Fig with Goat Cheese and Almond

What a simple, straight forward and yet elegant way of making appetizer. The flavors of figs, tangy goat cheese, salty almonds, sweet honey, and balsamic vinegar contrast to make these a delicious and very pretty appetizer. Serve it as it is or over a bed of rocket.

Ingredients:
4 figs (dried or fresh)
Goat cheese, crumbled
Almonds, whole or sliced
Balsamic Vinegar
Honey

1. Preheat oven to high
2. Carefully cut a cross over the dried fig to make pocket space, making sure the bottom remains intact. Stuff crumbled goat cheese to the pocket space. Top it with almonds. *if using fresh fig, cut fig into half, top with cheese and press almond onto cheese to push cheese into the fig.
   
3. Broil in oven until cheese melt and almonds turn golden brown.
4. Drizzle with balsamic and honey to serve.
   

Camembert and Blue Cheese Turnover

I'm going to be teaching Yoga at Cocoa Island in Maldives for the month of July and August. That's a total of 7 weeks away from my husband. Big Deal! What's he going to do with food? I've got to make sure there's 'something' in the fridge for him. Here's two easy to make sweet turnovers. They are perfect for breakfast with a cup of espresso (Adrian's take).
Despite the incessant assurance and encouragement from Divya (my Canadian Indian neighbour), I'm still hesitant about making my own dough. Hence, I took the easy way buying the ready made puff pastry from the store. I have to say they are really good. I just don't like waiting to defrost.

Sweet Baked Camembert
Ingredients:
Puff pastry sheet
Homemade raspberry jam
Dried cranberry
Almond slivers
Camembert
Maple syrup
Ground cinnamon

1. Prepare puff pastry sheet as instructed. I divided one sheet into four quarters and used a quarter of a round camembert for each quarter of the pastry sheet.
2. Sprinkle each quarter with dried cranberry (or raisins) and a couple tablespoons of raspberry jam. Top with slivers of almond.
3. Fold the pastry into desired shape. If you are not baking them yet, wrap each pastry with plastic or cling film and store in zip lock bag in the freezer.
4. To serve, preheat oven to 180C. Defrost the pastry at room temperature.
5. Make a few small holes on the pastry using a fork. Drizzle the top with maple syrup and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.

It's the same steps for the blue cheese turnover except it's paired with chopped pecan and dried figs.

Sweet Baked Blue Cheese
Ingredients
Puff pastry sheet
blue cheese
chopped pecan nuts (or walnuts)
4 Dried Figs, quartered
Maple syrup
Ground cinnamon