Where have all the figs gone?

Figs with vanilla ricotta and honey

Our figs are starting to dwindle. We have preserved a heap, eaten a heap and exchanged them for pizzas at our local pizza shop. Our daughter walks to the tree, points to it and says "Um"!

We made this vanilla baked ricotta with the fresh vanilla pods our friend smuggled into Australia from Bali (thanks Gin). It is officially our new favourite way to eat ricotta, and would be great with lots of different fruits (like rhubarb or a compote of Autumn pears, apples and quince). But the figs make it seem more exotic.

750g fresh ricotta
2 cups icing sugar
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk extra
1 vanilla bean (split)
9 figs
caster sugar
honey

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and grease and line a medium loaf tin.

Place the ricotta in a bowl with the icing sugar, eggs and scraped out vanilla bean. Beat until combined then pour into the prepared loaf tin.

Place in a roasting dish and fill the dish with enough water to reach halfway up the loaf tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes (until just set).

Remove the tin from the roasting dish and leave to cool completely. When cool, turn the baked ricotta out onto a board, then slice into 1.5cm thick slices.

Cut the figs in half and sprinkle each one with a few pinches of caster sugar. Place under a hot grill and cook until the sugar starts to caramelize.

Serve a slice of baked ricotta topped with the figs and drizzled with honey.

Rainy weekend: Preserved Figs

So the seasons have decided to dramatically change all of a sudden, and we spent the weekend indoors thanks to rain and a febrile toddler.

So we spent our time preserving like madmen... acquiring quite a few superficial burns upon the way.

This fig recipe is delicious! It comes from an Italian fig farmer and is a great way to use up all the small leftover fruit on our fig tree.

It uses white wine vinegar and spices (oh, and kilos of sugar too). The vinegar gives the figs an amazing sour taste, which counters the kilos of sugar. We are devouring them with ice cream every night.

 

Preserved Figs

4kg figs

5 cups sugar

2 L water

1 tablespoon of cloves

1 cinnamon stick

3 cups white wine vinegar (or you could use balsamic vinegar but it might go a darker colour)

Combine 3cups of sugar and water in a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the figs (whole, cleaned and pricked once or twice with a fork). Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the sugar, the vinegar and spices and cook until the figs become clear.

Remove from the heat and stand for 12-24 hours in the syrup in a cool place.

Place into sterilised jars and fill with syrup. Return the jars to a large pot of boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes to seal.

Figs falling from the sky

So figs aren't literally falling from the sky, but we are harvesting buckets of them every day. We are trying to pick them before the birds and bats get to them. Now the challenge is to

(a) find friends and random strangers to give them away to

(b) find a good method of preserving them and

(c) restrict our 17 month old to only consuming 3 per day...
 

Figs and blue cheese- always a perfect match. There is also some homemade quince paste on the plate- hoping to make more this year.