Pork Chop with Chorizo Fried Rice (by G)

Work today was a bit draining and I was absolutely wrecked by the time I got home. Luckily I predicted I would be pretty fucked by the time I got home so I scaled back whatever plans I already had for dinner and decided to just fry pork chops and make fried rice.

I figured chorizo would make Biggs happy so I got a chorizo and a packet of some kind of finely chopped coleslaw salad in a packed (reduced to clear).  Ironically I forgot to buy rice to make the fried rice with.  In the end I tried to make it with sushi rice - which was a bit of a pain in the ass because sushi rice is not designed to be fried.  I managed to get it dry and unsticky enough to fry by rinsing it a few times after it had been boiled and oven baking it at a low temperature for about an hour.

Not much more to say about this one - it was pretty good. the rind didn't crackle, we had half a chorizo each for dessert. Biggs is dining out tomorrow so stay tuned to see how lazy I get tomorrow.

Buta No Kakuni (by Biggs)

I had done menu planning right up until I go on holidays in mid-April but caught a bit of Good Chef Bad Chef yesterday and immediately changed my Sunday night plan to this Japanese Pork Belly dish I saw Adrian Richardson cook up.

I've never cooked pork belly before but turns out it's very easy to cook (dump it in a broth to simmer for hours and serve) and very cheap to buy ($4.40 for two large servings).

The broth was carrot, celery, onion, spring onions, ginger, mirin, soy sauce and vegetable stock. After a couple of hours of simmering the pork belly I added some more spring onion, ginger and some bok choy.

Served with udon noodle and boiled eggs.....delicious.

Now I'm off to write an angry letter to Curtis Stone with regards to the fact there was no fresh ginger available at the supermarket he promotes. I was forced to use that jarred ginger shit instead. Sigh.

Chicken Enchilda (by Biggs)

Partido Night at La Cantina Mexicana tonight to celebrate my friend Leigh's upcoming nuptials. 

We were plied with spiced buttery corn and sangria on arrival as well as tiaras, glowstick bracelets, glittery confetti and bubbles. If that doesn't say Partido I don't know what does. 

For dinner I ordered Enchiladas which were served with picante rice and pineapple salsa. Very tasty. I also ordered a stuffed jalepeno which was mistakenly served as sliced jalepenos but added a nice bit of zing to dinner. 

Later when the error was realised I was delivered my stuffed jalepeno which was excellent - stuffed with a nice spicy beef mix. 

Any restaurant that has a chili in a sombrero as it's logo and serves it's meals with a little paper Mexican flag is okay by me. 

Sausage and Red Onion Ciabatta Rolls (by G)

Biggs is dining out tonight so, as usual, I went to very little effort.  Biggs is dining out tonight so, as usual, I cooked sausages.  The below photo is a ciabatta bun with soft red onions, fried pork sausages, Dijon mustard and tomato ketchup.  For a little added pep I added some pickles on the side.

Porky and filling - what more can one ask.

Cheesy Pork and Pepper Sandwich (by Biggs)

I spent today down the coast visiting a friend so by the time I got home I was under the pump to get dinner on the table by the appointed hour.

Pork and peppers are a great combination so I thought if I combined them and jammed the mix into a long (long) roll it would work out a-okay. We appear to have run out of salt so I dosed the pork mix up with some MSG instead.

I also had some cheese to use up so grated it and mixed it through once everything was cooked. I popped the lot in the oven so the bread would warm through. Success.

The roll was so long I couldn't fit it all in the photo. A happy problem.

Sausage Salad (by G)

This was an idea I was saving for some time when Biggs was away, but I'm a bit under the weather at the moment so I decided to shift it to today because it didn't take a lot of effort.  Biggs kindly offered to take over my cooking night but I figured I had it covered.

 

I fried off some sausages, boiled some eggs then cut them and stacked them on a plate with some olives, capers, gherkins (for crunch) and some laughing cow cheese triangles - with a bread roll on the side for filler. The roll was not all that necessary because the whole salad came to about 2 kilos - but with a combo like that it was laughing all the way to my belly.

 

I don't think Biggs enjoyed this dinner because she didn't finish all of hers.



