Experiment.

[hippywife]

So here's what I had:

Some very ripe pears, shallots, fresh garlic, gruyere cheese, and a couple of blocks of fig with all kinds of nuts embedded in them, and a small amount of pate brisee left over from pumpkin pies.

I couldn't find a recipe I wanted so I made one up.

Minced the shallots and browned them in some butter, added the chopped pears and a clove of minced garlic with about a tsp. of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of kosher salt, and around a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Stirred until completely heated.

Put the bars of figs and nuts in the food processor and pulsed until they were crumbs. And finely grated about 3/4 cup of the gruyere cheese.

Layered the pear mixture into the bottom of the crust, followed by the figs and topped with the grated gruyere. Baking at 400 for 15 minutes.

It's in the oven now. I can hardly wait to taste it! Keeping my fingers crossed.

[hippywife]

1. Results.

This turned out delicious! We ate the whole thing for lunch. LOL



Sorry about the presentation here. I decided to take a shot of the inside after I had started eating it.



The only thing I would change would be to add a layer of cheese between the pears and figs. Otherwise it was incredibly good! :9

[Longhorn]

2. It looks and sounds delicious!

I'd never have such interesting ingredients in my house, let alone think of putting them together like that. :yourock:

[hippywife]

3. Hey you!

Thanx! Sometimes I just pick up things that sound interesting when I'm shopping. Then I let my taste buds decide what will be good together.

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Turkey Day. :hug:

[Longhorn]

4. We did, thanks!

One of my daughters hosted dinner -- 16 people in her tiny house but it worked. Lots of good food, including the turkey that they smoked in the brick smoker they built themselves. :hug:

[yellerpup]

5. I can see how you would eat THAT whole thing!

You have to have intuition to be a truly great cook and you've come up with a really exciting dish. Way to go, girl! :9

[hippywife]

6. I think it has more to do

with spending so much time engrossed in reading and talking to people about cooking and baking that helps to be able to taste what things will work together.

Just like all the talking we do here. The flavors were really reminiscent of grasswire's savory cheesecake that I love so much.

[yellerpup]

7. It does.

I've learned so much here in this forum. grasswire always has brilliant recipes and so do you. Caution to the winds! Stir it up!!!

[elleng]

8. You are SO courageous!!!

.

[hippywife]

11. No courage involved...

just a little fun and creativity.

[eleny]

9. What are "blocks of fig with nuts"?

[hippywife]

10. They were just these

blocks of fig with layers of nuts through them: walnuts, almonds, filberts. The label said fig cake but there was no flour or anything, just pressed fruit. They weren't very large, maybe the size of a deck of cards but a little thicker. They ran about $2.25 each.

Something Whole Foods had in their cheese department in a basket. They looked good so we bought a couple of them.

[eleny]

12. Thanks....

I got some little jars of fig jam from my King Soopers. They were also in the cheese cooler where they keep them all in baskets. I think it's from the Middle East. so I'm going to check to see if I can find the fig block. They sound delicious and I like all the ingredients you used in your new recipe.

I'm so glad you shared the recipe - and with pictures, too, oh my! :hug: