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Monday, September 6, 2010

What to Do with Fresh Figs

You'd think that after living on my own for over 35 years that I would get the hang of cooking for one, I even bought a cookbook called The Pleasures of Cooking for One, which is a pleasant read and has some good sounding recipes, none of which I've made.

So what got into me to purchase a flat of fresh figs, which bruise easily and don't keep well? Of course I ate a few fresh, but that still leaves 14 figs that I had to use up this weekend. Here's what I did.

Fig Compote
This is another fruit recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. The caramelized syrup is very yummy.

1/2 pound fresh figs
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
  1. Preheat the broiler
  2. In a cast iron frying pan, melt the butter, brown sugar, and honey for one minute.
  3. Add the figs and cover them with the syrup.
  4. Put the pan under the broiler for 5 minutes, and stir the mixture occasionally to keep it from burning.
  5. Serve the compote hot over pancakes or porridge.  


Fig Cobbler

I also found a recipe on the internet for a fig cobbler with a cheddar cheese lattice crust, which to me automatically puts it out of the running as a cobbler. I thought the combination of a savoury cheese with the sweetness of the figs might be pleasant, but I was distinctly underwhelmed. I tried to punch it up a bit by adding a smidgen of cayenne pepper to the fruit (which was a nice touch), but the fruit and crust just didn't combine well.


3 comments:

  1. We got a sack of use-me-quick figs from our neighbors. I made some really good jam, loosely following a recipe on the web. They've got another tree not yet ripening, so I'm sure there will be more. The cobbler thing looks interesting.

    I love that Judith Jones book, although I haven't cooked from it yet. Have you read her autobiog, The Tenth Muse? Very good, and a good followup to Child's My Life in France.

    (You need to set yourself up as an Amazon Associate so you can get a tiny dab of money if someone buys one of the books you mention.)

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  2. I have no canning equipment, so I figured jam was out. Although I do love fig jam. The next try will be a fig crisp. I think that could work much better.

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  3. AFAIK, you don't really need canning equipment for jams and such, at least for small amounts. The high sugar content is a preservative. I guess you should keep the in the fridge, or at least cool. I put my extras in the freezer, fig and plum jams so far.

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