Eat, eat, eat

I am back in Ulm after almost a month in Sydney. How hard it was to tear myself away from the blue skies and ocean and come back to the snowy whiteness of Ulm. It is pretty here though, just freezing and a high risk of slipping when you venture outside for a walk but lovely nevertheless. Christmas in Sydney was warm and full of food. In fact eating is pretty much all we did and I am not sad about that. Food is such an important part of holidays for me and there were so many Sydney specialities that I had been craving, I didn't even attempt self control. It was an eatathon without exaggeration, the type of eat fest that leaves you quite satisfied that no stone was left unturned, no craving unmet, for after all, who knows when I will visit again? It was with this mindset that we began our break and with lobster in XO sauce that we ended. Yum.

If I cast my mind back, I can offer you an overview of all this consumption. We started the trip with a family gathering where very delicious smoked salmon was served, that was a highlight. We went out for fancy Indian food. Then there was Hong Kong style crab in Ashfield. There was a sushi train making the rounds somewhere in there, the food I miss most in Ulm. An amazing meal and I am talking great here, at Restaurant Balzac. Prawns kept popping up everywhere, which isn't unusual during summer in Sydney. Mangoes. Avocados. Asparagus on the BBQ. Pink MOET on my birthday. Ho mok, ho mok, ho mok! I only ate it once but trust me, it deserves three mentions.

But it wasn't all just thoughtless gorging, there were some more meaningful moments too. Meaningful eating moments that is. My sister treated our family to lunch at the restaurant where Husband and I were married. The food didn't let us down and we were equally impressed by the service, the waiter remembered our event and we were able to reminisce on a few of the more interesting moments. Even better than that, was the panna cotta I ordered for dessert. Oh my, if only words could describe! We tend to share dessert in my family as we are all usually stuffed from the previous courses but I tried my very best not to share the panna cotta and they were, bless 'em, very understanding about it.

Then there was the icing on the cake moment, which actually was a cake. Not just any cake, but the very same raspberry and hazelnut cake that was the middle tier of our wedding cake. Baked as a gift by the very same friend just so we could enjoy a trip down memory lane. It was sliced at the thinnest and eaten like gold by my very, very appreciative family.

Are you getting hungry yet? I am.

Christmas was a time when I realised how lucky we really are to be able to indulge ourselves the way we do, flying to Sydney to be with family is in itself a luxury and I have to say that just vegemite on toast or crumpets and honey are enough to make me feel like I am in Sydney. And my wok frozen to the balcony is enough to make me feel like I am in Ulm. Welcome back. Take a look.

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.

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...

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.

A garden from Eiden

Eiden, a shop I can imagine taking my sleeping bag into and staying over night in. The porcelain ware in this shop is just so pretty, it makes for a lovely atmosphere. It feels sort of other worldly when you go in there and I am never in a hurry to leave. Luckily the owners are very friendly, and I am often treated to cups of tea and a quick catch up in between spending my hard earned euros. I don't think my pictures really do it justice but they do have a nifty website (only in German though) with some photos that will give you an idea of why this place is so special. Jan and Dagmar Eiden, the owners also feature on the website photos. They make and sell porcelain cups, mugs, bowls, vases, soap dishes, the list goes on, not to mention lamps and lights. Everything is handmade in their work shop. Unbelievable! We don't have much of a garden, but to get ready for spring I bought a few hyacinth pots from Eiden and planted some bulbs. I am so looking forward to the flowers.
As you can imagine, as with anything special, Eiden's porcelain is not cheap but worth every penny if you appreciate the hard work involved and the individuality of the product.

A vase on display in the shop
Hand dotted bowls
Porcelain ceiling light - it's on the wish list!

And since I have shown you my hyacinths here, I will also show you Husband's beloved chillies. He plants them from seeds he has dried and this is the stage they are at now. These plants usually give us a yield to keep our freezer stocked for a good few months.

The babies

Ulmer Wochenmarkt or the weekly Ulmer market

It is a strange time to go to the market at the moment. Winter persists but spring is fighting back, there is no clear winner and so we are in limbo. Quite a few of the usual stall holders weren't there, I guess for this very reason. We have the tail end of winter veggies and not much else, although oyster mushrooms seem to be everywhere. Husband and I made our usual Saturday morning trip. We stopped to by eggs at our chicken lady, but this can be a complicated business, because she is right across from our meat man. We didn't really want to stop at the butcher, but he spotted us before we could get away and when he greets us with a robust 'Guten Morgen' we can't really walk past can we? We ended up with 2 types of smoked sausage and 3 types of ham.

Our butcher

It is also time for pussy willow (see new header photo), and ignoring husband's impatience I stopped to buy. Now there is a bunch sitting pretty on my dining table.

Nobody takes pictures at the market. This guys thinks I am weird. Notice the cathedral in the background?

The market is on every Wednesday and Saturday morning. It takes place in the town square, known as the Münsterplatz where the Münster, the cathedral with the highest church tower in the world, provides a dramatic background.

The potato man is out of Annabelle potatoes, our favourite. He says that they are an early potato. What does that mean? Does anyone know when is early for potatoes?

