Quick Pickled Blueberries, Goat Cheese, Honey, Pluot, Sage, Pistachio Tartines

When one wakes up in the middle of the night, it takes awhile for truth to be understood. You hold some beliefs that make incredible sense at the moment upon awakening.

But after a bit of time, one realizes that everything thought to be true, thought to be factual, was wrong.

The puff cat on the pillow is actually the pig cat imitating the puff's favored sleep position. The fluffy soft cat making its way to your hand for cuddles is not a random stray third cat that you keep wishing would magically appear at your doorstep in need of a loving home. And that the lump near your legs isn't a sleeping pig cat. In reality, the fluffy cuddly cat is your very own JiJi. And the lump near your legs is not even a cat. But a mini-sized person who should have been sleeping in his own bed. And by the time all these facts and truths are revealed you are extremely awake.

At which point, even more truths can come out as well.  Like you realize with a flutter of panic that you never said goodbye to blueberries.  They were here  - so small and round and indigo in color and now they are gone - replaced by nonsense like figs.

This month's Creative Cooking Crew Challenge is to "pickle it"  The roundup will be hosted by Joan of Foodalogue, so I will post the link here once the roundup goes live! Here is the link to the roundup - definitely check it out, there are so many amazing, creative dishes!

After I realized my mistake, I figured this - the blueberries - would be the thing to pickle.  I would somehow obtain a box, and have my chance to say goodbye.  I decided to do a quick pickling of the blueberries so that my mom would be able to say her goodbyes to the fruit as well while she was visiting.

From there, we built a tartine with a goat cheese and cream cheese mixture, honey, pluots, sage, and chopped pistachios.  A tartine to truly awaken the taste buds.

Ingredients
2 cups blueberries
1 cup red wine vinegar (I wanted the sour taste to be prominent, so I used only vinegar, but feel free to substitute water for part of the vinegar.  I probably wouldn't go over 1/2 cup of water)
3 tablespoons wild dandelion honey
1 cinnamon stick
2 inch orange peel
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon whole tellicherry peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 ounces goat cheese
3 ounces cold cream cheese

chopped salted pistachios
wild dandelion honey
pluot, sliced
torn sage leaves
goat cheese spread
pickled blueberries
slices of good quality bread

Instructions
In a small pot, bring the vinegar (and water, if using), honey, cinnamon, orange peel, fennel, cloves, peppercorns, juniper berries, and salt to boil.  Place the blueberries in a mason jar, then pour the vinegar mixture over the berries.  Refrigerate overnight.

In mixer, beat goat cheese with the cream cheese.

To assemble the tartines: Spread goat cheese mixture on bread.  Brush on a bit of honey.  Add pluot slices, sage leaves, pickled blueberries, and chopped pistachios.

Individual Apple Crisp Recipe

Last week I got a shipment of SweeTango apples to try. New varieties of apples appear up now and again and the SweeTango is a relatively new one that's harvested the end of August and beginning of September. It's a very pretty apple with a bright mix of golden green and bright red. The SweeTango is a cross between a Honeycrisp and a Zestar apple. Honeycrisp is sweet and crisp and Zestar is juicy and zesty. The cross is a very good eating apple but you can use it for cooking too. It's a juicy apple so it doesn't need additional liquid and is best for recipes that are fairly quick cooking because it gets very soft when cooked. 

The SweeTango is perfect for apple crisp, which is super easy to make, easier than pie or even a cobbler. It's the kind of thing that takes only minutes to prepare, then you can pop it in the oven after or even during dinner. The smell of apples, butter and cinnamon might be the best thing about autumn. 

If you've ever ordered apple crisp in a restaurant, no doubt it was served in some kind of ramekin. Making individual portions of  apple crisp is particularly convenient for my household of two. Each apple crisp uses a single apple. I like adding cinnamon to the apples, but you could add it to the crumble topping if you prefer.

Individual Apple Crisp

makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 medium apple such as SweeTango, peeled and diced

1/2 teaspoon sugar 

Cinnamon

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Pinch salt

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon rolled oats

1 Tablespoon walnuts or pecans chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to at 375° Toss apples with sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place apples in a ramekin, pressing down and compressing the apples so they fit snuggly.  In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and salt; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Blend in oats and nuts. Sprinkle over apples. Bake, uncovered, for 25 - 30 minutes or until brown on top.

Enjoy! 

Disclaimer: I received a sample of apples but was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy