Hot Pot (by G)

I've been saving this one up for a weekend, in retrospect there was no real reason to wait for a weekend - it didn't take too much time to make. The soup broth started with shallot and garlic being fried along with some coriander stems. Then pre-soaked porcini, along with the soaking liquid were added with a couple of tins of chicken broth... I added some chicken style stock as well for a more intense flavour. That simmered for a couple of hours. In the meantime I fried some chopped birdseye chillies and cracked black pepper in oil and let it steep for a while.

To one side of the hot-pot pot I added a little bit of chilli and half the stock, to the other side I added the rest of the chilli and the rest of the stock.  Serving was pretty easy after that a plate of meats - pork rib, chicken, prawns and salmon, and some vegetables, greens, carrot and corriander.  There were also some noodles - flat white ones, and later, some soba noodles.

I don't want to jinx it but I think that eating at the table is a good omen - see Biggs' shrimp broil from a few weeks ago - because this was a good one. So savoury, so much meat, so nourishing. I am happy with this effort.

Kuttanadan Goat Varutharachathu (by Biggs)

Whilst it goes against all my principles, I had an excellent reason to get out of bed before midday today.....I had to get started on dinner. I've got a new work buddy whose from Southern India so it wasn't too long before I was hassling her for cool recipes to try and she suggested this one.

I immediately ran into trouble assuming  we had coriander powder and turmeric. I was wrong. Fortunately G was doing a grocery run and was in a generous mood. Also lucky he had curry leaves in the freezer. Crisis averted.

The process was to fry off some coconut, 7 chilies, coriander, turmeric, peppercorns and curry leaves, then mortar and pestle that to a paste. G was critical of my mortar and pestle technique and he was probably right. It didn't really paste up well. But, eventually I gave up and moved on to frying garlic, ginger, onion, tomato and the goat. Then I added some water and put the whole lot in the oven.  The recipe said 'cook until the mutton is done' so I dumped it in the oven on low heat for about 5 hours. Meanwhile, if you've ever got 17 hours spare look up the difference between lamb and goat and mutton meat on the Internet. The information is VAST!

Once the curry was ready I cooked up some rice and fried some more curry leaves, chili, coconut and mustard seeds as a garnish. G didn't wake up in time for dinner and he was pretty groggy when he did wake up so I'm hoping he hasn't noticed that I ruined our bench top with a turmeric spill

PS: I'm pretty sure Kuttanadan is in Southern India and Varutharachathu means roast. 

Grilled Quail and Cous Cous (by G)

Biggs seemed to be suffering from an excess of melancholic humor lately - as any 5th century physician will tell you the cure is to apply land squab (aka quail) to the affected area. So I bought some quail.

To marinate the quail I first halved them then pan toasted cinnamon, coriander seed, cumin seed, chilli flakes, fennel seeds, paprika and all spice then ground them to a powder in the mortar.  I added a little olive oil to make a paste, coated the quail halves in it and left them for about an hour.  Once marinated I put them into a super hot oven for about 20 minutes then applied some lemon juice and salt and stuck them under the grill.

In the past I have been anti cous cous, lately however (since I've begun cooking with it myself) I have become a bit of a fan.  This time I fried some onion, garlic, chorizo, coriander stalks and porcini mushrooms then added the cous cous and a mix of chicken style stock and porcini soaking liquid then just let the cous cous do it's thing - I did add some ground toasted almonds and a chunk of butter at the end to ramp up the happy.

I also made a yoghurt side sauce by simply adding chopped coriander, mint, garlic, shallot, chilli flakes and salt.

The little birds were alright (I always feel a bit guilty ripping apart a little creature) - the hearts were still in the body, I wish I had done something with them separately because they were bland, like they had been steamed.  The cous cous was amazing if I do say so myself. I had planned to add olives but saw really cheap dried porcini in the supermarket so I went in that direction instead. It was a winner.

Lefkas (by Biggs)

Bonnie and I decided to head out for a cheap and cheerful dinner tonight and it didn't take us long to chose Lefkas as our venue, it took even less time to chose to share a platter of goodness for dinner.

