Grilled Chicken Rolls (by G)

As Biggs was off vicariously reliving her glory days on the stage I decided to do something pretty simple for dinner.

I found some chicken breast in the freezer and marinated it in garlic and ginger.  Meanwhile, I blended the rest of a jar of olives, the little bit of remaining feta and some olive oil. The resulting sauce did not look very appealing so I blended in some parsley - this did nothing to improve the eye appeal, so I resigned myself to eating what looked like the intestinal tract of a giant slug.

For a side I oven baked some packet shoe-string fries with thyme, salt and sesame oil and mixed some tube wasabi through kewpie mayonnaise for dipping (I also spread some of the wasabi mayonnaise on the long white roll with the chicken).

The chicken turned out pretty well. If I'm honest, the feta/olive mix was a bit weird and pretty salty. I was pretty satisfied though.  Maybe something a bit healthier is called for on Sunday.

Re-Magic-ed Chicken (by Biggs)

I was home late tonight after joining my friends at their daughter's first ballet concert.

She was tremendous but after a long night of tears, glitter, pirouettes and stumbles I was pretty ready for a glass of wine and some comfort food when I got home.

The microwave doesn't get a lot of action in our house but tonight I cooked some leftover pasta, stirred though the leftover Magic Chicken, sprinkled it with cheese then zapped it in the machine for a minute or two.

Dinner was most excellent.

Magic Chicken (by Biggs)

I don't know the origin of this Magic Chicken recipe but it is simple and delicious and one of my favourites.

My friends Cam and Liz gave me a photocopy of the recipe along with an amazing Dutch oven for Christmas last year. The giant heavy-based pot gets a lot of love in our kitchen (except for one time when I left it in the fridge for a month with leftover soup in it).

The trick to this dinner is that if you open a bottle (or two) of red wine when you start cooking, once you've finished the wine, the chicken will be ready. Then you open another bottle to have with dinner. That's how we've always done it at dinner parties and it works out perfectly. The recipe is actually called "chicken with red-wine vinegar and tomato" but in reality it is.....Magic Chicken.

Beyond drinking a lot of wine you need to fry off some chicken thighs, garlic and shallots, pour in the red-wine vinegar and then when there's a "convincing sizzle" you add passata and chicken stock. Leave it while you drink the bottle of wine then add butter and parsley. I served it with some tiny taters and bread.

I was pretty happy with the chicken but did add waaaaay too much white pepper....I was meant to add black pepper. I'm not sure what happened there. It's Friday, I'm tired.

Lobster Gnocchi (by Biggs)

Tonight I had my Book Club Christmas Break-up Dinner Party and ate lobster.....yep.

Dinner was at a local Italian restaurant that I believe has featured on this blog before. It was excellent. A handsome waiter sold me on the special of Lobster Gnocchi (translated and paraphrased for your convenience) and I was pretty satisfied with my choice. 

Tiny little gnocchi with big chunks of soft garlic and little bits of lobster.....including shell - but that's how you know it's not from a can. 

It was excellent. I'm not actually sure I've ever had lobster before....I like it. Next time I might even eat a whole one. 

In the spirit of Christmas, here's a crappy food-related cracker joke from the evening: 

Q: Why was 6 scared of 7? 

A: Because 7 8 9. 

Chicken with Leek-y Pasta (by G)

I wasn't sure what to have for dinner so I did an online quiz (sheknows.com to be more specific). After a series of questions - how long are you prepared to spend (up to an hour), how much time are you willing to spend cleaning up (about 10 minutes), what style of dish would you like (a choice of 4 - I picked 'Italian').  When I got to the end the quiz spat out a choice of 3 Mexican dishes...

 

After that I decided to search for 'chicken pasta Italian' and came back with a recipe similar to what I made - the olives were my own addition, as were some of the dried spices.

 

I dusted a chicken Maryland with salt, white pepper, five spice, paprika and flour - fried it in butter and oil then oven roasted it.  For the accompaniment I slow-fried a leek with some garlic and salt then added butter, chicken style stock* and olives and cooked pasta.

 

For flavour and colour I drizzled some sriracha over the top.  The whole lot - odd though the combinations were - was pretty tasty, it could have done with some bacon - so much so that I could almost taste the absent bacon. 

