Thursday, October 2, 2008

An interesting and excellent fig salad recipe

In the unlikely event you have a fig tree and run into the problem I've suffered lately - namely the figs bursting open before they're fully ripe - I tested a recipe I remember reading about.

Rinse about ten figs and cut off their stem ends (the stem end is even less ripe than the burst end)
Then quarter the figs and sprinkle about half a tablespoon of sugar and half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar over them.
Let them marinate for about a half hour and you have a superior salad.

Of course, I would rather that the darn figs hadn't burst in the first place. Oh well, at least we enjoyed a few truly ripe ones before this rainy period came on.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also very good: Roast the figs with olive oil for a bit to bring out their natural sugars. Once they are cooled sprinkle rosemary and crumbled goat cheese over them and drizzle with balsamic.

Anonymous said...

I don't know that I have access to fresh figs, but I do like dried figs.

Would it negatively affect the taste if I were to use dried figs that had been soaked in water first. Or should I just use the dried figs "as is"?

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Anonymous said...

Not sure, as I have only done this with fresh figs. That being said, I would rehydrate the dried figs. Good luck.

Sully said...

Dried figs are already sweeter than unripe figs, so I would leave off the sugar. Also, dried figs are a pretty different flavor than fresh, so it's a gamble, but a pretty cheap and easy gamble to try it with a few.

You're making me think about dried fruit so now I'm tempted to try balsamic vinegar with prunes.

I like the sound of the rosemary and goat cheese recipe. I still have some figs out on the tree and we have some feta in the frig; so I may try it with the next batch I pick - if they get at all ripe, it's starting to get pretty cold here.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recipes and the info.

I'll see if a specialty store near me has fresh figs. If not, I'll try out your recommendations with the dried figs. With dried figs costing only $2.50 a container, I can certainly afford to give your ideas a try.

BTW, Anon1, hope to see you around here more often. :)

Thanks again. Nite.

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