Avocado, wasabi and lime dip

'What's that?' is an often heard question when an unsuspecting guest comes across avocado in a salad. Strange then, to have come across this recipe in a land where unpeeled avocados can sometimes be mistaken for papayas or even mangoes.I tried this after watching a reality TV cooking show where the contestant paired it with sashimi style salmon. I just eat mine with corn chips or crackers or in a sandwich. So simple but still so full of flavour. I can't give you a recipe with exact quantities, I really think this has to be made to taste. I use one avocado and then add a little squeeze of wasabi (I use the one that comes in the tube), say about half a teaspoon, and then a squeeze or two of fresh lime juice, say about 1 tablespoon. I then mush it all up together until you have mixed the ingredients through and then have a quick taste. At this point you should perfect it according to your taste buds. More wasabi and lime until it really hits the spot, but a little at a time as wasabi can quickly become the enemy. Although, some do enjoy that nose hair burning sensation. You should consider your guests though, if you are not the only one eating. You could also add salt if you think it needs it, I usually don't. I will add a picture the next time I make this. There seems to be none left by the time I remember to take a photo.

Lime or lemon filling for lime or lemon tart

This is a short recipe for lime or lemon tart filling. It is from the Marie Claire 'Flavours' book. I find this one easy and suitably citrusy, the way I like it. I have tried other recipes, one that used condensed milk and found it way too sweet. I guess I'll have to do some experimentin' and come up with my own version, but till then...

Lime tart filling

1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup cream
1 cup lime juice

Place the sugar, eggs, cream and lime juice in a bowl and mix to combine. Skim the top of the mixture to remove any bubbles or foam. Pour into the tart shell, place in a 160C oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is just set. Refrigerate the tart until firm.

They also include a note that says you can replace the lime juice with lemon or blood orange juice if you so fancy. To make the tart shell, I use the sweet shortcrust pastry recipe from Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. Also really easy to follow and it hasn't failed me yet.

Plenty of personal growth ahead

Wow. No entries at all for the month of September. Which really has been worse for me than it has been for you. Believe me. It isn't like I haven't had anything to write about, I find sometimes strange being that I am, that I avoid Chilli Walter precisely at these times. So after a one month hiatus, I am back with some new realisations. One of them being, it doesn't matter how many times I check my own page. It is NOT going to magically update itself. So what's been going down? Well, the biggest news is that we are moving, leaving Ulm that is and going somewhere other. Not Sydney because that would be going home. Not Paris because that would just be way too perfect and of course, how can a person grow when life is just so all round perfect? One can't is the answer and obviously, I have lots of growing to do. And how does one accomplish all this growing? So that one day, when one is older, one can also guarantee (because we all know these two things don't go hand in hand) that one is wiser? Challenges, of course! Now, seriously speaking, I thought I had met and conquered challenges enough by moving to Ulm. By even entertaining the possibility that I could spend the rest of my life here. When I had accepted that, I thought I had achieved some pretty major personal growth. Clearly not. Clearly, the powers that be feel that I need to be cultivated even more. Perhaps and yes, I see things much more clearly now, I have been an ungrateful twat, living here, complaining about the fog and the lack of good Asian food. So much so that life thought, hmmm... why don't we send her to the desert? See how she finds that. And so, yes people, we are moving to Saudi Arabia, to Riyadh. Right in the middle of the desert. Yay! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to doing it all again. Meeting new people, learning a new culture and a new language and trying to feel at home enough at least for the next two years. Husband has a new job and he is pretty excited about the whole thing and of course being the good woman that I am my first priority is to support him. Goodness knows he has always supported me in my ventures. But it is still difficult not to feel sometimes, just some occasional times, like throwing a shoe at him just because he is so chirpy about it all. I know it is important and that Husband's half full and my half empty make a very good balance but nevertheless there are times when my hands are just itching, my brain using all its powers of self-control to control that urge to throw. What am I worried about you may ask? Why not just lighten up and see what Riyadh holds for me? Yes, quite right this is the attitude I am working toward and I am sure I will get there. I am after all a highly adaptable person, I say Grüss Gott now for Pete's sake! It's just the things I have been reading I guess, and I have been doing quite a bit of reading to prepare myself for my time over there. Alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, and I do think this is terribly unfair as I can't imagine a quick shot of something would make the new surroundings just that teensy weensy bit more bearable. No pork either which doesn't bother me all that much really. One of the things I am obviously looking forward to is all the new food I will get to try. Foreign women must also cover up when out in public, which I have to say, strangely enough, is also on the list of things that don't bother me all that much. I mean, don't you have those days when you wish you didn't have to think of what to wear? Now, I'll be able to throw anything on and have bad hair days galore and no one will be able to tell because I will be all cloaked and veiled. Among the things that bother me is that society is totally gender segregated. I have read a bit about this but I think I won't really get the full idea of what this means till I am there and that is a wee bit scary for me. I am moving to a country that I have never visited, do normal people do stuff like this? There was an option for a weekend trip where Husband and I would get to look around and get an impression of Riyadh, but there were some issues with me obtaining a visa and we don't know if this can happen now. I think I would feel much better if I had some sort of first hand impression of where I am going to be living rather than going only with information that I have gathered from the internet. I am doing a German course at the moment though, and really enjoying all the contact I have with other foreigners trying to learn the language. There are quite a few Muslim guys in my course and it has been great talking to them about my move. When you tell a German person or any westerner that you are moving to Saudi Arabia it is almost like someone died. There is the downward glance that suggests they are very sorry to hear this most alarming news and then the quick cover up and a positive smile, 'think of all the things you will learn. How interesting!' One of my students, when I told her that I was moving to Saudi Arabia because of my husband's job, busted out with 'now that is love!' She could never do it. The guys in my class on the other hand are really excited for me. I have been able to tell them that I am pretty scared about the culture shock and they totally get it. But most of them are totally jealous of me. I am after all going to be living in the land of Mecca, where they dream of visiting at least once in their life. They keep telling me what a wonderful culture it is and how warm the people are and have already offered to help with my first Arabic words. I guess if these guys are anything to go by, I haven't got all that much to worry about.

