Braised Beef Cheek with Cheese Quesadillas (by G)

I'm all on board with beef cheeks at the moment, they are about the cheapest form of protein available - all you have to invest is time.

I browned these cheeks and then simmered them for a few hours in a sauce created from onion, garlic, tinned tomato, paprika, cumin, coriander, a little vegetable stock and some dried Peruvian yellow chillies that I had chopped, deseeded and soaked in boiling water. I blended the sauce before serving to break down the chunks of chilli.

I had planned to make tortillas from scratch but it had been a trying week so I just  got a packet of the pre-made ones, bunged some cheese in the middle and browned them off. There was also a salsa of tomato, red onion, cucumber and jalapeno with a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lemon.

The sauce was not fantastic, though the chillies did add a nice earthiness. The texture of the cheese in the quesadillas was a little odd, kind of grainy.

Penne with Vodka Sauce (by G)

I was cleaning my room the other day and, inexplicably, found a miniature bottle of vodka. After consulting the internet it turns out there is such a thing as vodka pasta sauce... so I made that.

It's nothing much, fried onion and garlic, crushed tomatoes from a tin, vodka, cream, salt and pepper. That lot is then mixed through some cooked penne pasta and topped with parmesan cheese. I had some bacon so I crisped that up and added it as well.

The result was okay, a bit like a creamy tomato sauce with a hint of cinnamon - I guess that was the vodka.

Chicken Parma (by Biggs)

Today was a bit of a full on day so once I got back to my hotel room I was fairly unwilling to leave it again. Once I discovered there was chicken parmie on the room service menu there was no moving me. I didn't eat the salad beyond the cherry tomatoes.

Alas I then drank all the mini-bar beer so did end up having to leave the hotel to buy a 6-pack to replace it all.

Pickled Pork, Sauerkraut and Potato Salad (by G)

I didn't go to too much effort with this one. All I did was pickle some pork steaks in apple cider vinegar with some sugar, salt, pepper corns and a bay leaf mixed in for flavour.

After a couple of hours of pickling I griddled the steaks and served them with some sauerkraut from a jar and a basic potato salad with a mayonnaise dressing and some fried bacon.

Pretty simple, but satisfying.

Griffith Vietnamese (by Biggs)

I flew into Canberra today for work. Fortunately my frolleague (a term he coined tonight) Nick and his delightful girlfriend Steph rescued me from my depressing hotel room and took me out to dinner.

We headed to Canberra institution Griffith Vietnamese. Last time I was in Canberra, Kirst recommend I have dinner here so was glad to get the chance this time round.

Steph is vegetarian and Nick is celebrating meatless March so we decided to get a bunch of vegetarian delights to share. One sizzling with bean curd, a black bean something something and a noodle dish with some tasty savoury tofu.

The highlight of the meal was a table visit from restaurant owner Mr Tan, the unofficial mayor of Griffith. If suburbs can have a mayor, Mr Tan is the man! He touched me and everything.

Actually, the real highlight of the meal was spending a touch of time with Nick and Steph. Thanks for dinner guys!

Kangaroo with Raw Cauliflower and Broccoli Salad (by Biggs)

There were several reasons dinner was going to be served late this evening. Fortunately I picked out a dinner that would only take about 10 minutes to put together. Finally, a reason to eat raw foods.

The salad was raw cauliflower and raw broccoli, red onion, bacon and a dressing of mayonnaise, mustard and Old Bay Spice.

I asked G what protein to cook and he suggested kangaroo. I wasn't sure how to approach the cooking of the roo and decided to go about it much the same as lamb. Four minutes on each side, four minutes resting.

Dinner was pretty good. My favourite bit was the bacon. Oven baked streaky bacon is the way of the future.

PCP and Curly Fries (by G)

I was going to make a chicken BLT for dinner but then I was in the mood for some pork so I got some pork steaks instead.

I hammered the pork steaks out a little before frying to keep them thin, then assembled the burgers on a Kaiser roll. The contents were regular mayonnaise, coriander, salad greens, smoked processed cheese, the pork tomato, some fried bacon (pork in another form), and some wasabi mayonnaise.

The addition of coriander was due to the fact that I thought I had some mixed lettuce leaves until I went to make the burger, then I couldn't find them. I did eventually find them so both the coriander and the lettuce went on the burger.

I was excited to introduce Biggs to the smoked processed cheese slices - they are truly the greatest innovation of the past 10 years and complimented the other flavours on the burger perfectly.

