Figs and cheese make a simple and pleasant dessert, but recently I accidentally stumbled on another ingredient that elevates things to a whole new level.

It happened even more accidentally than usual where my cooking is concerned. We’re all used to looking in the fridge and cupboards and thinking about what might taste good thrown together, and indeed this discovery followed just such an episode. In putting out the figs and cheese, I was lazy and used a cutting board that I’d already used earlier in the evening for cooking dinner. It looked clean enough. But as I sat there reading and not really looking at what I was doing, my hand found a small piece of what I thought was probably just a crumb of cheese. Surprise! It was a piece of freshly chopped garlic, and it complemented the figs and cheese so extremely well that I went right back and chopped another clove.

I usually have this with a little whisky, too, which is how it got its name. Rose was traveling at the time, and she does not like whisky. But she likes the three ingredients together, too, so eventually we’ll probably have to give it a new name. Our fig choices here are really limited; we like fresh figs when we can get them and golden dried figs of several varieties, too. But dried black mission figs are usually what is in stock. All types would be good like this. We’ve tried quite a few different cheeses, but we tend to come back to an aged parmesan for this.

A gentleman’s dessert