In my frenzy of Christmas making I decided to make fig paste.
It came from a late night on rundle street after going to a funny ole gay bar filled with young people doing young things like dancing on upside down on poles and looking longingly for a someone. Girls on boys knees and boys on boys knees and slow dancing pashes to convulsing and shitty dance music.
A friend and I went for a coffee afterwards in midnight rundle street and found that Bistrot Blackwood would serve us a coffee. They were shutting but stayed open for us! There was this softly spoken Californian waiter who took care of us and told us he missed his family and missed their fig trees and fig preserves. I decided to make him a fig paste. And some for my family too in celebration of handmade things at christmas. Here we go!
Ingredients:
- 12 large figs
- 500 grams of Demerara sugar or jam setting sugar
- 1/2 cup of any ole scotch or you can use Captain’s marker rum which is already spiced.
- If using something unspiced I commend you to popping a little calico bag of cloves and cinnamon in he brew from the start. Maybe 3 – 4 cloves and two stick of cinnamon.
Method:
- Stick the figs (wash em) and cut them in halves with the tops and the tails off into a slow cooked. Grab your mixing stick and give them a gentle blend.
- Add sugar.
- Add scotch / booze thing and the spices if you need.
- Slow cook, covered on low for 3 – 4 hours, stirring every 20 – 30 minutes.
- Scoop paste into jars that have been slightly oiled (spray is the easy way to do this) and you can store for months!