Unfortunately I over cooked some of the curly fries, hence the darkness you can see on some of them in the photo.

By-the-way, PCP stands for pork, coriander, pork or perhaps pork, cheese, pork. I just thought PCP for dinner was amusing.

Vegetable Jalfrezi (by Biggs)

Tonight's dinner is a tribute to the fine nation of India and their timely departure from the World Cup.

The vegetables in my jalfrezi were cauliflower, carrot, capsicum, onion and beans. They were cooked down in a base of tomato, vinegar, chili, praprika, garam marsala, cumin seeds and onion seeds.

I went to the local Indian shop and, when I asked for onion seeds, they gave me Nigella seeds. There was much contention in the household as to whether I was us using the right seeds or not but it turns out that the term 'onion seeds' is a little misleading.....not actually the seeds of an onion. I had the right ones.....seeds of a, err....nigella.

I also served some naan, paneer and mint with dinner. It was tasty but I'm sure not ready for a vegetarian lifestyle quite yet.

Chicken and Mediterranean Salad (by G)

I decided to make something simple and reasonably healthful for dinner. A nice griddled chicken breast with a sprinkling of paprika, onion powder and garlic powder and a salad.

The salad contained some mixed lettuce leaves, an avocado I forgot to use on Tuesday, kalamata olives, red onion, capsicum, toasted pine nuts and some feta. There was also a dressing of cider vinegar and olive oil - it was not very good so I used it sparingly.

I think this meal was pretty successful as a palate cleanser for the excesses of the past few weeks.

Pork Belly Tortillas (by G)

I tried for something simple and elegant for this evenings tortillas. Biggs was not at home so I bought some pork belly, cut it into strips and marinated them in a Korean BBQ sauce/sriracha mix, then griddled them up.

These simply went onto a tortilla topped with cabbage and mayonnaise. A swizzle of sriracha on top completed this minimalist approach to tortillas.

I was a bit dissatisfied with my slicing skills - the pork belly pieces were thicker than I had intended. In the end this turned out to be a happy problem.

Tunisian Lamb Ribs (by Biggs)

This looks great doesn't it? Well, it was not. But, it was room service so I guess I shouldn't have set my expectations quite so high. I did get to eat dinner in bed though so that sure was satisfying. The ribs were edible enough I guess but I'm not sure what the sauce was meant to be and the other side of that toast was burnt to an absolute crisp.

Hotdog and a lot of Coleslaw (by G)

I was craving a bit of fresh salad after the piles and piles of salty meat the night before so I made up a jumbo bowl of coleslaw. I hemmed and hawed for a long time as to whether I was just going to have coleslaw for dinner and eventually came to the conclusion that a little animal protein would not go astray - hence the hotdogs (made simply with fried chevups, caramelised onion and tomato sauce).

There may not appear to be too much coleslaw in the photo below - I can assure you, I ate about 5 times that much before the night was out. The hotdogs were great, I'm glad I decided to make them in the end.

Vietnamese Pork Noodle Salad (by Biggs)

Tonight I find myself eating with work colleagues in the restaurant of a seedy hotel in Brisbane's deep North where we're all staying at for three days of work meetings. 'Seedy' is probably a bit of an exaggeration. The restaurant seemed quite nice on the surface but they still forgot to actually cook my noodles.

Brazilian Meats (by Biggs)

Oh boy! Meat o'clock arrived hard and fast tonight with an evening out for Brazillian BBQ. I don't know where to start. How about a churrasco list?

• Spiced caramelised pineapple
• Cassava cake filled with Spanish chorizo and cheese
• Brazillian cheese bread
• Salada
• Brazillian coleslaw
• Roasted beetroot
• Tomato and onion salsa
• Wagyu blade in soy sauce and beer
• Lamb rump in herbs, honey and lime
• Pork belly with pawpaw sauce
• Beef strip loin with rock salt
• Pork collar in mustard and orange with bacon
• Honey soy drumettes
• Fillet in garlic and onion
• Flap beef in bourbon
• Spicy pork chorizo
• Beef tri tip in chimichurri
• Lamb leg with herbs, peanuts and yoghurt
• Beef rump cap
• Chicken thigh with peri peri
• Pork crackling
• Marinated chicken hearts (on special order)

Now that I see it in list form I'm not quite sure how we're still conscious. And the list doesn't even mention the beers and caipirinhas! Oh yeah, then we went to a tiki bar for zombies and more beer.

