I have a fig tree outside my bedroom that produces the most perfect fruit in such generous quantities, it's all I can do to keep up with it and think of ways to utilise the almost daily harvest.
I've made coulees and preserves and used the fresh fruit on cheese platters and ice cream but I'd never made a jam so Em and I decided to give it a whirl as my fridge could no longer contain the more than 10lbs of figs it was groaning with. We did a little homework to check our quantities and then decided to add a little twist of our own with lemon zest and grated ginger. If you'd like to try it for yourself the recipe we ended up with is as follows;
- 2lbs of figs
- 1/3 of a cup of water
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Zest of 1/4 lemon
- 1cm knob of grated ginger
Combine your water and sugar and stir intemittedntly till the sugar has dissolved whilst chopping your figs, juicing your lemon and grating your zest and ginger. Once your liquid is nice and syrupy add your figs, lemon and ginger.
Let your mixture cook down till your figs are soft and almost breaking down of their own accord before giving them a little help with a hand held blender before letting it cook off some more.
Finally let your jam cool before pouring it in to your sterilised jars. To prolong the shelf life you can "process" your now filled jars by giving them a nice little bath in boiling water for a few minutes.
I was more than pleasantly surprised by how delicious it turned out to be and spent the rest of the evening trying - and failing - not to dip rusks in the leftovers in the pot. Oh My Yum!!!!! Happy cooking guys and gals!