 

 

 

* I didn't realise I'd bought chicken style stock but the list of ingredients on the back confirmed that no chickens were juiced in the making of the stock.  I tried some out on an expert to see if she would be fooled into thinking there was chicken in it... the cat would not go near the non-chicken chicken stock.



Bahn Mi Burger (by G)

I have a bahn mi addiction which I've managed to keep in check by having just one every Saturday morning.  Today I discovered a technical loop-hole whereby I can have more bahn mi if they are in a different form. Apparently other people have discovered this loop-hole because there are a variety of bahn mi burger recipes on the internet.

The patty for this one was made from pork mince, chilli, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, five spice, sugar and lime zest.  Ideally this would have gone onto a small baguette with pork pate (or head cheese), carrot and daikon pickle, mayonnaise, butter, coriander and strips of chilli.  Unfortunately I could only get long white rolls, could not be bothered making the pickle and could only find chicken liver pate - so our rolls had chicken liver pate, butter, grated carrot, coriander, kewpie mayonnaise, red onion and strips of chilli.

I was pretty content with this version but it would definitely have been improved by more pork products, the pickle and a bit more of an intense chilli flavour (shouldn't have de-seeded them).

In hindsight, I could also have included more of the burger in the photo...

Lamb, Aubergine and Tomato Stew (by G)

There has been a lot of aubergine in recent dinners - that is because I over-invested in little aubergines at the market on the weekend. I decided today was the day to get most of the rest of them out of the way so I decided to make a large quantity of aubergine rich stew.  This one was interesting because it had a topping of chick peas and feta.

I didn't forget that Biggs wouldn't be home tonight to share the burden, I knew she had plans on Tuesday - I just forgot today was Tuesday... I also didn't plan to so faithfully re-create what looks like a plate of vomit, that was just a happy coincidence.

First I pan fried some lamb fore-quarter chops, a lot of onions (we also have a lot of those to get through), a lot of aubergines (see above), cumin seeds, Moroccan seasoning (whatever that is), tomato paste, salt and pepper.

Then I put all of that in a pot with a tin of tomatoes, coriander stalks and some beef stock and put it in the oven for about an hour and a half, then added some flour and water for thickening and a crust of chick peas and feta - then back in the oven for another half an hour.  I used the coriander leaves for a base to the stew.

It turned out pretty well, much richer that I would have expected. The texture of the lamb was excellent - the feta didn't add much, it was not the crumbling kind.

Beer and Canapes (by Biggs)

Tonight I headed to the State Library for a conversation with Maggie Beer. I didn't actually speak with her but I did listen to her speak and she was delightful. She told me (in not so many words) that G has to cook us a goose for Christmas....I look forward to that. She also told me to go to Tokyo for uni....I look forward to that too.

And then she fed me. She may not have actually done the cooking but I get the idea she at least had a hand in developing the recipes. She left the actual cooking in the hands of one of the ex-Masterchef guys demonstrating a lot more faith then I ever would but it paid off.

Dinner was quince and cheese, eggs and raisins, little chicken tartlets and some super good haloumi. A bunch of this may have been shipped in from the Barossa but the good news is that the haloumi was from just up the road. There'll be more of that in my life. And, perhaps a little more of the Maggie Beer ice-cream that was served for dessert.

Toad In The Hole (by G)

I like sausages, so I'm always looking for ways to incorporate sausages into dinner. For some reason I've not thought to make 'toad in the hole before'.  I think traditionally it is made in a rectilinear pan, but I like to use my big fry-pan to oven roast things. From the choice of oven receptacle the choice of sauce was simple - one of those curled up South African tube meat dealies - boerewors (I am not going to get into a discussion on how to spell the South African spiral sausages - the ongoing chilli/chili debate nearly ended me.

I was a bit concerned the Boerewors was a bit small in diameter so I got some little pork chipolatas for around the edge. After I'd fried the sausages I added the really simple batter of flour, milk, salt and eggs and popped them in the oven. Half an hour later you end up with a splendid light sausage filled pastry.

The recipe I had suggested serving the TITH with mashed potato (check) and something green (double check)... I added something orange because we had it and packet gravy because it's easy.

Mixed Meat Shamboli (by G)

Shamboli (to the best of my knowledge) is not a real thing - I'm claiming it as a dish made in a haphazard way from left-over meats you find in your freezer.