 



Chicken Korma (by Biggs)

I've had "Indian" on my dinner ideas list for a while now but couldn't really build on the idea further than that. Fortunately it turns out the supermarkets stock Indian in a jar for cheap. I've been feeling like a bit of a lazy cooking week (just like every other week) so decided Indian from a jar was completely acceptable.

In my defense it was just the base curry that came in a jar. I totally had to add stuff. Like.....chicken.....and onion.....and cream.....and flaked almonds.

I did have a last minute freak out that adding so much cream to dinner would result in a second dessert meal in as many days. No one wants that so I panic purchased some yoghurt from the corner store on my way home. I did do a little research before my panic purchase and the Internet seemed to think yoghurt was a good idea. All the cyber folk suggested using yoghurt as a base then adding a tablespoon of cream to finish the Korma. Except for Wikipedia....it suggested I was actually looking to research my Karma.....probably advisable.

Dinner was fine.....the sauce only split a little bit. I served it with packet chapati which tasted exactly like packet tortillas....comforting.

Dessert Tortillas (by G)

I didn't intend to make dessert tortillas - I meant to make a simple chicken mole tortilla with guacamole.

The first bit went excellently - blending a mix of cooked onion and garlic with some chillies I had toasted and deseeded, one and a half mini tortillas, cumin, oregano, chicken stock and peanut butter then simmering it for a bit. I then fried off some chicken tenders, chopped them up and added them to the sauce. At this stage the sauce was awesome, fragrant and tasty - adding chocolate (which is what you do with a mole) undid all that - like adding an elephant steak to a dainty cucumber sandwich.

The result wasn't exactly sweet, but it wasn't very pleasant.  The guacamole didn't turn out too well either. The avocado wasn't ripe so I had to make it with tiny tomatoes instead. It was not as good as real guacamole. 

With all that not very difficult work I decided not to hand make the tortillas - instead I got some little commercial ones. Surprisingly they were quite irregular in shape.

San Choy Bow (by Biggs)

Pork mince in lettuce cups.....pretend healthy but mainly tasty.

The specific tasty in this was garlic, onion, spring onions, ginger, soy and oyster sauce. There was also pork mince and coriander but neither of them tasted like much. The vegetable-like components were capsicum and water chestnuts.

I couldn't make the can opener work on the water chestnuts so I just jammed the tin open with a knife. How I'm not in hospital right now I have no idea!

Steak with Cafe de Paris Butter and Sweet Potato Fries (by G)

Time to class up Sunday with Café de Paris butter. I'm not sure how I came across it - it's just butter with chives, garlic, anchovy, parsley, Dijon mustard, capers, salt and pepper.

The steak was simply seasoned and fried - the vexing thing was that the steak I got was pretty irregular in sizes and thicknesses which made it pretty hard to cook evenly. I guess the main thing is that it is tasty and my ragged piece certainly was.

The sweet potato fries were oiled and salted and peppered and cumined then oven baked on the highest heat the oven can go to after turning them and cooking for another 20 minutes I transferred them to the grill to try to get them crispy.  Unfortunately that is impossible.  I have never had a crispy sweet potato fry - they burn before they get crispy.

Roti-I-Roll (by Biggs)

At some stage last year I promised on the blog that I would eat at Roti-I-Roll out near my friend Bonnie's house and tonight was the night. 

Roti-I-Roll is a little cafe on a main road in Manly West boasting English Breakfasts, Caribbean Roti as well as Malaysian and Japanese food. Who wouldn't be intrigued.....well, intrigued and dubious. 

We ordered a beef Caribbean Roti and a Chicken Char Kwai Teow. The roti was a beef and potato curry wrapped in a....roti. It was sensational. The char kwai Teow was a flat rice noodle with Malaysian spicy goodness. Also, sensational. I really can't fault dinner. Delicious. 

I'll have to go back at some stage as I was most intrigued by the dessert menu that includes:

• Saucy dumplings
• Fried Tempura Ice Cream
• Bacon Butty
• Egg Butty 
• Bacon and Egg Butty 

I really could have done with a bacon and egg butty for dessert. 

Five stars Roti-I-Roll. Five stars. 

Spicy Pork and Noodle Joy (by G)

It has been a theme in the past that when Biggs is away G eats sausages. Lately I've changed that up a bit by eating pork ribs.

