Experiments with figs

     I am still very much a self-taught cook.  So, perhaps not surprisingly, one of the things I do not do that often is create my own recipes.  Not follow a recipe exactly, yes.  Do a slight (or not so slight) permutation on a recipe, for sure.  But create my own?  Very rarely.  What follows is my attempt to (mostly) create my own recipe.
     As I believe I have mentioned before, I love the Food and Wine section of the newspaper.  Not so much for the wine (I am only a minor wine-lover) but for all the great food information, recipes and restaurant reviews.  About a month or so ago, the Santa Cruz sentinel ran an article on fresh figs.  Having never tried fresh figs before and after reading about how great they were, I decided to try to find them.  Long story short, I finally found them a couple of weeks later at our local grocery store, New Leaf.  I wasn't even 100% sure that they were figs that I bought.
     I wish I could spend the rest of the article talking about how fantastic they were and how I was converted into an instant fan.  Alas, I cannot.  I tried them (after first looking up how in the world to eat a fresh fig), enjoyed them but didn't see what the big deal was.  They are very seedy (think of a fig newton and you will know what I am talking about) and not quite sweet enough for my taste.  I tend to like my fruit sweet and juicy like a ripe fresh nectarine or strawberry.  Well, this left me with the very interesting dilemma of what to do with the rest of the figs.
     You should know, first of all, that figs are very perishable.  I tried bringing them to work with me thinking that perhaps I would eat them there.  However, they just sat in the refridgerator neglected like they had at home.  I finally brought them home at the end of the week and tried to endeavor how I would use the rest of them, all the while hoping that they hadn't gone bad.  I went to Trader Joe's on friday and bought a few ingredients that I thought I could use to pep up the rather bland figs.  Cooking them was the way to go.
     After browsing a few recipes today, I just decided to make my own.  I got the idea from some other recipes, but decided to just experiment.  Here is the recipe I have made:

ripe figs (I had only 7 but you could use more)
prosciutto ham
balsamic vinegar
honey
crumbled goat cheese


Take the figs, rinse them (and in my case, throw out the bad ones).  Cut off the top stem and then slice them so that they end up in four parts (but don't cut all the way through to the bottom).  Stuff them with the crumbled goat cheese.  Top with some balsamic vinegar and honey.  Wrap prosciutto ham around them.  Cook them in a 375 degree F oven for ten minutes.  Serve warm.

Goat cheese stuffed figs wrapped with prosciutto

The verdict?  Delicious!  Especially the prosciutto ham.  I love the way it crisps and toughens up when it is cooked.  The goat cheese is really great, too!  The worst part?  The figs!  Ha!  In reality, though, the figs were actually quite delicious.  Warm and sweet and the seediness is diminished.  The vinegar also adds a nice contrast of taste although the honey taste disappeared.  Perhaps it got mixed in with the sweet figs?  Enjoy!