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.