The moon-shaped Blueberry Tart

One advantage of working in a big media company (a.k.a. SPH) is you get to try all the best mooncakes in town everyday during the season.

In the newsroom, all the restaurants/hotels/PRs will send you the best to either get you to write about it or get in your good books. So, even if you're a nobody journalist covering crime and passion, you'll still get to taste the mooncakes given to that star columnist or ever so important editor, as most are graciously donated to the snacking corner for all to enjoy. Then, as I moved to the next department doing events and branding, mooncakes came from suppliers and contractors, though you also became the "givers".

So, 2008 marks my first mooncake deprived Mid-Autumn Festival.

And since my taste for mooncake has become atas, I am not very adventurous when it comes to buying mooncakes here in Welly.

Now, what has mooncakes got to do with Blueberry Tart?

Well, being moon-shaped, as most tarts are, it became our substitute for mooncake on that moon-lit evening.

We had a very yummy local dinner of bak kut teh, ginger chicken and stir fried veg with a group of Singaporean friends. Rémi's responsibility was the dessert, while mine was simply to eat.

Side-track a bit here, you have to be very atas to make blueberry tart in Singapore, because they are so expensive. Maybe $20 for a very small pack? We paid $15 for a 1kg frozen pack here.

Blueberry Tart
serves 6

Sweet dough (pâte sucrée) - it's even easier than the salty tart dough
50g white sugar
1 egg
125g melted unsalted butter
270g flour

500g blueberry
50g sugar
icing sugar (optional)

To make the dough, mix sugar, egg, butter together. Add flour and chill for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C.

Press the pastry with your fingers over the base and sides of the prepared tin. Prick all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes.

For the filling, mix blueberries with sugar. Pour over the cooked pastry and sprinkle icing sugar over it for a glossy look (we didn't have icing sugar to do this).

Bake at reduced temperature of 180C for about 10-15 minutes.

*sweet pastry recipe from Christelle Le Ru's Simply Irresistible French Desserts.