Sugared Figs

The Middle East is the true home of the fig, which is one of the seven species mentioned in the Torah. The fig was regarded as the fruit of desire. Anyone who has held a fig, looked at its beautiful exterior, opened it and studied its wonderful juicy interior, smelled its sweet heavy scent, and bitten into it will understand why. The taste of a fig is the taste of summer in the mountains of Jerusalem.

Figs may be served in an attractive bowl with ice cubes. A wonderful way of enjoying figs is to score them with two cuts in an X-shape, open them, and sprinkle with a few drops of arak or fresh lemon juice. Fresh figs are marvelous served chilled, accompanied by sheep or goat's cheese, such as Bulgarian cheese.

Peeled figs can be served with vanilla cream or zabaglione, plum sauce, or stuffed with almonds, ground pistachios, or fresh pomegranate seeds. In Moroccan cuisine, figs are stuffed with ground meat.

1 kg fresh figs, green or purple; they should not be bruised or too soft
850 gm sugar
3/4 cup water
Juice of half a lemon

Place the figs in a bowl of water. Rinse them carefully - do not do this under running water - and put them on a towel to dry.

Pierce each fig a few times with a fork.

Place the sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil. Drop the figs into the pan one at a time and boil for 3-4 minutes, then lower the heat and simmer gently.

Cook for about two hours. After one hour, add the lemon juice.

Transfer the hot figs and syrup to clean jars and close immediately.

The jars may be pasteurized and kept for more than six months. In order to do this, cover the jars with towels and boil in a large pan of water for 20 minutes.