I'm going to go have a little lie down!  

Beef Cheek Stew on Sweet Potato Mash (by G)

The steamy pile below is a kind of Mediterranean beef cheek stew made with beef cheek, onion, tomato, cumin, carrot, chick peas and... other things.

The recipe, and there was a recipe, called for the sweet potato to go into the stew. I decided, however, that it would be better as a mash, so I mashed it up with a bit of butter, some cumin powder and toasted cumin seeds.

I told Biggs it was made from one a cheaper cut of beef - it was entertaining to watch her, out of the corner of my eye, try and guess what horrible kind of terrible offal I had served.

Noodle Fries (by G)

 This is not very different to the last meal I cooked, and was partly devised to use up some stuff I had.

 

It is basically noodles flavoured with soy sauce, chilli sauce and a touch of sugar mixed with some fried onion and chorizo then topped with coriander and potato wedges.

 

It was an odd combination to be sure... not unpleasant, but unexpected - despite the fact that I cooked it and knew what went into it.

 

Yakitori (by Biggs)

Tonight I took Fi out to celebrate her Birthday and how to better celebrate but with meat and booze. We'd spoken about going to Bird's Nest together a number of times so it was the obvious choice.

I put Fi in charge of ordering drinks and entrees and she went with pints of Asahi, edamame and omelette. A great order....the omelette was incredible.

We then moved onto a 7 skewer set....you've seen this a couple of times before on the blog.

Then dessert of creme caramel and lime sorbet. Perfect.

I wanted to take Fi for an after dinner cocktail at Depo alas we arrived to discover the heartbreaking news that it's closed. We went and drowned our sorrows with violent (but delicious!) mixed drinks at a nearby tiki bar.

Happy Birthday Fi!

Pork and Fennel Sausages, Egg and Chips (by G)

I was at the Swiss deli the other day getting Biggs and myself some snacking pepperoni and noticed they had Itallian pork and fennel sausages. I locked that away for future reference.

I simply fried the sausages and served with a couple of fried eggs and some packet wedges.

Sadly the sausages were not as great as I expected - they were a bit watery and grisly. Pretty disappointing, thought the eggs and wedges were sound.

Nagomi (by Biggs)

I got an email from my work friend Monique the other day saying "You. Me. Nagomi?"

Nagomi is an all-you-can-eat Japanese place down by the water so of course my instant response was "YES".

We ordered a bit of everything....mainly delicious fried goods. As usual the takoyaki were my favourite.

Pasta Bake (by Biggs)

This is not one of Hugh's Three Good Things series but it is however three things on a plate. The things are pasta, cheese and jarred pasta sauce.

I don't was to talk about it.

Chicken and Tortillas (by G)

I had planned to make Biggs my famous corn tortillas from scratch but fuck that - I was too tired. Instead I bought a packet of little flour tortillas and served them with a whole chicken breast in a Mexican inspired sauce.

The sauce was just minced garlic and bacon (because I had defrosted some by mistake) with red onion, red chilli, green chilli, cumin powder, paprika, oregano, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, a tin of tomatoes and some stock - simmered for ages with the chicken breasts in situ.

The result was not too bad. Note how I artfully dumped a bunch of chopped fresh coriander on top for flavour and presentation.

Halloumi Salad with Sausages (by Biggs)

I decided to aim for something more closely resembling healthy. Sure, in the end there was plenty of meat and cheese involved but there was also some green stuff, a vegetable and nuts.

Pizza Pies and Things (by G)

I was pretty disappointed to discover that Biggs had not honoured Pi Day the day before so I decided to rectify that oversight tonight with a homemade pie.

Alas, Anita was around and regaled us with graphic design tales and I quite forgot to get started on making dinner. Luckily there is a man down the road who will deliver mediocre pizza pies for a premium price. He will also deliver French fried potatoes, chicken wings and garlic bread.

The pizzas were not very good (as per usual). One of them allegedly had camembert on it - it had something on it that's for sure...

Cheese Burger (by Biggs)

I was disappointed in myself for ordering us take-away cheeseburgers last weekend and thought I should rectify the situation by making some myself.

This guy has put a fair bit of thought into how to make a good cheese burger so I took my major cues from him: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/07/ultimate-bacon-cheeseburger-food-lab.html

I was particularly proud of my bacon weave but the crowning glory was definitely the sauce of mayonnaise, ketchup, dijon mustard and sweet mustard pickles.

