Notes from the Test Kitchen: Figs Galore!

They're in season, and we need recipes!  It's a request we get in the test kitchen every now and again, as some wonderful fruit or vegetable comes into season and we want to make the most of its abundance.

And so it was with figs.  The kitchen was requested -- last summer actually -- to either create or test various recipes for the amazing figs everyone was finding.  We came up with four. One recipe ran just towards the end of the season last year, an adaptation of Rose Levy Berenbaum's amazing fig and mascarpone tart.  The remaining were held in reserve until the season rolled around again.

Here we are, finally!  This week Russ has a Farmer's Market column on figs, and we've included recipes for a grilled fig salad and warm fig salsa.  But we've got one more for you: "Roasted figs with blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and wild honey" from Literati 2. The recipe is adapted from Chris Kidder, former chef of the restaurant (he's since left to pursue other ventures), and was something we just had to share.

Roasted figs stuffed with blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and wild honey

1 basket fresh figs, preferably Turkey or Mission, 15 to 20 pieces

6 to 8 ounces good-quality blue cheese

2 tablespoons good-quality balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon good-quality olive oil

2 tablespoons toasted and roughly-chopped hazelnuts

1 tablespoon wild honey

1teaspoon sea salt

1 dozen arugula leaves, preferably wild*

4 to 6 fresh fig leaves, optional*

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Keeping the stem intact, make a cut from the stem toward the base, halving the figs, but stop two-thirds of the way down, being careful not to cut all the way through. Turn the figs 90 degrees, and slice again two-thirds of the way down to the base. Open the fig by gently pulling the "petals" back a bit.

2. Place a small piece of cheese, about a teaspoon, in the center of each fig. The amount will vary depending on the size of the fig.

3. Select a shallow baking dish just large enough to hold all the figs side by side and line it with the optional fig leaves. Place the stuffed figs in the dish, stem-side up. Drizzle the vinegar and olive oil evenly over the figs, and sprinkle with the sea salt.

4. Place the dish in the oven and roast until the cheese is warmed and a bit runny, and the figs are cooked and just browning on the tops, about 5to 8 minutes.

5. Sprinkle the hazelnuts over the roasted figs and drizzle over the honey. Scatter the arugula over the top and serve immediately.

* Wild arugula and fresh fig leaves are available at selected farmer's markets.

- Noelle Carter

Photos by Bob Chamberlin and Noelle Carter

Yo! It's GaryVee!

The Web Scout blog is the first to report that Web TV network Revision3 has made another high-profile acquisition by adding wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk -- you may know him as GaryVee -- to the fold. Vaynerchuk's popular Wine Library TV, which Revision3 says brings in more than 60,000 viewers every day, stars the blue-streak-talking Jersey boy as he sniffs, swishes and spits his way through a bottle or three per episode. This unsnobby charm mixes well with his insistence that viewers trust their own palate rather than what the experts say, an approach that has helped win him more than 9,000 followers on Twitter alone. 

Click here for video and more.

Kobe tube steaks

A few months, ago Venice-based sausage king Jody Maroni introduced third-pound hot dogs made from "Kobe" beef (it's actually beef from Japanese Wagyu cattle raised in Australia). Now you can also buy Kobe dogs at the supermarket -- in a variety of sizes, from half-pounders down through the usual fifth-pound size to half-ounce Kobe cocktail franks (you might have to special-order them). And golf star Greg Norman has his brand on a line of 4-inch Kobe dogs, available mostly at golf course cafes.

Well, how about that? Hot dogs made from Kobe-style beef, the super-premium pride of fancy steakhouse menus! The mind reels. How do you deal with such a thing?

The only way is seriously and systematically. I steamed a 6-incher and tasted it; good and beefy, with bright garlic and paprika flavors, less impression of beef fat than I would have expected.

But what should you have with it? Probably not bright yellow baseball park mustard, right? Maybe Dijon? Steak sauce? Since it’s made from Kobe-type beef, maybe teriyaki sauce? How about wasabi?

Here are my tasting notes. Dijon mustard: passable, no real chemistry. Steak sauce: better, but a bit too sour and did not go well with the garlic flavor. Teriyaki: way too sweet; soy overwhelms the beef. Wasabi horseradish: sharp taste played well off the beef and garlic, and the vaguely alfalfa-like aroma seemed to speak to the very spirit of the cow.

So wasabi it is. Basically a Kobe dog tastes like a good beef hot dog, but it has all those Kobe beef bragging rights, so I say run with the Japanese motif.

Third-pound Kobe dogs are available at Jody Maroni locations; visit www.jodymaroni.com. All sizes can be ordered from Whole Foods meat sections. You can also get all sizes from Broadleaf Venison, 5600 S. Alameda St., Suite 100, Vernon; place your order by phone first, (323) 826-9890.

-- Charles Perry

Photo by Leslie Brenner

Tiny sushi

Last weekend, my 11-year-old friend Pearl, who had driven across the country with her family from Massachusetts, found this cunning sushi set at a shop on Sawtelle Boulevard in West L.A. The tiny sushi, drinks and bowls of ramen come in grab-bag packs of about 10 or 15 items, each for $5. She bought one pack and was hooked. "I like the drinks," she says, "because the tops really come off on the bottles. And all the sushi." She went back for more. And more. She bought so many packs (there are 10 in all) that the salesman gave her the sushi bar and chef. (Normally it's available only if you buy a whole set for $50.) And does the Massachusetts girl like to eat sushi? "I love sushi," she says. Her favorite? "Probably eel."

Tokyo Japanese Outlet, 2109 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 914-5320.

-- Leslie Brenner

Photo by Leslie Brenner