Bacon Wrapped Figs with Pomegrante Sauce vs. History
January 31st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
At 14 seconds left, with a throw to the end zone, the 49ers scored the final winning touchdown. I jumped up from my seat, cheered, stomped, and yelled much to the disturbance of my cat (obviously a Saints supporter). Even though I was cheering at that moment the rest of the recent 49ers vs. Saints playoff game had me conflicted. My allegiance belonged to the 49ers, yet they, experiencing a comeback, seemed an unlikely winner for Super Bowl XLVI. The Saints seemed the more likely winner. If the 49ers weren’t going to succeed I preferred that the Saints win the game and the bowl. And really, the Saints was a pretty cool name, too.
Yup, this fickleness wasn’t unexpected. It would be hypocritical to call myself a fan, which is why I usually preface or end the statement with a qualifier. I might respond, “I don’t really follow football, but if I had to choose a team it would the San Francisco 49ers.” Or, “I like the 49ers, but really for their name.” That’s where we get to it.
I like the name. I like the history behind the name. I like that the name is based on history.
In the end, I’m a fan of history. Period, without a qualifier.
While watching the game, disturbing my cat, and probably also my downstairs neighbor and his cat, I was looking up things on the internet. Things that might be and especially things that were.
Food happened to be at the front of my thoughts that night (contrary to popular belief I do not always think about food). Watching football while leftover bacon was peacefully freezing in my freezer led me to bacon-wrapped recipes. That led to figs – which I am not so much a fan of, but don’t mind if they win. Figs are pretty cool. Figs still needed to play opposite something I am a fan of. In my head that turned to pomegranates. I like pomegranates. I like them for their color and their style.
Deciding on the game and players wasn’t satisfying enough. Was this a combination I could cheer on? Would this be a game best forgotten? For answers, I sought out the history. Typical facts of vitamin, minerals and fiber filled the field, but then my eye spied an opening. Pomegranates, according to a pomegranate website, was possibly the fruit Eve ate in Eden. Before reading that tidbit I would have said the fig was the preferred choice of fruit amongst theological historians. Shock overcame me. It was like the game-winning touchdown.
You can’t imagine my excitement. I immediately clicked to this site and started writing.
Bacon Wrapped Figs
Really, really simple. Take a fig. I used both Mission and Calimyrna Figs. Slice each piece of bacon in half lengthwise. I used peppered bacon. Wrap your fig in the bacon. Put into a baking dish. I used a cake pan. Bake until done. Mine were baking at about 425 °, a temperature based on the other food that was also in the oven. As for length of time – I would say perhaps longer than 15, but less than 40 minutes.
Oh and some were stuffed with a bit of gorgonzola, but that’s optional and perhaps not necessary.
Pomegranate Sauce
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
half to one whole tablespoon butter
½ tablespoon whole peppercorns
½ cup port
a little over 2 cups chicken broth
1 cup pomegranate juice*
1 tablespoon brown sugar
season with salt and pepper (I forgot to do this.)
In a pot sauté the shallot and garlic with the butter until tender. Add in the peppercorns and cook a minute or two longer. Add in the port and cook until most of the port is gone. Add in the chicken broth, pomegranate juice and sugar. Cook and reduce. The original recipe said to cook until sauce consistency. I am, first, not entirely sure what sauce consistency is; two, not sure this was achieved. No additional details were given on thickness or length of time (those poorly written recipes are such a nuisance). It cooked for a good long while. Until about half reduced. The final verdict was that it tasted fine and accompanied the figs splendidly…so I thought.
Spoon the pomegranate sauce over the figs as you serve.
An excellent game over all.
*Here is a confusing fact: the do-it-yourself pomegranate concentrate cost $2 more than the pomegranate juice from concentrate. They both equaled out to 32 ounces of liquid. They were by the same company. Why? If given a choice I would say the opposite to be true as the concentrate would have less shipping, packaging and water costs.
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Indecisive Banana with Cinnamon Cupcakes and Cinnamon Frosting
January 25th, 2012 § 1 Comment
A weather post hasn’t been seen here in a while, perhaps some of my regular readers were happy about this, but not me. The post felt overdue. Especially considering that the weather is probably the greatest factor influencing what I cook. Right now, on this day, it is, technically, winter. I’m not sure this technicality is known by weather. Walking outside, I’m not sure if it feels more like Spring, Fall, bizarrely mild Summer or unseasonably warm Winter.
The weather seems confused, uncertain, indecisive on what to do.
Without weather to guide me my stomach is also feeling a little confused. Winter should mean stews, soups, roasted potatoes. Instead I buy ice creams and eat green salads. During the days I go on bike rides in short sleeves. At night I open my windows and drink hot tea.
One night last week, I sat at home wanting to bake, but not certain on what. Banana bread? Cake? Maybe cupcakes as it was rather warm. Cinnamon sounded excellent. Frosting was again tempting me to be foolish. This was the result. A lip-licking result. After eating two when I only intended a bite I knew these could not stay in my home. They went to work. Here I found out that the same indecisiveness that caused these seeped into them. As often as I called them cupcakes my co-workers stubbornly called them muffins. Muffins don’t have frosting.
Banana Cupcakes
adapted from these Banana Cupcakes
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ butter, melted
about 4 very ripe bananas mashed
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
6 tablespoons water
The Cinnamon Filling
about 2 tablespoons butter, softened
some brown sugar
some cinnamon
Cupcakes Combine the flax seed with the water and set aside. Melt the butter. Mash up the banana. Mix together the dry ingredients. Form a well in the middle. Mix in the bananas, butter, flax seed and vanilla. This is very fast to put together so don’t over think it. I used a whisk for this, but believe a wooden spoon would have worked just as well.
Filling Using a fork or fingers mash this all together. You will end up having extra of this mixture. Since it is good with lots of things, like spoons and toast, that’s okay.
Cupcake + Filling Now get your cupcake pan filled with the cupcake liners. Take a large spoon (one you might use for eating soup) and put one spoonful into each cup. Add ½ teaspoon of the filling into the middle of each cup. Divide the remaining batter evenly between each cup. This is about a small spoonfuls worth.
Bake at 350° until done – golden and all that. Set on a rack to cool.
If you clicked on the link slightly above you would notice that this is a Martha Stewart recipe. I do not normally choose recipes by her — partly because there is something unlikeable about someone who thinks things should always be perfect. Yet, while looking through the various banana cupcake or banana muffin recipes out there this was the one I had all the ingredients for and the one with the ingredient ratios that sounded good at the time.
Things still didn’t go perfectly. I forgot to add the butter. The cupcakes were set in the oven and there was the butter in its little pot, still sitting on the stove top. I decided that a sort of basting method would do very well. Throughout the baking, I spooned small amounts over the tops. After, I discovered that most of the butter had pooled at the bottom of each cup. The cupcakes weren’t at all bad. Still in the future, I will add the butter to the batter.
Cinnamon Frosting
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
about 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
cinnamon
Briefly beat the butter with the milk. In three batches sift and beat in the powdered sugar. I really did not measure this, but was aiming for about ½ cup each time. Once this is like whipped frosting add in the cinnamon. Once again there was no measuring. I put in a little at a time a few different times.
Frost the cupcakes. This is just enough frosting to add a large dollop to each cupcakes.