The platter had halloumi, breads, tzatziki, lamb, chicken, calamari and octopus. It was, unsurprisingly, DELICIOUS! I could eat buckets and buckets of their calamari and their octopus. I suspect the secret ingredient is salt. I was also quite satisfied that the only use they could find for kale was to use it as a bed on which to serve up all the fried goodness.

Oh yeah, we also had some saganaki - fried goat's milk cheese - it was sensational.  I hope we go back really soon - it's likely since it's a 5 minute walk from my house.

Ham and Chorizo Omelette? (by G)

Darn, I was hoping the photo would look better. Biggs was out to dinner tonight so I was planning to use up some left-overs from last night. There was ham and eggs and cheese, naturally I planned an omelette or two.

Initially I fried some ham, shallot and garlic for one omelette, for the other omelette I fried ham, shallot, garlic and some red chilli.

When it came to cooking time I discovered that I only had two eggs, I tried to filtch more from Biggs' stash but when I opened one it was quite brown. From that point on I decided to have just one omelette with all the fillings. I also decided to add some Asian greens.

After adding the eggs to the filling I topped the egg mix with left-over cheese slices then tried to form the whole lot into an omelette shape.

This dinner was not much of a success, the sriracha, okonomiyaki sauce, and dried parsley flakes helped. As did the pre-butter-and-garlic primed bread roll which I toasted.

Ham Steak Burgers with Homemade Fries (by G)

I had the idea to make a burger with ham steak as the patty... and made it happen. I kind of knew I wasn't going to find ham steaks at the supermarket (Biggs has since advise me that you get them from the deli). After a fruitless search I finally decided to buy a small ham and steak it myself.

The burger was pretty simple - onions and mushrooms cooked low for about an hour, salt, garlic powder and dry-fresh thyme added. I fried off the ham steaks. To make the burger I topped a butter and garlic toasted bun with the onion/mushroom mix, the ham steak, cheese slices and an egg.

I attempted to make my own home made hand cut potato and sweet potato fried. I mean, I made them, but they didn't turn out as consistently crispy as I had hoped.

To make the fries I used Biggs' mandolin to get the shape right. After that I simmered the potato (both plain and sweet) in salted water then dried them, coated them in oil and oven roasted them. I added some salt and garlic powder to get the job done.

This didn't quite meet my expectations. It was something different and not terrible - winner!

Chicken Tortillas with Moroccan-style Salsa (by Biggs)

I love Moroccan-type flavours and couldn't remember if we had ever tried stuffing them into a tortilla so I gave it a go.  I mixed up a salsa of chickpeas, roasted capsicum, olives, red onion, cumin, lemon and the coriander I accidentally bought on the weekend. I was going to mix through some feta but thought that might make the salsa a bit weird so I served it on the side.

The chicken was coated with Cajun seasoning for a touch of spice and then baked in the oven.

I started toasting up the tortillas when suddenly I noticed the gluten-free "warning". What the hell had I done?! It turned out I had bought white corn tortillas instead of my favourite flour ones. That's what you get for being lazy and not hand-making them. Maybe next time.

Fortunately the corn tortillas really complimented the earthy flavours of dinner.

Home Made Sausage kind-of-thing with Asian Slaw (by G)

Apparently I don't know much about leeks. Biggs used some leeks for Sunday dinner and offered me the tops - I though the tops were hollow for some reason so I was going to use them as a sort of non-edible sausage skin.  When I discovered that leek tops are not hollow I chopped up some of the tenderer bits and fried it along with some shallot and garlic. I mixed the fried bits, along with chopped coriander, red chilli, lemon grass and lemon zest through some pork mince. I also added some pepper, soy sauce, Korean barbecue sauce and a touch of sesame oil.

I did use a couple of the bigger leek fronds to form two big sausages which I oven baked for about 40 minutes.  I though it would be good to chop the sausages into segments and fry them off to get some colour, but they were quite dry so I bailed on that plan.

I made a bit of a slaw to accompany the sausage. Cabbage, red capsicum, red chilli, cucumber and a bunch of coriander - dressed with a fish sauce, soy, lime juice combo. I also reduced some of the dressing in a pan to provide a bit of gravy for the meat.

