Fig-tastic

I am always sad to see summer start to fade away, but it also marks the start of fig season. Figs are an amazingly delicious fruit, but unfortunately they can be incredibly expensive. A few years back I discovered that a friend has a giant fig tree that, at this time of year, is laden with more fruit than he (and his family) can consume. Enter food-obsessed-friend desperate to take as many figs off his hands as possible. Saturday afternoon was spent braving the constant rain, clambering under the tree looking for ripe figs that the rosellas were yet to get to. Figs don’t ripen off the tree so you need to make sure that you only pick those with a bit of give. These ones also stay green when they ripen, rather than those that turn purple. Also watch out for the sap it can be quite itchy!

This week I have two recipes to try out; the first is a very simple starter and the second is inspired by the fantastic sounding galette on the delicious days blog.

Goats Cheese Stuffed Figs

Ingredients

• Figs (bigger are easier to stuff)
• Soft goats cheese (we used a chèvre, but a curd would be easier to stuff)
• Proscuitto (thinly sliced)
• Few sprigs fresh oregano or rosemary
• 3 tbsp Honey

This is not really a recipe with quantities, it really depends on how many figs you have. For each fig you need approximately ½ tbsp of goats cheese, and 1 slice of prosciutto.

Heat the grill section of your oven.

Slice the top of each fig into quarters, and push the goats cheese into the cavity.

Wrap each fig in prosciutto; we used a skewer to make the figs easier to handle, but this isn’t really necessary.

Place the figs on a baking tray, sprinkle with the fresh oregano leaves and drizzle honey over the top.

Grill the figs for 5-10mins until the top of the prosciutto is crispy.

Fig Galette

Ingredients

• Galette Dough:
• 175g plain flour
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 100g cold butter diced
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 50ml ice-cold water
• Pinch of salt

Fruit Filling:

• 400g figs (or any other fruit) thickly sliced (we did sixth’s)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter

Method

If you have a food processor, simply add your flour, caster sugar, butter and salt to the bowl and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

If you don’t have a food processor, grate the cold butter into a bowl and then quickly rub it using your finger tips until it reaches the coarse breadcrumbs stage.

Add the sour cream and water slowly until the mixture comes together. You may not require all the liquid – if it gets too sticky just add a bit more flour. Roll into a ball, cover in glad wrap and cool in the fridge for an hour.

After an hour, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees, roll-out the dough into a circle that is 3mm thick.

Scatter your sliced fruit leaving a 5cm gap around the edges. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top and dollop the butter on top.

Bake for 30mins or until the pasty starts to turn golden and the fruit is soft.

Serve with cream or you can try King Island vanilla bean yoghurt to cut through the sweetness.

Happy Eating!

Glutton