It was shit! The curry had big chunks of uncooked vegetables through it, the sauce just tasted like raw curry powder and the meat was unidentifiable. No matter, surely the naan could rescue the meal? Wrong! It was sweet and doughy and weird. Sigh!

Memorable Pasta (by G)

Phew! I don't really remember eating this. Looks like some pasta mixed through reheated left-over Osso Bucco with some professionally shaved cheese on top... I'm sure it was delicious and I know for sure the wacky bowtie shape of pasta was a lot of fun to eat.

Mexican Kitchen (by Biggs)

It's Tuesday night so I thought I should adhere to the name of this blog and seek out a tortilla on the streets of Bendigo. I clocked a place called 'Mexican Kitchen' which like it would suit.

Throughout my work travels spent buying take-away I've discovered most places are called 'Something' Kitchen. In recent times I've had Indian Kitchen, Vietnamese Kitchen and now Mexican Kitchen. I've noticed there's a Turkish Kitchen up the road so imagine I'll dine there tomorrow just to stick to the theme.

My hopes weren't high for dinner so I went for a combo of a taco, taquito and enchilada hoping one of them would be good. Turns out they were ALL good. I was well impressed with the meat they were stuffed with - slow cooked flavourful goodness - and very generous with the cheese which earns points with me. The rice and frijoles were a bit average but, on balance, quite a good dinner.

Chicken Tortillas and Chorizo Tortillas (by G)

I think chicken tenders are pretty much the perfect size to serve on a tortilla a nice little nugget of protein that does not involve chopping. For these tortillas I simply dusted the tenders with spices and fried them off, then served them on some rather stale tortillas with a whack of store bought coleslaw and some chilli sauce. Pretty good... but chicken tenders are not the only thing that are the right size and shape for tortillas - halved chorizo also falls into that category. As I also had a chorizo in the fridge and some space in my belly I decided to give that a go as well. Also good, and spicy enough not to require chilli sauce.

Cheap Chinese (by Biggs)

On my first night in Bendigo I clocked a super shady looking Chinese restaurant complete with peeling paint, rickety stairs and crapped out fairy lights. Just my sort of place.

I ordered, er, this dish from them. It was exactly as expected. Exactly what I wanted. But, ultimately pretty awful.

I also got a GIANT bag of prawn crackers for $1 that kept me going for the night.

Party Pies and Gems (by G)

Sometimes it's Monday and it's rainy and cold and you regret ever getting out of bed and you realise working for a living is a massive pain in your ass... Party pies and potato gems, I am sure, were designed for just such an occasion.

At least if the party pies and potato gems don't cheer you up they will hasten your journey toward the endless, trouble free, long weekend that is death.

Some Chicken (by Biggs)

I traveled to Bendigo this afternoon in preparation for a big week of working away from home. I wasn't feeling super enthusiastic about work travel and was a bit mopey so I eased into a liquid blanket of comfort on the way. Train whisky makes life better right?

What train whisky does do is puts you in the mood for shitty take-away chicken. One of the most popular take-away chicken shops is conveniently the closest eating place to my hotel so it was an inevitable conclusion as a dinner choice. It was shit but exactly what I needed. I refuse to claim this as a work expense as it would be too humiliating to submit the receipt.

Ribs 'n' Veg (by G)

Curry Chicken Pie (by Biggs)

We've definitely hit pie season in Melbourne though I half-arsed this one a little in that I just bought puff pastry instead of making pastry. I tried to think of the most warming pie and came up with curry chicken. I didn't make the curry paste either, just mixed curry powder with oil and fried it off with some flour before adding chicken stock to make the gravy. Fried off chicken pieces were added along with some peas, corn and capsicum.

Note for the future: Puff pastry defrosts in half a minute in Queensland, puff pastry defrosts in half an hour in Melbourne. Dinner was served quite late.

Japanese Treats (by Biggs)

Nick and I were in Geelong this evening for work and our colleagues there suggested we try a new local Japanese place for dinner. We are both easily influenced when it comes to people suggesting we try eating places and I'm particularly easily influenced when that eating place is a Japanese eating place.

It was a nifty izakya den that served all the good shit and so we ordered all the good shit. It was good enough to miss 2 or 3 trains back into the city. The photos are just representative of what was ordered. I was enjoying the night too much to keep up with the photography.

From memory (and some photographic evidence) there was edamame, miso soup, a corn thing, some skewered grilled meats, some no-skewered seared meats, sushi (which wasn't out favourite, seemed a bit tinned tuna-y). Hmmm.....and some other things. There must have been at least four other things because we ordered the 10 Things Set Menu.

There was also some rice beer and some wheat beer and some train beer. Excellent!

Fried Rice (by G)

Corn Corn Tortillas (by Biggs)

A friend told me about some awesome tortillas that are sold at his local grocery store so over the long weekend I hauled arse over to his suburb to pick some up. I was keen for G and I to try something new in the tortilla range and relying on artisans means I didn't have to make them from scratch.

Turns out I'm an idiot. We tried these last week and G picked them up made fresh from the next suburb over from us. Oh well, they really are great so no matter.

I was feeling lazy so just fried up some chorizo, tomatoes, corn and capsicum to fill the tortillas with. A touch of lime, coriander and hot sauce and we were set. Tasty.

Pate, Cheese and a Curried Chicken Roll (by Biggs)

There's a bar in town I've been meaning to go to for a while. It's about to shut down so I dragged Red along tonight. We had a bunch of international beers and also some cheese and a curried chicken roll.

I'll admit this isn't a great photo of the roll but it was fucking spectacular. I love a curried anything so curried chicken on a roll is always going to be a win.