Overall dinner was okay - as mentioned, the sausage mince got quite dry. It did not live up to the idea in my head.

Chicken and Leek Pie (by Biggs)

Recently I discovered the brilliance of the leek and decided I wanted to use them again. The obvious choice was a chicken and leek pie. 

The chicken was cooked off, then the bacon and leek, a sauce was made with chicken stock and flour then thyme was added. Parsley was also meant to be added but I had accidentally purchased coriander....it gets me every time.

I brought the mix down to room temperature over and hour then left the mix in the fridge for the flavours to intensify. Once suitably intensified I topped the mix with a sheet of puff pastry and popped it in a very hot oven.  

Dinner was good. It probably could have done with some parsley but also could have done with some lessons from Buzz Feed: 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/23-ways-to-make-your-pie-more-beautiful#2t2ebgp

Himalayan Cafe (by Biggs)

Fi, Dan and I went out for afternoon beers with our friends Ria and John today and after many pints at Green Beacon we headed to the Himalayan Cafe to line our stomachs in preparation for more beer, wine and gin.

This Nepalese restaurant is one of my favourites but it's been a while since I've been so was super happy when I heard Ria had booked dinner here. Now, I'm not entirely sure what we actually had for dinner because we outsourced the decision making to Ria. The entree was little dumplings and some flat meat pastry thing. They were both delicious.....I would have been happy with another four servings.

Then dinner was a bean thing, a lamb thing and a chicken thing. All excellent. I particularly like the chicken. The savoury, creamy sauce was amazing. Sorry for the lack of detail and poor photography but the beer had really kicked in by this stage.

Charry Pork and Flat Noodles (by G)

I was pretty happy with the oven roasted pork I cooked the other day so, with Biggs out for the night, I decided to do a similar thing with the remainder of the pork neck.  This time I marinated the meat in soy, garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, tamarind and a savour chilli sauce.  I didn't bother pan frying it this time - just straight into the oven set at max.

The noodles are some flat ones mixed through some cooked carrot, garlic and Asian greens - with soy, oyster sauce and chilli sauce for flavourings. Also some fried onion on top.

This was a simple meal but a satisfying one.

Nacho Burgers (by Biggs)

I was charging through the city this week getting through a list of chores when two words on a sign caught my eye:

"Nacho Burgers"

Immediately I thought it was a great idea for a Tuesday. Then I decided it was a bit of a stretch for Tortilla Tuesday.....and also Tuesday was too far away for me wait to eat a Nacho Burger. I didn't exactly know what a Nacho Burger was but the research involved to find out was an absolute pleasure. I came across this guy who had some splendid things to say about them complete with photos....and a beard. 

I think G was a little disappointed with my recent half-arsed-avocado-dip-instead-of-guacamole effort so I thought I'd try a little harder tonight. I mashed a couple of avocados with some red onion, coriander, chilies and lime and it tasted quite excellent. While that was resting I fried off some patties and opened a jar of salsa. 

Next came the complex architectural feat of piling up corn chips and cheese to create a little gooey crunch for the burger. All went accordingly if not a little giant. 

Pile all these things into a bun and you've got yourself a nacho burger. Perfect for this rainy, sleepy, Friday night with a beer in hand. Genius. 

Fish Pie (by G)

I saw a couple of hairy fellows make fish pie on the television a few weeks ago. When I told Biggs I was going to make fish pie she was enthusiastic.  More recently when I expressed the same intention she was much less enthusiastic.  I was pretty sure it would be great so I pushed ahead.

 

I looked over a few recipes but didn't work from one specifically - when I got to the supermarket after work I was in a bit of a hurry and just grabbed whatever I could remember.

 

Unfortunately instead of parsley I bought basil, such was my blind haste. I left that out.

