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I am awash in black Mission figs. I know, this is not the worst problem to have, and I am ready for the hate mail from my Northeastern and Canadian friends. But still. Our tree is five years old now and has been popping out figs since late June; only then it was a few at a time, perfect for fresh eating.
Now it’s a dozen or more at any given moment. Holly likes eating them fresh, and so do I on occasion, but because figs tend to lack that acidic tang blackberries, elderberries or really most any other fruit possess, a really ripe one feels like eating a blob of figgy sugar.
So, the annual fig dilemma: What the hell am I going to do with all of these things? Wasting them is out of the question, and, oddly, our local birds seem to not have noticed this tree (Shhh!), so leaving them to the magpies isn’t an option, either. I am drying a lot of them this year, both to make the Greek fig cakes I love so much and to just eat as-is; they make perfect hunting snacks.
But that’s old hat now. So I thought about figs for a while, wondering what, in essence, is a fig all about? (Yeah, I know I’m a little crazy. Deal.) What I kept coming back to is that figgy blob of an overripe fig: It’s Nature’s jelly bag — pure sugar. A really ripe fig can hit a brix reading of 23-24, a sugar level powerful enough to make wine (hey, THAT’s an idea!), so why not just go with it?
I started with fig jam. This one is easy, and I like eating it. I make an odd fig jam, however, spiked with ouzo and cooked with bay leaves and a little salt. It makes a far more “adult” tasting sweet than typical recipes.
A few tips on making this: Chop your figs small enough so that the skins, which don’t break down completely, will be small enough so you can still spread the jam on toast. If you use it in a sweet-savory pan sauce (it would go well with venison or wild turkey), you also want everything chopped small so it looks good as a sauce.
Stir the bubbling figs often, or suffer the fate of burned figs on the bottom of your pot, which smell nasty, and can ruin a batch, not to mention your pot. This can happen very quickly once the water content of the jam is boiled down, so stay close.
I did not add any pectin to my jam, so it is pretty loose. I like it this way, but you could add pectin if you wanted. A final tip: Add some of the ouzo at the very end, so it retains some alcohol. Then feed it to your small children when they’re rambunctious. Calms ’em right down…
I thought about making fig ice cream or sorbet, am was still mulling this when our neighbor Aleika offered to make some for us. Sure, why not? She did, and while it’s good, fig sorbet remains a work in progress. She added some Port to the sorbet — great idea — but for some reason it was not overly figgy tasting. And then there was the problem of the seeds.
Let me say for the record that I loathe fig seeds. OK, that’s an overstatement, as I don’t mind them one bit when I eat a fresh or dried fig. But I don’t like the gritty feel of them in the sorbet, and I like them even less in fig syrup.
Oh yes, I made fig syrup. Looks beautiful, tastes wonderful, but it is an absolute ball-buster to make.
Let me start by saying I do not make a lot of jams and jellies. My elderberry jelly did not set, and as a rule I don’t eat a lot of sweet things. So maybe there is a better way to make this syrup, and if you know of one by all means fill me in, as the process I used to get to this lovely garnet syrup was no fun.
First part is easy. Chop figs and cook down for 2-3 hours with some water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Tastes great, and would make a good fig jam. But a proper syrup should not have seeds. Ever try to strain out fig seeds before? They’re smaller even than strawberry seeds. Grrrr…
I started by running everything through the fine plate on my food mill, which has been getting a lot of use these days. That separated the skins, some pulp, and a few seeds. Then I tried pushing the figs through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth.
No dice. It was still way too thick, and it ruined the cheesecloth. Getting frustrated, I searched for my jelly bag. Oh yeah, that’s right, I don’t own a jelly bag. Sigh. I do own standard cotton undershirts, however, and so I cut out a big square of one and used that as my jelly bag.
Hanes did me proud. By squeezing and loosening the tension on the figgy mass, I got most of the good stuff out — and left those goddamn seeds in the shirt. Finally, I got out more cheesecloth and pushed the fig juice through a fine-mesh sieve.
Not done. I measured out the strained fig juice and added 2/3 its volume in sugar — normally a syrup ratio would be one-to-one, but figs are already sweet. I just eyeballed the ratio, and may have been able to go lower. Still working on it. I brought the syrup to a simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes to boil off some more water.
In the end, it was beautiful. But about five pounds of figs gave me two pints of syrup. Damn. The kicker? I have no idea what I am going to use this stuff in. I’m sure I can think of something, but I didn’t make fig syrup because I had a burning urge to make fig syrup. I did it to get rid of five pounds of figs.
Turns out you can buy an Italian version of fig syrup online. Who knew?
I went out to water my artichokes yesterday. They’re just now breaking dormancy and need a ton of water to grow fast if I want a crop by Thanksgiving. My artichokes live next to the fig tree, which I’d picked clean a few days’ prior so I could do all these figgy experiments. What did I see?
Sonofa… They just won’t stop. Don’t make me make fig syrup again, people. I need help with ideas to put up another zillion figs. Help!
