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| Bounty of first crop figs from our kindly landlady |
I tried my hand at Green fig preserve and I am rather pleased with the result. It being fig season in the Southern hemisphere, I share my recipe with you. It is a combination of recipes sourced from recipe books and the internet and adapted to the availability of ingredients in my pantry.
Ingredients:
2 kg green figs, nicely swollen but not hollow. Also it is suggested that figs from the first crop be used as it gets too ripe and bitter later on in the season.
2,5 kg sugar
2 liters of water
40 ml lemon juice
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled
6 young fig leaves, rinsed(it enhances the fig flavor if boiled with the figs)
Method:
- Wash figs and prick all over. Soak overnight in a solution of 30 ml bicarbonate of soda to 3 liters of water.
- Next day, rinse the figs well and bring to boil 3 liters of water. Add figs and boil for about 20 minutes until tender. Drain.
- Bring the water, sugar, lemon juice, ginger and leaves to the boil. Add the figs to the syrup one by one and boil rapidly until the figs are soft and can be broken open, but the skins still rather crisp. The syrup will also become thick. It took 60 minutes on a medium gas flame but I suppose I could have boiled it harder.
- Leave the figs in the syrup overnight.
- Next morning remove the figs and drain back the syrup into the saucepan. Bring the syrup to the boil again and add the figs. When boiling temperature is reached again, remove from heat, discard the leaves and ginger and bottle the figs in sterilized jars. Fill to the brim with hot syrup.
Enjoy with wholegrain bread and butter or serve as is with good coffee. Also fabulous with blue cheese and crackers. Excuse me, I hear the kettle boiling!
Matilda
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| A study in figness- one perfect, preserved fig catching the rays of the afternoon sun. |
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