This (to the best of my knowledge) was made from a mix of lamb mince, beef mince, cubes of stewing beef and lamb cutlets.  The cubes of beef were seasoned and fried and simmered in plain water for about an hour - in theory to get it tender.

The minces were fried, then spring onions and mushrooms were added, also egg plant, chopped up snake beans, tomato paste, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper, beef stock... I think that's it. Once the stock had thickened I served it out with a topping of fried pork cutlets.  There was a plan to have rice as well... but there was an intimidating quantity of food already so I skipped that.

Blade Roast, Egg Plant and Mushrooms (by G)

I managed to get up early and haul my carcass to the markets, so I though I should get all the requirements for a dinner meal.

The butcher van had some good looking beef blade roast so I got a small one of those - which I covered sprinkled with salt and pepper (and large quantities of rosemary and thyme that were provided by an anonymous donor).  I then fried the meat on both sides then put it in the oven for about an hour and a half. While it the meat was resting I mixed some packet gravy with the meat juices (yep, I'm lazy).

Instead of making a super-fine duxelld (as I have in the past) I made a chunkier version with diced mushrooms, spring onion and more thyme fried in butter then topped with feta.  I also got some little aubergines at the market which I just oven baked in oil with some salt, pepper and cumin.

It was all not too bad - I thought the meat was a bit gristly. I'm not sure why the photo turned out like it was taken in the 1950's...

Fried Chicken Parts (by G)

Biggs had a craving for a popular kind of fried chicken. I bought a bucket of assorted parts of this fried chicken (and some chips). It slid into my stomach without too much difficulty. This particular purveyor of fried chicken is a major sponsor of the Australian Men's Cricket Team so it can't be too bad for you (sic).

That is all I have to say about that.

BBQ Pork and Noodles (by G)

I was planning to make cheongfun for dinner - the really slippery rice noodle wrapped BBQ pork things you get at dim sum... turns out life is hard and I lost my motivation some time before I'd finished work for the day.  Instead I decided to get a packet of those irregular shaped rice noodles from the shop and add them to a kind of BBQ pork stir-fry.

Chinese BBQ pork is about the most delicious thing ever and is sold just a short walk from our house - dangerously convenient.

Along with the BBQ pork and boiled noodles I added some long Asian greens that I don't know the name of, some white onion, spring onion, carrot, minced garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce and mirin. Heat was applied, sesame oil was sprinkled on top and then it was eaten.

Easy to make, good to eat and probably okay health-wise (though I did add a pretty generous amount of pork).

Ham Steaks (by G)

I got a craving for something a bit different and struck on the idea of having ham steaks.  Looking at recipes on the internet it appeared that there are actually real ham steaks with a bone in the center and everything - Biggs and I have only ever had the perfectly round processed ones... even those were impossible to find at the supermarket so I bought a weird ham loaf and cut it into slices.

The ham steaks were simply pan fried. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of fruit in a meal - especially pineapple but I decided that when you're eating ham steaks you have to go a bit retro. Rather than top them with a slice of pineapple, however, I decided to do a bit of a pineapple chutney (canned pineapple slices, apple cider vinegar, white pepper and some chilli flakes for heat).

For sides I char fried some halved brussel sprouts, added some par-boiled carrot, spring onions, some diced ham and garlic.  I also diced and boiled some potatoes and fried the crap out of them and added some garlic powder and butter at the end... (actually, I forgot, I also added some ham to the potatoes as well - tippling down on the ham).

Even dodgy ham steaks are a wonderful thing - I wonder what kind of animal they are made from...

Bean and Rice Burritos (by G)

I thought it was time for something different and decided to make one of those rice and bean deals that you see on the big budget Hollywood movies. I boiled some rice and mashed some kidney beans then added fried onion, fried garlic, tomato paste, a little beef stock, cumin and paprika and some cheddar cheese abomination from a jar.

It was at this point that I suspected the burritos were not going to be as tasty as I'd hoped, but I was kind of committed at that point so I did nothing. I then spooned the rice mix onto the tortilla wraps - at that point I realised I should have warmed the wraps first because they were not too pliable - once again, already committed.

After I'd poorly wrapped the not very flavourful rice I sprinkled some cheese on top and popped them in the oven for a bit.  The burritos were served with a red onion, cucumber, lime and coriander salsa along with some avocado.