It's hard for Red and I to go past a cheese platter so we had one for dessert including an excellent trout pate.

Tandoori Drummies (by G)

Catered Nibbles (by Biggs)

Attended a friend's development workshop this evening and she always caters well for such events. Rice paper wraps, falafels, okonomiyaki, but the best were the corn pancakes stuffed with creamy deliciousness. Yum! And, who doesn't love free food?

Sausage and Kim Chi Noodles (by G)

Kim Chi Dogs (by G)

Prawn Bisque and Potted Smoked Trout (by Biggs)

I wanted to have a crack at making something really nice for dinner and I did give it a red hot go tonight. Don't know that I entirely succeeded but happy that I tried. I've had 'prawn bisque and potted mackerel' on my 'dinner to make' list for quite some time so went with that....it sounds fancy right?

The first challenge was buying smoked mackerel. I headed to the Queen Victoria Markets and made an inquiry to which the guy responded - "We've got this fresh smoked trout, buy this, yes, you're going to buy this, I'll bag it up for you". I agreed with seemingly no other option and handed over my life savings.

Next challenge was buying prawn shells. I thought one of the seafood vendors might sell them....surely they peel prawns to sell and I can't be the first person that's asked for them. Alas, no deal, so I had to spend my future life savings on a bucket load of prawns.

I forgot to buy horseradish so the potted mackerel, now potted trout, was a mix of the trout, creme fraiche, mayonnaise and lemon juice. I couldn't find chives but did find awesome looking garlic shoots. They were incredible and really made an impact. I served it with some green salad leaves and bread. It was a hit with the household.

I think I did alright with my bisque, the flavour was there but I did unfortunately break the cream I was simmering through at the end. Disappointingly I didn't really want to eat it when it came  time because of all the dicking around and handling of the prawns. The prawns got pretty gross when I was peeling them and it's the coldest my hands have ever been so I just started to chop them up to include almost whole in the bisque and shoved the rest in the freezer to forget about.

 The bisque was just a matter of frying off onions in butter with the prawn shells and flour then adding tomatoes, both whole and paste, some stock and then simmering it for a while. It was pretty rich at this point then, after straining it, I made it even richer with the addition of some cream and brandy.

I'm glad I tried. But....pizza would have been good.

Wings (by G)

Pancit Bihon (by Biggs)

I recently saw someone on a crappy cooking show making a Filipino stir fry and it excited me a bit, something different I thought, but it wasn't super flavourful in the end. I should probably try getting inspiration from good cooking shows instead.

It was pretty simple with Chinese sausage, chicken thigh, some cabbage and carrots flavoured up with chicken stock and soy sauce. And, obviously, when I say flavoured up I mean not very flavoured up.

It actually was much better as leftovers the next day though.

Blue Cheese Pizza (by Biggs)

Thursday Club! So, beers and pizzas at 1000 £ Bend. There seemed to be a fair bit of anecdotal evidence that the blue cheese pizza is the best. No longer anecdotal. Evidence based FACT! The data has been effectively analysed. Fact!

Hot-star Large Fried Chicken (by G)

Dukkah-rolled Eggs with Pearl Barley and Beetroot (by Biggs)

Every week our work place emails out a 'Healthy Recipe of the Week' with submissions coming from staff members. I haven't been super engaged with it because it feels a bit corporate forced fun togetherness but eventually my love of food and cooking overcame.

This is the first recipe that really appealed to me but was also a bit different with the added bonus of being submitted by one of my team mates. It seems she pilfered the recipe from Delicious because a quick search on the internet revealed that this is actually designed as a breakfast recipe. It would be all a bit much for me first thing in the morning but for dinner it was excellent.

The recipe called for freekeh but who knows what the hell that is so I just bought some pearl barley. I also used plain pomegranate instead of pomegranate molasses because I knew that, after using a tablespoon, the rest would just sit in our fridge for the next three years. I also couldn't be arsed to make dukkah so I just bought some.

I trashed the kitchen by grating beetroot all over it and spilling pomegranate seeds everywhere but then dinner really came together. It seemed awfully healthy at first but was nice and earthy and satisfying in the end.

Quesadilla (by G)

Mainly Beer but also a Quesadilla (by Biggs)

My boss' boss was in town and promised to take us out for an early dinner. The 'early dinner' turned out to be a few pints of beer at the pub. No complaints here but it did mean there was no dinner and I didn't want to suddenly make G cook extra dinner in order to feed me. I could have just picked something up on the way home....which I guess I did in that I bought a 6-pack......but certainly nothing of sustenance or nutritional value.

G did give me a quesadilla to try and it was EXCELLENT!

Lamb Wraps (by G)

Popcorn (by Biggs)

I wasn't in the mood to go home after work today but I wasn't in the mood to hang out with people so I took myself off to the movies to see a weird but quirky, slightly depressing, dystopian film. Dinner, as a result, was a glass of wine and some popcorn. It was most satisfying. 

Beef Ribs (by G)

Vegetarian Shared Plates (by Biggs)

Dinner tonight was a very very belated celebration for Nancy's Birthday! I pretty well invited her to Melbourne just to eat at this vegetarian restaurant in Fitzroy. It's a killer! We once again went with a 'feed me' chef's selection type menu and boy did they FEED US! They gave us all of the things!

• Popcorn with Japanese spice and nori
• The best hummus I've ever eaten
• Tofu steam buns - absolute crackers!
• Super savoury and delicious oyster mushrooms with confit garlic
• Cheesey broccoli deliciousness
• Cumin braised eggplant that we were way too full to do justice

Tonight, we won at life!