Raspberry picking

I went raspberry picking for the first time last week!!! It felt like a holiday to be able to do this right in the middle of my working week. A friend and I decided it would be a nice idea and they were so cheap. On the way to the raspberry field, I noticed some other fruit growing in abundance at the moment. So abundant in fact, that you can find pears on the street and no one seems particularly excited by this, except for the foreigner with the camera. There are trees so full of plums they look like bunches of giant purple grapes. Everywhere you look, something seems to be growing. Here are some pictures of my mid-week holiday, the raspberries and one of the many ways they ended up being eaten.

The leaves sort of act like a shelter for the berries and you have to really crouch down and see what's hiding behind them to find the good ones.The camera shy raspberry farmer, who wasn't too shy to hand feed raspberries to young raspberry picking ladies when he wasn't being photographed.We ended up with 1 kilogram of raspberries and took home 500 grams each. They were also very delicious and I think my friend ended up eating more than made it into the punnet. They taste best when just picked. The whole experience was like a dream, raspberries being my favourite berry and all.Other than cramming them into my mouth totally fresh, I also used them to top a lemon tart.I haven't got a recipe for you, there are so many recipes for lemon tart out there or you probably already have one that you like best. My friend said she ended up baking something with her berries too, I'll try to post the pictures here so you can see where the other 500 grams ended up.

Auf dem Kreuz

Some may have noticed that I have been absent for a couple of weeks now, that is because Husband and I went on a little holiday. More on that soon but what I had wanted to share with you before I went away, is a lovely dinner we had with some friends at "Auf dem Kreuz". I ran out of time before leaving, that is why you are only reading about this now. "Auf dem Kreuz" in Ulm is one of my favourite restaurants. It is located a little bit away from the main drag, it is the only restaurant in a residential area, so some may not have heard of it. In summer time, when the weather agrees, they set up the traditional beer benches and if you get in early you can enjoy your dinner outside, admiring the beautiful old buildings that surround you.
That's exactly what we did a few weeks ago, ringing and reserving and emphasising our preference for an outside table. We got everything we requested and were excited about the food. The menu is seasonal and changes weekly, sometimes daily. There are some staples though, like "Zwiebelrostbraten" (Swabian steak with onions), but the unique thing about this place, is that it not only has Swabian specialities on the menu but also whatever the chef seems to feel like cooking. It isn't unusual to find a Thai style, glass noodle salad on the menu, for example, or Lebanese style octopus with mashed white beans, all pretty exotic for this neck of the woods. I have been to this restaurant many times over the last few years and have to say, while the dining experience is generally good, there are times when the wheels do fall off the wagon, if you know what I mean. Like the time we decided to take a big group of friends on a Saturday night and ended up waiting over an hour for our food. Or the time we went on a Friday night and it took a good half an hour to get the waitress's attention to order dessert and then, after waiting another half an hour with no sign of said dessert, we decided to cancel and leave. These two incidents did occur on very busy nights but be warned, while things can run perfectly smoothly even on a busy night, Friday and Saturday nights can leave you waiting longer than expected. Having said that, the service is friendly and they generally do their best to look after their guests. There was that time, when Husband ordered rose instead of red wine and didn't notice his mistake when she presented the wine to us. He only noticed something untoward when she poured the wine in his glass to taste, and rather than rich red, he got pale pink. She very graciously changed the bottle for us without charge, even though the fault was ours. On the particular Tuesday night that we visited, all elements came together very nicely, that is to say, no wheels falling off any wagons, resulting in an extremely pleasant dining experience. We ate, drank and very merrily enjoyed the warm, summer evening.
Not that I wasn't enjoying the company of our friends, but I have to admit to eavesdropping on a conversation at a nearby table. I heard English and an Australian accent and that always gets me curious but our friends were talking too loudly and I wasn't really able to pick up on who she was and what she was doing in Ulm. Nevertheless, she was lucky to have such foodie friends that would take her to "Auf dem Kreuz" for dinner. I think, I have taken almost everyone who has visited me in Ulm here to eat. If I haven't been with you, it is because I hadn't discovered it myself yet or because they were closed (they are not open on Sunday night or Monday night, are only open for dinner and take an extended break over Christmas). On the night we went, our friends ordered the very Swabian dish of lentils with "Spätzle" (Swabian noodles). This dish is also served with a Wiener sausage and a big ol' slab of smoked pork belly.