Tonight I marinated thinishly sliced pork ribs in Korean hot red bean paste, soy sauce, ketjap manis, sriracha, garlic, fresh red chilli and rice wine vinegar then fried the little pieces at super high heat. That was going well for a bit, but then the meat started to stew. Not to worry, to the cooked pork I added little pieces of ramen noodle and a bunch of lettuce.

I've never cooked lettuce before, I've heard it can be done. I think it is weird because it shrinks down to virtually nothing but it was okay.

Dinner was not nose bleed spicy but it did make me a little breathless. I like that the crackle in the photo below looks like the tentacles of an alien.

Beef With a Vegetable Medley in Gravy (by G)

I got a beef rib roast out of the freezer yesterday with not much of an idea what to do with it. Presumably the idea is to roast it - I even meant to look on the internet today and confirm that but got a bit busy and forgot. Rather than go all gung-ho with the roasting strategy I decided to cut the beef lump in two and simmer it/them in beef stock for a couple of hours, then fry the two halves and serve them with a medley of vegetables.

The vegetables (cauliflower, carrot, mushrooms and broccolini stems) were boiled in some of the stock that had been used to cook the beef - I added a punt load of butter at the end to thicken up the sauce (hence the glossy look in the photo).

Biggs dreads vegetable delivery day - and for good reason, that is normally when my vegetables are delivered - she seemed okay with this salty, buttery preparation though.  I liked the beef fat - it had jellyfied. It really was good meat.

Prawn and Soba Noodles (by Biggs)

I watched Zoe from Good Chef Bad Chef cook a prawn and soba noodle dish the other day and it looked like a pretty good deal to me so I decided to make something similar for dinner.

Her recipe was prawn and garlic chives but I couldn't find any chives at all let alone garlic chives so instead used the last of the spring onions from the garden. Beyond that, dinner was banana prawns (the only prawns available), garlic, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and soba noodles. 

I did buy two individual packets of soba noodles but somewhere between the grocery store and the house one packet mysteriously disappeared. Weird! Thankfully, I found a packet of soba noodles in the pantry which beefed things out a bit. 

I also added an ingredient I suspect Zoe wouldn't be too keen on - the old Monosodium glutamate. I think G noticed almost immediately when he comment on the savoury-ness of dinner, 

So, dinner was fine but I've got to be honest, shelling the raw prawns was the most revolting thing I remember doing in recent history. I didn't think I was too bothered by prawns. We even grew up next door to prawn trawler folk but boy, I was fairly sickened during the process. I guess I've only ever bought them pre-shelled or already cooked lately. The raw, slimey, fleshy, stinky, bloody, poo-ey, spikey critters almost (almost) put me off my dinner. A quick vomit upstairs and I was back on track. 

Eastern European Style Pork Balls (by G)

I had planned to make Pelmeni (pork mince filled dumplings) today but it involved making a dough; by the time I'd left work I downgraded to using premade dumpling wrappers; by the time I got home I'd decided just to do the filling and no wrapping.

So the mince was mixed with an uninspiring combination of onion and garlic, salt and pepper. I balled the mince up and fried the balls with some boiled potato (for starch).  Once done I plated the balls and tats on a bed of lettuce, sprinkled with paprika and garlic powder (for flavour), dried parsley flakes (because I don't see how we will ever get through a whole jar unless it is used superfluously) and a huge dollop of sour cream (that was actually in the recipe).

The balls were not very flavourful - Biggs suggested adding sriracha, then I remembered that the Pelmeni recipe said to serve with soy sauce, I'd even bought some specially. I also bought sesame oil today because we haven't owned any for ages - the oil with the sriracha and soy was an amazing combination.

Chicken Tortilla Soup (by Biggs)

Chicken Tortilla Soup was one of the first recipes I found when I was initially researching tortilla recipes for Tuesdays. I thought it was a bit of a stretch on the theme but have pretty well run out of unique tortilla ideas so tonight was the night.

First I shredded up some BBQ chicken serving the extra bits (legs and wings) as an afternoon snack for G and I. Then I cooked up a vat of soup - chicken stock, tomatoes, onion, garlic, chilli, corn, black beans, lime juice and coriander.

