Baked figs with blue cheese

It is now fig season - I think it's fig season since figs are being sold in local grocers in a box. Ripe, sweet, soft and textured. If you haven't had a fig, go buy a box! It's got a waxy skin and crunchy seeds inside. They are not your everyday fruit, like apple or pear that you can have all year around. So the taste of figs is distinctively associated with summer. You can have them as they are, or you can make them into a delicious appetizer: Baked figs with blue cheese.

My earliest memories.. hold on I'm gonna give you an opportunity to skip ahead if you just want the recipe, otherwise read on. Anyway, my earliest memories of the figs were from when I was like 5 or 6. I actually remember a fig tree (could be a couple of fig trees) in my grandmother's backyard. In the summer time, we used to pick it off the tree and straight in mah belly. Grandma lived on the first floor of an apartment complex and her window was overlooking this courtyard type open ground - so even in a hugely populated city, she had a pseudo garden. It was modest and tiny, with a couple of trees, a couple of tomato plants, and a row or 2 of.. some vegetables that I can't remember. She shares the fruits and vegetables with the people living in the same building, and they come by and sit by the little garden, clean beans, peel garlic, and share the newest neighborhood gossip. The adults also got to keep an eye on me and the neighborhood kids who play into the evening in the court yard. It was a very sweet and fond time - figs are a big part of that memory. I'm sure you have moments like this too. Memories like this mostly sit dormant, you don't realize it's there until a flavor, a taste, a song would trigger a part of the our brain and unleash the memory like it was from yesterday. Ok enough about my nostalgic reminiscing ramble.  

Figs are also sold as dried fruit when not in season. The dried version is sweeter, most likely candied. I like the fresh ones instead. It's not as pungent but the juices and sweetness is more subtle and refreshing. If you have yet to try a fig, do try both! My box of fig had 18 figs, they don't keep too long and will mold if they over ripe and the temperature is too hot. So I'm making this dish today as an appetizer, uses 6 figs.

What you need:

- 6 figs

- balsamic vinegar (2-3 tbsp)

- olive oil (2-3 tbsp)

- honey (2-3 tbsp)

- blue cheese (2-3 tbsp, crumbled)

- 2 slices of bread

Recipe:

- wash the figs and trim the stem tough end off. Slice a cross on top, but don't cut through the fruits, place into bakeware.

- Drizzle vinegar, oil, and honey on top of all the figs. 

- Bake at 400F for 10. Push a large crumble of blue cheese into each fig center. Bake another 10 min until the fig juices come out and cheese is melted.

- Serve with some toasted crispy bread right away.

Easy enough right? This dish is sweet, salty, tangy, with soft figs on top of crunchy bread - what else do you ask for? While fresh figs are in season, make it today!