Husband ordered the lamb cutlets with chanterelles, served with delicious looking roast potatoes that I didn't try because I was busy tucking into my lamb curry.
Yes, that's right, I ordered the curry. This is probably the only restaurant in Ulm, the Indian ones included, where I order the curry without fear. It was well spiced, easy on the chilli and very satisfying. I was also impressed by the raita that came with it.

There are some I have spoken to around these parts who find "Auf dem Kreuz" snobby, this is something I don't really understand (if you have eaten here, let me know how you found it), compared to some of my dining out experiences, this does not rate at all on the 'snobby' radar. Although, that could just mean that I am one of the snobs and therefore feel quite at home here. I find the atmosphere laid back and very relaxed. Overall, a very nice dining experience, one to visit if you are ever in the area.

Jinxed

Just a short note to explain that my last post 'Dear Sydney, Ulm is a ruthless flirt' was not accessible with some versions of Internet Explorer or maybe all versions I am not sure. It had something to do with having composed it as a Word document originally or it could have been that Sydney just wasn't happy. It should be fine now, let me know if you are still having problems.

Dear Sydney, Ulm is a ruthless flirt

Dear Sydney,

City of my childhood, how did it come to this? It has been two years, the longest we have ever been apart and I have some confessions to make. Lately, I have been noticing some strange occurrences that at first I tried to deny but now I can't ignore. I would have slapped you to your senses if you had happened to pass such a notion by me 6 months ago. Three months ago, I would have denied all accusations defensively, aggressively even. That would have been my denial stage. Today, I am ready to confess it all. Sydney, Ulm has been flirting with me and worst of all, I think I have been flirting back. I guess it all started when the weather started getting a little warmer and I was able to wear skirts again and you know how much I like wearing skirts. Then the sky seemed to be an endless blanket of blue and well, that sort of reminded me of you. Up to this point, I was completely unaware that it had already begun. There I was running around barelegged under the blue sky, completely innocent to the seduction. Then, I went to Meera's house and she showed me her... um... really big zucchini and that is when I think I started flirting back. I mean it was clear Ulm was showing off but I had never seen one quite as big as this before.
I admit, the blue skies have been replaced with clouds, it has been raining almost daily but I would be lying if I said I didn't find it a little bit romantic. The clouds are the prettiest shade of grey, the same colour as my favourite t-shirt and you know how much I like grey... You also know, because whatever happens between us, you will always know me best, how much I love the smell of salt in the air. It is the smell of Sydney beaches that I missed in my first years here. So, you can imagine then, how shocked I was, when I breathed in the summer breeze yesterday. I mean, Sydney, salt is one thing, but sniffing the sweetness of berry flavoured air, that is another. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries wafting in the air like perfume and you know how much I like berries. And perfume. And all things sweet. Even the inedible, sweetness of air...
Yes, I sometimes get the feeling that Ulm quite likes me and wants me to stay. This could just be the separation talking Sydney, I mean it has been two years and perhaps come winter and the return of the fog, which is an unfavourable shade of grey entirely, I will regret my confession but the winter clothes are already in shop windows and I have caught myself thinking that I can't wait for mulled wine and boots and snow again. Now I know you are wondering who I am. What has this city done to me? There, I'd have to ask you, can anyone resist the attractive power of multi-coloured cauliflower? Where have you been hiding these Sydney?
Or for that matter, a 1 litre serving of beer?
I know you can't feel good about yourself after the last picture. Being the lover of beer that you are, I am guessing that feelings of inadequacy may be creeping in. Don't be too hard on yourself, no city can have it all. At least perhaps now you are starting to understand how powerless I really am in all this. It is a hopeless game of tug and war. Maybe you think I am easy. Maybe I am. But this assault on my senses has made me weak, even I am surprised at the spring in my step as I go about my day. Maybe it is this German course that I have been doing. I have heard it said, that the language is the key to the culture. Whatever it is, I am not proud of myself but I couldn't hide the truth from you any longer. I can only reassure myself (and you) with the thought that I will be seeing you again soon for Christmas and hopefully Ulm will get the hint. Will Ulm back off? Will I be at a BBQ imagining myself at the Christmas Market? Only December will tell. Till then Sydney, I will try to keep my straying heart faithful.

