John and I were away from Struan Farm for a few days at the end of last week, up north for the opening of a new medical centre in Papakura. We returned to quite the harvest of figs and feijoas, so I'm back on the job of putting all this organic, homegrown fruit to use.
I've done two different things with the figs. Made several jars of Rowan Bishop's wonderfully aromatic "Spiced Figs in Brandy." While she recommends eating them with a sliver of blue cheese on crackers, we are rather partial to them warm on top of ice cream (on yogurt is good as well). The figs are poked with skewers than simmered in red wine, sugar, star anise, sumac, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, balsamic vinegar, and cloves. Brandy is added to the pot after they've simmered for an hour or so, and simmered briefly just before they're popped into sterilised bottles. I store them in the fridge.
I also decided to try the shortcake recipe I've been baking with apples and feijoas for the winter freezer stash with apples and figs instead. I figured this combination would work, but I'm sure figs alone would be good too.
This was delicious. I used 1/2 cup of each fruit, slicing the apples and halving the figs. This is not an overly sweet cake, the sort of thing I prefer. Not sure about you!
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