Red Wine Poached Stuffed Figs

Red Wine Poached Stuffed Figs

I was shopping in Publix the other day, and saw my hairstylist, Ernie Heinrich, who had an armful of groceries (he is just like me in that we always go in thinking that we will just pick up a few things and who needs a cart for that?). Among his armload of goodies, he had two containers of fresh figs; he asked me if I liked figs.  I replied that I did, and told me that they were on sale--buy one get one free.
What I declined to tell him is that I have never cooked (with) fresh figs in my life, but the ones he had in his arms looked very good.  So I was seduced by the BOGO.

I didn't use them for a few days, because I truly didn't know what to do with them, but tonight, I got to thinking about the taste of figs, and wondering how I might incorporate them into dinner.
Sometimes my brain decides to be adventurous, so I as I looked at the figs in the package I let my mind remember the taste of figs, and mentally built a meal around some flavors that I thought might complement the figs.

The skin of the figs looks kind of like pears, and when I handled them, they seemed to have a similar texture and structure, so I thought they might do well in some kind of poaching liquid, and then my mind floated to red wine. Mmmmm......

I had the last 1/2 pound of bulk pork country sausage that I got from my farmer in north Georgia in the refrigerator, and then I looked in the pantry and saw some prepared artichoke bruschetta.  I thought it might need a bit more bite, and when I looked in the refrigerator again, the crumbled goat cheese spoke to me.  The last ingredient that I selected was some celery, which I minced to give it a bit of crunch.

I browned the sausage in a saute pan (I have a great anodized 12" saute pan with 3" rounded sides that are just right for doing that fancy flip to turn ingredients that the TV chefs do!--I use it for almost everything!).  As the sausage was browning, I scooped the insides of 8 golf ball sized figs out, and when the sausage was cooked, I poured off all but about 1 tbsp. of the sausage grease, and added the fig insides and about 3 tbsp. of the bruschetta, and about 2 oz. of the goat cheese.  I warmed this mixture in the saute pan, added the celery at the last minute so it wouldn't get soft, and then spooned the mixture into the scooped out figs.

Then I washed the pan out and sauteed the fresh asparagus tips in some olive oil, butter and garlic, and plated them over some saffroned rice.

Then, I placed the stuffed figs in the same sautee pan and poured about 1/4 bottle of Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon in the pan, and let the figs poach, covered, on the stovetop for about 15 minutes (this doesn't have to be exact--the figs are actually forgiving of extra time on the heat).

I took the figs out of the pan with tongs, placed them on the plate, sprinkled with some more goat cheese, and spooned some of the wine over top of the figs.

I told my husband that we were either going to have a successful grand experiment, or scrambled eggs if it didn't taste good.

We will have scrambled eggs tomorrow night.  Tonight, the stuffed figs were a home run!  It is actually very easy to prep, and takes only a short time to pull together and cook. Oh, I also served some crusty sourdough french bread with it.

Ultimate Stuffed French Toast

I love breakfast, but I rarely have time to eat it at the beginning of the day.  Most of the time, my idea of breakfast runs along the savory line--eggs any way you can fix them, bacon, grits, hashbrowns, toast, etc. On more rare occasions, I have an urge for the sweeter side of breakfastdom with pancakes, french toast, fruity baked goods, fruit itself, etc.
I have probably made french toast once in the last 20 years, but today I woke up and got inspired to make it, and then I thought, "why stop at plain old french toast? Why not enhance it?"  So I started thinking about what would make it special, and here is what I came up with:

                                                     My Ultimate Stuffed French Toast



Mascarpone, Strawberry/Lime Stuffed French Toast with Pecan Syrup

Ingredients:

2 slices Egg Bread, sliced 2” thick

¼ cup mascarpone cheese

¼ cup ricotta cheese

¼ cup honey

¼ cup fresh strawberries, chopped

½ fresh lime with zest

1 large egg

½ cup of whole milk or ¼ cup skim milk and ¼ cup heavy cream

2 pinches of Freshly grated nutmeg

Butter for cooking

Pecan Syrup (or other syrup, but pecan has a hint of nuttiness that goes well with the fruit aspects)

Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling on top

Additional slices of lime and sliced whole strawberries for garnish

Preparation:

Mix together in a small bowl the mascarpone, ricotta, honey, fresh chopped strawberries, juice and zest of ½ lime, and a pinch of nutmeg

In a separate shallow dish, beat 1 egg, the milk/cream and a pinch or two of nutmeg until blended

Melt butter in a sauté pan on the stovetop on medium heat

Slice a pocket into the bread slices (from the side) and stuff the mascarpone mixture into the pocket and press shut (approx. 1/2 the mixture into each slice)

Dip one slice into the egg mixture on all sides to coat well, and transfer to the heated sauté pan.  If there is room, you can add the other, but make sure there is plenty of room to flip each.

Cook until the side is mottled golden brown, then flip and cook the other side the same

Transfer to plate, add a small amount of syrup, sprinkle a bit of confectioner's sugar, garnish with strawberry and lime slices if desired, and serve.