I almost made a fatal error oven baking strips of tortilla but saved them from burning with seconds to spare.

The idea is that you put a handful of chicken in the bottom of a bowl, pour over some soup, then top it with cheese, toasted tortilla strips and more lime if desired. I let G top his own and also provided the option of sriracha as is the custom in our household.

Roasted Corned Beef and Sides (by G)

The protein tonight has had a hell of a time.

First someone at the supermarket corned him (I looked it up 'corning' is a real thing - 'cornholing' is also a real thing, but a whole other type of thing), then I simmered him in a stock of vegetables (onion, celery, carrot, garlic, some pepper corns, a little vinegar), then I smeared him with a glaze of miso, okanomi and sriracha (the same glaze I used on the pork ribs the other day) and oven roasted him for about an hour and a half.

That last bit was a bit of a technical error - I got a bit too keen and put the beef in about half an hour earlier than intended. The meat dried out a little but it was okay - I drizzled the finished meat with some of the glaze thinned down with some rice wine vinegar.

The sides consisted of vegetables I was keen to use up. Some beans and broccolini were blanched then fried off with a bacon like product that came pre cut in a plastic box.  Some cabbage was fried off and mixed with a cheese sauce. That is the extent of the sides - a good time was had by all.

Bacon and Eggs (by Biggs)

It's Sunday. It's been a big week. I wanted bacon and eggs.

I crisped up some bacon, boiled some eggs and fried some mushrooms and spinach. I also toasted up some sourdough I was sent home with from dinner last night.

I really need to work out this egg situation. I like a boiled egg but I only serve them that way 'cause I'm so terrible at frying, poaching and scrambling them. I vow that next time I do eggs on the blog....they won't be boiled.

Pork Spare Ribs and Salad (by G)

As can be seen below, Biggs was outie for dinner so I was on my own. Happily there was a pig available with a couple of spare ribs so I cooked them. The ribs were spread with a mix of miso, okonmi sauce and sriracha, then oven baked, then popped under the griller for some colour.  There was also some ham in the freezer so I shredded that and oven baked it as well.

Because I had a lot of salad vegetables available I decided to combine them in a salad - celery, capsicum and carrot... lots of each.

The flavouring on the ribs were awesome, and the cool vegetables were very refreshing.

Lamb Cutlets and Asparagus (by Biggs)

Tonight was a celebration for Fi's birthday at her friend Kirsten's house and I remember Fi once mentioning she likes little lamb chops.....so, little lamb chops she will have.

First though, some spectacular cheese provided by Kirst.....smelly, melty camembert and some blue, a few figs, some honey, olives, salami and great bread. 

I then cooked up some little lamb chops and some asparagus. For good measure I topped the asparagus with bacon, pine nuts and feta then topped the lamb with dukkah, yoghurt, garlic and mint. 

Everyone seem suitably satisfied. 

Then the lemon and ricotta cake came out......sensational. 

Here is a terrible photo.

Cochifrito (by Biggs)

I wanted something a bit different but a bit simple for dinner so referred to our copy of "A Little Taste of Spain" and found the very meat-centric dish of cochifrito.

I didn't really read the recipe before making dinner and was surprised the ingredients were so basic - no salt, no pepper, no stock. I was immediately suspicious of the recipe and turned to the trusty internet. Turns out every recipe for cochifrito is exactly the same - lamb, onion, garlic, paprika fried off, covered with water and lemon juice to simmer for a couple of hours, then parsley mixed through.

There was no indication in any of the recipes on what to serve with the cochifrito so I went with bread. Not terrible, though I think the lemon flavour shocked G a little for his first bite.

Deep Fried Pork Chops and Noodle Cake (by G)

I had some great looking pork chops delivered the other day and I wanted to do something nice with them... there was a rather massive gap between intention and execution. 

Biggs and I like a bit of a crispy cooked pork chop so I decided to put a few slices in them and deepish fry them - first difficulty, the knife I chose for the job was not very sharp so the cuts got a little ragged.  I don't know how I didn't kill myself deep-frying them in a shallow pan - they were a bit feisty to say the least.