Double Pork and Noodles (by G)

This is just a meal of noodles, some Asian green things, oyster mushrooms, garlic, coriander and pork.  The twist is that it contained two types of pork - pork rashers and Chinese barbequed pork.

To tie it all together I made a bit of a sauce of soy, stock, savoury chilli sauce and corn flour. I bought sesame oil especially so that I could finish the dish with a health dose of flavour, but then forgot to add it.

Biggs and I sampled the barbequed pork when I got it home to test the quality (it's tiresome to have to do this every time I buy barbequed pork but it's a necessary chore) - in comparison to plain slices of pork dinner was only ever going to be just okay.

Hummus Crusted Chicken (by Biggs)

I wasn't entirely convinced you could hummus crust a chicken breast but the internet was convinced you could and it was something a little different so I went with it.

I covered a couple of chicken breasts with a tub of hummus and seasoned it with paprika, porcini salt and pepper....the three Ps.

For healthfulness I served it with a simple salad of snow peas, tomatoes and cucumber.

Fish with Gnocchi (by G)

One of the most vexing aspects of life is that I have a sustainable fish app on my phone but never seem to be able to get any sustainable species of fish from the place where I buy fish - on this occasion the markets in the city.  I simply fried the fish (orange roughie in this case) with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon and served it over some homemade gnocchi.

I was very careful during the first half of making the gnocchi to measure everything out exactly, then I got distracted and lost track and added too much flour to the amount of potato - subsequently the gnocchi turned out a little doughy (but still about a million percent better than the stuff you get fresh in the packets from the supermarket).

The sauce was just some pre-made pasta sauce with onion, fresh tomato, a de-seeded birdseye chilli and some stock added.

The fish was about as terrible as the kind you get in microwave meals for one. The sauce was pretty good - Biggs commented that it had the perfect amount of heat for her palate - it is indeed a good thing that I bought a bag of about 50 birdseye chillis, that should last most of the remainder of the year.

Corn Tortillas From Scratch (by G)

A couple of weeks ago I bought some dried Peruvian corn kernels with the plan to make my own corn tortillas from scratch (well, as close to 'from scratch' as I can without growing the corn). The corn needs to soak for some hours to become tender before grinding and that has been a bit of an obstacle because I keep forgetting to do that step.

The corn kernels are jumbo sized and skinless so I soaked them in straight water - to do the job properly you are supposed to cook them in a water lime mix (lime the chemical, not the fruit). After the corn had soaked for about 24 hours I drained it and stuck it in the food processor until it was pretty fine. Upon inspection it was not fine enough and the processor didn't seem capable of getting it any finer so I finished the job with the mortar and pestle.  After adding some water the corn made a kind of course gruel so I added some store bought mesa harina to get it to a more doughy consistency.

Despite looking okay as a dough it was crumbly and hard to press. After a little experimentation I managed to press out a few rounds and cook them on the stove top. To my surprise they were quite excellent but hard like flat taco shells or giant corn chips - interesting. I think maybe the lime is important to get a soft texture. No matter, there is room for experimentation.'

I should mention that I had my crispy tortillas with some guacamole and a tomato salsa - simple flavours to better appreciate the tortillas.

Chicken Ribs (by Biggs)

I was heading straight from work to the Powerhouse for a little Dan Sultan this evening so didn't have a dinner plan. I knew something would take my fancy walking down Brunswick Street - there are so many good restaurants - dumplings and Thai and Nepalese and Japanese. Infact, anything you can think of. Unfortunately everything took my fancy so I couldn't decide.

I'm pretty frustrated with myself for ending up in Nando's - the last option on the street. There's nothing particularly wrong with Nando's but every other option would have been a better decision.

Chicken rins and chips was the ultimate decision. It was fine.

Brined Ribs (by G)

Biggs and I like a good brined chicken so I was looking for a new recipe for brined chicken, then it occurred to me that you could probably brine any meat. Pork is the best meat so I decided to brine some pork ribs. The brine recipe I got from the internet was a mix of salt, apple cider vinegar and garlic.

After 24 hours absorbing the delicious brine the pork ribs were rubbed with brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and a variety of peppers.

Perhaps the only cooking process better than brining is smoking so I thought I'd try to double down on the flavour. In the bottom of an oven tray I sprinkled some soaked wood shavings (professional smoking wood not just something I found on the ground), put the ribs on a rack over the top and firmly sealed the tray with foil - then it was into the oven for a couple of hours of heat treatment.