These were not as bad as I'd initially feared - they were not exactly what I was aiming for though.

Salt and Pepper Chicken (by Biggs)

I was feeling quite confident after the success of the Gado Gado so decided to go again with dinner almost immediately, volunteering for Monday night cooking.

I needed some inspiration so grabbed the nearest cookbook (30 Minute Meals A Commonsense Guide - no author listed) and opened it to a random recipe. That random recipe was salt and pepper chicken. It seemed tasty, easy and we had most of the ingredients.

The chicken was dusted in a mix of flour, white pepper, salt and Chinese five spice then fried. The carrots, capsicum and bok choy were coated in soy and oyster sauce then fried. Lastly, the rice came in a packet and was microwaved. I've previously mentioned on the blog how terrible I am at cooking rice. This microwave business isn't perfect but it sure as hell has eliminated a whole lot of rice-cooking related angst.

 Dinner was pretty good. I think the chicken was a bit too floury and a bit too peppery. The salt was coarse and the pepper was fine which I think caused the imbalance of flavours and we had very little oil which perhaps resulted in the flour not being fried up too well.

When I planned this I imagined a huge pile of vegetables and a small handful of chicken but it turned out the other way around....probably as a result of my poor maths skills. A happy problem.

Pork with Vegetable Pancake-y Thing (by G)

Well, this is a pretty looking dish. I had to use up some of Biggs' mung bean sprouts and had planned to fry them with a bunch of other vegetables and wrap them in crapes. I got over that idea pretty quickly though and ended up just frying down the sprouts until they had lost a lot of liquid, then fried some grated carrot with cumin and fried some grated potato with salt. After that I layered them in a pan with a flour, egg, milk crape mixture and bunged it in the oven.  

For protein I fried some pork in a marinade of chilli sauce and oyster sauce then (not very elegantly) sliced it for serving.  It probably didn't look to bad once those elements had been plated so I spread some yogurt over the top and added fried garlic and onion to give it that 'just thrown up' look.

Tasty stuff - managed to keep it down too.

  

Gado Gado (by Biggs)

I've been meaning to make Gado Gado for months and months but every week I freak out because, even though the recipe is super easy, it's..... A LOT OF STUFF.

Gado Gado is an Indonesian salad of cooked and raw ingredients, served with a peanut sauce. I had the pleasure of eating it at a local restaurant a couple of years ago (last time my friend Joss was in town?!) and have thought about cooking it ever since. Finally I got around to it.

There are a bunch of different recipes available and a bunch of conflicting advice, particularly around serving temperatures, so I went with a recipe that seemed similar to the one I remember enjoying immensely and.... I let the serving temperature decide itself.

On the plate is:
Cooked - potato, carrot, bok choy, beans, tofu and eggs
Raw - tomato,  cucumber, capsicum, lime and bean sprouts
Sprinkled on top - red onion, spring onions, red chillies, dried garlic
Sauce - peanut butter (yep), garlic, chillies, ginger, brown sugar, coconut milk, soy sauce, ketchup manis and lime

What isn't shown in the photo is prawn crackers.....deep fried, various colours (including blue???). They served a great "vehicle" to transport the salad to the mouth in a very satisfying manner.

The Gado Gado was as good as I remember.......

Pork with Corn Fritters and Spinach & Feta Parcels (by G)

I like buying corn, I like cooking corn, I like eating corn - somehow-or-other though I buy a lot of corn and then leave it in the vegetable crisper to molder and end out throwing it out.  I was determined not to do that this time.

The corn fritters were a simple mix of corn, an egg, some flour, a dash of milk and some chives. When I went to fry off the first fritter it stuck to the pan and I freaked out a little and dumped the rest of the mix in the pan, fried it for a bit, topped it with Parmesan cheese and bunged it under the grill. Luckily that did the trick and the jumbo fritter came out of the pan clean.

The other thing I had to use was some grain mustard because I accidentally dropped the jar the other day and broke the lid.  The mustard sauce was a mix of beef stock and red wine - reduced, reduced, reduced with some grain mustard and a little sugar.

Also on the menu were pork chops (to go with the sauce) and spinach and feta parcels (because I thought they would be fun).  The parcels were not much fun - butter brushed filo pastry filled with fried shallot, spinach and feta. Really not very flavourful, the yogurt and cumin dipping sauce didn't really fix that problem... otherwise, I was pretty happy with this dinner.