I was sitting on a bit a vegetable stockpile so I decided to roast some - onion, zucchini, tomato, some garlic. Then I decided to mix that through some noodles, add flavour, top it with the world's biggest mushroom, crisp up the bottom (which would then become the top) and serve.

It turns out that the worlds largest mushroom was too large for the fry pan I had selected to cook it in - sigh. I had to re-juggle things and managed to get the mushroom cooked down to a small enough size to fit in the original pan. 

Next problem... flavour. I'd forgotten that Biggs said she had used the last of the soy sauce the other day so that was out, happily we have some oyster sauce - unhappily it had a bit of mould floating on the top.  In the end I decided to add a packet of miso soup, then I thought that was weird so I ended up making a dressing of a really sweet and unpleasant hoisin sauce, fish sauce, sushi vinegar and, oh, I don't know... some other shit.

I managed to burn the crispy top of the noodles and despite the pork meat being dry and tough the rind was as uncrispy as it was on the living pig.

Take away my pans, shut down the blog, I jumped the shark with this one.

Crab Cakes (by Biggs)

These are allegedly Jamie Oliver crab cakes but I suspect he does things a little differently to how I did them. To start with I suspect he doesn't use tinned crab. I wouldn't have either but after searching in fish mongers, seafood counters and delis I couldn't locate any non-tinned crab. It didn't even look very good in the serving suggestion photo on the front of the tin but I stupidly went with it anyway.

But, I probably can't blame tonight's dinner mess entirely on the crab. I think I overcooked the potato, didn't drain the crab properly and also added an egg that wasn't really required. After all that the "cakes" were pretty sloppy. I also added some parsley, spring onions and cayenne pepper. The recipe suggested putting them in the fridge for half an hour which I thought was a good idea to firm them up a bit. Instead, they just got sloppier and ended up in a pool of liquid. 

I fried them up regardless. G was impressed that I managed to fry up crab "soup". I served them with tartare sauce from a jar, snow peas, carrots and tomato.

German Style Tortillas (by G)

I had a fair bit of homemade sauerkraut left so I thought I should offload some of it into Biggs' belly. I tried to find a German style beef mince recipe to have on tortillas so I could use some beef mince, most German style beef mince recipes appear to be a mix of onion, garlic, pepper, salt and not much else so I did that and added some caraway seeds for a little bit more flavour and an egg to bind it.

The original intention was to make some mini kofta style sausages but the egg didn't come through for me so I broke them up a bit into lumps. For additional authenticity I mixed some paprika through some sour cream to top the tortillas with.

All in all, these tortillas were very filling - in that, at least, they were pretty authentically German.

Sausages (by Biggs)

Tonight's dinner was inspired by what Cam and Liz's 2 year old had for dinner last night. He had sausages, peas, carrot and potato. I thought it looked pretty good so tonight we had sausages, peas, corn and potato.

This wasn't the original plan but I wasn't well today so needed to make something simple for dinner. Sausages are always a good Plan B. I initially felt a bit bad since G had sausages for dinner last night but then I realised I didn't care because he had the audacity to have bratwurst on an evening I wasn't home. In saying that sausages aren't much of a punishment where G is involved.

Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and Rakott krumpli (by G)

I had a bit of a cabbage situation last weekend that required drastic action. I decided to turn my huge cabbage surplus into a more modest sauerkraut supply.

It's a pretty easy process to make sauerkraut - finely chop some cabbage, add salt, bash it about a bit, add caraway seeds, put it in a jar, wait for it to get fizzy (as the fermentation process begins), weigh it down for a few days, close the lid of the jar then forget about it.

There are some essential proteins required to correctly appreciate sauerkraut and, happily, sausages are one of them - I went with bratwursts. These were simmered in hot water for about 10 minutes then fried low and slow to prevent them bursting.

I was watching Hungarian Food Safari the other day and saw rakott krumpli made right in front of my eyes. It seemed pretty easy and likely tasty so I did a version of it tonight. First I par-boiled some potato slices, boiled some eggs and fried some red onion - mixed the onion through some sour cream then layered all these things in a small pan, sprinkled with a little paprika and oven baked it. The real krumpli also has some smoked sausage and bread crumbs but I left these out.