 

The final dish was made by poaching some smoked trout, salmon and prawns in a stock of carrots, leaks, an onion studded with a few cloves, a couple of bay leaves, milk and some packet bonito stock.  The fish and prawns were poached for about 12 minutes, even as they were poaching I knew the prawns were cooking for too long but did nothing about it - as a result they came out like little crescent shaped bullets.  Straining out the vegetables and seafood I made a roux of flour and butter and added the milk/fish broth until it was a good pouring consistency then added quite a lot of cheddar cheese, some dill and black pepper.  The fish, prawns and cheese sauce were then mixed through and added to a loaf tin then topped with a simple mashed potato then oven roasted for about 40 minutes.

 

Traditionally fish pie would be served with broad beans or peas but I liked the idea of a play on fish and chips, so I oven fried some packet chips.

 

I thought the fish pie was going to be good (especially when I tasted the sauce) but I wasn't prepared for it to be quite as good as it was. I think Biggs was convinced that fish pie is a good thing.

Lasagna (by Biggs)

I recently had a hankering for lasagna and because I'm an adult I decided to go right ahead and satisfy my urges. I was soooooo tired (read: hung over) on the bus to work this morning that I couldn't fathom having to chop a bunch of garlic this evening (I planned to make the lasagna super garlic-y) and was considering spending my last $10 on a garlic press instead of (more) beer. But, the garlic press is a pretty controversial item and I didn't want to end up on the wrong side of the fence. A guy I respect more than most people, in fact almost all people, once said of the garlic press, "abomination....I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic" and "if you use a press you'll surely go to hell". I did a little bit more research and in the end decided however lazy I am I wasn't going to risk purgatory.

I got straight into making dinner as soon as I got home (after a quick beer) and thought it was all going to plan until I accidentally made cheese sauce instead of bechamel and thought there was a chance it might kill us in richness but it turned out not tasting like much anyway. The mince was okay thanks to the addition of sriracha, Worcestershire and wine. But, as another well respected guy says, "flavour plus bland equals bland". As a result dinner was a little average.

It was definitely enhanced by a side of pickled bits and pieces however I can't really take credit for that given they were left over from G's dinner last night. There was also garlic bread....I didn't make that either.

Korean Pork and Pickle Tortillas (by G)

I had a hankering to make pork belly tortillas, but we've had quite a bit of belly lately so I went with a cheaper cut of pork - the neck.  After slicing the pork I marinated it for about 22 ours in Korean BBQ Sauce from a jar.  Come dinner time I pan fried the slices to get them started then put them in a super hot oven to get chary.

Once the meat looked nearly done I tried a bit and found it to be quite hot - perhaps too hot for Biggs. I had another little piece to confirm my first assessment, then I added some way-out-of-date okonomiyaki sauce to dilute the heat a little. After a bit more time in the oven I tried another bit and found it to still be quite hot so I added more sweet sauce and some more oven time. Another tasting of the meat revealed it was just right, I ate another little bit of meat just to be sure.

To compliment the meat I made some pickled vegetables - red onion, cucumber, jalapenos, red chilli and garlic chopped up and mixed with equal parts salt and sugar, then some cider vinegar.  While the pickle was curing I looked through the fridge for bits and pieces of vegetables I could utilise. In the end I managed to also pickle the nub end of a cabbage, half a carrot and 6 tiny tomatoes.

The pickle turned out a bit intense in the end so I also served some plain shredded lettuce to dilute the flavour a little.

These tortillas turned out pretty well, mostly because of the meat - I tried it at all stages of its evolution and the final stage was definitely the best.

Pork Schnitzel Sandwich (by Biggs)

This idea was originally sparked by watching some guys make dinner plate-sized chicken schnitzels on a random cooking show. It was Jonathan Phang I think. After that, I promised G I would make giant chicken schnitzels one day.

You'll notice these aren't giant, they aren't even chicken but, served on a white roll with some over-dressed coleslaw, they were pretty good.

Rendang Curried Lamb Shanks (by G)

On Saturday Biggs and I were watching... well... it's probably best I don't divulge exactly what crap we were watching on Saturday, needless to say (despite the show's crappiness), I was inspired to drop my original idea for dinner and go in another direction.

