We often joke that our beautiful, rented cottage should be called Fig Cottage rather than Vine Cottage. The fig trees that you see in the picture are really prolific and yield plenty of fruit each year. The vine sometimes yields a good crop of grapes, but they are pippy and do not taste good. I have tried juice, jelly, wine…. you name it, but nothing is worth the effort!
Anyway, to return to the fig trees. The only way of harvesting ours is to climb up a ladder, as they are too high up to reach and inevitably they drop splat on the ground when ripe! This is our first serious year of harvesting figs, as although we have lived here for 12 years, we did not invest in the ladder for a few years, and then kept failing to erect it in time for the fig season. I am not a great climber, so this task is left to Paul in our great way of the household division of labour. After all, you would not catch him standing over the stove making a tasty dish from home-grown figs. The cottage is not very tall, which is a good for the task of climbing up to pick figs. It was a gloriously hot day when we tackled this task, which was most welcome, as, having just returned from a month of almost non-stop sunshine in Southern Europe, we were glad not to be confronted by a typical English August.
Here I am with the basket of figs. I shall then give you the recipes for the dishes I made from them, with one link where I used someone else’s recipe.
For lunch that day I made a salad, which I am sure is very similar to fig salads made by many others. Here is my version:
Slice some fresh figs, and drizzle with honey and olive oil. Grill for about five minutes until soft, slightly charred and hot. Add a few slices of soft cheese; I used Chaource, but taleggio or goats’ cheese would be good. Grill for a few more minutes until melted and oozing. Serve with parma ham or prosciutto cotto, dressed with a little more olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Grind over some black pepper and sea salt. You could have some lovely ciabatta with it, or some linguette flatbreads, which we love. I was very restrained and had neither, just choosing to have another salad of tomatoes and avocado to make my complete lunch.
My next idea was to make fig rolls. I have to say that I have never enjoyed them when bought in the shops, or have possibly just looked at them and thought ‘yuck!’ The idea of making them with fresh figs seemed a good one, although having done it once, I think I’ll do it again with dried figs. This time I needed some help, as when making cakes and pastries, for texture and consistency I prefer to leave the research to the experts. I turned to Felicity Cloake (@felicitycloake) in The Guardian for this recipe, as I have often enjoyed her ‘How to make the Perfect….’ series of recipes. Here is the link to her excellent recipe: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2016/may/05/how-to-make-the-perfect-fig-rolls The only change I made was to use fresh figs. Also, I was out of soft plain flour, so used strong plain instead, which was fine. My other flour was spelt flour. We had fig rolls warm for pudding in the evening, with a scoop of home-made banana ice-cream – wonderful combination!
For dinner last night, before consuming the fig rolls, I decided to make a seasonal dish of chicken with figs and honey. For this , I jointed a chicken and so we had a breast, and two legs divided into drumsticks and thighs. We did not finish it all between the two of us, and there is still a breast and some wing pieces for more chicken dishes. If you have never jointed a chicken, give it a go! It makes for some really economical meals, rather than buying chicken pieces separately. I have a big sharp knife and a pair of poultry shears for the job.
I roasted the chicken joints with olive oil and rosemary and a few mushrooms. At the same time I prepared a dish of new potatoes and fennel. I parboiled some sliced new potatoes and an onion, then layered them with a raw sliced fennel bulb and a drizzle of olive oil and some creme fraiche. I baked this in the oven with the chicken at 180 degrees celsius for about 40 minutes. After this, the potatoes continued to cook and I added a drizzle of honey and half a dozen sliced figs to the chicken dish. I then covered the potato dish with foil and turned up the oven to finish cooking the chicken for 15 minutes. To finish it off I took the chicken, figs and mushrooms out of the tin and boiled up the delicious juices with a glass of cider. This happened to be from a bottle that we bought in Spain on our travels.
This chicken and fig creation was declared good, and definitely one to be repeated (even with some shop-bought figs!)
All of these dishes were made from the basket of figs that you see in the picture above, and there were still a few left for breakfast for me; my standard breakfast is Greek yoghurt and honey with fresh fruit.