Pom Figs: Dried Fig and Blue Cheese Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

The final piece to our Valentine’s dinner is a new salad that I tried. I wanted to make a salad with some dried figs, and after a bit of searching online, I found this one that also uses blue cheese (a perfect use for the gorgonzola leftover from the steak I made).

The star of this salad is the vinaigrette. The pomegranate juice is tart (and filled with antioxidants!), but the honey sweetens it up a little. You can make the vinaigrette ahead of time. Mine took a while to boil down to one-third of a cup. My husband really liked this salad!

Dried Fig and Blue Cheese Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette
(Adapted from Southern Living, Christmas 2007)
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
18 dried mission figs
1 (16-oz.) bottle pomegranate juice (2 cups)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil
9 cups mesclun salad greens
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Directions
Place figs and pomegranate juice in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes or until figs are softened. Remove figs with a slotted spoon; set aside.

Bring pomegranate juice to a boil over medium-high heat; boil 2 minutes (Kate's took much longer) or until syrupy and reduced to 1/3 cup. Transfer reduction to a bowl; let cool to room temperature.

Add honey and next 3 ingredients to pomegranate reduction; stir with a wire whisk. Gradually whisk in oil.

To serve, divide mesclun greens among 6 serving plates; top each salad with 3 figs. Drizzle evenly with vinaigrette, and sprinkle with blue cheese. Serve immediately.

Make-Ahead Note: Cooked figs and vinaigrette can be stored in refrigerator up to 2 days.

Figs Part II: Grilled Figs with Greek Yogurt

Yogurt is a food that has it’s health benefits, but a food that I never felt a strong connection to. I would purchase the non-fat, low-calorie yogurts from the grocery store. The consistency always seemed so runny. The flavors available are endless these days, but taste like an imitation.

Last summer I finally found the other side of yogurt: Greek yogurt. And I found my yogurt match. Greek yogurt is thick, creamy, and sour. It is fatty too, but you can also buy low-fat and non-fat Greek yogurts. It is strained in a cloth bag or filter to remove whey, giving it a thick consistency and preserving its sour taste. My friend Beth recently honeymooned in Greece and she was able to validate that the kind we buy at the grocery store here is the same kind that they sell in Greece!

My favorite way to eat Greek yogurt is plain with a little drizzle of honey. At my grocery store they sell Fage yogurt with a little honey compartment. Perfect for a packed lunch! My husband is partial to their yogurt with the strawberry compartment. I’ve also eaten it with fresh fruit, nuts, and even chocolate chips. I’ll substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream in recipes when I can.

When I recently brought back fresh figs from California, I was excited to pair them with some Greek yogurt and honey. We’ve had a mild fall here, and were able to heat up our outdoor grill for potentially the last time this season. This was a fun treat, and another way to savor our fig souvenir.

Grilled Figs with Greek Yogurt
Ingredients
8-12 fresh figs, sliced in half
2 tbsp honey, plus more for drizzling
1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
¼ cup pistachios, shelled

Directions
Heat grill on high heat. Brush cut side of figs with honey. Place figs on grill, cut side down. Grill for approximately 3 minutes, until figs have grill marks. Remove from heat.

On 4 dessert plates, place on each plate: ¼ Greek yogurt, several figs, a couple tablespoons of pistachios, and drizzle with honey. Serve immediately.

Mission Figs: Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

The last week of October brought me and my husband a little getaway to the Bay. In a trip that was a fusion between work, school, and pleasure, we got to experience the pleasant fall weather in San Francisco, and a lot of time visiting with friends. It is rather ironic how just a year ago it seemed like we hardly knew anyone in Northern California, but now we have friends from SF to San Jose to Oakland. We were welcomed by all of these friends, and split our stay between Oakland and SF. Lucky for us, all of our hosts are fellow "foodies", so we had many memorable meals and abounding tastings of wine.



We stayed a couple nights with our friend Sarah at her fabulous Russian Hill apartment. When we arrived at her place she greeted us with a bottle of wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a plan to watch the sunset from her kitchen, before heading out to dinner. She has what must be one of the most spectacular views of the city and the bay! Her kitchen is a wall of windows, and you can sit at her kitchen table pondering life and watching the city and sailboats go by. The prime time to marvel at her view is when the sun is setting. The sun bounces off of Berkeley in the distance, and the reflection glimmers and twinkles, appearing as bouncing little flames across the cityscape.




Sarah prepared the perfect hors d'oeuvre, without even knowing my affinity for figs. I had actually placed myself on a mission for this trip, and was determined to eat as many figs as possible. This hors d'oeuvre is simple and tasty, and we devoured it before heading to our “real” dinner at hotspot Beretta in the Mission. (I actually could have tasted more figs for dessert at Beretta, but by the time we were offered the dessert menus it was late (particularly on EDT), I was full, and I may have been falling asleep at the table!)

A few days later we stopped at the Berkeley Bowl to pick up picnic supplies for a day in Napa, and I grabbed a couple containers of fresh figs. The ones that made it through the day accompanied me on the plane (in first class, nonetheless – not me, just the figs. Darn overhead bins getting full.) Upon arriving home, I gave half to my mother, and pondered over how I could savor mine. My mind went straight to Sarah’s crostini and I then set forth to replicate it at home.

After an exhausting day at work, I was able to put these together mindlessly and actually ate them as dinner. I’ll long for the next time I have fresh figs to work with. In the meantime I may try this recipe with fig spread, although I tend to pair that with blue stilton cheese. Thank you to Sarah for her generous hospitality and her ideal hors d'oeuvre idea!

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
* 1 French baguette, sliced into small ½ inch rounds
* 12 fresh figs, sliced
* 4 oz. fresh goat cheese
* 1 tbsp. honey (preferably lavender honey, if available)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Place sliced baguette on large baking sheet and bake for approximately 8 minutes, until bread is crispy. Spread goat cheese on baguette slices and top with 1-2 slices of fig, each. Drizzle with honey and serve immediately.