Pork Hock (by G)

Biggs and I used to put away a lot of pork knuckle back in the day so when I saw pork hocks at the butcher I knew it would be a winner.

It didn't turn out to be the winner I was hoping for - mainly due to time. I was on a complicated sleeping schedule to watch the Canadian formula one GP and over-napped giving me little time to oven roast the pork hocks.

Never-the-less I coated the hocks in salt (numerous types of salt - black, smoked, Himalayan mountain, regular and the weird smoked style) and oil then oven roasted them for about an hour and a half. They were not at my preferred degree of crispiness on the outside so I bunged them under the grill to crackle up some.

For sides I roasted some potatoes in the fat left over from roasting beef ribs a while ago and cooked some sauerkraut (from a jar) with bacon and onion.  The sauerkraut was the standout of this dish... oh, also the gravy - which was made from simmering pork bones for hours and hours, that was also good.

Bacon and Chorizo Pasta (by Biggs)

I know G made a chorizo dinner last night but I'd already planned on a chorizo based dish tonight and given it's a long weekend I thought we'd earned two in a row.

This one was just a simple pasta with tomatoes, chorizo, bacon, parsley, onion, garlic and two types of cheese. I think individually portioned them and we ate them straight from the oven trays.

I sensibly made twice the amount required so we've got some left over for long weekend snacking. Oh, there was also garlic bread.

Francesinha (by G)

I don't know where I came across this monstrosity but it was lodged in my brain somehow. Basically, the francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich with all the fillings, topped with cheese and a unique tasting beer sauce.

I don't know that my version is too authentic, it contained chorizo, pork chipolatas, ham and slices of roast beef (the recipe called for steak but I was not in the mood for steak). The sandwich was topped with cheese then popped under the grill to melt it, then over to top of that went the francesinha sauce - beer, tomato paste, whiskey and cayenne pepper simmered with bay leaves then thickened with a milk and cornflour slurry.

It was one of the more unusual things I've eaten lately. Unfortunately I almost filled up quality testing the various ingredients while I was making it and could barely finish my sandwich once it had been completed.

Cannellini Bean Salad (by Biggs)

As mentioned in my comment on last night's dinner, I've retired from cooking so, tonight was a bit of a can opening competition.

It's about zero degrees in Brisbane tonight so I thought a cool refreshing salad might suit the season!

The salad was simply cannellini beans, tuna, red onion, capers, eggs, parsley and chili. Served with olive bread.

I can't quite remember where I found this recipe but think it was from a cannellini bean feature in The Guardian. G's going to mock me for that. I think he think's that I think reading The Guardian means I'm superior and highly intelligent. It doesn't help that I start almost every sentence with "I was reading in The Guardian...." in a highly affected voice. Wanker.

Char Siu Pork, Salad and Rolls (by G)

I, like any right-thinking human being, enjoy Chinese BBQ pork (char siu) - the butcher shop just down the road does an excellent version. This time, however, I decided to DIY it.

The process is pretty simple - make up a marinade of salt, five spice powder, paprika, white pepper, Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, tomato paste, molasses (well, I didn't have that so I substituted with some ketjap manis), garlic and a dash of water. I also added some red food colouring to get the authentic look.

The recipe I pillaged called for a 6 hour marinating time but I went with about 48 hours before cooking in a super hot oven for about 25 minutes a side then finishing off under the grill - not forgetting to baste with marinade the whole time.

To cut through the richness of the pork I quick pickled a packet coleslaw mix in a combination of salt, sugar and apple cider vinegar. There were also breadrolls so one could make a pork and salad roll if one chose to.

My thoughts are that I could have lacquered the pork more frequently with the marinade to get a super thick coating on the outside, otherwise this was a pretty successful replication of char siu.

"Spicy" Beef Enchiladas (by Biggs)

G has been suffering from a serious case of the dreaded lurgy for the past few days and today I too caught the Black Death. As a result I was not keen to put too much effort into dinner. Even though it was Tortilla Tuesday, I also didn't want to serve anything family style that involved us touching shared food and spreading our germs even further. We really are quite sick.

I could only think of enchiladas as an easy, non-shared meal so, even though we've had them recently, I went with that. I was completely freaked out by cancer-causing anal polyps on Michael Mosley's Should We Eat Meat last night and was convinced it was going to be 100% tofu and vegetables from here on out. Clearly that plan didn't last. G was in fact hoping death would come faster today to put him out of his misery, so I tried to assist with a dinner of red meat, cheese and sour cream.

I did add an onion, a whole head of garlic and four chilies to try and fix us. If we don't update the blog tomorrow you'll know it didn't work.

The enchiladas were fine enough but did get a touch soggy on the top.

Stir-fried Vegetables with Pork (by G)

Biggs has expressed the desire to eat more vegetables and it occurred to me that the easiest way to do that is to throw a whole bunch of them into a stir-fry.

I fried some garlic then added balanced broccolini and carrot, mushrooms, red capsicum, spring onions and zucchini then fried them to tender. Though I'm sure vegetables have amazing flavour I thought I should kick it up a bit with some oyster sauce and ketjap manis along with some cornflour slurry to thicken the sauces. I also added a healthy dose of sesame oil.

Nothing goes better with vegetables than a decent amount of animal protein. I bought a huge chunk of pork butt for a recipe later in the week but figured I should utilise the surplus as soon as possible. I sliced off a few pieces, simply seasoned them with salt and white pepper then grilled the shit out of them. I may have taken the pork a bit past the point of crispy delicious to leathery delicious. That, and the fact I may have over used the oyster sauce, were the only two major drawbacks to this meal.