Lamb Cutlet Souvlaki (by G)

Given that we still had lamb cutlets left I decided we should have lamb cutlets for dinner - but something different.  I didn't bother look for a lamb cutlet souvlaki recipe because I'm pretty sure it's not a thing, instead just made a regular souvlaki dish with lamb cutlets.  Anyway, the cutlets were marinated in a garlic, dried oregano, red wine, olive oil, lemon zest and lemon juice mix - fried and then oven baked (to get the meat near the bone good and cooked).

The rest was laziness. I heated some tortillas and quartered them and made a quick salad of cabbage, cucumber, tomato and the little capsicum we had in the fridge.  There was also some yoghurt for the top.  I added some sriracha to mine for spicy flavour.

I would have liked to have marinated the meat for longer but you can't have it all.

T-Bone Steak with Onion Gravy (by G)

We had some T-bone steaks in the freezer so I thought I would try to do something a bit fancy with them. The steaks were just pan fried after seasoning - the gravy was made from thick sliced red and white onions slowly sautéed in butter with some left-over mixed herbs then white wine and stock was added and the sauce was meticulously reduced over about an hour and a half - once the steaks had been fried the sauce was added back to the pan to pick up all the pan juices and parsley was added at the last minute. 

For vegetables I oven roasted a potato and par-boiled carrot, cauliflower, broccoli and corn then added then added them to a cheesy sauce made from flour, butter, milk, cheese and cayenne pepper. Unfortunately I burned the sauce at the last minute and it did not turn out at all as planned.

When I was cooking Biggs said she knew what I was cooking - she thought it was a version of the steaks Mum used to cook when we were kids. She used to put the steaks in a container, sprinkle them with French onion soup powder, cover with glad-wrap and microwave the shit out of them.  It was not my intention but dinner turned out almost exactly like that... with a lot more effort.

Beef Nachos (by G)

Tonight I decided another take on tortillas - packet tortillas cut into shapes, sprayed with oil, sprinkled with cumin and paprika and oven baked.

To go with the 'home made' chips I made a savoury mince out of onions, garlic, beef mince, cumin, paprika, tomato paste, chilli powder, a tin of tomatoes, sriracha, and chicken stock - then simmered it for a couple of hours. Once that was done I topped it with cheese, coriander and avocado cubes.

I'm pretty tired, I can't think what else to say - it was good.

Vietnamese Style Pork Chop and Salad (by G)

I've been eating bahn mi thit from the bakery down the road quite regularly recently and tonight I craved the salad component of those tasty rolls. As we had pork chops in the house I thought that they would be a good pairing.

The pork chops were marinated in the same basic juice that went into the salad dressing (fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, lime juice and garlic) except that I also added some coriander, chilli and a little soy sauce. After a couple of hours of marinating the chops were fried and then oven baked. 

The salad was a mix of grated carrot, shredded cabbage, cucumber, red onion, coriander, mint and chilli (now that I think about it I meant to add crispy fried onion from the packet but forgot).

The best thing, the pork actually came with skin attached - I detached it, oiled and salted it and cooked it in the oven. Unfortunately it did not get as crackly as I thought it had.

Pork was good and the salad fresh and excellent. I learned that white pepper and lime juice is an excellent accompaniment to everything on Phu Quoc island off the south coast of Vietnam - dinner was good, but I wish I was enjoying it in a geographically suited location (eg Phu Quoc) - weather permitting.

Chicken Skewers (by G)

Biggs and I were watching 'Good Chef Bad Chef' yesterday and Adrian Richardson made some herby chicken skewers.  They looked pretty colourful and nice so I decided to try them out.

Chunks of chicken breast were marinated in chilli, dill, coriander, fresh oregano, garam masala, paprika, salt, pepper and lime zest (in place of the lemon zest in the recipe). Once the chicken had marinated for 8 hours I stuck it on some skewers then fried them off. To make sure the chicken was cooked through I stuck them in the oven for a bit.

Rather than spinach I went with buk choy (because we had it in the fridge), and some mushrooms for a bit more substance.  To begin I fried some green and red chilli and slices of garlic, then added the mushrooms and buk choy and it was job done.

