I was clearing out and sorting through old magazines and chanced upon a seven-year-old magazine called “Dish” from New Zealand that had an interesting recipe for a fig “salami”… I bookmarked the page and decided to use it a few days later to “mop up” some of the excess dried fruit we had in the fridge. Not even four batches of food for the Gods had used up all of the dates we had on hand, and there were figs as well, so there was little to lose…
Take 250 grams of moist dried figs, remove the tough stem if any, chop roughly and put in a food processor. Add 50-70 grams of pitted dates and blitz that for a few seconds until roughly chopped. Place this in a big bowl.
Add 20 grams of minced crystallized ginger, 40 grams of slivered almonds, 40 grams of pine nuts (both nuts lightly toasted first), and half a teaspoon of vanilla, and half a teaspoon of mixed spice and 1 tablespoon of good brandy. Mix well.
Divide the contents of the bowl into two and form into small “logs” or salamis.
Roll them over a wood boards with powdered sugar.
Wrap in foil and store in fridge for a week before using. Roll in powdered sugar just before serving. Wonderful when sliced thinly and served alongside some pecorino cheese or even some parmigiano reggiano. The fig salami was a bit sweet (duh) but paired nicely with a nice hunk of cheese. Unusual to say the least. And it helped finish off dried fruit stocks.
16 Responses
This is great! We can make all sorts of dried fruit salami!
Would definitely satisfy the sweet tooth being heavily loaded with the “tasty toxin?” fructose, ( not trying to be a party pooper) but of course not all fructose laden food is so evil….as long as we do it in moderation along with our healthy lifestyles!
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/high-fructose-corn-syrup/
High fructose corn syrup is completely different from fructose which is a naturally occuring sugar. Completely different.
I love love love figs in any form, so this is going on my list of things to make!
I may have mentioned this before, but MM, you should try David Lebovitz’s recipe for Fig and Olive Tapenade. It’s one of my favourite things, especially on a cracker with some soft goat cheese! I’ve also used it in a puff pastry pinwheel, again with goat cheese.
Love the last two posts, MM. Both the savoury and the sweet. Brainstorming how to use ‘leftovers’ (but such pedigreed leftovers to be sure). Thank you.
Rona – I have tried that tapenade. So easy and so GOOD! I serve it on a thin cracker with a smear of chevre (cut with cream cheese because not a lot of folks appreciate the chevre). Off-topic; I discovered a local brand of thin crackers that work well: Magic Flakes junior. Thinner than the usual SkyFlakes; great vehicle for dips and smears – patani spread included!
Oh yum. That is my kind of thing! I was sorry not to see you last week. I trust Sister had a good trip back to the bayan :-)
@Rona Y: Not starting a debate on sugars and not to dampen interest on MM’s post but I just want to share my sugar concerns because of the increasing health problems related to our sweet tooth.
The point of the article is to show that fructose whether in the form of chemically processed HFCS or “naturally occurring” as in fruits, honey, cane, beet, agave, etc. is still a health concern.
From the cited article:
“For people who are worried about their health or their children’s health — and who isn’t, these days — the data suggest that the best choice is to reduce intake of all sweeteners containing fructose. That includes not only the evil HFCS, but also NATURAL cane sugar, molasses (which is just impure cane sugar), brown sugar (ditto) and honey. Even “unsweetened” (no added sugar) fruit juices need to be considered when limiting your family’s fructose intake.”
MM where did you get your crystallized ginger?
Kasseopeia, have you tried plain sunflower biscuits? I prefer them as they’re much thinner…
What people fail to realise in their arguments about sugar, fats and carbohydrates is the way nature has balanced them in the whole particular food item so that it causes no harm provided it isn’t overeaten. The trouble starts when people destroy the balance by distilling the core element of any particular food to turn it into a condiment/additive. Sugar, pure starch, refined salt and alcohol, for example. Examples of whole foods in perfect balance:
– MSG is bad but naturally occurring MSG in cheese, wine, mushrooms and seaweed does no harm but in fact makes these tasty.
– Fructose causes obvious sugar related problems but in fruit both fresh and dried, plays its energy giving part in perfect tandem with the fibre, enzymes, macro & micro nutrients found in the whole package. Juicing 10 oranges and gulping it down in one shot is not the way nature intended for us to consume oranges. Ditto snacking on 200g of raisins in one go.
– Wine is fine and is but a natural product of fermentaton but when distilled into hard liquor, it is to be treated with caution.
– Calcium found in greens and other foods is bio-available but a pharmaceutical calcium supplement comes with nothing else to enhance and balance it. If it comes from an inorganic source (most do!),ie, rocks, it’s completely non bio-available which means it simply goes through your system without being absorbed.
Hindi Ako tanga, pero I am gawking with all these infos. Trying to process them in my brain. Good ones guys. And thank you.
Thank you very much for the recipe, MM! I will try this with the bag of figs we have in the ref. sounds like it will be an interesting addition to my appetizer list – if as you say- it works well with cheese. Been trying to figure out what to do with it for weeks as I am not up to making fig jam or even newtons!
Another use for those leftover dried fruits such as apricots, dried figs, raisins, prunes is stewed fruits in Armagnac. If you don’t have Armagnac, any good white wine will do. Put everything in heavy duty skillet…for every 3 cups of dried fruits, 3 cups of liquid ( half wine or Armagnac plus water), 2 tbsp. sugar 2 tbsp. lemon juice to cut the sweetness, a few drops of pure vanilla and a cinnamon stick or chai spices in a cheesecloth bundle. Simmer until fruits are plump.
Then top the stewed fruits in several places with a loose type of biscuit dough….just add more cream to your favorite biscuit dough making it a bit wet. Cover and continue simmering for another 15 to 20 minutes. Then remove from heat source, scoop the fruits in serving bowl top the biscuits with cinnamon sugar and use a torch to brown the topping or put in salamander or under broiler.
Another topping is make sabayon…then scoop the stewed fruits on bowls with just a tiny bit if the syrup, top with sabayon and gratinee under the salamander or broiler or torch it as well.
But my favorite is to make puff pastry rectangles…roll out the puff pastry to about 1/3 inch thick, Eggwash and make criss cross pattern using a decorating comb or fork. Cut to desired length. Cookie sheet with parchment paper and chill before baking. Then bake until nicely puffed and golden brown. Cool and split in half. make whipped cream and top with the stewed fruits…
No one will ever know you were trying to get rid of the dried fruits leftover from your Christmas baking!
This is one of customers’ favorite dessert in the winter with different toppings entire winter season back in those days when I used to head the pastry dept. of the Cannery.
Luv it Ms. Betty Q.
Come to think of it, dried fruit stewed to a sticky concentration makes for a marvelous incorporation into ice cream or as a topping for one. In cobblers or a trifle is great too. And what about a sweet empanada – stewed dried fruit + creme patissiere filling.
Awesome! I’ve actually never tried Fig before. This made me want to try it though – thanks for sharing!