I'm a curry fan, and a lamb shank fan but for some reason it had never occurred to me to combine those two things before. I don't know how authentic this rending curry is - it is a mix of brown onion, shallot, garlic, ginger, red chilli and coriander. After chopping those things up I blitzed them with the stick blender to make a paste then fried it off - oh, I also added some belechan (toasted shrimp paste) and lemon zest. I also added some coriander seed and cumin seed that I had toasted in the pan and hand ground in the mortar and pestle (also some turmeric that I had shook from a jar). I had already browned the shanks, so once the paste had lost it's rawness I added them to the pan along with some coconut milk and beef stock and some bay leaves and a cinnamon stick and simmered the whole lot for about 4 hours.  After 4 hours I realised I had meant to take the bay leaves and cinnamon stick out earlier to avoid their flavour overpowering everything else. A quick taste test confirmed that the curry was unsuitably bitter. After consulting the internet I discovered that to counter bitterness you just need to add salt, or perhaps acid - I did both. Salt in the form of fish sauce and lemon juice for acid. Surprisingly that fixed the bitterness problem right up.

Anyway, by that point the shanks were pretty much done so I put them in a low oven and reduced the sauce - for some reason I split the sauce in to two batches at the end - one of them I boiled some baby potatoes in (because I had them) the other I reduced some more then added the leftover coriander.  The former sauce went under the shank on the plate and the latter on top of the shank. It was all a bit superfluous because I then covered the whole thing in crushed pistachio nuts (they were going to be a substitute for toasted coconut that was supposed to go in the sauce to thicken it - I'm not a huge fan of coconut. In the end I thought the nuts would make the sauce weirdly grainy so I sprinkled them on top).

I think, on reflection, the meal was a bit too salty but it was savoury and basically warm so it pretty much did the job.

Sausages with Spinach and Feta Slice (by Biggs)

We live next door to a child care centre. This isn't a problem during their nap time but often causes problems during my nap time. I was excited to read in the local street press recently that this child care centre actually  cook daily meals for the kid and are bringing out a cook book soon featuring some of the dishes. They had this spinach and feta slice recipe included in the article as a 'taster'.

I've been carrying the torn out piece of newspaper with the recipe on it around in my handbag for a couple of months now and finally decided to try it tonight. The slice has onion, spinach, eggs, rice and three types of cheese - feta, cheddar and ricotta. There was also supposed to be dill but there wasn't any in the supermarket so I went with ever-trusty parsley.

My tip is not to try and jam the mix into a small meatloaf tray. It didn't really fit and as a result we have cheese melted all over the bottom of the oven. I heard G mention he might clean it one day soon so I wasn't too concerned.

I served it with chipolatas because G seemed quite distraught the other night when we finished all the chipolatas. There were also peas....because I owned peas.

We'll definitely be buying the cook book.

Crispy Pork Belly with Noodles (by G)

Well, through some odd co-incidence, both Biggs and I got pork belly on the same day. Below is a picture of my interpretation of crispy pork belly. I didn't do too much with the pork - just scored the skin, sprinkled some rock salt on the top and smeared some Korean BBQ sauce on the meat.

I went with rock salt because one blog I read rationalised that rock salt transfers the heat more intensely to the rind and does not dissolve into the skin and make it too intensely salty. After about an hour and a half the meat was cooked but the skin was not too crispy so I put it under the grill for a few minutes, which seemed to fix that problem.

The Korean barbecue sauce slid off the meat and burned a bit - it didn't do too much for the flavour of the meat so I think I could have left it off with no ill effect. 

While pork belly is a meal in itself I thought I should add some filler - I cooked some noodles and mixed it through some fried cabbage, spring onions, garlic, red chilli, a whole lot of corrander and carrot. Once the carrot was cooked I sprinkled on some soy sauce then added a large quantity of fried shallot from a plastic jar.

The pork belly was really tender and the skin pretty crisp - cutting it was like slicing a fudge brulee, it was not the highlight though... the noodles were my favourite part of this meal.

Pork Belly Roast (by Biggs)

I had the day off work today so decided to make a roast. And what is better to roast than a pork belly? The beauty of a roast is that they are incredibly satisfying to eat but very easy to cook. Dump it in the oven and forget about it. Unfortunately the second I 'dumped it in the oven' I started freaking out about the crackling. I worried it wouldn't crackle so I hovered about the oven for an hour poking the pork with tongs every 10 minutes.

