Autumn Cheese Board with Ginger Pickled Figs
Hi hi hi! I made us another option for my list of charcuterie ideas. I’ve been absolutely obsessed with early fall produce lately. It’s not quite time for sweet dumpling squash and pumpkin yet, but it IS time for figs and concord grapes!
If you’ve never tried a fresh fig before, I would recommend you hightail it to your local fig purveyor, buy yourself one, and give it a try. I used to think I hated figs, but that was probably because I had one bad fig, one time.
The figs this year (they’re in season right now!) are awesome, and they’re my temporary favorite food until further notice.
If you do indeed decide that you like figs, Step 2 would be to make a batch of my Ginger Pickled Figs. And then build an autumn cheese board (or even a Halloween meat and cheese tray or jarcuterie), like so:
- Ginger Pickled Figs (recipe below)
- Concord Grapes (these are what they make grape jelly with – try them!) or any variety of roasted grape.
- Marcona almonds
- Dried cherries
- Sliced apples
- Honey or honeycomb OR BOTH
- Whole grain mustard – I forgot to include that in this photo, but I don’t want you to forget.
- Crackers
- Dried breadsticks
- Apple cider jam – Â my husband (the jam fanatic) found this at a gift shop. Apple butter works, too (and I have a recipe for homemade apple butter with my breakfast charcuterie board)
- Aged cheese, like aged extra sharp Cheddar
- Soft cheese, like goat cheese (buy a big package and use the rest to make a sweet potato breakfast bake).
- Blue cheese. Buy a big hunk and use some to make blue cheese mashed potatoes next week!
- Interesting random cheese, like the Wensleydale cheese with cranberries I used here.
Ginger Pickled Figs
Ingredients
- 6 figs, halved lengthwise
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Place figs in pint-sized mason jar.
- In small saucepot, heat water, vinegar, sugar, ginger and salt over medium-high heat. Cook until all sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally (do not boil). Remove from heat; pour mixture over figs.
- Let jar stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, then cover and transfer to refrigerator. Chill completely before serving.
Can you process these figs as regular canning measures to last longer?
Hi JD! I haven’t tried that, so unfortunately I’m not sure.
gonna try so let you know. Also I used Red Wine Vinegar and they were great.
Awesome! Definitely let me know how it turns out, JD 🙂
How long willl the figs keep?
Hi Kimberlee! They should keep about 5 days in the fridge.
Pickled figs is a most interesting concept. Â I was able to buy figs once this month (used them on a pizza), but even though the store had a sign for figs today, there were none. Â Kinda puts a damper on doing something with them. Â But I am saving the recipe.
You know, I’m not sure I’d ever had a pickled fig before, or what even prompted me to try it, but I like pickled just-about-anything, and figs were no different. Now you have me wanting to make a fig pizza, Susan. I actually still spotted a few figs at my store yesterday, but they go in and out. Some days they are there, others they are gone.