Figs, jam and preserves

Actually these were not intended to become a fig jam but as I said yesterday, when I went to the farmers’ market I bought tons of fruit, amongst other two kinds of figs: black figs and royal figs.

The only ones in the family eating figs is my elder son and me. We ate a few but since I had bought so many other fruit, after a few days later I saw that they were becoming soft and if I didn’t do anything quick, I would have to throw them away.

So the first thing that came to my mind was to preserve them. I peeled them, weighed them (i just guessed about the sugar as I was not following any recipe) and added sugar and brandy. I put them on the heat stirring until the sugar dissolved and when they began to boil, I lowered the heat and simmered them for 15 minutes. I added the lemon juice and removed them from the heat. I let it cool down and stored the jam in the refrigerator until I had time to think what to do with it.

When it cooled down I tried it and could not stop eating. It was so addictive, I could eat it all at once. When I made it I didn’t add too much sugar as I wanted to use it right away and not to preserve it as a proper jam, so if you’re thinking of preserving it, add more sugar. A few days later I searched for recipes in the internet and decided to make one. It was a disaster but I will talk about this and what I eventually made in another post.

FIG JAM:

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Yield: 3 cups

• 700 grams of figs (after being peeled) (I used black figs and royal figs)
• 300 grams of sugar (I would say add 400 - 500 grams)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of brandy

Peel figs and cut into 4. Add sugar, lemon juice and brandy and put on heat stirring and pressing them with the spoon to release their juice. When they boil, lower heat and simmer for fifteen minutes, mixing constantly.

Allow to cool before using or placing into clean jars.

FIG SPOON SWEET

I was not planning to post this recipe but I got an e-mail from a reader asking me if I had a recipe for fig spoon sweets, I could share. Since I won’t be making this spoon sweet soon I’ve decided to share this recipe together with the fig jam.

Ingredients

• 50 unripe figs
• 1 ½ kilos sugar
• 1 cup of cooking quick lime
• 3 cups of water
• ½ cup of lemon juice
• cloves and/or vanilla
• 50 blanched and roasted almonds (optional) or use 25 and split them into two pieces
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Peal off a thin lay of skin from the figs (use gloves to protect yourself from the latex oozing out of the figs). Place them in a big pot with the water and quick lime for 1 hour.

Rinse the figs thoroughly and return to pot, cover with water and bring them to boil. Use a skewer or a knitting needle to poke them and when the fall off the skewer you will know that they are cooked.

Remove from the heat, drain them and use fresh water to cover them and add the lemon juice. Let them soak for one hour.

Meantime blanche and roast the almonds and after the one hour drain them again and insert one almond in each. Push it from underneath.

Put them back to the pan, cover with sugar and the 3 cups of water and let them rest for ½ an hour.

Put them back on the heat and bring them to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Leave them in the pot all night and the following day bring them to boil again until syrup is thick. When they are done, add 2 spoonfuls of lemon juice and the vanilla.

Remove from heat and they should cool down before placing them into sterilized jars.

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Other recipes you might enjoy:

About Spoon sweets
How do we know if syrup is ready?
How to fix spoon sweets
Cherries
Water melon
Bitter oranges
Bergamot
Sour cherries
Apples
Karydaki (green (immature) walnuts)
Lemon Marmalade
Strawberry Jam

Tags: Jams and preserves, Spoon Sweets