Dinner was most excellent though the sauerkraut was a bit salty - my blood pressure has not be this high since I first saw the film clip for Jennifer Love Hewitt's Bare Naked.

Chicken BLT (by Biggs)

Tonight I headed to the suburbs to hang out with my friends Cam and Liz. Cam considers himself a bit of a BLT sensei so it was no surprise they were served up for dinner tonight. I've got to be honest, they were pretty good. Excellent cook on the bacon, made with fancy tiger loaf, served with potato wedges. There was some debate on how many meats should be served on a sandwich but at least two sounds about right to me.

I was pretty impressed with Cam's knife skills on the chicken breast. We've all got a specific way of tackling the slice on a chicken breast and I thought I had it pretty down pat but after seeing the way Cam approached it (halved, then the large part cut sideways through the center before slicing) I realised I have much to learn.

If you're an avid reader of the blog and recall chicken BLTs being featured not so long ago you would be right. Feel free to relive the experience here: Chicken BLT

Beef and Seven Vegetable Pasties (by Biggs)

Tonight I made beef and seven vegetable pasties, then I added an extra vegetable making dinner beef and EIGHT vegetable pasties. The vegetables were onion, carrot, potato, peas, corn, tomato, spinach and zucchini. There was also salt, pepper, garlic, parsley and Worcestershire sauce for flavour.

I couldn't find any shortcrust pastry so I used puff pastry which means the pasties ended up the size of my head. Even with all those vegetables there weren't super flavourful but served with tomato sauce and sriracha they were very edible.

The only tricky bit was that in the Queensland heat the puff pastry went from frozen to almost unusable in about 6.3 seconds but I pushed on dedicated to the cause. A little cheese on top, dinner done.

Spinach and Potato Pie (by G)

Spinach and Potato pie was one of my favourite things when I was a lot younger, so I thought I'd take a crack at making one.  I did look up a recipe, it seemed pretty simple so I didn't bother writing it down. Not a huge issue but it meant not exactly knowing what quantities of which I needed.

I boiled up three peeled potatoes - that seemed like a lot of potato, then I steamed some silverbeet (I'm not sure the difference between that and spinach) - it seemed like a lot of silverbeet. To those items I added some spring onions, cheese (I don't remember that from my youth), cayenne pepper (also not authentic), nutmeg (not my favourite spice in the world), salt and black pepper and a couple of eggs to bind. That mix went into a puff pastry lined tin and was baked for half an hour.

Last week I bought what was described as 'smart tool' which is basically a small mandolin slicer. Get used to seeing thin sliced things on the blog from now on (until I loose a finger).

I was pretty content with this dinner - the cheese was a good addition, the cayenne was really good and the nutmeg didn't spoil the flavour.

Pizza (by Biggs)

This photo very clearly tells the story of what went down in our household tonight. I was in charge of dinner today but at 5:06 pm I sent G a text saying "I can't make dinner tonight. Pizza?"

Then G took the reins and ordered and paid for some pizza to be delivered to our house. I've since paid him back so I think I can still technically claim this as me providing dinner. And, I've already done the washing up.

The pizzas were "great". Said it right there on the box. But, honestly, they were pretty good. Better than anything I'd planned to cook. The best bit is that I have a left over pizza and cola breakfast to look forward to in the morning.

Bolognase and Blue Cheese (by G)

Biggs was originally going to be elsewhere for dinner tonight but plans changed. I was originally just going to have spaghetti and bolognaise and parmesan but, as Biggs was going to be home I decided to make a bit more effort.

Not much more effort as it turns out - the bolognaise was already made (beef mince, lots of vegetables) so I got some fancy multi coloured pasta in a variety of shapes and made a blue cheese sauce for topping (just a white sauce with a deadly amount of blue cheese melted into it).  I also sprinkled some dried parsley on top for colour.

I was pretty pleased with it - like baby food for grown-ups.

Crumbed Zucchini Tacos (by Biggs)

I heard recently of a hipster Mexican place down in Melbourne called Fonda so decided to check out the menu and noticed this little number...Crumbed Zucchini Tacos with charred corn, pico de gallo and salsa rajo.

