By lightly cooking figs in a spiced syrup, you transform delicate fresh figs that last but a day or two into heartier, deeper flavored, longer-lasting treats. Note that this is a particularly lovely way to make use of less-than-supremely-sweet figs, especially brown turkey figs. Serve the figs and their syrup on their own - or over ice cream to great effect.
For more yummy ways to use fresh figs, see 10 Easy Fig Recipes.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 12 Figs
Ingredients:
- About a dozen fresh figs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Combination of half a cinnamon stick, a few cloves, several cardamom pods, freshly grated nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper, a few allspice berries
Preparation:
Bring the sugar and 1 cup water to a simmer in a small or medium saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the various spices you choose (or all of them!) and simmer the syrup for about 10 minutes. Trim the stem ends from the figs and put them in the syrup. Simmer about 5 minutes. Remove the figs and let the figs and syrup cool separately (if you leave the figs in, they will soften and start to fall apart a bit, so if that sounds good, leave them in!). Use warm or store, covered and chilled, for up to about 2 weeks (they may well last longer, but the figs will start to fall apart a bit after that).
