Fresh fig marmalade

I’m not going to be modest. This fig marmalade recipe, or rather the marmalade itself, is pure poetry on the tongue. And the recipe is entirely my own invention. I couldn’t tell you that no one’s ever made fig marmalade this way before. What I mean is that I didn’t consult a recipe.

Dear readers, this is not an ad! I don’t know how long it’ll last, but Lidl has just got a shipment of… no, not Crocs. Figs! At 0.88 PLN (in words: eighty-eight groszy) apiece. Yes, I’ll spend the next two paragraphs talking nonsense so you might have time to recover. That’s how good a price it is.

At least I think so. Sadly, nobody paid me to write that 🙁

Actually, I owe you the story of what made me buy figs in the first place. No, I didn’t just pounce on the offer. Kaja put the idea in my head when she sent me a rather interesting message. Unfortunately I can’t quote it here, since it flies in the face of every rule of communication between civilised people. Cultured people, I mean. Civilisation is culture, after all. Luckily she sent the very same message to Jacek as well. So don’t get any ideas. Nothing filthy.

Well, maybe a little.

Anyway, she sent a photo of some figs. Only hers cost 3 złoty apiece. And yes, they were figs the fruit. Not figi as in knickers. Certainly not figa z makiem, “a fig with poppy seeds”, as we say in Polish when you’re getting precisely nothing. No knickers either.

So those figs got me thinking. And I just happened upon the special offer. I bought 15 figs and wondered what to do with them. I ended up making fig jam, or rather marmalade (though I never really get what the difference is). I also made some sweet duck legs in which the figs had quite a part to play.

But back to the marmalade. I haven’t the faintest idea how to make it last until the middle of the freezing winter that’s probably on its way. At my place I’m hoping it’ll survive until next week. Especially as these quantities make roughly one standard jar. What I do know is that you can use it with:

• bread, as a spread for breakfast, say
• crêpes (or pancakes), as a lovely topping
• duck
• duck legs
• game (I reckon)

Don’t be surprised that it goes with more than just sweet dishes. Savoury food, especially game or dark-meat poultry, is perfect for serving with fig marmalade made this way.

I can hardly hide the fact that I tested it myself this morning at breakfast. With pancakes, and then with a duck leg for dinner. So if you’re already thinking about Christmas and something “fancy” to serve, forget cranberries, they’re well and truly passé 😉 Bring on the fig purée. Just hurry, because apparently you can only get decent fresh figs at a reasonable price until about the first week of October. I recommend it 🙂

Honestly, at the risk of sounding immodest again, it’s outrageously delicious!!!

At a glance: 

Prep time: two days

Serves: well, it’s a jar of jam or marmalade. Depends how much you like 🙂

Calories: no way round it, there are a whole … load of calories

Ingredients for a delicious sweet fig accompaniment:

• 10 medium, ripe fresh figs 
• 5 tablespoons honey
• an almost full glass of sugar
• 50 grams mixed dried fruit (dried apricots, raisins, dried coconut) – optional. Leave them out if you don’t like dried fruit.
• 30 grams vanilla sugar (one packet)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice

How to get a truly outstanding flavour, really:

It takes almost two days. You’ll also have to find out somewhere online how to keep it from spoiling for a long time once it’s in the jar. I’ll probably eat mine in a week, so I don’t worry about that. I’ve heard something about putting it into jars and boiling them. Look it up, but first let’s get started 🙂

I washed the figs very thoroughly and dried them with kitchen paper. I cut off the stalk at the top (the bit that sticks up) and sliced the figs thinly (see the photos below). Into a medium saucepan they went. I added 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 6 tablespoons of lemon juice (I’m not saying how many fruits that takes because I’ve long since switched to the ready-made stuff, fresh juice sold in bottles. The big plus is that there are no pips). I stirred it all together.

I added 5 tablespoons of honey and stirred again. In went the sugar and I stirred once more (a little voice tells me all this stirring is the secret of good cooking :).

I covered the pan with its lid and waited an hour.

I scalded the dried fruit in hot water (about 3 minutes) and drained it. I diced the apricots finely and added the dried fruit to the figs in the pan.

After the hour was up I stirred the mixture and started cooking it over a very low heat (important bit: I brought it to the boil fairly quickly over a higher “flame”, 6 on my scale of 1–10. As soon as it started boiling I turned it down to 3 so it just bubbled gently). I stirred fairly often. Once a lot of the water had evaporated I lowered the “flame” again (on my induction hob, from 3 to 2 on a scale of 1–10) and kept it cooking. About 2–3 hours in all, stirring every few minutes. The fig marmalade should be fairly thick by then. In fact, it should already have the consistency of marmalade.

I turned off the heat and let it cool.

Once it was completely cold I put it in the fridge for 3 hours. Then I put it back on the hob and cooked it for about another hour (again over a very low “flame”, 2 on my scale of 1–10). I took it off the heat and, when it was warm rather than hot, spooned it into a clip-top jar with a rubber seal (the kind you use for gherkins). Fig marmalade, done. I can’t be modest about it this time. It’s brilliant. Seriously. Enjoy!