Figgy Piggy Cornish Hens

Still had some figs left.

And some bacon and garlic. Add one Cornish Hen and a recipe from Epicurious....



...and you've got Figgy Piggy Cornish Hens. Even better, Virginia Willis' Rice Pilaf to sop up the juice from the hen and figs. Be jealous....like my good dog Jackson.

Fall Figs

Fall has landed in the Midwest with a pumpkinny thump. Halloween is still over a month away but every sort of pumpkin, squash and gourd has arrived at the grocery stores and farmer's markets like some sort of freakish, lumpy orange flood. Plenty of time to play with pumpkins, this week was meant to enjoy another fall favorite, the fig. Now if you're like me, the only memory you have of figs was this:

Fig Newton cookies. You know, the depressing cookie you got instead of the fun cookies like Oreos or Chips Ahoy. Some sort of weird cake thing with supposedly fruit filling except it had little crunchy bits that had a mouth feel like beetle carcasses. So no generational fig dish recipes for me to dig through. Luckily the internet and Epicurious had a lot of great choices for what to do with figs.

First, of course, was to caress them with my camera. They are incredibly beautiful. There were three types of fig available at least in my neck of the woods. The black Mission figs were the most abundant. Why called Mission figs? They were cultivated by Franciscan monks in San Diego back in 1768. There are also the brown turkey figs and white figs (actually more green than white) but for the recipe today the Mission figs will do.

The recipe I chose was very much in the theme of the traditional salty/sweet treatment of figs. Fresh Figs with Bacon and Goat Cheese. Really very simple, fry some bacon, cut your figs, brush with a good quality balsamic vinegar, put little chunks of bacon on top of the fig and then add a nugget of goat cheese and pop them in the oven so the figs roast just a bit and the cheese gets toasty. This recipe suggests the herb infused goat cheese but I got the plain and mixed up a little clover honey to add a little more sweetness to the layering of this recipe.

Sweet ripe fig with savory smoky bacon and sweet goat cheese make a great quick appetizer for a crisp fall evening.

The Search for Speck

Remember back in July, I had written that I was unfamiliar with Speck nor did I think I could get it here in Kansas City? Turns out I was virtually surrounded by Speck.

It was here as an appetizer at one of my favorite lunch spots, Michael Smith's Extra Virgin.
It was in the deli case in my Whole Foods.Heck, it was in the cheese and meat case of the wine shop not one block away from my office. With such an abundance of Speck, it was time to give it a whirl. I decided not to deep fry it with pineapple (a la Chef Patterson) but instead wrap it around some black mission figs and blue cheese and grill it. If you'd like a recipe similar to what I did, there's Michael Chiarello's Proscuitto Wrapped Figs, just substitute the Speck.
I used two different kinds of blue cheese mainly because I'm always looking for a good excuse to buy blue cheese. My selections for this dish were a Roth Kase Buttermilk Blue and a Valdeon Blue. The Roth is a creamier, milder, slightly sweet blue cheese while the Valdeon has the more traditional salty tang you expect from those deep blue veins. Both were excellent but personally when using the Valdeon I'd use smaller pieces on the fig so not to overpower the other flavors.What I like about using Speck instead of Prosciutto is the milder more subtle favor. It's a lovely layed flavor combination of the sweetness of the grilled fig, the burst of the blue cheese and the finish of the savory Speck. It's a simple yet sophisticated appetizer and would certainly work with any mildly sweet fruit. Chef Chiarello suggested finishing his version with a drizzle of olive oil but I decided against that. I think next time I will try drizzling just a hint of some nice warm clover honey.
So look around, you might be surprised just how close your Speck might be.