It is always hard to restart an activity after a long pause. You keep on saying to yourself that you ‘’ought to do it’’, you are mentally analyzing all the little details, you're planning to ‘’go and do it’’ and still, you end up finding more excuses and not do anything. And paradoxically, this frustrates you even more. But let’s be honest about it and admit that everyone can go through these phases and the thing that matters in the end is to at least restart that activity at some point, better later than never. Now of course, all this has nothing to do with me ;)
Maybe I should just say that I had good reasons not to post anything in the last months. I was not in the necessary mood for it, I could not find inspiration and peace, which are all key elements when you write, do photography and when you want to do anything that goes out of the daily routine. To keep the story short, I packed my stuff and left Cluj in July (unfortunately without my cat!), I moved into a new apartment, started to work in a new environment, I took new job responsibilities, left for one month in the US, painted my new home, realized how lucky I was to have some close friends around (while so far away from home), started to discover Belgium and its surroundings (and a unique form of sarcasm), deeply regretted I have not had the chance to meet the burglar who broke into my apartment (wanted to tell him that he had been a very naughty boy) and worked a lot. So, let’s return to our sheep (although I am not sure this expression can be actually translated into English): Caramelized Fruits and Blueberry Crumble it is!
Ingredients (for 4 persons if they had already eaten something before)2 apples
2 pears
100 g blueberry (either fresh or frozen)
150 g sugar
140 g butter
100 g flower
60 g cereals
50 g nuts (chopped)
Cinnamon
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 200° and find a heat resistant loaf pan. I used two ceramic smaller ones.
Peel the apples and the pears, cut them in small pieces and put them in a small saucepan over medium heat, with two spoons of sugar and a bit of cinnamon (in order to lose their juice). They are always more savory if you leave the apples and the pears for half an hour in lemon juice. After 10 minutes, remove the saucepan from heat and put them in a strainer.
Meanwhile, put 60 g of sugar in a frying pan over medium heat. When it has melted completely, add 60 g of butter and stir until you obtain a nice creamy caramel (don’t you think caramel is one of the most amazing inventions ever?). Then add the apples and the pears, 50 g of chopped nuts and keep stirring until all the fruits are mixed with the caramel sauce. Transfer the caramelized fruits immediately to the loaf pan and add a layer of blueberries (I used frozen ones).
In a separate bowl, mix the flower with 80 g of sugar, the cereals and a bit of cinnamon. Then melt the rest of the butter in a saucepan until it is liquid. Let it chill for a couple of minutes. Start pouring very slowly the butter into the bowl of flower, while using your fingertips to mix everything together. Remember you don’t want to form a dough, but keep the crumbly texture. Add the crumble over the layer of fruits in the loaf pan and bake it for approximately 35 minutes until the topping is golden brown and crisp.
Smakelijk! (As my imaginary friend Hugo would say).
And talking about how difficult can be to start things and projects sometimes, I find this animation the perfect illustration for it.
