I’ll meet you at the meadow

I fell into sleep
on my greyish couch
into a vivid dream 

on a meadow we lie under a cloudless cobalt sky
us buried in weeds
swaying along the summer breeze
damp and sweet 

I turn my face around 
you turn yours around 
our eyes meet, hazy
without a sound 

sun blasting, no escaping
cicadas orchestrating the butterfly flaps, too loud
a hand on my forehead
shading my eyes looking ahead

a bird flies across the sky
its fanned tail in white
some budding blossom in white
falling in a brush of wind

I searched through the pockets in my linen dress
for the apricots I picked
earlier, for you
I turn around
there are weeds and blossoming trees
but you

Apricot Galette

Crust

Ingredients:
( Adapted from the Pecan Maple Pie crust recipe in《Tartine》)

All-purpose flour 80g
Unsalted butter 56g
Drinking water 28g
Sea salt ½ tsp

Steps

1. Add the salt to the water. Stir to dissolve and keep it in the freezer. /li>
2. Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes. 
3. On a large piece of parchment paper, put the sieved flour on and add the butter. Cut and mix them up with a knife until you have a sandy rough mixture. Work fast in this step because we want to keep the butter cold. 
4. Dig a well at the centre of the mixture, pour in the icy water and mix with a bench scraper until you have a shaggy dough.
5. Cover the dough with another piece of parchment paper. Roll out the dough into 1 cm thick. Put the flattened dough in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight. 
6. When ready to bake, take the dough out from the fridge. Roll out the dough sandwiched in the parchment papers, from the centre towards the edge to form a roughly 18cm disc. Work quickly and keep it chilled before baking.

Apricot Fillings

Ingredients:
Ripe apricot 6 pieces
Fresh thyme 2 sprigs
Honey 1 tablespoon
All-purpose flour 1 tablespoon
Light brown sugar ½ teaspoon, plus more to dust on the crust
Egg 1 piece, beat it into egg wash 

Steps:

1. In a shallow container, mix the thyme in the honey and infuse in the fridge overnight. 
2. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
3. Wash and dry the apricots. Pit them and cut each of them into 6 wedges. 
4. In a bowl, coat the apricots with flour and sugar. 
5. Take the dough out from the fridge, remove the top parchment paper and lay the apricot wedges on it, leaving about 1-inch rim from the filling.
6. Fold the rim inwards. If the galette is too warm, chill it for 10 minutes. Brush the edges with egg wash and dust them with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust turns golden. 
7. Lightly brush the apricots with thyme honey. Ready to serve. 

Jo Liu

It’s raining outside, crisp and bleak. Three chubby sparrows took shelter on my balcony and I gave them the baguette bits left on my breakfast plate but they flew away. I stayed in, played Damien Rice on vinyl and made apple crumble. Repeat.

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