The incredible, edible fig - SCNow
The incredible, edible fig - SCNow |
- The incredible, edible fig - SCNow
- Dawn Dillard: Summertime and the livin' is easy - Marshall News Messenger
- Michelle Darmody's favourite fig-based dessert recipes - Irish Examiner
| The incredible, edible fig - SCNow Posted: 28 Jul 2020 03:53 PM PDT  The "common fig" has been cultivated and highly regarded across many cultures since ancient times. Originating in the Middle East, it is but one of hundreds of species of figs. The common fig is referenced repeatedly in the Bible, but the archeological record shows that humans cultivated figs in the Jordan Valley at least 11,000 years ago. Here in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, figs flourish in our hot, sunny climate. Right now, the fig trees are laden with heavy, plump, brown fruits dangling from the twisty tree branches. The trees are commonplace throughout the suburbs, inner cities and rural areas. Most of the fig trees around here are "Brown Turkey" cultivars, but there are many other different varieties. Technically, figs are not fruits. They're false fruits. These sweet, moist, edible plant parts are botanical structures called syconia, which are hollow, fleshy structures lined inside with tiny flowers. They are soft and sweet, and if you've never eaten one, you don't know what a delicious treat you're missing! I planted a fig tree near my house 13 years ago. Now, it is almost 15 feet high and 20 feet wide. In late July and early August, there are so many figs that we often pick a gallon a day, and there are plenty more that get eaten by birds and deer. With that many figs, preserving the bumper crop is a necessity. A person can only eat so many fresh figs a day! You can dry the figs in a dehydrator, but in my experience, they end up more like hard rubber than the soft, pliable dried figs found in the supermarket. Not only are store-bought figs a different variety, but they're treated with chemical preservatives and processed differently than simple air drying. Some people bake with figs. With minimal baking experience, you can make a homemade version of fig bars (the generic equivalent of the famous ones named after the town of Newton, Massachusetts). Or, try more exotic recipes that pair figs with goat cheese, chocolate or meat. But those preparations aren't really preserving figs; they're cooking with figs. To get the longest shelf life out of your fig crop, the go-to approach is to make fig jam. To make fig jam, all that is needed is minimal equipment and basic ingredients. To begin, wash your pint or half-pint canning jars and submerge them in a large pot of water. Bring the water to a boil and then simmer the jars for at least 10 minutes. Unlike what most people call it, this isn't sterilization, it's sanitization. Nest, ladle some of the hot water into a dish or small saucepan and put the canning jar lids in to soften up the sealing compound on them. While the jars are in simmering water, add 5 cups of chopped figs, 7 cups of sugar, a half cup of lemon juice and a half cup of water to a large pan on the stovetop. Add one box of pectin (available in many supermarkets or corner stores) and stir it all together. Heat the mixture to a boil while constantly stirring. Stir it quickly for at least a minute while the mixture is at a full, rolling boil. Then remove it from the heat. Take a jar out of the simmering water and dump out the hot water. Ladle the hot fig jam into the empty jar, leaving a quarter to a half inch of headspace. Headspace is the gap between the top of the jam and the rim of the jar. Clean the rim of any jam, and place a warm lid and ring on the jar. Screw the ring on hand-tight, and then invert the jar on a towel on the countertop. Repeat this for the remaining jars (the recipe will make about 4 pint jars) and leave them inverted for at least 5 minutes. What I have described is the inverted jar technique for canning jam. Although it has been employed safely for more than 100 years, some people opt for the boiling water canning method instead. In that method, you submerge the filled jars, with the lids and rings on, in a pot of water so that the jars are at least 2 inches underwater. Bring the water to a boil and remove the jars after 10 minutes of vigorous boiling. Either way, the lids on the cooled jars should be tightly sealed against the rim of the jar. The lid will be sucked down and not come off when the ring is removed. The finished jam can sit for years on a shelf at room temperature. Some minor discoloration may occur over time, but it's fine to eat as long as the lid is sealed. Fig jam is excellent on buttered toast or added to plain yogurt. Spread it on crackers with soft cream cheese, mascarpone, or chevre. Or, use it as a sweet glaze for roasted or grilled meat. No matter how you use it, I guarantee it will be figgin' awesome! |
| Dawn Dillard: Summertime and the livin' is easy - Marshall News Messenger Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  "Summertime and the livin' is easy." I'm thinking that the summer of 2020, might be described like this: "Summertime and livin' is easy?" It's all in the punctuation. Proper grammar is a real struggle these days with so much texting and social media. I had a friend text me the other day about all that was going on in life and they followed the text up with "SMH." I texted back and said, "what the heck is 'SMH'"? They replied, "Shaking my head. Don't you stay up to date on this stuff?" LOL! (that's "laughing out loud" for those of you who aren't up to speed-like me). I remember my favorite thing to do in English class was diagramming sentences. The longer the sentence, the better I liked it. Shout out to English teachers everywhere: Don't give up! Keep teaching the basics. Your students will look back one day and appreciate it......and you! "In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear the way you want to be heard." Russell Baker Have you ever wondered the difference between jelly, jam and preserves? In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice. Jelly has the smoothest consistency and is usually clear. In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit. This makes jam less stiff than jelly. In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a gel or syrup. Preserves will have more fruit in them. My grandmother (Mongoes) used to make two kinds of preserves- watermelon rind and fig. I wasn't a big fan of the watermelon rind because I don't like watermelon. Yes, I know......I'm a southern gal who doesn't like watermelon. Sorry. Anyway, I loved her fig preserves. I think the thing I loved about them was the fact that the figs would take on any flavor you would like. She had a huge fig tree behind her house and figs were always in plentiful supply. We would pick them and then she would ask, "So, what kind of preserves do you want? Grape? Strawberry"? We could flavor the figs to whatever taste we wanted. It was great. Figs, sugar and whatever flavor jello you wanted and voila! Best preserves ever! My grandmother and her sister, Bess, were two of the sweetest women you could ever hope to meet. As they both got older, their hearing aged as well. I remember taking the two of them to a Sunday School party one time and a lady came up and was talking to Mongoes about this, that and the other. They were talking about food and cooking and she asked my grandmother "So, Alma, do you like fish?" My grandmother replied "Oh yes! I have a whole tree full growing in my back yard." I jumped in: "FISH, Mongoes! She said FISH not FIGS!" You will find that I reminisce a lot about the times growing up. They were simple times. They were happy times. Life today is not as simple but we can still find time to pay attention to the little things in life and take every opportunity to make memories! I will close for now because I all of a sudden have a hankerin' to go find a fig tree! Grape? Strawberry? As in life, the possibilities are |
| Michelle Darmody's favourite fig-based dessert recipes - Irish Examiner Posted: 10 Jul 2020 12:00 AM PDT I love finding out silly, fun facts about food; peanuts are not really nuts, they are in fact a legume; a bunch of bananas is more accurately called a hand; or that strawberries are not berries at all. I do often get quizzical looks when imparting the knowledge unsolicited over a dinner table, but it usually matched with interest. One of the most interesting, if a little macabre, food facts is the tale of the wasp and the fig. The two live in mutual dependence of each other, it is the tiny fig wasp that helps this unusual plant to survive, but often the wasp pays the price. What we think of as a fig is in fact an inverted flower rather than a fruit, like all flowers it needs pollen to pollinate it, so it can reproduce. A fig tree produces both a male and female figs, if the wasp lays her eggs in a male fig, which does not ripen into an edible 'fruit', she will find it a perfect place for her brood to grow. But, if the wasp crawls into a female fig by mistake she cannot get back out, but she carriers with her the precious pollen that allows that fig to swell and ripen. This fig will produce a special enzyme which then breaks down the insect's body into proteins that get absorbed by the plant. Perhaps that is not the best preamble to a recipe section containing figs but nature is fascinating and the results of this strange relationship, built up over thousands of years, are a nutritious, tasty ingredient that can be used in many different ways. Fig jam or chutney will preserve the figs throughout winter or simply roasting them and serving them with cheese and bread can make for a satisfying lunch. The three recipes printed here are all for sweet desserts. The fig rolls are a little niggly to make, but they taste good and will last a few days in an air tight box. 
175g of butter 170g of golden caster sugar 3 eggs, lightly beaten 200g of self raising flour, sieved 50g of ground almonds the zest of three oranges 100g of semi dried figs, finely chopped 2 tsp of vanilla
80 mls of cream 80g of white chocolate chips 3 fresh figs, quartered a handful of slivered almonds
Line a 2 lb loaf tin with parchment and pre heat your oven to 170 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar until pale, and creamy in colour. Slowly add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour until combined then add in the ground almonds, orange zest, dried figs and vanilla. Scoop the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin until you can remove it comfortably, then place it on a wire rack. To make the white chocolate glaze heat the cream over a low heat until shivering, which will happen just before it boils. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips until melted. Allow to firm up slightly then pour it over your cooled cake. Place the fresh figs on top and sprinkle with the almonds.
8 fresh figs 1 tbs of honey the zest of 2 oranges 300g of ricotta 50g of unsalted, shelled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped and toasted
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and line a large flat baking tray with parchment. Cut a small cross shape in the top of each fig and pinch the base slightly so the top of the fig opens up. Place a teaspoon of honey into each fig and sprinkle in some orange zest. Place each fig onto the baking tray and bake for about ten minutes. Whisk the ricotta with the remaining honey. Serve the figs warm with a scoop of the ricotta and a sprinkling of the pistachio nuts.
150g of plain flour 75g of wholemeal flour 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger 45g of golden caster sugar 2 egg yolks 140g of cold butter, cubed
200g of semi dried figs, chopped 45g of golden caster sugar the zest of 2 oranges
Mix the two flours, and spices together in a large bowl. Stir the sugar into the egg yolks and set aside so that it dissolves slightly. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like rough breadcrumbs. Add in the egg and sugar and bring everything together with a fork, then with your hands until it forms a smooth dough. Do not over knead as the less you handle it the better. Turn the pastry onto a sheet of baking parchment, wrap it up and place in the fridge for at least an hour. To make the filling place the ingredients into a heavy based saucepan, add water so the figs are just about covered and simmer for about ten minutes. Blitz gently with a soup gun or in a blender and set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line two flat baking trays with parchment. Gentry roll the pastry into a rectangle shape about 12 by 8 inches, cut this in half lengthwise so that you have two long rectangles. There is quite a lot of butter in the pastry so it can be crumbly. Scoop half of the filling along the long of edge of each rectangle. Brush some water on the exposed pastry and roll up and seal. Score and press gently with a fork to secure the seal. Place with the seam side down onto the tray. Bake the long rolls for about twenty minutes until golden. When still warm cut them with a sharp knife to the desired size for your biscuits. Allow to cool on a wire rack. |
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