Fresh-Candied Figs

[Panaderia Canadiense]

By popular request from the Brekkie thread, here's the Ecuadorian method for candying fresh figs. The end result is what's found in the fresh cheese and fig sandwich, a tasty traditional street food; candied figs and fresh cheese is also a common desert across the highlands.

The best type of fig to use in this recipe is called a Breva; these are large figs that are purple when ripe and which have fairly thick walls. However, any and all figs will work provided they're not over-ripe.

Weigh your figs. For purposes of argument, let's say you've got 1 kg.

Weigh out an equal amount (1 kg in this example) of the darkest panela you can find (in fig season, local trapiches put out a very high-molasses panela specifically for use with figs; in North America, find the highest molasses-content raw sugar possible)

Weigh out an equal amount (1 kg) of water (this is easy in metric - 1 kg = 1 litre).

You'll also need 10-12 whole cloves, a nice thick curl of cinnamon bark, and a handfull of whole allspices. If you've got access to them, you can also throw in 2-3 ishpingos (the dried flower bracts of the ishpingo cinnamon tree), which will deepen and darken the flavour of the final product very nicely.

Dissolve the panela in the water (you'll need a big pot for this) and bring to a boil until everything is fully dissolved. Add the spices and simmer over low heat. Just before the figs go in, stir in 1 tbsp of liophyllized coffee for every kilo of figs.

While your panela syrup is dissolving, wash the figs well, and cut a cross from the stem ends to about 1/3 of the way down the fruit (you're opening the center of the fig for the syrup to get in, but not so much that the seeds get out. This is very easy to demonstrate but quite difficult to describe. What you're doing is quartering them, but only 1/3 of the way into the fruit, so that the base is still fully intact.)

Once the syrup is ready, toss in the figs. Cook over low heat until the figs are completely darkened by the panela and the syrup is the consistency of heavy maple syrup or light honey. This should take the rest of the day; the figs will release water as they cook, which will thin the syrup out; this needs to be boiled down.

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At this point, you can make fig sandwiches (fresh bread, slice of fresh mild cheese, stuff in as many of the candied figs as you think it will hold), which are best with hot figs.

If you've got more than you think you can eat right away, the figs can be hot-canned covered in their own syrup; they keep for at least a year that way.

If you're going to eat them all within the next two weeks, they keep beautifully in a crock under their own syrup, at room temp.

[Wholemeal Crank]

This looks like a lovely thing to try with my fig tree this year!

I can get panela from a variety of local markets here, but if the key is the molasses content, is there anything wrong with adding molasses directly to any panela I can find? And should I be aiming for something approximating US dark brown sugar (but with real molasses)?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Theoretically, that should work, but start with very small amounts of molasses (and start with blackstrap when you do). What you're approximating is a whole lot darker than US dark brown. The block of panela in the center of this photo is close to what you're aiming for - the grade is actually a bit darker than that (the photo was taken outside of fig season) it should be nearly black and has a very complex aroma and flavour (partly due to the molasses, but also due to the method of production, which requires less boiling than the lighter grades. It will be difficult to replicate it with just molasses, but I think you'll come close.)

Of course, if you luck out you'll find the true black grade, which may be in block form rather than ground. If you get blocks, soften them in the nuker for 30-60 seconds and then whack them with a tenderizing mallet to break them into smaller, more manageable pieces. Block panela from Colombia is generally in 500 g rounds; Ecuadorian is in 1 pound and 3 pound loaves.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Thanks, the photo really helps.

I'll start scouting every hispanic and international market I come across now, to prepare for when the figs ripen. The first crop is already getting quite good sized, but usually isn't ready until July.

[nikkib]

Ishpingo? What does that taste like? Delicious looking recipe too!

[Wholemeal Crank]

That question sent me to google, and to my favorite spice-information site to look it up. Ocotea quixos is a South American native tree of the laurel family (cinnamon is from the same family), and apparently its flavor resembles cinnamon. Hmmmm....I wonder if cassia buds might give a closer flavor than cinnamon bark?

[andiesenji]

If you can't find panela easily and have an Indian market in your area, you can substitute jaggery - the flavor is so similar I really can't tell the difference.

[Nayan Gowda]

liophyllized

It's not often I have to refer to a dictionary, but I just had to for that word.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Ishpingo? What does that taste like? Delicious looking recipe too!

Cinnamon, with a darker background of clove, earthy tones, and just a whisper of camphor. Ishpingos are also one of the neatest-looking whole spices I've ever come across. Apart from their obvious uses in sweet applications, I'm quite fond of them as part of the spicing in adobe for beef and goat, where they neutralize "off" flavours and add an interesting dimension to the final product.

... Hmmmm....I wonder if cassia buds might give a closer flavor than cinnamon bark?

Since the cinnamon bark is an important part of the recipe, I wouldn't remove it alltogether (although I will mention that most cinnamon in Ecuador does come from the bark of Ocotea quixos rather than Cinamomum officianale, and that IMHO Pastaza Cinnamon is a superior-flavoured product to Ceylon Cinnamon. There are also applications for the leaves of Ocotea, but I won't get into that here, particularly since they only seem to be available locally.)

It would be worth it to try a tea made of just Cassia buds to get an idea of their flavour profile; I'd certainly do that before adding them to any recipe wholesale. What you're looking for is an earthier cinnamon flavour as described above.

It's not often I have to refer to a dictionary, but I just had to for that word.

Sorry about that. Liophyllization is actually the main distinction down here between "instant" (non-lio, chunky granules) and "microgranularized soluble" - for a coffee-growing country, we sure do drink a lot of convenience coffee. What you're looking for is microgranularized soluble coffee - the larger-particle versions, like Nescafe, don't dissolve completely and can produce off-flavours. I'm not sure if it's exported, but SiCafe is an excellent lio coffee.

[kayb]

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. I will be SO waiting impatiently until the figs get ripe to try this! I can only imagine how good it would be to just go on and cook it until the figs dissolve and make fig preserves. Thank you oh-so-much for the detailed how-to, which I have duly saved.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Kay, you'll end up with hard fig candy before they dissolve.... (Not that hard fig candy would be such a hardship....) If you want fig preserves, either less sugar or more water.