Yours determinedly,

Chilli

Highly Recommended

A quick recommendation if you are at a loss as to what to cook this weekend or indeed during the week when you are pressed for time. I have been doing a fair amount of cooking lately and enjoying it very much. I am often inspired by other bloggers' recipes and felt the need this time to pass on the information. OK, so here goes... Yesterday I got home pretty late and wanted to cook something that would satisfy my very savoury craving for Asian flavours but of course, I didn't want to be standing there for ages preparing. Armed with some organic minced pork and a red capsicum I had picked up on my way home, I put the rice on as soon as I walked in the door. I then went here for Chez Pim's instructions for Pad Krapow Moo. Since reading this entry of hers, I couldn't get the picture out of my head. I had never tried it before but I knew this is what I felt like eating. Before you knew it there was a flurry of action in the kitchen as I put my seasoned wok to work. The result was better than good and all I can say is, try it! Be sure to do the egg exactly the way she says, it will take you to a level you never dreamt a fried egg could.

Mini Holiday Weekend

Not sure if words will do our weekend justice, the pictures probably don't either. But fun it was! It was great to be 'in the nature' as the Germans would say.

Schmutz

An exchange in the bathroom after discovering a strange mouldy substance.

Me: Hey, look at this! What do you think this is?

He squats down for an extra good look. Forehead scrunched, nostrils flared, eyes staring over the top of tortoise shell frames. And then the declaration. 'SCHMUTZ!' It was uttered with such disgust, that I felt I had somehow smuggled in and started breeding this Schmutz in our bathroom. That was the end of that conversation. It was a one word reply that got me wondering, why life is so simple for men. Why they don't have to consider changing their names after marriage, why they have a standard suit to wear to every occasion and why, above all, they know the answer to all questions. Even when they don't really know the answer. I could tell that whatever it was, wasn't clean, but what it was, how it got there - those were the answers I was looking for. This in turn probably made him wonder, why women are so complicated and need to discuss everything to the point of exhaustion, when a sponge and some spray seems a simple enough solution. This, believe it or not, brings me to my German class, where our teacher asked us today, to write down our favourite German word and the reason this word has made it to No.1 in our ever growing vocabulary. There were a few contenders for my favourite word. 'Schadenfreude' was one of them. A word brought to my attention by a friend. A word also used in English and which translates to malicious joy or revelling in someone else's misfortune. It is used, I guess because we don't have a word that is as fitting. The meaning is nasty but she liked, as do I, that there is one official word for that in German, whereas in English, we have to string a couple of words together to express this concept. The other German expression I like, is 'ab und zu' which means 'from time to time.' It isn't one word, but when you say it fast it sounds like aponzu and that reminds me of ponzu. A very delicious Japanese sauce. But after having a good think about it, the aforementioned bathroom incident came to mind and the declaration of 'Schmutz' made me laugh out loud. It has made it to my top spot because the way it sounds is just so perfect for what it wants to describe. If you look up LEO you can hear the pronunciation and see that the following words are given as possible meanings for the word Schmutz: dirt, dirtiness, dung, feculence, filth, filthiness, foulness, grime, grunge, mud, ordure, pollutant, slush, smut, soil, squalidness and squalor. How appropriate. A word that covers all manner of yuck.

And you? Any favourite words and reasons why?

