Fig Galette

Dear A, 

The Turkish figs are back. They show up only once or twice a year as far as I can remember. My dream ritual of picking it myself-choose one, pretend to smell, and put it in basket-is so not going to happen here. Yes, they're imported, and they come in box, which I bought two. I have eight plump and purplish figs in my fridge, lie idling for almost a week. Hubs even made a complaint of having too many fruits in the fridge. Well, I’m hopeless when it comes to beautiful produce. I'm a whatever-nice-in-the-grocery hoarder. I buy and store them in my fridge/pantry and wait for the right moment to use it a.k.a near expiry date. Get some tips to make them last longer here. Anyway, I have nothing sprang on my mind for these figs. I turned them into tart few years ago, blogged, and that's about it. I think I prefer to have them as it is nowadays. Couple it with my oatmeals, or slice them up and threw it in my salad. Our house was due for HIP (House Improvement Project) inspection and some electrical work that day, and I wanted the house to smell nice when the guys come. Not the right guest but why not. I need something quick, and a galette is perfect. I'd like to think galette as a free-form of tart/pie. It's less tedious obviously, provided that the dough you're working with is not temperamental. The hot breeze of September would give me no help if I were to stick with my go-to pastry recipe. So I searched for a new one. And ended up with Deb’s site-Blueberry Galette recipe. I choose hers for its sour cream call (she used ricotta, but suggested to subs with yogurt/sour cream). I have about half tub of it, left from my last use. Her recipe is quick and that's one thing I love about it. Very easy to 'handle'. I froze it for merely 10 mins and it harden. Had to left it on my counter while searching for my rolling pin. Adam used it for his kitchen-play last week and didn’t put it back in the drawer. I searched and searched as the hot ambiance started to soften up my dough. I gave up and used a cup instead. And it worked. The dough was nearly back into its initial state, but it didn't stick on my fingers. Great. We have an hour of no fans, no wifi, no TV, etc. Yes, they shut down the main power off. As they did their job, I sat on my dining table, guiding Adam on his English exercise, while working out a piece of galette. Adam loves the crust but not so much on the filling. He's excited for the blueberries tho-I threw in a few just to get that pretty purple bursts. Refused for more when he bit just a tiny piece of fig. Hmmm. More for mommy then.  

More soon. 

Love, 

A

Fig Galette (Based on Smitten Kitchen's Blue and Red Berry Ricotta Galette)

Pastry

1 1/4 cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Zest of half a lemon

8 tablespoons (4 ounces or 113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons cold water

Filling

11/2 cups fig cuts

Few blueberries

3 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar (use the lower amount if your fruit is especially sweet)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Glaze

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water

1 heaped teaspoon coarse sugar for sprinkling

Make dough: 

Whisk the flour, salt, sugar and zest together in the bottom of a large bowl. Work the butter into the flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles a coarse meal and the largest bits of butter are the size of tiny peas. Stir sour cream and 3 tablespoons water together in a small dish and pour into butter-flour mixture. Stir together with a flexible spatula as best as you can, then use your hands to knead the mixture into a rough, craggy ball. Wrap in plastic and flatten into a disc. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour or up to 48 hours, or you can quick-firm this in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Assemble galette: Heat oven to 200 C. On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a large round-ish shape, about 14 to 15 inches across. Download and print Deb's star shape template here. Cut the dough according to the template. Carefully stir together all of the filling ingredients and spread them in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold each of the 5 corners into the center. Pinch the outer corners closed, to seal in the filling and the shape. Whisk egg yolk and water together and brush over exposed crust. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake galette: For 30 minutes, or golden all over. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Serve it with ice cream.

Buttermilk Cherry Smoothie

Dear A, 

I love buttermilk. I think it's a clever use of leftovers. You probably already know, but in case you don't, buttermilk is a milk-leftover after making butter. And contrary to its name, buttermilk is actually lower in fat than regular milk. And some says, lower than yogurt. There are two types of buttermilk, traditional and cultured. Traditional buttermilk refers to the by-product from churned butter while cultured buttermilk is a cow's milk fermented using lactic acid bacteria. That is what lined in most grocery shelves nowadays. Frankly, I never knew its existence until I moved here. That was 6 years ago. That long eh. It now graces my Sunday mornings, being the most loyal companion to my eggs, flour and sugar, and end up as fluffy pancakes on my plates. Adam loves them. I never knew buttermilk can be drunk straight as it is. I We only do yogurt drinks. Yes, I remember. They both are actually two different dairy products. Similar in taste, tangy, but buttermilk has this bitter after taste. As for the cherries, I wanted to make something with them, by something I mean galettes, tarts or a pound cake (high hopes!) but I simply had little time to make any bakings this week. No regrets though. The smoothie tastes so good. The sweetness of the cherries combined with the tang of the buttermilk made me had it in seconds. While the banana make it rich and satisfying. The recipe is from Bon Appetit, which requires only three ingredients-buttermilk, cherries and banana. Just combine 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1 cup pitted cherries, and 1 peeled ripe banana in a blender. Purée until smooth. Give it a try, will you?

Love,

A

Green Goddess Smoothie

Dear A, 

I have been planning to write you a letter for years now, but, the right moment never came for me to just sit down and write. Well, different case this morning though. A lovely grey weather outdoors, such a fine day to work at my new workspace and start typing. It's such a long time since we'd last spoken. I try to forget and go beyond those upsetting words to come to this. Life has many different chapters. One bad chapter in life, doesn't mean it's the end of the book. I really hope we could pick up right as we left off. Like nothing ever happen. Let's start with Raya. We went back to Penang for Raya this year. Tried catching up with our relatives there, went to every single Mami's house (we're busy with the kids, they're really getting old), had the best Mamak food 24 hrs a day, it's been food, food food...can you imagine? Exactly the same Penang routine we had when we were small. I gained like 4 kilos in few days time. Oh well. That explains the green smoothie. I shall have this every morning, and I shall be punished if I ever skip one. #mantra Hopefully I could lose those unwanted kilos by end of the month (or year?). Not if I keep on eating like a mad cow! I have been consuming this drink for almost two years now, on and off, unfortunately. It's called Green Glowing Green by Kimberly Synder, but I prefer to call it Green Goddess Smoothie or GGS. It was a major trend in Instagram years back. It was shared by my IG friend, whom I had a chance to meet during my Germany trip with mom last year. I'm not a big fan of following what's trend or not, but this one's definitely a good trend, so I succumbed. Verdict: probably one of the factor that successfully lowered down my cholesterol level. 

Here's the recipe in case you feel like trying.

GREEN GLOWING SMOOTHIE ( POPSUGAR)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups water
1 head organic romaine lettuce, chopped
3 to 4 stalks organic celery
1/2 head of a large bunch or 3/4 of a small bunch of spinach
1 organic apple, cored and chopped
1 organic pear, cored and chopped
1 organic banana
Juice of 1/2 fresh organic lemon
Optional: 1/3 bunch organic cilantro (stems OK) and 1/3 bunch organic parsley (stems OK)

DIRECTIONS

1. Add water and chopped head of romaine to blender. Blend at a low speed until smooth.
2. Add spinach, celery, apple, and pear, and blend at high speed.
3. Add cilantro and parsley (which help chelate heavy metals from your body).
4. Finish with banana and lemon.

I must go now. The kitchen floor is waiting to be mopped, the dish is still piling in the sink, and I got lunch to cook. More letters soon. 

With much love, 

A