I don't know much about nutrition but this meal seemed pretty healthful - initially I thought the skewers were a bit lacking in flavour... I'm used to a lot of soy based marinades. In retrospect, though, it was a nice change.

Crumbed Lamb Cutlets (by G)

Biggs and I were discussing the crumbed lamb cutlets Mum used sometimes to make for us when we were young. We discovered a paradox in that we used to get at least 3 chops each in a family of 5 - pretty inconceivable on a budget. The only explanation I can come up with is that cutlets were not that popular 15 or 20 years ago, because they are a prime cut now.

Anyway, Biggs had some hard-to-come-by parsley left over from yesterday so I decided to incorporate it as much as possible. The lamb cutlets were dusted in flour, dipped in egg/milk wash and crusted with panko and parsley, then fried in butter and oil, oven roasted for a while, then pan fried again to get them back to crispy. Crumbing meat worries me a bit, there is a risk that the whole crust will get soggy or slide off - I pretty much nailed it this time.

To re-utilize the parsley I made parsley sauce (a roux of butter and flour, milk, chicken stock, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and parsley). We have potatoes so I roasted some for us and par-boiled some sugar snap peas.

I was pretty happy with this meal, the lamb cutlets were delicious as was the sauce. As content as I am now with my belly full of wee sheep parts I tend to think Mum did a better job of the crumbing and frying.

Nigella's Scallops and Chorizo (by Biggs)

I too have been inspired by Nigella's lustful ways this week. I watched her cook scallops with a green Thai pea puree and decided that is what we were going to have for dinner tonight. When I was looking up the recipe I noticed she also has a scallop and chorizo recipe. Once I knew this, I couldn't forget it so, on the plate tonight.....scallops and chorizo.

I tasked G with buying scallops while I sourced the other three ingredients - chorizo, lemon and parsley. Turns out you can only buy frozen scallops in our neighbourhood so I left them on the bench and lovingly patted them down with paper towel for about half an hour. It turns out scallops really shouldn't be frozen, they squash and tear and weep massive amounts of liquid when you try to cook them.

Ramsey, Tom and Bourdain would have each ripped me a new one had they seen how these scallops were cooked but.... [insert multiple Top Chef-style excuses here]. Multiple pans, multiple cook tops, multiple lubricants and a whole lot of draining later, the scallops were cooked. I fried some chorizo then tossed it together with the scallops, some lemon and parsley. After discovering a city-wide parsley drought late this afternoon it's lucky these four ingredients actually found themselves in a pan together tonight. But, I'm glad they did. I wish I'd managed a better sear on the scallops but circumstances were against me.

Nigella claims the quantity I made serves 8 as a starter or 4 as a meal. She must be as bad at maths as I am. We are going hungry tonight

Nigella's Meatloaf (by G)

Biggs does not like meatloaf, so tonight we had meatloaf. We were watching one of Nigella Lawson's shows the other day and she made an amazing egg filled, bacon wrapped version that seemed more like an amazing techni-meaty dream than a real thing. 

Never-the-less I decided to (pretty closely) recreate it.  Rather than regular chicken eggs I went with a dozen of the little guys - quail eggs. These were added to a beef mince, slow-fried-in-butter-translucent onions, Panko bread crumbs, a hens egg (for binding), Worcestershire sauce, tabasco (my addition because tabasco and Worcestershire sauce are best friends) - then the whole lot was wrapped in bacon. If you want to catch yourself a Biggs you've got to tempt her with bacon.

To balance the meatiness I served the meatloaf with a packet salad with added cucumber, yellow capsicum and tomato.

This was a pretty good dinner, I probably went a slice too far and over-extended my belly.



News Flash: Biggs and I are working on the ultimate Nigella Lawson drinking game. Stay tuned for details!

Lamb and Couscous (by G)

For some reason I was feeling like having lamb and couscous today, after spending half an hour looking for harissa and non-flavoured couscous at the supermarket I was pretty much over the idea... but pushed on regardless.

Instead of harissa I got red curry paste and instead of plain couscous I got some bullshit instant stuff (seriously, the supermarket boasts 250 different types of ice-cream but does not have any plain couscous - well it may, but I couldn't find it).