Bucolic St Gallen and the pigs

Though I haven't been posting as often as I would like to, there has been lots going on and lots to tell you. Unusually, time has become a bit of a luxury. I have finally been convinced by you know who to take a German course. It is an intensive course, which means it runs daily and I have to plan all my work around it. Anyway, I am in my second week of the five week course and am learning all sorts of interesting things, like adjective endings in the Dativ and the Akkusativ. Not. I love English. I keep wondering what I did in my last life to deserve the fate of not having German as my native language and having to learn English instead. Ah well... The grass is always greener, as they say. What I really wanted to tell you is that a few weeks ago, we visited St Gallen. Husband has some friends there and we stayed with them. Unfortunately, I left my camera at a friend's place and didn't have it with me on the trip, so I'm not able to post any pictures of the quaint, little city here. I am not sure why but I really enjoyed my stay there. I kept marvelling at the old houses, the window boxes and the pretty countryside. I guess, I must have been marvelling pretty obviously, because Husband's friend commented, 'It's bucolic, isn't it?' To which I responded 'What is bucolic?' Though, part of me wanted to correct him with, 'You mean beautiful' and another part of me wanted to pretend I knew what he was going on about. I am after all the native English speaker, English instructor and all-round English expert. After our walk, said friend pulled out his mega-huge edition of the English dictionary, which contained a definition I couldn't argue with. Bucolic, as a noun, is a country person or a short poem about country life. Bucolic as an adjective, can be used to describe country scenery or rustic countryside. I am very pleased to have this new word in my clearly not-as-developed-as-I-thought vocabulary. I am starting to wonder how I ever did without it, bucolic seems to fit a lot where I am. The other thing I did was go shopping and I am still not sure how this happened but everything I bought, in some way pertained to pigs. I found it very bizarre when I looked at my purchases at the end of the day. Not very sensitive, I know, with all the negative pig things going on at the moment. Nevertheless, below you will see my new piggy friends. The first one (moving clockwise), a stuffed toy pig was bought for someone else but I can't give it away. That has never happened to me before, so I am taking it as a sign that it was meant to be mine. Notice the little black bird on its hind quarter? Too cute. The second is a pork cookbook called 'Schwein & Sohn' titled 'Pork & Son' in English but I find the German title so much better. It is an award winning French cookbook filled with amazingly photographed recipes and nostalgic stories. And what is even more freakily coincidental, is that the book cover matches exactly with my stuffed pig's nose. Must be a sign that everything I cook from here is going to be a crowd pleaser. I can't wait to cook from it. In the third and fourth picture you can see what we have named our 'Tetsuya' piggy bank. We are saving up to eat at Tetsuya's the next time we are back in Sydney. Let's hope there is enough in there by our next trip or it may just be a shrimp or schwein on the barbie for us. Which wouldn't be bad either.

Izy's soy & ginger pork with silken tofu

There are way more varieties of tofu than I am aware of and even a tofu lover like me is not sure if she wants to try them all. I do know that not all varieties are bland, smoked tofu tastes to me, like cheese, so I definitely wouldn't use it for the following recipe. This recipe, is for the variety of tofu that has a smooth texture and can be partnered with stronger flavours. Silken, tofu is one of my favourite types because it is, well, so silky. I love the texture. It is sort of like set custard or wobbly jelly. I like to eat this tofu the way my mum cooks it and that is with minced pork, cooked within an inch of its life and flavoured with soy sauce. The shiitakes are my addition. I think they absorb the flavours really well and add a bit of character to this dish.
I have cooked this since my student days and continue to do so for my devoted, food loving husband (one of the reasons he remains so devoted, me thinks). When my Australian friends were visiting, I made this for dinner one night, with about 500grams of pork belly. I went to the butcher and ordered the meat but somehow, didn't get across that I wanted it minced. My most excellent friend diced the pork into small pieces, not as small as mince of course but small enough to make me marvel at her patience and small enough to make it work in this recipe. While you don't have to use pork belly, I wouldn't recommend this with lean pork mince, the result will be very dry. The fat content helps to keep the meat moist as it is fried for quite a long time.

Izy's soy & ginger pork with silken tofu (for 2)

300g minced pork OR minced pork belly OR pork belly cut into tiny pieces
1 x 300g square of silken tofu
6 black dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water till soft and chopped
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/4 cup or 60ml soy sauce (and some extra to taste)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, crushed or grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 red chillies, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced

In a wok, heat peanut oil until the surface of the oil shimmers. Add the ginger, and garlic and stir-fry. When the ginger and garlic are fragrant in the wok, add the pork and stir fry vigorously for 2- 3 minutes. Your wok should be hot enough so the meat fries rather than stewing in its own juices. Add half the soy sauce and continue to stir fry, once the meat is brown and cooked turn the heat down but not too low. The aim now is to get the mince to a nice dark brown colour, like what you can see in the pictures.
Keep adding the rest of the soy sauce gradually, tasting the mince as you go. From this point on the addition of soy sauce is to your personal taste. You don't want it to be too salty but you do want it to be quite tasty with the soy and ginger flavours. Add the shiitakes and continue to stir fry so the mince does not burn but continues to turn a deeper shade of brown. The whole process should take about 20 - 30 minutes and the flavour of the mince should be quite strong but not over powering. Remove the wok from the heat, place tofu in a serving dish that can fit into the wok and allows the lid of your wok to also fit on snugly.
Spoon the pork over the top of the tofu, and at this stage you can add a little more soy to the dish or simply sprinkle with the sesame oil. Place the tofu and pork dish in a wok filled with with 2-3 cups of simmering water and cover with the lid.
You want the entire dish to steam for about 15 - 20 minutes to warm through the tofu and incorporate all the flavours. When steamed through and the tofu is hot, sprinkle with spring onions and red chilli. I usually serve this dish with rice and if available, stir-fried Asian greens, if not I just slice some fresh cucumber.
Note: Feel free to use more tofu for this dish or less pork for that matter. I am usually in the position of trying to convert lovers of pork to tofu, so the 1:1 ratio works for me.

