There are plenty of foods that are considered “childish,” at least by some. Mac & cheese is an example, not that most of us don’t still love mac & cheese, with or without a little guilt. Chicken strips are another one… or really any fried meat.
I think part of what makes these things “childish” is that they’re kind of bland and typically unhealthy. An adult likes flavor; a rational adult prefers nutrition. But revisiting these old favorites with a grown-up flair has been one of my favorite kitchen endeavors. I have this amazing mac & cheese recipe that’s made with a butter/spelt flour roux, paprika, Worcestershire, minced onion, milk, cheese, and rice pasta. Or there’s a great “grown up chicken strips” recipe my Mom has been using. The breading is made of panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds… lots of sesame seeds. I make my own breadcrumbs out of rice-based bread. It’s one of the only things I’ve found rice flour breads good for.
But all of the above is an aside, really. There are other foods that we just associate with our childhoods because there was one special time, place, or person in our childhood associated with that food. My grandmother has a fig tree in her back yard. I lived either with her or in the same town as her for the first eight years of my life, and I grew up eating Nanny’s fig preserves. Slightly crunchy, intensely sweet, and unbelievably delicious, I associate Nanny’s figs on Nanny’s buttered toast with the ultimate in comfort. Nobody has ever figured out why she has the best toast. Maybe it’s her toaster, practically museum-worthy.
Until fairly recently, my only acquaintance with the fig was in Nanny’s preserves, and in Fig Newtons (or Fig Newmans, for the gluten-free set). Now that I’ve moved to Virginia, I’m coming to realize that figs are a popular, although somewhat exotic, treat. They have them in regular-ole’ grocery stores out here, and Whole Foods has some beautiful ones on sale right now. I’ve seen figs served in a variety of contexts at restaurants, too. So now I’m on a quest for great fig recipes… recipes outside the “preserves and Newtons” paradigm.
In my search for fig recipes, I’ve found that it’s popular to use figs with various cheeses, all manner of pork products, and apricots. A friend passed this one on to me, and it’s absolutely to die for:
Take a fig, cut off the pointy end and core a drinking-straw-sized hole through the middle. Stuff a tangy, tart cheese (he likes gorgonzola, I picked chevre) through the center, wrap the fig in bacon (just enough to go around one time), hold together with a toothpick, and bake at 350 degrees until the bacon is cooked. Heaven on a toothpick. Despite the bacon, this is really a fairly healthy appetizer. The cheese is good for you (and there’s not really enough to be fattening), and the fig is one of the healthiest fruits on the market. To make this a vegetarian (although still not vegan) dish, the bacon can be omitted and some flavored and salted olive oil can be rubbed liberally on the fig instead. It’s just important to get that savory flavor on there and to keep the outside of the fig from drying out. I intend to try several iterations with different herb-flavored oils.
Tags: Cheese, childhood, childhood food, fig, figs, mac&cheese