Anyway, I fried the lamb with some red curry paste, leftover mushrooms, yellow capsicum and a small jar of roasted vegetables.  Even though the couscous was pre-flavoured I added chicken stock instead of water out of habit... it turned out to be super flavourful as a result.  The green stuff is leftover coriander added for colour.

I never want to go to the supermarket or, in-fact, leave the house ever again.

Vegetarian Tortillas (by G)

I'm still a bit meat shy after the giant meat sandwich the other day (actually, I'm death shy - which is pretty much the same thing). I had to make tortillas today (being Tuesday) and I though... vegetable tortillas... why not.

Mushrooms are the meat of the vegetable world so I chopped up a shit load of those and treated them just the same way I would with pork mince - except that I forgot to buy onions.  The mushrooms were fried with spring onions then paprika and cumin were added, then a tin of tomatoes and the leftover chicken and mushroom stock from yesterday. Once it was good and thick I added a bit of homemade chilli sauce for a little bit of heat and served.

Served with the mushroom mush was a salsa of coriander, capsicum, cucumber, lime and salt (red onion would have been awesome but, as discussed earlier, I forgot all required onions).  Also, I served some pickled radishes I pickled the other day to cut through the richness of some rich dish but forgot to serve).

Astute vegetarians would note that tonight's dinner was not strictly vegetarian - it was pretty close though... tasty though.

A little bit of steak and a lot of vegetables (by G)

After the rather meatcentric dinner yesterday I thought I should bring the veg. I sautéed baby corn, carrot, capsicum, zucchini and mushrooms in oil and (a little bit of) butter - then added some noodles, and stock (mushrooms stalks simmered in water for a couple of hours then a chicken jelly tub added).  I thickened the stock with a little corn flour.  The vegetables were bland, I think I sub-consciously didn't add flavour out of protest.

Luckily I did marinate some thin sirloin steaks in soy, mirin, sake, oyster sauce and chilli flakes and fried them off - it would have been a pretty sad meal without the flavourful protein.

Giant Meat Sandwich (by G)

I was inspired by Biggs' ham and coleslaw rolls from yesterday and thought to myself, 'I want one of them (sic) giant sandwiches like you see on the TV'.  I bought 300 grams each of ham, pastrami and corned beef - along with some Swiss cheese, salami and large soft white rolls.

To make the sandwiches I simply opened the rolls and dumped on a layer of salami, cheese, corned beef, cheese, ham, cheese, pastrami and a final layer of cheese.  To provide a bit of texture I made a salad of fried mushrooms (with red wine vinegar), parsley, capers, green Sicilian olives and minced garlic.

I had to get my super-sharp Japanese blade (Bitey-san) out to cut the sandwich and prop each up with a couple of skewers.

I like meat, but this meat mountain was almost too much for me. It was a bit like eating a soft, tasty brick.  Just trying to get it in my mouth was a challenge - I probably ingested as much of it nasally as I did orally.  I did get it down in the end... after about an hour.  Biggs has not been quite so successful - her personal motto is, 'Getting it done since 1981' but I think she's going to fail on this occasion.

Ham and Coleslaw Rolls (by Biggs)

I had a different plan for dinner but then decided I was too lazy to make anything that would take longer than 5 minutes to make. It's been super hot lately and I've been craving ham and coleslaw rolls so went with that.

The coleslaw was just from a packet with mayonnaise mixed through. I spread hot English mustard on one side of the roll and wholegrain mustard on the other side. Then I filled the rolls with some shaved leg ham and the packet mayonnaise.

I overdid the hot English mustard on G's rolls resulting in him coughing and spluttering his way through dinner.....he's a bit weak like that.

I served it with pretzels because I like pretzels.

Deep South Treats (by Biggs)

G and I went out tonight to meet a friend who's leaving town. She very rightly took us to Lefty's, an old time music hall that served deep south cuisine.

We of course ordered everything.....popcorn shrimp, jalapeno hush puppies and corn dogs.... and a cheese burger. Our friend Red ordered a jerked chicken Po' Boy.

G commented that the corn dogs were quite oily and doughy but I liked that about them. Everything else was awesome. The cheese on the burger was a combination of gooey goodness and fried Parmesan crisp. Excellent..

We would have left a lot more drunk had they not plied us with the salty popcorn bar snacks....a nice surprise given that's not a usual offering in an Australian bar.

We pocketed about 7 Mini Tabasco Sauces on the way out.