The meat turned out very succulent, but not very flavourful. There was not too much smoke created, maybe I had to cook it for longer. Also the dry rub was a bit bland so I basted the ribs in Mexican tomato sauce for a little more kick.

Slices of white bread and packet kale coleslaw served as simple side dishes.

Burgers and Chips (by Biggs)

Did you know you can get this shit delivered? It's evil and gross but the world was already well-fucked before I came along. And, I'm coming off a fairly smashing weekend so....here we are. 

Secretly, being able to get McShit delivered makes me feel like we live in New York City. Magic!

Sushi (by G)

Biggs was away and I was not too hungry at dinner time so I decided to check out the sushi train place near where I live - it changed owners months and months ago and I've been meaning to go back to see if things have improved.  Being a Saturday night I was a bit trepidatious thinking the place would maybe be overflowing with people.  No worries there, the place was deserted -  I thought perhaps the place was closing for the night because the staff were sweeping and wiping down the tables - I think perhaps they were just trying to keep busy.

The positives about this place now that it is under new management - it is very clean, there no shortage of seats, condiments or chopsticks. The main negative, for me, was that the sushi was so old I suspect it may have been part of the inventory passed on from the previous owners.  I can eat a lot of bad sushi train sushi - on this occasion, however, I was only able to choke down one with chicken inside, one with chicken on top and one with tinned tuna inside. It was all terribly shit. It is the fastest and cheapest meal I've had in a long time.

To be a little bit fair I think perhaps their focus has moved away from the sushi train and towards bowls of Japanese curry and noodles. Judging by the lack of customers this is not a success either - but I would like to give them another chance...

Katsu Curry and Curly Fries (by G)

I had a lot of leftover katsu curry from the other day so I made up a simple meal of reheated curry, supermarket brand barbecued chicken and curly fries.

The curry was great, as was the chicken - but the curly fries were a revelation. They are about the only oven bake fries I have ever bought that actually got crispy within a decent amount of time - they tasted a bit chemically... who cares if that is what they need to do to make oven fries that don't take an hour to cook.

Pastizzis and Pasta (by Biggs)

We spent the day drinking beers overlooking the water in Sydney which was a fucking delight. In the late afternoon we demanded our local friends came up with an equally special way to spend the evening. There were mutterings about where we could go for dinner - somewhere fancy? Somewhere hip? Somewhere unique?

In the end it was decided we would go somewhere cheap and cheerful and close to home. We headed to a little pastizzi cafe which I think might have been called Pastizzi Cafe. It was a delightful little neighbourhood place where the owner commanded the strip. When we arrived he cleared a table of gaggling ladies who had finished eating and were in the process of finishing their multiple bottles of wine. "If you're not eating - leave!".

We ordered a round of pastizzies (only $2.50 each!), my favourite being the chicken and chorizo. Then we had to wait over an hour for our pasta - normally an unacceptable wait time but we were completely boozed and having a wonderful time so were happy to stick around. In the end it was worth the wait - little pillows of beef ravioli in a simple chili and garlic oil. Delicious! I love a place that does one thing and does it well.

Tapas (by Biggs)

Tonight Fi and I found ourselves in a new and magical land. More specifically we found ourselves in Sydney. We're down here visiting some friends and are quite excited to be 'on holidays' in a real town where places are hip and happening....and stay open later than 9pm.

We had a bit of an ambling (booze-based) dinner, wandering up King Street in Newtown popping into anywhere that took our fancy for drinks and snacks. Officially dinner was tapas which I've had a hankering for all week.

Anchovies and cheese, empanadas and chicharones - all washed down with a jug of sangria.

Where to next?!

Mini Pizzas (by G)

I tried to make pizzas in a hurry, that was not a great decision.  I made a pizza dough earlier in the day, then come dinner time I flattened balls of the dough flat with the tortilla press. When I bought the press the woman who served me said it was an excellent secondary use for tortilla presses ("Just don't tell the Mexicans"). She is probably right but my dough was a bit too wet and did not press well.

To keep the pizzas simple I just made two kinds, margarita (tomato paste, mozzarella and basil) and a pesto pizza. The two main problems were:

1) the pesto was too fine - I had made it in the drink whizzing attachment for the food processor and it pulverised the whole think to an almost liquid consistency.

2) The pizzas were not crispy but doughy. I think the issue there was that I forgot to buy baking paper and instead used a silicon baking mat, which is pretty much the opposite of a baking stone. The results were disappointing.

