Slice number one - blueberry crumble

Mixing the lemon rind in with the dough - am a bit obsessed with texture and color contrast, so I had to put this up.
I found this recipe last night browsing through *the passionfruit* foodblog (faycat.blogspot.com) and thought it looked simple and delicious enough to try. Must admit, I'm not a blueberry fan, but this actually came out quite yummy =) will make again if the opportunity arises.

I may have over estimated how much a cup of butter really is... but you know what they say; you can never have too much butter! So I just followed that rule and the rest of the recipe went pretty smoothly... and I think it tasted comme il faut, at least Jack seemed to make satisfied sounds while scoffing down a couple as soon as I started slicing the crumble.

Generally I hate waiting for baked goods to cook and cool, but we were watching Ip Man (great movie btw) so I didn't really notice the time - but I didn't forget about it and nothing burned!

Ingredients:

For crust and crumble:

- 3 cups of flour

- 1 cup butter

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 egg

- 1/4 tsp salt

- zest of 1 lemon

For the filling:

- juice of 1 lemon (mine yielded about 60mL - adjust for personal taste)

- 4 cups of blueberries (the recipe called for fresh ones but there was no way we were paying $20 for four punnets of blueberries so we got a big box of frozen ones)

- 3 tbsp flour

- 1/3 cup sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190degrees celsius

2. Sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Stir in the salt and lemon zest, then add the butter and the egg and mix until the dough is crumbly.

3. Line a 9x8 pan with cooking paper or foil and pat 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the pan

4. Mix together the lemon juice, sugar, and flour for the filling. Toss in the blueberries and mix until all the blueberries have been coated.

5. Spoon the blueberries into a single layer over the dough.

6. Crumble the remaining dough on top of the blueberries.

7. Bake for 50 - 60 mins/until golden. Wait until it cools quite a bit before removing from pan lest it falls apart... which almost happened.

note: I melted my butter a bit because it was a solid brick when it came out of the fridge... the end result still tasted fine so I don't think it matters too much because you don't need the slice to settle (although it probably makes the dough considerably less crumbly).

Tomato soup and taking bets

New food blog, because I can't figure out how to get to the old one. Must have been linked to some obscure email account I created a long time ago and has now fled my memory. I'm taking bets on how long this one's going to last :p.

So I've been having some jaw problems recently and I have an appointment at the TMJ clinic this coming Wednesday, but in the meantime my diet has consisted of soft foods. Thus I've been experimenting with soups =) If you didn't already know, I love soup and this is a great opportunity to try out some recipes.

This is a classic tomato soup recipe twisted up with some orzo and feta (I originally found this recipe from the foodnetwork website, but I tweaked it here and there and added crème fraiche and substituted the oregano for whatever I could find that seemed similar).

Ingredients:

- 3 Cups chicken stock

- 2 Cups tomato juice

- 1 tsp. oregano

- 1/2 cup orzo

- 1/2 cup crème fraiche (sour cream works just as well)

- salt and pepper to taste

- Crumbled feta

- sprigs of chives to garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Bring to boil the chicken stock and tomato juice in a medium pot

2. Add the orzo pasta and stir constantly (don't stop stirring or the pasta will become a disgusting congealed lump at the bottom of the pot)

3. Add the oregano and as much salt and pepper as desired (taste before you add the salt as the stock and tomato juice already holds quite a bit of flavor imo)

4. Once boiling, slowly stir in the crème fraiche until well blended

5. Cook until the orzo has softened

6. Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with crumbled feta, and serve with chives!