(lively music begins)
Welcome to my kitchen, and my first cooking video. Today, I have an abundance
of brown turkey figs from my incredible tree, as well as some desert figs, and we
are going to make fig jam drunken style.
Now, these figs I pulled off the tree day
before yesterday and yesterday, so they've been in the refrigerator for one
or two nights. Let's go out and see if there are any fresh, fresh figs on the
tree to include in the jam.
(snip, snip, snip)
I've had a bumper crop of huge brown turkey figs
this summer, and you can only eat so many raw. A great way to preserve them is to
make fig jam. This small batch recipe I found at latimes.com attracted me,
because I didn't want to take the time to process them for canning. I actually
haven't learned how to do that. The only canning I've done is for tomatoes.
The recipe calls for two pounds of figs, preferably dark figs, which makes about
three jars that you can store in the fridge.
I managed to pick another half dozen
of big figs. I decided I had way more than 2 pounds,
so I took out the desert figs for another dish. Figs are so fragile when
they're ripe, and several of mine had already split and were a bit mushy.
I've been asked on Late Bloomer Show on Facebook, how I have such big figs.
I really don't know, I just got lucky with a tree, and it's happy where I planted it.
The figs are twice the size of the figs on the desert fig tree planted eight away.
The "drunken" part of the title refers to the addition of sherry, or port.
The alcohol cooks out, leaving only the wonderful flavor behind.
For even more flavor,
I infused fresh rosemary and lavender sprigs.
First off, wash with filtered water.
I don't spray my tree, so this is just to get the dust off.
Two pounds? Ha! Try four! I had to make some adjustments to the
recipe, which you can find on my website at latebloomershow.com.
Next, remove the stems
and cut figs in half-inch pieces into a heavy, large, deep saucepan.
I cut off the overly mushy, too ripe parts. Those went right out to my worm
towers. At this point, I was down to about three pounds of figs.
Then, use a vegetable peeler
to remove the yellow part of the lemon peel. Squeeze the
lemons! You're going to use all this juice. I used an extra lemon for the
extra pound of figs. The Meyer lemon gives the jam a wonderful flavor. Time to
add all the ingredients. I used about 3/4 of a pound of sugar,
and 3/4 cup of dry sherry.
Add the lemon juice, peelings,
and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
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Mix thoroughly.
Then, fold in the herbs.
(music ends)
(jazzy music begins)
Because I grow peppers, and I'm a pepper lover,
I couldn't resist adding a little heat to the sweet.
I removed the seeds and cut one small cayenne into pieces and stirred it in.
Now you're going to let this marinate at room temperature for an hour,
(sound of clock ticking)
stirring occasionally.
(ticking ends)
(clicking of gas burner igniting)
Time to fire up the burner. Bring your fig mixture to a boil over medium-high
heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. At this point,
I removed the herbs and pepper bits.
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I was looking for just a hint of flavour and thought cooking the
pepper might make the jam too hot. I also thought the rosemary leaves might come
off the stems and get mixed all in the jam.
(bubbling sounds continue)
Then, reduce the heat to medium.
You're going to want to get out your potato masher, and mash those fig
pieces from time to time.
Put a little elbow grease into your crushing, for a smoother jam.
And stir frequently, to keep from sticking.
(jazzy music continues)
(sound of bubbling)
(bang, bang, bang)
The whole cooking part is about 30 to 35 minutes. When the mixture makes more of a
gurgling sound than a bubbling sound, you know you're getting close.
(tap, tap)
When the jam sheets off the wooden spoon, instead of a running drip, you know it's
done. As it cools, it will thicken even more.
Wow!
Walker, you gotta try this, come here.
Whoo! Hot, but delicious!
It's really good. What do you taste? Well, figs. Ha, ha, ha.
Anything else? I'm not quite sure what else is in there.
I'm not good at tasting things, but it tastes good. You taste any heat?
No. No heat? No. Okay, I should've left those peppers in. Yeah, you should've, ha, ha, ha.
I dived right into an appetizer of fresh fig
with fig jam.
And have five more jars to give away.
(jazzy music ends)
(bubbling sound)