I had some last minute genius and decided to carve the fat layer off the pork while it was resting and crackle it up in a VERY HOT oven. I'm not sure how I didn't burn down the house.

I served the pork with peas and little baby carrots cooked in butter. All in all a healthy meal.

It's terrifying how quickly G and I can put away a kilogram of pork belly.

Lamb Butt BBQ (by G)

Being a public holiday I decided it was time to crack out the barbecue.  I found a lamb rump at the supermarket and was intrigued by it because I don't think I've ever cooked with it before - to hedge my bets I also bought some pork chipolatas.

Our barbecue is a bit hit-and-miss sometimes - luckily it was on fire this time... good fierce heat.

The sausages didn't take much effort - just heat them up until they were on the verge of being burned. The rump wasn't much effort either -  I seasoned it generously in salt and kept flipping it over the heat until it seemed about cooked. Part way through I sprinkled the lamb with some rosemary powder that I had ground down from oven dried rosemary.

I also smothered the rump in roasted garlic as it rested to give a bit more flavour.

The other sides were pretty simple - barbecued mini potatoes and corn. The corn was topped with roasted garlic and butter prior to cooking. I was pretty lucky with the corn and potatoes, they cooked through without really burning.

The photo doesn't have much visual appeal but dinner was quite the palate pleaser.

Southwestern Chicken Quesidillas (by Biggs)

When I bought the Old Bay Seasoning a while back I thought it could definitely be incorporated into a tortilla meal and was pleased to discover this recipe on their website. It was originally a shrimp recipe but  I couldn't face shrimp guts today so went with chicken breasts instead.

Inside the quesidillas was onion, capsicum, chicken, cheese and a lot of old bay seasoning......after all, we have half a kilo to get through.

I was disappointed that they didn't get very crispy in the oven but they sure got salty. G was suspicious of the guacamole.....as he should have been. It was in fact just avocado dip.

Memphis Style Pork Ribs (by G)

Seeing as Biggs and I are having an unofficial pork-rib off I decided to go all. After a lot of contemplation I decided to do a dry rub Memphis style.

The rub was a mix of paprika, black pepper, brown sugar, salt, celery salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, mustard powder and cumin.  To ensure maximum flavour I sealed the ribs in vacuum bags after they had been rubbed dry then left them over night.

I did have a plan to lightly smoke the ribs but my little smoker would not co-operate so I just oven roasted them. The original plan was to mop the ribs with a cider vinegar/mustard mix as they cooked - at the last minute I read that this is not always a good idea as it washes the rub off. That sounded like a bad thing so I opted not to mop - in hindsight I think this may have been a mistake because the quantity of paprika got a bit overpowering.

Apparently baked beans are a legitimate side for pork ribs so I cracked a can and stirred through some fried bacon for added flavour. You can't have dinner baked beans without tinned tiny tatters - I fried these in butter and mixed through parsley at the end.

I don't know that this was a winner but it wan't a looser either.

Ribs and Rice (by Biggs)

G and I were trying to psych each other out the other night when we realised we had stumbled into a pork rib battle this week, the topic being "the secret to a perfect pork rib". It turned out his secret is to remove the layer of weird sinewy fat from the back of the ribs prior to cooking. Great tip, BUT, my secret.....cook the pork ribs in beer, and some other things.

The other things were: Hoisin Sauce, water, jalapeño, ginger, honey, red onion and, of course, the beer....oh, and Asian BBQ sauce from Burlingtons. I didn't know what Asian BBQ sauce was exactly (and still don't) but, it was listed in the ingredient list, and I found it in our favourite Chinatown store. It was in a mysterious silver can with a picture of a cow in a bib with a knife and fork. It turns out that the reference to Asian BBQ sauce in the recipe was actually what was being made by the other ingredients not a required ingredient itself. My bad, but I added it anyway.

The ribs were also topped with toasted sesame seeds and three types of chilies. I served them with rice because that's the furthest thing from vegetables I could think of. I was quite pleased in the end.

