Chocolate Eclairs

Bright eyes

Easy.

What to do?

I won’t lie. I am a big, fat KEPOCHI. When I was little, I used to annoy the crap out of my sister by asking her “Phiiiin, whatttt’s thisssss?”  (whiny voice) a million times a day. Funny story:

1995; Hua Hin, Thailand:

(There are lots of horses in Hua Hin, hence a lot of horse poo)

The conversation between my sister and I as we walked along the beach:

Me: Phiiin, what’s thisss?

Phin: Horse shit

Me: Oh.

**

Me: What’s that?

Phin: Horse shit..

Me: Ohh

**

Me: Phin! What’s this!!

Phin: HOOORSSE SHIIITTTT   (gawdamit!)

Me: Daaadddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

*meep!

Hmph, what a punk. She almost landed in jail, did I tell you? That’s a story for another dayy. Spoiler: It starts with me, her, and a ditch. It ends with me in a ditch. Sigh. No wonder I turned out this way.

Anywaaay, what I ‘m trying to say is I am a real busybody, and I guess that’s why I get excited over new and different food. It’s a terrible weakness :( I buy an entire thing just to have a nibble, just a taste. And the rest shoved (/offered generously) to my sister. Hehh. Jokessss.

So yeah, I went to Waitrose and saw figs. I’ve always wanted to try it, but am never quite sure HOW to eat it.. like, do you eat the skin and stuff? And I’ve tried dried figs but they’re so.. fig newton-y. Not really in a nice way.. well to me, anyway. So yeah there I was, figs in hand.. half price! Done deal. God, I’m easy.  So I came home. And was completely stumped. These kinda things keep me up at night, no joke. So I sent a facebook SOS and the lovely Annabel suggested eating them with yoghurt. G-O-O-D. Okay.. so two down.. four more. My sister Kate said, “Make compote! Eat with cheesecake!” (Shut up. So good. But 1) how do you make compote? 2) I have to make a cheesecake to go with my figs? Hmm. I totally would next time though) 

And yes, another flaw- My attention span: 0.001

After a looong time thinking of what to make with the damn figs yesterday, I completely lost interest today. So yeah, four fat figs waiting forlornly for me. Guiltttt. So I quartered them and chucked them in an almond fragipane filled galette, squeezed some honey and sprinkled some walnuts over. Easy peasy. Galettes are sooo rustic I feel like building a cottage for it. Not pishposh like soufflés and other frenchy-french sounding desserts  (is galette French? Nawwww…), but perfect in a homey, tatty socks and faded t-shirt way. In a cuddle in bed kinda way. Uh.. yeah.

So.. recipe!

Well.. the galette is basically a tart thrown together with whatever I had. The frangipane I made is from Dorie Greenspan’s book and it goes like:

1 stick butter

1/3 honey

2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup ground almonds

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1 egg

1 egg yolk

Basically, you just bung it all together, and that is that!

I used my go-to tart recipe from here:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cold water

6 tablespoons cold butter (1/2"chunks)

1 yolk

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.
Add the cold butter cubes and toss to coat.
Using your thumb and first two fingers, rub the butter and flour until the mixture is the size of small peas.
In a small bowl, combine the yolk and the cold water.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the yolk/water mixture and begin to combine.  
Gently knead the mixture together making sure to work in all the dry bits of flour.
Pat into a round shape, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least ½ hour.  Will keep in the fridge for 2 days or frozen up to 2 months.  Defrost overnight in the fridge.

To assemble:
Roll out tart dough to about.. 1/8^th of an inch thick, then cut out a rough circle. Spread the frangipane in the middle, leaving a border of.. just enough. Well you want to fold it over the tart at the end. Arrange quartered figs on top, drizzle honey, scatter walnuts, then fold the border over the edge. No need to worry if it’s not too pretty! Stick it in an oven at 180C for about 25minutes. Keep an eye out at the 20th mark though, I’m constantly burning my stuff. :(

So, then.

Nostalgia.

Perhaps that is the reason for my suspended existence. I am entrenched in each and every temporal fragment but the present- maybe because you were there but not here.  And as I am rooted in the past, the world spins forward, and I am left behind- trying to make time wait for me.  Reliving the memories, always of the nighttimes and mornings; caught in the precious wedge of time, the state of being halfway between sleep and consciousness - content and comfortable under a blanket of false love. Maybe because it felt like you were wholly mine, haven’t yet preoccupied with the day’s affairs. Before you wake up, and leave. 

But there are only so many mornings, and I have run out of them. Perhaps it’s time for me to get on with the day. I want to leave, too. Leave it all behind me and chase the sun.