Egg Salad and Ham (by Biggs)

I was watching the office last night and one of the characters was partaking in egg salad for lunch. At this point I realised I'd never been really sure what egg salad is so I was going to make it for dinner. It turns out egg salad is essentially just hardboiled eggs in mayonnaise. Nothing wrong with that but I decided to jazz this one up a bit by adding crispy bacon, chives, celery, paprika, sriracha, Worcestershire sauce and mustard powder.

I spent quite some thinking what to serve with my egg salad and in the end went with the classic ham combo. I thought it would be nice to have gherkins through the salad but I couldn't be arsed chopping them so just served them on the side.

Bread with dinner seems to be becoming a standard in out household.

Duck Carnitas (by G)

For some time I have been thinking about making tortillas out of ducks but could not find any reference  to them on the internet. Most duck tortilla searches returned recipes for Peking duck pancakes, which is not what I wanted. Then last week I came across a few recipes - not that I used any of them, I just wanted reassurance that it would not be shit.

I fried the skin of a couple of duck breasts then sprinkled the meat side with some salt, pepper, oregano, paprika and coriander then oven roasted them at 160 Deg C for a couple of hours until they were easily shreaded. I shredded them then fried the pieces just before serving.

To go with the duck was a salsa of avocado, red onion, corinader, red and green chilli, lime and salt - as well as some chopped pickled vegetables from a jar (which are ordinarily too tart to eat but which I though would cut through some of the richness of the duck).

Almost the best thing about dinner was the homemade tortillas. They were flour with a touch of corn mesa and were (mostly) wonderfully uniform thanks to the heavy duty tortilla press I bought recently. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that baby.

Scrambled Eggs (by G)

I had forgotten Biggs would not be home to cook me dinner so, in the interests of frugality, I decided just to have scrambled eggs. I had eggs and milk and bacon so the only thing I had to buy was some bread.

I was going to go to a bit of effort and make a bacon bowl using a small spring form tin to serve the eggs in, but I forgot to get baking paper and didn't want to risk the bacon sticking to the tin. Instead I tried to make a bit of a bacon cookie by chopping the bacon into little pieces and frying them down until they stuck together - they didn't stick together, so I just made scrambled eggs and bacon sesoned with a lot of pepper.

For simple scrambled eggs it turned out to be a bit of a dick around - the result was not too bad though.

Chicken Korma (by Biggs)

I had an Art With Benefits meeting tonight so wasn't home for dinner. I feel bad for abandoning G and leaving him to fend for himself but I wasn't sure how long the meeting would go for. It turns out I was home by 8 so could have brought G home some take-away Indian too but he'd already eaten.

I picked this Chicken Korma up from an infamous take-away place just down the road from home. It's cheap, good and fast. Exactly what I needed tonight. The naan from this place is excellent but I refused to wait the extra 30 seconds it takes them to cook it fresh....I was in need of some couch time.

I must have frequented this place A LOT when I lived alone because the owners exclaimed "Great to see you lady, it's been so long!"  Then again, maybe they shout that at everyone when they walk through the door.

Picnic on a Plate (by G)

Tonight I though I would see out Summer by presenting a picnic on a plate (I actaully thought it was the last day of Summer but it turns out it was actually the first day of Autumn).

The picnic consisted of home baked and griddled bread, potted shrimp, chicken liver pate and pork pies.

The pate tunred out to be pretty bitter, the only thing I can atribute that to is that I didn't cook off the brandy for very long so it may have retained some of the alcohol taint. The pate was pretty much inedible.

For the potted shrimp I used regular cooked prawns and cut them into little pieces rather than using little shrimp. They were set in a pot with clarified butter flavoured with paprika, white pepper and nutmeg. They tasted mostly of mild prawn and butter - I don't know what happened to the flavour. The potted shrimp were edible but bland.

The pork pies were made with pork meat whizzed to a fine mince, pork hock, hickory smoked bacon, sage, shalot and pepper all wrapped up in a hot water pastry. Once the pies had been baked and cooled they were enriched with some pork stock and gelatin that was poured in through a hole in the top then cooled. The pork pies were very excellent - as is to be expected given they were based on a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Upon reflection I should just have made a dozen pork pies - maybe a couple of dozen...

Oooh, I forgot to mention the pickled vegetables from a jar - they were pretty unpalatable, I think they had been pickled in straight vinegar. That's put hair on the soles of your feet.