First came the crumbed zucchini - I crumbed some zucchini. I mixed some paprika and cumin in with the crumbing mix and plenty of salt and pepper. There was almost a disaster when I noticed some asshole moths had eaten all our breadcrumbs and replaced them with baby moths but fortunately there were some panko breadcrumbs that the moths weren't quite as keen on.

Next was charred corn - I charred some corn.

Then was the pico de gallo - I pico-ed some de gallo....tomatoes, jalapeno, coriander, red onion, salt, lime and some left over capsicum. Note-worthy is that today I read that the "Centers for Disease Control reported that between 1998 and 2008, 1 out of 25 restaurant-associated foodbourne illnesses in the United States, with identified food sources, had been traced back to" pico de gallo. Lucky we're not in a restaurant in the States.

Lastly was the salsa rojo - I salsa-ed some rojo. I salsa-ed it good. Real good. I'm not giving this recipe away. It's too special to leave anywhere but in my Will.

I was pretty worried about dinner because on the weekend G engaged Nita in a impassioned conversation about his dislike of zucchini and I knew this dinner was coming. Lucky it was deep-fried.

Indian Lamb Chops, Paneer Spinach, Cauliflower Aloo Gobi and Corn Fritters (by G)

I feel a bit bad for Biggs tonight, I think she thought we were going to have bratwursts and sauerkraut for dinner - instead we had an Indian style ensemble. I don't know why I had two racks of lamb delivered last week, probably my error this time, but it happened - so we had to eat it.

I marinated the lamb chops in a ginger, garlic, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, salt and yoghurt mix then bunged them in the oven and finished them off under the griller to ensure the fat was completely rendered. I also had a bunch of other stuff that needed eating - spinach, corn and cauliflower specifically.

The cauliflower was mixed in garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin seeds, turmeric and such like things then topped with paneer and oven baked.

The spinach was pan fried with a combo of ginger, garlic, chilli, coriander, turmeric, garam masala then a little yoghurt was mixed through - also some paneer cheese.

The corn fritter was off the top of my head - pea flour, coriander, an egg, some yoghurt, turmeric, cumin, corn, salt, a little water to thin it down then heat applied. This was my favourite element of dinner - (chick) pea flour is awesome.  The lamb was a bit flavourless - actually it tasted a lot like lamb, which is fine I guess - but I was aiming to have it taste of something else.

I was hoping for a better photo, but I accidently added the garnishing coriander to the fritters, so it turned out a bit shit looking... a sprig of coriander totally would have fixed that.

Sausages, Crisps and Salad (by Biggs)

Yesterday I decided I wanted to try out a real butcher that I'd never been to. The plan was to buy G a variety of sausages and it looked like the best bet was going to be Heinz Meats a German Butcher a couple of suburbs over. I highly recommend it based on the fact they sell big bags of "butcher's lollies".....crackling. 

The sausages I chose were: 

• Thuringer Bratwurst: mild German sausage with caraway, coriander, nutmeg and marjoram
• Red Wine Calabrese: chunky pork with red wine, paprika, fennel seeds and a touch of chili
• Cumberland: English breakfast sausage, pork with bacon, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and nutmeg
• Merguez: spicy North African beef and lamb, a touch of chili, paprika and cumin

All quite good but I overcooked them as a result of a fear I would undercook them and I thought the red wine in the calabrese was a bit much. I prefer it in liquid form. The cumberland with bacon was unsurprisingly my favourite. 

I served it with salad and crisps. The salad was lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrot and capsicum. I doused mine with french dressing from a bottle which was a delightful throwback to our youth. 

Beef Bourguignon (by G)

I was watching a box set of the SBS series Food Safari the other day and saw Guillaume Brahimi make Beef Bourguignon. I thought to myself, "I have a kilo of beef, 7 carrots, an onion, 2 sticks of celery, bay leaves, salt, pepper - potatoes, butter and milk for mashed potato. I don't have wine, mushrooms, a leek, shallots or thyme but I can probably pick those things up from the supermarket... I'll do it".

And voila - beef bourguignon.  The sauce was not as thick and rich as I had hoped - I realise I added only 2 mashed carrots at the end to thicken rather than 5 mashed carrots - regardless, it was pretty edible. It is supposed to geed 6 - 8 people so I have a little left over for some other time.