Drunken Fig Crostini /// Award Winning Recipe

Here is my final recipe that I created while at EVO’12.  It’s a Drunken Fig Crostini that I have fallen in LOVE with…

This was another of my FAVORITE classes at EVO’12. It was sponsored by Mizkan the makers of Nakano Rice Wine Vinegars and Holland House Cooking Wine and Premium Vinegars. We had an amazing lunch on the top of the mountain again, with the menu created by the amazing chef Jill Houk. She used the Mizkan products in all of the menu items and they were amazing.  After lunch we had the opportunity to learn from Kelly Alfieri from Martha Stewart Living all about the ins and outs of Pinterest {everyone’s favorite topic these days.}

My favorite part was that we had another food challenge for the class… We had to create an original crostini recipe from a table full of tasty ingredients along with the the Mizkan family of products. I immediately zeroed in on some…

• Fig Spread
• Wine Soaked Cheddar
• Apricot Jam
• Nakano Original Rice Wine Vinegar
• Holland House Cooking Sherry 

…As my ingredients for my crostini creation…

This is a super simple recipe that will totally wow your guest at your next gathering.  I spread the crostini, which is just a thinly sliced French baguette that has been toasted, with the fig spread. I topped it with a generous slice of the wine soaked cheddar. Now when I tried to find the wine soaked cheddar when I came home and tried to recreate the recipe, I couldn’t find it. I ended up using an extra sharp aged cheddar at it worked just fine.

I then created my apricot drizzle with a 1/2 a cup of the apricot jam, 1/2 tsp. of the Nakano rice wine vinegar and 1 tsp of the Holland House sherry.  I whisked that together until I has a nice thin consistency and then topped the crostini with the yummy apricot  drizzle.

The next step to the challenge was to plate the crostini, take a Pinterest worthy picture and send the plate and the picture to the judges. Now keep in mind, we had 15 minutes to do all of this in, so it was a reminiscent of a classic Food Network challenge. LOVED IT!!  Here is my Instagram photo that I sent in to be judged…

I ended up taking 5th place in the competition and was thrilled.  I won the fabulous cutting board that is underneath the plate in the picture above and I LOVE it.

So here’s my question to you… Do you ever cook with wine? Have you learned how to masterfully use vinegars in your recipes to enhance the flavors?

I cook with wine quite a bit, but I don’t drink alcohol.  That tends to pose a problem sometimes.  I don’t really know what kind of wines to use when I cook. I have taken to using the Holland House cooking wines because it really takes the guess work out of cooking with a sometimes mysterious ingredient.

I also LOVE to use rice vinegar to enhance all kinds of recipes.  You would be surprised at what you can do with rice vinegar to boost the flavor of a recipe without people even knowing that it is rice vinegar that is your secret ingredient. Give it a try and let me know what you think!