Beef Cheeks and Mushrooms in Red Wine (by G)

I found beef cheeks in the supermarket the other day - it was so unexpected that I loaded up. Apparently beef cheeks come in pairs so I managed to cook up two cows worth.

I seasoned and floured the cheeks then fried them. After that I added them to a liquor of fried onion, carrot, red wine, beef stock and mushrooms of the button and shiitake type.

After about 4 hours I served them on a bed of potato, I'd say mashed potato but it was a bit sloppier than that - I added some of the poaching liquid and milk to the mash, as well as some spring onion so it was not as snow white as it would otherwise have been.

For a sauce I reduced the red wine and mushroom sauce and added butter - nothing beats butter for wholesome goodness...

Lots of Little Treats (by Biggs)

Tonight I was visiting Sheelagh and her family down the Coast and was pleased to discover her dinner plan was 'lots of little treats'....one of my favourite dinners.

Included was camembert and blue cheese with crackers, little meatballs, smoked salmon, tzatziki, spicy salsa verde, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, a home-made guacamole, some bread and dukkah, tomatoes, spinach and, a new receipe for me, leeks cooked in butter and orange juice. A real feast indeed. My paltry contribution was some pistachio nuts and chocolates. Oh, and we had several bottles of wine which really complimented the feast. Oh, and beer too. Oh dear.

Sheelagh's husband suggested that the dinner blog would only be a true dinner blog if I mention the meal that was cooked for their 5 year old son too - he was lucky enough to have little meatballs, Happy Cow cheese and lots of salad. Somehow he negotiated some of smoked salmon too which seemed to be quite a hit.

Steak with Chimichurri and Papas Fritas (by G)

There's nothing easier than steak and chips - especially when the chips are from a packet. Being Friday, and with Biggs off at the coast, I was not looking to make much effort.

I saw someone on the TV make chimichurri in about 30 seconds the other day - that seemed easy and effective so I decided to do that as an accompaniment.

The chimichurri sauce was a blended mix of parsley, coriander, garlic, dried chilli, oregano, shallot, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, oil salt and pepper.

The sauce was pretty good - it had some real zing. After eating a lot of chimichurri my mouth went pretty numb but it was, over-all, a good dinner.

Alleged Gai Yang and Noodle Salad (by G)

I don't know why I'm alleging this meal is Gai Yang, if I say it is then it is. I guess I'm a bit concerned with people who know what this dish should be.

What I did was make a marinade with a shit load of garlic, lemon grass, coriander, soy, ketjap manis, pepper, sugar and some water - time was pressing so I didn't marinate the chicken as long as I would have hoped before popping it in an oven bag then oven roasting it (in it's individual halves).

The chicken turned out tender and juicy but, to my way of thinking, not flavourful enough.

I made a noodle salad almost exactly like the one from the other night except that I used thai basil instead of fennel - that seemed to boggle the Biggs a bit. The salad certainly wasn't as good as the other day. Whatever-whatever the dinner challenge is OVER!*

*There was not challenge, I was just trying to make things seem more dramatic by 'Iron Cheffing' it.

Mac and Cheese (by Biggs)

G banned us from eating mac and cheese a while back because I almost killed us through cheese consumption one time too many with my secret recipe. It's an awesome recipe.

I took it upon myself to lift the ban tonight and cooked that awesome recipe. Mainly it's some mac and some cheese with bacon, onion, parsley. I just realised I forgot to add garlic but instead just added some more cheese and a touch of crumbed bread.

The best bit about this dinner is that I scored myself a $1 bag of onions from the grocery store.

Pork Rib Tortillas (by G)

This was not entirely a legitimate tortilla idea, but I figured Biggs would allow it.

It is some pan heated packet tortillas, mediocre salsa of cucumber, tomato, red onion, poblano chilli, jalapeno chilli, coriander, salt and lime juice and some oven roasted pork ribs.

I was a bit disappointed in the flavour of the ribs. I had coated them in a mix of paprika, cumin, onion powder, oregano, sriracha and lime juice then oven roasted them for 2 hours. The texture was great but, as earlier discussed, the flavour was a bit bland.