MORE ON FIGS
- Simple Pleasures: Fresh Figs
- A recipe for sykomaitha, Greek fig cakes
- How to make fig jam
- Fig syrup recipe
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Kate –
LMAO. But Hank’s actually pretty OK with simple (more than I am – I can’t stand a dish that takes less than 3-5 hours to make).
As long as he can put a Hank twist on it, he’ll be fine. But then we come to that whole dessert/400-pound blogger problem…
Just one thought…I would think all the sugar in the fig jam would counteract the ouzo, when it comes to feeding it to the kids! Then again, if there’s ENOUGH ouzo…
Hank, clafouti(s) is the simplest dessert in the world, and thus, probably beneath you. Traditionally made with cherries with the pits in, it can be adapted to pert near any fruit. It’s just a mixture of eggs, flour, sugar, and milk/cream, plus fruit and a drop of some liquid flavoring agent (ouzo, vanilla extract, etc), if you like. If you make it with figs of different colors and sizes, cut in half with cut ends facing up, it looks very nice. Develops a nice crust if you do it in a cast iron skillet too.
My grandmother made pickled figs. There was a great leaning fig tree in their Sacramento garden. We had them often with the Sunday roast and always with holiday birds. I didn’t like figs, but I found these tasty.
Amy’s on the right track: Put a nugget of chevre on top of a fig half (or use a whole fig and semi-quarter from the top down), wrap in prociutto, and pop ’em on the BBQ. Divine.
I’m with Charlotte.
Fig and smoked duck breast pizza. Simply amazing. In fact, any combination of duck and fig is quite good.
I recently made a tart with an almond crust. I used fig jam I’d made but I’ve also made it with cut up fresh figs in place of the jam. Spread fresh goat cheese over the cooled tart shell, spread a thick layer of caramelized onions over the cheese, top with figs and arugula dresssed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Great this time of year!
send them to me! no figs in Montana …
Molly: The syrup would be a perfect stand-in for maple syrup, in fact, that’s the first thing I thought of when I finished it. That, and how much I needed bourbon…
Oh, and I mentioned that I dry figs in the post, so I have that covered.
Josh: I may give those fig preserves a try.
J.R.: You have two years. After that, you too will be in my predicament…
Christine: I am not a pie person. I am a passable baker, and while that does sound like an innovative pie crust, Holly is right — we’d be 400 pounds if I started making that many sweets.
Amy: I do that a lot with fresh figs. In fact, I may do that tonight.
Kate: What the hell is a clafouti?
Diana: I’ve been meaning to do the blue cheese-fig thing. Maybe I’ll go buy some Pt. Reyes blue and do it.
My vote: make fig compote. Freeze it. Add it to porridge in the winter. Figgy Porridge. Voila!
How about canning them whole in a boozy sort of simple syrup, then using them later for dessert or with meat?
If you’re going to eat them now, cut a cross in the blossom end, stuff with a bit of cheese, and grill, wrapping with grape leaves if desired.
My fig tree is sad now, hardly producing any at all. 🙁
Christine, SHHHHHHHHH! If Hank starts making pies, I’ll weigh 400 pounds before you know it. But dang, that does sound good…
Amy, just the other day I was practically begging Hank to wrap some proscuitto around these babies and grill them for me. I believe it has to have some insane Hank twist before he’ll do something like this. Any ideas?
Consider this part of your hatemail from the northeast, you bastard!
Alright, insane envy aside, those are some nice ideas and photos. A recipe that caught my eye a while back was the fig-anise sandwich rolls (or was it just a whole loaf?) in the book Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer. These looked horrifically delicious. Are you a baker as well?
Also, I love, love, love to halve or quarter fat figs, toss with a bare whisper of olive oil, set the fruits cut side up on a baking sheet, sprinkle with kosher salt, and broil those babies. Then you can eat them with greens and prosciutto and a good balsamic vinaigrette, or just smear them on a manhandled baguette with some soft goat cheese added. Divine!
Finally, there’s always fig clafoutis if nothing else comes to mind.
Figs are great with any kind of charcuterie. Wrap them in jamon, prosciutto, etc. Also they are very good with blue cheese. I generally eat them out of hand or add them to salads. Have you tried drying them?
I know you said you have dried them. You could dry more of them and put them in the food processor with dates and walnuts to make pie crusts with. Very tasty.
Good stuff. I picked up a starter fig tree this winter in Connecticut from a family friend named Sebbi (who may or may not have brought back seeds from Sicily). It is loving the CA sunshine. We probably won’t see any fruit this year, but it is growing like a weed. I can’t wait to start harvesting next year.
Nice one, Hank.
We forage figs on the Delta, and in picking a few pounds the other day, I looked up fig preserves, and found this at Bayou Woman:
https://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/bws-whole-fig-preserves/
She keeps the figs whole, but cooks them a long time, so they still spread on toast, but look really nice in the jar.
Fig wine?
I’m curious how thick the fig syrup is, because if it could be a stand-in for maple syrup on waffles I might just go to all that trouble.
For more ways to use them – how about straight-up drying them? Of course, I actually *like* their seedy texture and if you abhor fig seeds then dried figs cause you more problems than anything else….