Creamy and Spicy Crab Tartlets

I have finally arrived in Rwanda!

Or rather, I arrived over two months ago and I have finally settled in – more or less. Many things are still up in the air, but things have normalized enough for me to think about non-impending activities again. Like baking! Not to mention that my oven has also arrived awhile ago and is sitting a tad bit too decoratively in my new kitchen. And maybe I have a tugging feeling that I need to revive my old coping strategy-cum-obsession. It’s been much too long…

Baking in the land of a thousand hills will definitely be a challenge. The original deadline for the completion of this project is fast approaching; I have to make exactly 50 pies in about 50 days! But seeing as how I will encounter new obstacles in a new land (will I even be able to find the right flours?), I shall give myself a generous extension. Perhaps to finish the project in the 2 years that I’ll be here in Rwanda? A very generous extension, indeed! But who’s keeping track, anyway?

I begin the thousand hills chapter with the last of the morning calm chapter. These crab tartlets were made too long ago in what seems to have been my previous life, so much has changed since then. But if I remember correctly, the whole wheat crust was divine! Its cracker-like hearty crunchiness was made even better by its buttery flakiness. Really, I could snack on it the whole day long!

The filling, however, was somewhat less impressive. I’d chosen the spicy crab as my last in Korea because I knew I’d have very limited access to things marine and Asian in a landlocked African country.  But despite the homemade tobanjan and heaps of roe, it failed expectations. Perhaps it was not the best way the end a chapter. But oh well, not everything’s perfect!

***

Looking back – Baking has really made the last couple of years quite enjoyable for me. It is methodic, honest even. And to me, it is orienting. Calming. Comforting. Reassuring. And I’ve come to know that some things are just ‘good’ and there is no meaning beyond that to analyze or ponder. I mean, come on, what’s better than homemade pie? Yes, this is the essence of why I bake.

Looking forward – Who knows what the future holds? It’s hard to tell in the beginning what the end will look like. But whether you’re pleasantly surprised or unwarily dismayed along the way, it’s important to steadily plod through. So, here’s to the final fifty pies in the land of a thousand hills!