That'll Do Fig…That'll Do

Second choice title: Squeal like a Fig. You know, because it’s a recipe for stuffed figs and…oh, never mind.

Fig Trouble (but not) in Little China Yeah, I could do this all day.
Well, not so much trouble as a sort of head-scratching dilemma. There were pint containers of figs at Limbo this past weekend and they were too dark, pretty and exotic for my Midwest-born self to pass up. So I got some but then I had to do something with them. Now what?

After searching around a bit, I found a recipe from Emeril* that calls for stuffing the figs with gorgonzola, roasting them and serving with honey and rosemary — that sounded very interesting but alas, I had no gorgonzola. Duh-duh-duhhh: Goat cheese to the rescue!

Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese
12 ripe figs
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup goat cheese
1/4 cup or so good-quality honey
finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Using a paring knife, carefully trim any tough portion of the stems from each fig. (Here, I just cut the stems off completely. To my fig-novice thinking, it seemed to be the easiest thing to do so I could stuff the figs with less trouble). Rub each fig all over with extra-virgin olive oil, then slice down through the stem about 3/4-inch. Make a second cut perpendicular to the first cut, so that you have an X-shaped cut in the top of each fig. Gently pry the edges apart and stuff each fig with about one half to one teaspoon of the goat cheese (depending on fig size). Place the figs upright on a baking sheet and bake until the figs are plump and shiny, about 10 minutes.

Here, you can either place all the figs on one plate and be resigned for sticky hands during the meal or divide the figs into four servings of three figs each. Quelle surprise — I went with the sticky hands. Place roasted figs on a serving plate and drizzle some honey down on top of them. Sprinkle with a pinch of the fresh, chopped rosemary. Serve immediately.

I thought they were good and I definitely liked the goat cheese — nothing was overwhelming here. If I had used gorgonzola, it seems to me, that it would have overtaken the whole dish. In this version, even the rosemary seemed laid back. The figs themselves were very mild and not super sweet. I definitely think I’ll try this again and maybe next time, work on my x-making-by-the-fig-stem skills, so that they are more stuffed and less coming open at the seams with goat cheese.

*Emeril. It’s weird — the show itself I can take or leave but to be honest, every single recipe of his that I have tried has turned out very well. He’s kind of a little too, uh enthusiastic about food on his show maybe, but the guy seems to know what he’s talking about.

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In completely unrelated news, I tried to watch Kitchen Confidential last night because:
1. It was on after Arrested Development (yay!),
2. Anthony Bourdain can be entertaining and I was hoping for some of that on this show, (eventhough I don’t think he has much to do with it now after supplying the basic premise), and
3. Xander! (who is now apparently pastry!xander).

Impression: I thought I was going to like it. But, I turned it off after 15 minutes to go take out the recyclables and garbage. Yet, last week I sat thru the whole episode of Supernatural, surprisingly interested (when I thought it was going to be pretty stupid). Go figure.