Fresh fig season is over, but the fruit is available preserved in a variety of ways year-round.
Fig, sweet onion and rosemary jam
Sallie Dent Porth of Cameron, South Carolina, makes jams and simple syrups under the Sallie’s Greatest brand. She has won Garden & Gun Made in the South awards, and her jam has been one of Oprah’s Favorite Things. We just tried her fig, sweet onion and rosemary jam, and now we’re ready to declare it a favorite, too. It’s crunchy, from the fig seeds captured in the jam, and lightly savory, due to the onion, apple cider vinegar, rosemary and black pepper. This is not an overly sweet jam, so it’s perfect for your charcuterie board, tucking inside a grilled cheese sandwich or mixing into a vinaigrette to dress a fall salad with apples and pecans. Porth suggested making a fig-prosciutto pizza, topped with arugula, and the recipes on the website (including a fig and rosemary martini and glazed pork roast) used up our jar in no time.
$10 per 9.5-ounce jar. Available at salliesgreatest.com. Save 10 percent with code SG10.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Fig-infused balsamic
Fruit-infused vinegars are popular, because they are so versatile. Not only are they great for salads, but you also can drizzle them over fruit, use them as a glaze for meat, or just stir them into some sparkling water, adding a whole new dimension of flavor. Ann Zakreski of That Greek Girl in Woodstock started out offering products from Italy and her native Greece at area Greek festivals, and you still can find her booth at many of those festivals. One of her offerings is fig-infused balsamic vinegar. The fig adds a rich fruitiness to the balsamic, and Zakreski suggested using it for your charcuterie board or on a bowl of ice cream or gelato, or as a glaze for roast or grilled pork. We also tried the organic fig marmalade she sells, made in the Messinia region of Greece. It’s a not very sweet puree of fresh figs that is delicious spooned over a bowl of Greek yogurt.
$14 per 8.45-ounce bottle of fig-infused balsamic; $15 per 11.6-ounce jar of fig marmalade. Available at Greek festivals around metro Atlanta (as listed on the website), or at thatgreekgirl.com.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Fig and lemon jam
Sara Levasseur of Jamboree Jams in New Orleans offers a line of 20 jams that includes such flavors as blood orange and sumac, and peach rose geranium. Tempted as we were by those combinations, when Levasseur told us she had an abundance of figs this year, we went old-school and ordered her traditional fig and lemon jam — like your grandmother might have made. The jam is full of bits of fig, brightened with rind-on lemon slices and fresh lemon juice. The citrus comes from two different Louisiana farms, and we know this, because her labels list where all the ingredients are sourced. The jam is made in small batches in traditional copper pots, with no added pectin. Stop by the jam shop on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans, or dream about a visit to the Big Easy while ordering online, as we did.
$14 per 9.5-ounce jar. Available at jamboreejams.co.
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