Roasted fresh figs with cinnamon and yogurt
I adore dried figs, but I’ve never been a big fan of fresh figs. They were everywhere at the Jean Talon market yesterday, however, and Derek likes them, so I thought I’d give them another shot. I bought a pint of black mission figs and left them on the counter for breakfast this morning. When I went to prepare them however, about half of them were very soft and had small white spots on them–fig pox? mold? I wasn’t sure, but I tossed them to be on the safe side. Are you supposed to refrigerate fresh figs? Or maybe they were already on the way out, and I should have checked the bottom layer more carefully before purchasing them. Perhaps I was duped by the fig merchant, who rubbed his hands gleefully as he pawned his spotted, softening figs off on a poor untutored-in-the-ways-of-figs customer. Or maybe they were just fine, and the white spots were concentrated bits of sugar, and the softness was indicative of perfect ripeness. In any case, here’s what I did with the remaining (firmer, unspotted) figs.
Turn the oven to broil. Stem 8 figs and cut them in half. Place cut side up in a cast iron skillet or pyrex baking pan. Sprinkle with 1 Tbs. sugar. Broil for 5 minutes, or until the sugar is bubbling. Remove from oven. Get out two bowls. Put1/4 cup yogurt in each bowl, and top with 8 fig halves. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Enjoy.
The figs weren’t bad–not as good as dried figs but okay tasting. Derek liked them more than me. I didn’t have brown sugar, but next time I’d try brown sugar or honey instead of white sugar. I think I might put the cinnamon on before broiling the figs. When all the figs were gone I dumped the end of the yogurt into the skillet with some extra cinnamon, and mixed it around to scoop up all the extra sugar that had fallen off the figs. It was delicious. The yogurt got a little warm and cinnamony and sweet–reminded me of the baklava at Santorini’s in Chicago. Delicious.
I classified this as a summer recipe, since the most varieties of figs mature in the summer. However, some varieties of figs don’t mature until the late fall, so if you’re lucky you may be able to make this recipe through November or even December.
The captious vegetarian 