Germany's Next Ugly Face

If you don't live in Germany, then you may not be aware that for the first time, in about 4 seasons of the show (I think), a black woman has been chosen as GNTM. A historical moment, I am sure you will agree. There was even a guy in the audience holding up a 'Yes she can!' sign. Just so you understand what this victory means to some. Like me, I am sure every dark skinned person in Germany has been told that she should enter next year. Now is our time, ladies. Like we have all been sitting around waiting for public acknowledgement of our beauty! Man, we knew we were hot from the get go! Now this win has even led to me being the centre of a couple of jokes, 'How wude!' I hear you say, but all in good fun I can assure you. A couple of days ago my photographer friend sent me this:Hmmm... something not quite right about that. Yikes! Now, you'd think with that kind of body, any head would work, right? WRONG! At least I can be certain of one thing now. God really did know what he was doing when he put my head on my short, belovehandled body.

For the real deal, check out this clip:

Best wurst in Zürich

Not like we haven't done enough travelling lately, but since our suitcases seem to be permanently packed, we decided to visit family in Zürich this weekend. They were travelling through and thought it would be nice to meet up. Fun! A three hour drive from Ulm and an opportunity to see a city that I hadn't visited before. Before they arrived, we had the Saturday to look around town and to see what the city had to offer. Besides amazing chocolate shops and your standard retail outlets, there were some very attractive looking food establishments. One of these was 111 year old HILTL, which claims to be the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe. While we didn't eat there, the place was packed, a good sign and food was also available to take-away. We walked past a couple of interesting restaurants but strangely, many places were closed for business on a Saturday night. The prices also made my eyes water, food is much cheaper in Ulm. Zürich prices are more like Sydney prices and I've kind of blocked those from my memory. We did have the good fortune to stumble across this gem, the Sternen Grill on Bellevue. I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of sausage in the world but couldn't bear to drag Husband away from this place, he looked like he was in heaven. I mean, it was the closest he will ever get to drooling and tail wagging as he looked through that window. I'm glad we stopped. At €4 a sausage this is a snack or a meal that won't leave too much of a dent in your wallet but compared to about €2,40 for its Ulmer counterpart it did make me cringe a little. We tried one white bratwurst, these are made from veal and it tasted, simply, like no other sausage I had eaten before. Really very good. It came with a little cup of hot mustard and a bread roll. The adjectives that come to mind as I try to describe the flavour sound like I am trying too hard to be some sort of sausage connoisseur and I am not, so I won't even bother. Suffice it to say that I can't imagine anyone taking issue with this recommendation. Now, we ate it pretty quickly between the two of us which means I clean forgot to document this discovery with a photo or two. But having come home and done some research I can direct you here and here for some pretty nice shots of where you should definitely stop by, if ever in Zürich.

I'm not trying to make you jealous. Promise.

May has been a ridiculously great month. I almost wish it wouldn't end. I mean, not to rub your noses in it or anything, but I have been doing a lot fun stuff. I just wanted to update you on what has been going on lately, and why I love being in Europe at this time of the year. Last week was Husband's birthday. Yay! We celebrated with some good friends and a BBQ and my sister came over from London! Yay! After the party, we (Husband, sister and I) decided to chase the sun by driving to Italy where we stayed in a small, wine producing town close to Verona. We basked in sunshine, blue skies and temperatures of around thirty degrees everyday. I'm telling you people IT WAS GREAT. Here are some pictures from the BBQ and from Italy. Just to give you a little bit of an idea of what we have been up to...

Cooking at Meera's: Tom Yum Soup

I have a friend here in Ulm named Meera. She is from New Delhi and I met her in the Ladies' Room located in the Ulm University canteen. As you do. She was really friendly and back then I must have looked like a total freshie. It was my first month in Ulm, I was taking part in a German course at the university and feeling a little bit lost. Anyway, she was very friendly, asking me where I was from and what I was doing here. We exchanged numbers and have since become good friends. The other day, we met in the city and were confronting our usual dilemma of what to have for lunch. While Ulm is not short of cafes and restaurants, nothing we suggested to each other really sounded very appealing at all. There are times when you just feel like something you can't quite put your finger on and you know you probably will have to cook it yourself. That's when I remembered, that in my own kitchen, I have been quite obsessed with all things Asian. I have a Neil Perry cookbook, I've had it for ages without really looking at the recipes and now, all of a sudden, I have been using it on a daily basis. And that is what I found myself telling Meera. 'The other day I made a chilli paste,' I told her, 'and I used that chilli paste to make my own Tom Yum soup.' 'I'll never buy the instant paste again!' I found myself declaring. Before we knew it, we were both heading to her place with all the ingredients we would need for our lunch. What a joy it was to cook in Meera's kitchen. Hers is about 20 times as big as mine, with the luxury of bench space I have not known in years!
What follows are the recipes for the chilli paste and the Tom Yum soup. You need the chilli paste to make the soup. I have added some notes with modifications of mine. This makes quite a lot of chilli paste (about 3 cups), so you could reduce the quantity by half but I wouldn't recommend it as it keeps in the fridge and you can use it to add spice to just about any Asian inspired dish. All the ingredients are available in Ulm, I usually go to Asia Shop Nguyen, opposite Galleria Kaufhoff and on top of Metzgerei Bunk. They speak excellent English and if you can't find something on the shelf, just ask, it is usually hiding somewhere.

