Goat cheese, fig, and caramelized onion crostini

Sunday night, Tiffany and Mario came over for dinner, and since it would be a late dinner we figured we should have some appetizers out. After my impulse-buy of a whole box of figs at Russos, I decided to use them up on the appetizer. A little browsing of the google, epicurious, and random other blogs led to an amalgamation of figs and goat cheese on some toasted bread. We had gotten the cheapest loaf of french bread that Trader Joe's had, and it was kind of dense and not that interesting, but it made perfect little toasts! This was a good combination, the goat cheese mixture tasted faintly of cream cheese, but the herbs helped out a lot in that department, and the caramelized onions were a nice touch, If I do say so myself. I would have added some prosciutto if I'd had any, but then maybe we're putting too many things on a poor little piece of bread...

Ingredients

1/2 loaf of french bread, sliced on a slight diagonal in 1/4-1/2" slices, to make 30 slices
~2-4tbs olive oil
15 fresh figs
1 big onion (or two smaller ones)
~1tbs butter
6oz fresh goat cheese (it usually comes in a log)
1/4C heavy cream
1 tbs chopped dried herbs
1-2 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Slice the onions so that you get long pieces, and cook them on medium-low heat for 30-45 minutes, adding butter as needed, until they are deep brown and taste sweet.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Slice up your bread, and lay it out on a cookie sheet (or two, if it won't fit on one). Drizzle it generously with olive oil, flip it over, and drizzle the other side. Put it in the oven for approximately 5-10 minutes (check after 5) until the bread is crispy and golden on the bottom. If you want it super crunchy, flip it over and bake for another 5 minutes.

Mix the goat cheese with the cream, honey, and herbs. Mix it up and add salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the figs into quarters.

Spread a good glob of the cheese mixture onto a piece of bread. Squish some onions into the cheese. Top with two fig quarters, pushing down on them so they stick there. Repeat with the rest of the bread slices. Serve!



And just for the drool-factor, I leave you with a picture of the meal that came after these crostini: herb-crusted ahi tuna on a bed of chantarelle risotto with snap peas. Yes, it was AMAZING.