I understand Biggs may be preparing a pork rib meal some time this week, and I've just had another pork rib idea so I guess this might be the week of the multi-pork-rib-off.

Sausages with Caponata (by Biggs)

I'm still trying to squeeze some value out of my recent purchase of a Delicious magazine so had a flick through over the weekend. One recipe caught my eye because it was essentially a pile of sausages and I have a brother who likes sausages.

The caponata was made by cooking down some eggplant, capsicum, onion, garlic and carrot down in a tin of tomatoes with some tomato paste, red wine vinegar and fennel seeds. That's the last time I use fennel seeds. Everyone seems to think it's a grand idea with pork but just a teaspoon really over-powered the sauce (I'm not sure if it was meant to be a sauce - the resulting meal looked very different to the photo in the magazine). I added a bucket of salt, pepper and parsley to try and balance things out.

In keeping with my promise of 'bread with every meal' I cooked up some garlic bread as well.

The magazine said that 'caponata adds zing to all kinds of meat.....'. I made sure of the zing by adding some last minute sriracha. I'm not certain this was Delicious exactly, perhaps they should rename the magazine...'Pretty good, I guess'.

BBQ Prawns with Naam Jim and Noodle Salad (by G)

I saw Duncan of 'Duncan's Thai Kitchen' barbeque some prawns and serve them with naam jim sauce the other week and thought that would suit our lifestyle choice so tonight I made just that.

I probably bbq'd the prawns for a bit too long - they stuck to the shells a little bit too firmly. Never-the-less they were pretty good when combined with the sauce of lime, coriander, fish sauce, green chilli, garlic, salt and pepper.

Just prawns seemed a bit stingy so I also made a noodle salad of noodles, cucumber, carrot, spring onions, fennel (because I had it) - the dressing was pretty much the same as the prawn dipping sauce, though I did add extra coriander to the salad. There appear to be red things in the photo - I'm not sure what that is, I don't recall adding it.

The salad was the best thing - the prawns were interesting and good, but I was most happy with the balance of texture and flavour in the salad... even though I meant to add fried shallot and forgot.

Mussel Chowder (by Biggs)

I very rarely read the newspaper but when I bought one a couple of weeks ago for the shrimp boil I felt obliged to have a flick through. Not a bad plan because it gave me two new dinner ideas, this being one of them. Mussel chowder.

I've wanted to cook mussels for ages now but feared they wouldn't make a filling enough dinner. G heard me clanking them into the sink early in the cooking process and immediately accused me of planning to poison him. I got pretty defensive but in truth that is the second reason I've put off cooking mussels. They have a bad rap for poisoning people what with the paralytic seafood poisoning and all but these ones seemed fairly free of dinoflagellates and were 'certified organic' what ever that means.

The mussels were cooked off in some vegetable broth and removed. The resulting seafood broth had fried bacon and leeks added as well as some potatoes, corn, lemon rind, cream and parsley. Once it looked chowdery good I put the mussels back in and served it with a giant pile of toasted bread.

Yesterday G declared the thought we should introduce a side of bread with every meal. It seems to me like a great idea so I plan to keep that up for a while.

Mongolian Pork Chops with Mustard Dipping Sauce (by G)

I wanted to make something different and got fixated on making something Mongolian.

I've read Timothy Severin's book 'In Search of Genghis Khan' and he seemed only to eat either boiled or charred sheeps head whilst in Mongolia so I'm not sure how authentic this recipe is.

I chopped up some pork chops and marinated the pieces in soy sauce, vinegar, spring onions, chilli sauce, ginger, garlic, white pepper, coriander and hoisin - fried them a little then oven baked them.  

The pork pieces got some good colour on them but for additional colour I topped them with coriander and spring onion. To ensure there was enough dinner I served the pork on a simple coleslaw of cabbage, carrot and red capsicum.

The recipe called for a not very complicated mustard dressing - despite not being too complicated it was more involved that I cared to undertake on a on a Friday evening so I simply mixed some Dijon and English mustard, along with some red wine vinegar, though a few good dollops of sour cream.

I probably went a bit over-board with the vegetables but this was a pretty good dinner.