Of Bicycles and Pork

Kerala-style Pork Curry

It’s been a few weeks, I apologize. We’ve been in Germany, and I’ve been very remiss in creating a new post. So much to see and do. So today, a short post on some of the things that have struck me most over the past few weeks in this country. Since we’re very much in the honeymoon phase, it’s all good.

The greenery, the forests, the trees. It’s impossible not to enjoy them as much as we are, given that we live in the Middle East. I drink in all the green, and feel it bathe my entire body in calm. And it reiterates to me again and again that greenery is central to my sense of well-being.

The kids’ parks and playgrounds. On almost every street, it seems, there is a playground. Not necessarily huge, but one where the kids can get some energy out; and most have a water feature and a sandpit. It seems a very kid-oriented community. Schools got out for the summer at the end of the third week of July, and the park down the road had a family festival going for the next two weeks – full with bouncy castles, a cool slide (my older little’s words), ping-pong, badminton, climbing wall, a zipline.  All in wooded areas with needed shade. And community volunteers to help kids all day long. All for free. Yup, free. And we have seen similar fests in many, many city parks.

And for the parents, of course, the beer. Amazing taste and variety. And. Did you know that beer is cheaper than bottled water here? Like way cheaper. But one rarely needs to buy bottled water because, unless otherwise explicitly stated, all tap water is potable. So we always carry four water bottles with us and refill them wherever we can. In between beers.

But what has struck me the most, perhaps, is bicycles. And how central a part of daily life they are. And of course, pork. To say we’ve eaten our weights in pork since we’ve been here would not be an exaggeration. More on that later, now for bikes.

Why bikes? Because my husband is a cyclist. My children learned to ride bikes as they learned to walk. Me? Well…let’s just say that when I first met my husband, 11 years ago, I could just about balance. He quickly changed that. But my kids are already better riders than I’ll ever be.

I quickly realized how central to his life bikes are, not just as sport, but a part of daily life, early on in our relationship when he would ride his bike to work from home, either his or mine. Now despite the fact that lived in Asheville, North Carolina, a self-proclaimed outdoor city, a city which calls on all nature lovers to experience it, absolutely nobody I knew rode a bike to work. Now granted, this could have been partly because of the circles I moved among…(nobody in their right minds would describe me as particularly athletic), but this was far from the only reason. The roads simply weren’t safe for bikers. No bike paths. And on many a day, when he returned from work, he would have some choice epithets for the drivers who had driven far too close to him, far too fast. And the road off my house, Riverside Drive, was particularly dangerous. Riverside Drive, as the name suggests, a lovely road that meandered alongside the French Broad River. A perfect road for biking, one might imagine. But very far from it.

Now this is not to say Asheville didn’t have some incredible mountain bike trails. So biking for sport – absolutely. Biking as a part of life? Not so much.

This was almost eleven years ago, and a lot might have changed., And there might be many among you who still live in that part of the world who might chide me for my portrayal of this particular aspect of life there because things have changed. I do hope so. (But I’m not holding my breath).

My second morning here in Frankfurt, we went downtown to walk along the Main River – to take in the sights, breathe in the green, get the kids their first of about a thousand ice creams (so far). And as we climbed some stairs up the bridge to cross the river and take in the sights on the other side, I noticed something funny on the stairs. The flight was split into what seemed like a normal part…hmmm - for regular people? And a very narrow part on one side, hmmm again…for kids? I was baffled. The two parts separated by a ramp about a foot or a foot and a half wide. Couldn’t for the life of me figure out what either the narrow part of the stairs or the ramp were for – apart from being an absolute joy for children, because of course, both my littles insisted on climbing up and down both the narrow flight of stairs and the ramp. I didn’t get a picture of it, unfortunately.

When my husband explained that the ramp was for bikers to easily walk their bikes up and down the bridge (as they walked on the narrow stairs), I was stupefied.  The only accommodation for bikers I had ever encountered previously in other parts of the world were bike paths. And even those were few and far between. I continued to be stupefied the rest of the day (and since) when I realized how common ramps like this first one were. Every flight of stairs at any of the public transport stations have similar ramps. And it is not just ramps. At one train line that was under construction, in order to avoid an interruption of the cycle path, there was even a temporary bridge constructed with ramp scaffolding so cyclists could ride over the construction without interruption. Constructed to be both fun and functional.

The temporary bridge with bike ramp. My husband thought this was about the coolest thing ever.

Wherever we go, there are accommodations made to make biking and the transport of bikes easier for children and adults alike. Every train compartment has a space against which commuters can lean their bikes. Every restaurant, even fancy ones, have bike racks outside. Bike paths absolutely everywhere, in wooded areas, on every street, in parks, through the countryside….everywhere.