CHILLI PASTE (Simply Asian, Neil Perry)
2 cups peanut oil
1.5 cups diced red onion
1.25 cups sliced garlic (I only had enough garlic for about 1 cup and it still turned out OK)
6 tablespoons dried shrimp, pounded (if you don't have a mortar and pestle you could just whizz them in a blender for a few seconds)
1 cup palm sugar (I added about half a cup and that was enough sweetness for me, I recommend you add sugar to taste)

1 cup tamarind pulp, mixed with 1.5 cups hot water then pushed through a sieve (while I did add the tamarind when I made this at home, I totally forgot it at Meera's, we didn't really miss it though, but then we are Indian with guts of steel. The tamarind helps to tame the chilli so don't miss this step if you feel that is what you need)

3 tablespoons chilli powder
1/2 cup fish sauce

In a wok (or a deep fry pan), heat the peanut oil until just smoking. Add the onion and fry until very dark brown but not burnt.
Remove with a slotted spoon, drain and set aside. Add the garlich and fry until deep brown, then remove, drain and set aside.
Add the dried shrimp and fry until golden brown.
Return the onion and garlic and to the wok, then add the palm sugar and cook until dark brown and caramelised. Add the fish sauce, chilli powder and tamarind water, and boil for 30 seconds.


Pour the paste into a blender and process until smooth. Store in a screw-top jar in the refrigerator, where it will keep well for several weeks.

Use this paste to make the Tom Yum soup below. Please note that if you have an outdoor stove, it would be a great idea to use it, as the chilli paste does really have a strong smell that lingers. If not just open all your windows as wide as they can go.

SOUR AND SPICY PRAWN SOUP or THAI TOM YUM (Simply Asian, Neil Perry)
4 cups fresh chicken stock (I used a concentrate, still delicious)
1 stalk lemon grass, trimmed, cut into 2cm lengths and crushed (I used two)
5 slices galangal, crushed
2-3 kaffir lime leaves, crushed in your hand
2 tablespoons CHILLI PASTE (recipe above)
4 tablespoons lime juice
5 green bird's eye chillies, chopped
2 teaspoons palm sugar (I didn't add this as I found my CHILLI PASTE sweet enough)
4 tablespoons fish sauce
6 large cooked king prawns, shelled and deveined
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped coriander leaves
6 oyster mushrooms, sliced in half

Heat the stock in a pot until boiling. Add the lemon grass, galangal, lime leaves and chilli paste. Season to taste with lime juice, chillies, palm sugar and fish sauce - the soup should be sour but balanced, and fiery hot.
Add the prawns, coriander and mushrooms. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat. I chose to add about half a bunch of white, baby asparagus (these are in abundance here at the moment) and some pressed tofu.

Delicious!

Golden syrup puddings

I think these may be the most baked item of my life so far. They are what I feel like eating when I need some love and it is nowhere to be found. I bake them when I find Husband dusting the TV cabinet, grumbling that I need to 'contribute to this living community more'. By 'this living community' he means apartment and by 'contribute' he means, keep the place clean you lazy so & so. I bake them when my students tell me that the DVD that I thought was hilarious, and couldn't wait to show them is LAME. When a non-native speaker uses the word 'lame' you know it must be bad. I bake them when it has been raining the whole week and a check of the forecast makes me wonder how many people are contemplating ending it all because they can't stand another month of overcast, below 20 degree weather. Am I the only one who feels like making a cubby house with my doona and living in it forever?

I haven't been able to find golden syrup in Ulm so I get my sister to bring over the Lyle's brand from London.

