THE DATE OR THE FIG

FIG PRESERVE, OR BEAR MEN IN LOVE

A recipe for bears, chubbies and moustached a little sweet greedy

In the Mediterranean area now is autumn.The time of the good figs!

The fig preserve is a dish of medieval origin, which is made around the Mediterranean.
In Italia, Greece, Provence, Turkey, etc we can found
this delicious preserve or “confiture”.

In some languages- catalan, italian...- the fig is also the femenins sex...
We can see that in a important scene in Ken Russell’s film Women in love ( novel of D. H. Lawrence),with an astonishing play of Alan Bates, Oliver Reed- “mEn in homo love” , Glenda Jackson: years ago (1969) they were bears!. And they preferded the “date” to the “fig”,like the arabs say.

You need
1 k of figs
250 g of sugar
A coffee spoon of anise seeds

Cook all the ingredients over a very low hea until you seethat the fis have dissolve to a dark golden colour and are well cooked. Put the mixture into pots:the pots are scalded to sterilise them.

The figs can also preserved whole.

Instead of anise, you can flavour the preserve with lemon or orange peel, cinnamon , etc.

For a softer mixture, you can add melon pell (only melon is also a very good confiture, and also watermelon).

This preserve can be used as a jam or for filling pies and pasties.

You can make a delicious bread figs (pa de figues; spanish,pan de higo) with dried figs, almonds and anise.

This recipe is from Mallorca, Ibiza (Eivissa) and Menorca. Over 6o varities of figs exist in teh Balearic Islands, catalan speaking.


And also:
Fichi ripieni (Calabria)
Incir tatlisi (Turkey)
Mermelada de higos (Spain)
Confiture de figures (France)