Black Wagyu Ramen (by Biggs)

After work I was heading to the Old Museum with Bonnie to see the ever-charming, ridiculously talented Dan Sultan.

We decided to have some dinner first and it was a somewhat shambolic experience. We were headed to a Japanese cafe I often frequent but got distracted on the way by a flashy new Japanese restaurant with a trendy hipster vibe. Mistake.

Between the incompetent waitstaff, shortage of supplies in the kitchen and a very complicated ordering / paying / food delivery system I was pretty frazzled. Even more frazzled when I ordered ramen only to be told the ramen restaurant had no ramen. But, it turns out if you pay enough ($33!) they will infact rustle you up a beer and a bowl of ramen.

I'm not scared to pay generously for Japanese food. In fact G and I have been known to sink a far chunk of life-savings into this habit but this was not the time and definitely not the place!

The ramen was actually quite good - savoury and served in a giant bowl - but I really do wish we'd just gone to a dingy, hole-in-the-wall place.

All I can say is.....Thank Fuck Dan Sultan saved the day.....ever-charming, ridiculously talented.

Beef Olives (by G)

Biggs is out tonight so I was cooking for myself. I was looking for something Japanese and came across a recipe for Beef Olives. I made them years ago and remember them to be excellent.

Unfortunately that was not the case today. I mis-remembered the timings and over blanched the carrot and asparagus. Under-marinated the meat (in soy, sugar, mirin and sake). Undercooked the rice - the mushrooms were good though, and the frozen parsley added a nice touch of colour.

Oh, I forgot... the spring onions were stringy and made the whole thing hard to eat...

Death Tortillas (by G)

I was prepping for dinner last night and realised, shock horror, it was Tuesday and I was not prepping tortillas. "*Naughty Word*", I said, "I completely forgot it was Tuesday".

Hopefully I rectified that tonight.  There are at least 3 reasons for tonight's combo. We still have a sirloin steak glut, I've never had blue cheese on a tortilla and I'm lazy.

The laziness led to packet tortillas. I fried up some coarse chopped sirloin steaks, red capsicum, red onion, garlic powder, cumin and paprika. Baby endive for healthfulness. Blue cheese out of curiosity.

These were pretty good tortillas, not enough meat and probably too much cheese... so much cheese... there's a bulge in my pants and it's not because I'm happy to see you.

The Full Miso (by G)

I've had miso in many forms but it is never very filling. We have quite a bit of sirloin in the freezer so I thought it would be nice to coarsely mince it and add it to something - suddenly there's a way of making miso a meal.

So I par boiled a potato and a carrot, chopped the beef up, seasoned it and fried it with some left over shallot and coriander, independently fried some shimeji mushrooms, steeped some yakisoba noodles in boiling water... then mixed it all up with some packet miso soup.  There was a shortfall in flavour so Biggs and I added some  surprisingly-mild-homemade-scorpion-chilli-sauce and some ketjap manis. That did the trick - flavour all the way through.

Miso, it rhymes with please-o - I don't think that is a coincidence.

Seafood with Beer Battered Vegetables (by G)

We had a bit of salmon in the freezer so I decided to use that for dinner, there wasn't much though so I also got some prawns. I was thinking oven fries for a side but then decided that, while potato is a vegetable, it might be good to get a bit of variety so I got a mix of the coloured stuff. Vegetables healthy - yes, normally - coated in a beer batter and deep fried, probably less so.

The salmon was fried, glazed with miso, soy sauce and honey then oven baked. The prawns were fried in oil and butter and garlic.  The vegetables (potato, cauliflower, carrot and beans) were par-boiled then coated in a mix of plain flour, corn flour, baking powder and beer then deep fried.  I also did a sauce of egg yolks, olive oil, peanut oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, capers, parsley and coriander.

Steak with Chimichurri (by G)

We have an oversupply of sirloin steaks at the moment. I was thinking about what to do with them and remembered chimichurri - the Argentinian meat sauce comprised of parsley, coriander, garlic, onion, oregano, salt and pepper - I also added dried chilli flakes because the recipe called for red pepper (which I'm not sure what is).

From my research I discovered tomato and onion salad and green beans with a garlic oil dressing are typical, so I did that. I also served bread with garlic oil.

Those Argentinians know a thing or two about meat and what to put on it.

Part Spit-roasted Pork (by G)

I had the ambition of spit-roasting pork on our own little barbeque at home. I got a battery powered spit roaster and worked out how to arrange it over the coals of our barbeque, threaded on a small pork roast and let it fly.  Unfortunately I hadn't really considered how long it would take to cook the meat - after an hour the meat was still basically raw so I bailed on the barbecue idea, chucked the meat into a super hot oven for another hour - then we ate it.

For sides I boiled up some potato pieces and fried them with bacon, white pepper, salt and garlic powder. I also fried up some onions with salt and a little vinegar.  The gravy came from a tin, but was mixed with some of the rendered pork fat for added flavour.

Despite mis-handling the meat it turned out to be delicious - probably the best pork I've ever had. 'Do you think the spit-roasting maybe added some flavour?', Biggs asked hopefully.  My suspicion is that it was just that the pork was organic and not the torture pigs we usually eat. Happy pigs are provably tastier.