These puddings are also pretty quick to put together, so I make them for dessert when people come over, timing it so that I can get them out of the oven just when the guests start wondering what's for dessert.
I guess what I am trying to say is, I make them all the time and I don't really need much of an excuse. Not very helpful for Gina and The Twins. Yes, I know, this is my first mention of Gina and The Twins but they're old friends. Gina and The Twins belong to my, er... midsection. Which seems to be growing though the rest of me has stopped. Causing, as you can imagine, some minor (at risk of becoming major) problems with proportion. So familiar have these disproportionate bits become to me, that I've named them. Don't let that put you off baking these. You are probably far more disciplined than I am and for the Australians heading into the colder months, you can hide your Ginas under you warm clothes. No worries. I got this recipe from a book called 'Old Food' by Jill Dupleix. My brother bought this for me when I was still in high school. A whole twenty dollars it cost him. He can rest assured, it wasn't too bad an investment.
Golden syrup puddings

4 tbsp golden syrup
140g butter
140g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
140g self-raising flour

Heat oven to 180C. Butter four 200ml oven proof moulds, and pour a tablespoon of golden syrup into each one.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add milk and stir in well, then add flour and stir in lightly, until the mixture is quite thick. Spoon the mixture into the pots until three-quarters full, and cover each one with buttered foil. Place in a baking tray of hot water and bake for around 45 minutes until the puddings rise, and spring back to the touch. Remove from oven, and rest for 5 minutes before removing foil and turning out the puddings carefully onto serving plates. Serve hot with pure cream or clotted cream.

Note: I usually bake these in a 6 cup muffin tray with a capacity of about 125ml per cup. I find these to be quite rich and this smaller serving size suits me better. I just butter a big piece of foil and cover the entire muffin tray with it, folding in the edges. Of course, if you bake them in pots the syrupy part is more moist and gooey then when you use a tin. When it comes to turning them out, I do so on a big plate or tray that can hold them all and then transfer them to serving dishes. The white bits you can see in the pictures are chopped macadamia nuts, I added 50 grams to the batter with the flour.

I ate lunch for the two of us...

Happy Mother's Day Izy. Remember when you were here? Around this time of year it was, doing funny things like writing your name with pebbles on the Italian seaside?
We didn't forget you this year. We went out for lunch to celebrate and I made sure I ate enough for both of us. Just so you know, I had asparagus soup with smoked salmon strips in it, grilled fish that came with wild garlic pesto and three different coloured pasta and vanilla mousse with strawberry-rhubarb compote. Yes, I thought you'd approve. The servings were huge, and had you been here we would have shared but you weren't, so now I am stuffed. Hope you had a good day too.

Nothing to tell you

How can it be, that after a month of absence I still feel like I don't really have much at all to say? Perhaps the truth is, that there is indeed so much to tell you, and well... Where do I begin?

The Australians

We were visited by some Australians in April. The type of Australians that come and stay, expecting hospitality and tours of the country. Did I hear someone say 'high maintenance'? That would have made for a much better story, but they weren't. They were the type who didn't ask for much at all but appreciated everything to such a degree, you felt like giving them more. They left us with a super cute 'Thank You' card and some fond memories. Unfortunately, nothing juicy to write about. They were here for about 3 weeks, taking off now and then to see other parts of Europe but always returning to declare that Germany was their favourite. Now, this may have had something to do with the beer and the leather trousers but I'd like to think it was the tours and the hospitality. I am so glad they enjoyed it. They ate our food and loved it, drank our coffee and tolerated it, sat in our garden and chatted in it. Our place hadn't seen so much action since last Christmas. On parting they made promises to re-invade and invited us to do the same the next time we are in Oz. You don't have to ask us twice. After all that blood, sweat and hospitality we felt like we needed a break.

One of the Aussies twisted my arm into climbing the Münster. The view from half-way up.

The Holiday

Husband always maintained that he wanted to do nothing but lay in the sun, winter had turned his skin an interesting shade of transparent. But I on the other hand, like to think of myself as a young and sprightly adventurer. Surely a week at a resort, with nothing but sun and sea would kill me? I insisted on Madrid. I mean, what kind of person has lived in Europe for three years and hasn't even been to Spain? I put my foot down and Husband agreed. Madrid it is, he said. And that is where I came undone. If he had said 'no' I would've insisted and Madrid it would have been. But he said 'yes'. Knowing, I believe, precisely what kind of reverse psychological effect this would have on me. I started thinking and the more I thunk, I realised the very thought of scouring the city for the perfect tapas made me lethargic. Madrid isn't going anywhere, I told myself. Maybe a week of indulgence and nothingness is what I really need? And that is how we ended up in Makadi Bay, a few kilometres drive from Hurghada, in Egypt. A huge, but tastefully designed resort (almost as big as a small German village and possibly with more restaurants than one), where we could snorkel with the many multicoloured fish of the Red Sea. After 7 days of lying by the pool, swimming, snorkelling and handsome Egyptians, I've never felt fresher. And you can't see Husband's veins any more.

Where we stayed, Makadi Palace by night.

The Garden

Yes, we have one now. For those of you who know of our front garden as the bare, desolate place of wood chips, things have changed. The garden no longer serves as the neighbourhood cat restroom. It is home to life.

Photo taken on the mobile (sorry), our Japanese Larch.