Blaukraut or red cabbage

Husband makes a mean Blaukraut. He cooks it the traditional way, with vinegar, sugar, onions, an apple, bay leaves and preiselbeere or lingonberries. When my mum used to make spaghetti bolognaise, bless her determined wooden spoon, somehow it always ended up tasting like curry. A dish without a pinch of her mixed spice was unfathomable. Husband cooked fish (perch), with the Blaukraut and somehow it turned out like a schnitzel. It was crumbed and fried but never before has fish had such a schnitzely quality. Needless to say, I had seconds. I love schnitzel.

Ever seen apples displayed like this before? All in the name of being easy to unhook and take with you.

These are the last apples for the season but the apple man will continue to sell what he has stored, as well as schnapps and juice over summer. He also does a roaring trade with berries. I am his number one raspberry customer, I'd like to think so anyway. When I first bought apples from him, I always used to get a free one for the road. This practice stopped after he noticed that Husband benefited from this freebie more than I did. I have a floury apple phobia, so someone has to test bite first. Husband's bite means there is little but core left by the time it's my turn. As the weather gets warmer, the market becomes unbearably beautiful. I'll have to try to remember my camera so I can show you what I mean.

Chilli Walter's New BFF

This is a bit sad, I know. My thermos is my friend. She has been loyal all through 'the intensive', offering support with warm lidfuls of jasmine green tea. Thank you Husband who brewed the tea fresh and filled her up every morning, and to my 'favourite Singapore supplier' (who will, from here on, be referred to as my FSS) who gifted it to me last Christmas. I love you both but there can only be one BFF. And because I can carry her around, she wins.

Rituals

A very happy one year paper anniversary to us! One year later and I am certainly older but none the wiser about how people get to their 10th, 20th, 30th... Hard work it is indeed! But I think we've done pretty well. No actual acts of violence though admittedly plenty of thoughts. Lots of bad words (expressed and suppressed), and plenty of brow furrowing moments. Through it all we have managed to recoup and come together and perhaps even like each other a little more than before. It has been rewarding too. Many lessons learnt and so many happy memories created that one wonders where the brain will find room to store a whole lifetimes worth. We have definitely earned our stripe. To celebrate we are treating ourselves to a trip to Berlin. This will be my third time to Berlin in less than a year (I think I'm addicted) but my first trip with Husband. I have travelled there by rail and by road but this time we are splashing out and going by plane! This sort of makes up for our very cheap but hopefully not too dodgy hotel. Now, our relationship doesn't really have much to do with a boiled egg, except for when it comes to our ritual of weekend breakfasts. This is something that, one year on, I realise has become a big part of our lives. Not every weekend is a lazy weekend, but a good few of them are and one of our favourite things to do is to set the table, inside in winter or on the balcony in summer and to have a proper breakfast. By proper I mean not the type of brekkie you would have during the week. Nothing quick and convenient. A proper German breakfast is quite different to what we do in Australia. It is mostly cold, like cheese and smoked meats. We often receive home made jams as gifts, our favourite at the moment is plum and whisky. Then there is of course bread (sourdough is very common here) or pretzels and danishes - bought fresh from the bakery. I guess, there is really no need for me to explain how or why this has become a regular part of our lives. It is just really relaxing - he eats, I talk, he nods - I keep talking. It's great. I usually like to have a boiled egg, mashed on buttered toast with salt and pepper. Not always, but sometimes when we have just been to the market and bought some good eggs from a local farmer. I really do think that these moments are what keep me sane. Mushing that egg on my toast, sipping my tea, talking about my week. A boiled egg is equivalent to therapy in my house. My theory is if we keep up our weekend breakfast ritual I'll see you back here this time next year...

Ways to make a Chilli smile

There are some things that make me really happy. Contrary to popular belief, I am really not that hard to please. It is really the simple things that put a smile on my face, though if you would like to overwhelm me with extravagance (I can point you to a 900 euro cashmere cardigan I have been eyeing), I will not stop you. That is testament to just how unfussy I am. I will not stop you from showing me you care. Express it in whichever way you will. Am I an egocentric vanity smurf? Perhaps. But it is just nice to know that people back home in Oz are thinking of me. That they remember that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I just moved to Germany.

Here are a few things that arrived in the mail from Oz courtesy of thoughtful friends.

The cover of a beautiful card...


Imagine finding these in a parcel...

It's always nice when there's something in there for the man of the house too...


Now, this did not arrive in a parcel but is nevertheless the cause of much amusement to me. Husband is overdue for a haircut, hence the Charlie's Angelesque bed hair when he gets up in the morning...


* The first picture is of a shadow cast on my living room wall of a miniature bike given to me by my brother. It appeared for a fleeting moment before the sun disappeared behind the clouds.

Motto for 2009

This is a wonderful Christmas present from my sister, one of my faves! I have been using it daily and for those who know me personally (those privileged few), you are probably nodding knowingly. This is the perfect motto for me.
Here I come 2009.

There is a little bit of history behind this too. If you have never seen this before it comes from a British war propaganda poster. You can read more about it here www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/pages/history