Bike ramp down into a train station

Two of our bikes on a train

And the number of older people – if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say people in their late 70s and early 80s – on bikes speaks volumes for how much biking is a part of life. Much like a car is in other parts of the world I have lived in. Oh there is so much more I want to say, but I won’t.

And during his month in Frankfurt before the kids and I joined him, my husband managed to procure inexpensive, second-hand bikes for the whole family. And a couple of weeks ago, when the kids had been invited to the birthday party of a little girl who lives next door, we took advantage of being temporarily kid-less and went on a ride on our own. 25km. My longest ride ever. Yes, I am bloody proud.

On my 25km ride

On to pork, then. This thought has crossed my mind many times over the past few weeks. Perhaps bikes are a necessity to counter the vast quantities of meat, particularly of the porcine variety, consumed – they have been for us! Oh goodness the pork! And again, of course, it is easy for me to wax poetic about the pork here given that we live in the Middle East. We do have access to pork there, as I pointed out in an earlier post, but it is, as it should be, expensive. Almost prohibitively so. And so here, we have indulged.

Sausages of every conceivable variety. Marinated pork belly in thin strips wrapped around a long skewer. I’m not kidding. And stewed pork knuckle, roasted pork knuckle, schnitzel (which the kids cannot have enough of), pork ribs…you name it.

So early during our stay here, I decided to make a pork curry, which simply has to be the recipe I give you for today. When in Rome…

Pork is consumed in certain states in India, notably in Kerala, parts of Karnataka, Goa, and the north eastern states. When I started making pork curries at home, I didn’t have a recipe in mind, nor did I have a certain state or area whose flavor profiles I followed. I simply put in what I thought would taste good. Since then, I’ve become familiar with pork curries from Kerala, Karnataka, and Assam. I love all of them, and cook versions from both Kerala and Karnataka.

Today, the recipe I give you is my version of a Kerala pork curry. Every other time I have made this recipe, I have used lots of curry leaves; these, however, are hard to come by in Frankfurt, so I had to skip them. The resulting curry was still delicious – so if you have curry leaves, do use them. If you don’t, still make the curry. And while I have provided a recipe for 1kg of pork belly, the cut I used was the belly still attached to the ribs. So we cubed up the belly portion, cut the ribs portion into individual ribs, and cooked everything together. The result was incredible. Truly. So make it, and enjoy!

Kerala-style Pork Curry

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

1.     1 kg pork belly – cut into bite-sized chunks

2.     1 cup finely-diced onion

3.     2 Tbsp finely-diced garlic

4.     2 Tbsp finely-diced ginger

5.     3-4 green or red chillies (or to taste)

6.     2 Tbsp oil – either vegetable oil, or, if you have it, coconut oil

7.     1 Tbsp mustard seeds

8.     1 tsp turmeric

9.     3 sprigs curry leaves

10.  1 can coconut milk

11.  2 cups finely chopped tomatoes

12.  2 to 2 ½ tsp salt

13.  ½ cup finely chopped cilantro

For the spice blend:

14.  2 large star anise

15.  1 ½  Tbsp coriander seed

16.  1 tsp black peppercorn

17.  2 green cardamon pod

18.  4 cloves

19.  ½ Tbsp cumin seed

Method

1.     Toast all the spices in the spice blend together on low heat till very fragrant. Cool and grind in a spice mill to a fine powder.

2.     In a pressure cooker or a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil. When hot, add the mustard seeds. Allow the mustard seeds to start popping and turn the heat down. Once the mustard has almost stopped popping, go to step 3.

3.      Add the ginger, garlic, curry leaves, chillies, and turmeric. Cook together for 30 seconds.

4.     Now add in the diced onions and ½ tsp salt. Sauté on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes till onions are translucent. Don’t let the onions caramelize.

5.     Now add in the pieces of pork belly, turn up the heat, and allow the pork to start browning a bit, stirring occasionally. This should take 10-15 minutes.

6.     Now add in the tomatoes and 1 tsp salt. Stir and add in the ground spice blend. Stir well and add half the can of coconut milk.  Put the lid on, and pressure cook for about 25 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, put the lid on, stir every 10 minutes or so, and allow the meat to simmer on low for an hour and a half to two hours, till the meat is tender.

7.     If you are using a pressure cooker, allow the pressure to come down once you turn it off, and open it to check for doneness. At this stage, add in the rest of the coconut milk and cook without the lid on for an additional 20 minutes or so to allow the sauce to thicken up. Taste for salt and add an additional ½ tsp if needed. If you are not using a pressure cooker, check for doneness at the hour and a half mark. If the pork is almost done to your liking, add in the rest of the coconut milk, turn up the heat a bit, and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken up.

8.     Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with hot rice or a bread of your choice.