RIPE ... FIGS
The Age
Saturday February 6, 2010
YOU know autumn is around the corner when the figs on the trees start to change colour from pale green to dark purple. And the sturdy old fig trees that have been planted all over Melbourne's suburbs give forth enough fruit to feed you and your loved ones as well as marauding flocks of lorikeets, rosellas, flying foxes and the like.Last summer I helped myself to bucketloads of figs from a big branch on the next door neighbour's tree that hung over my fence. I ate them fresh on their own (some people opt to remove the skins, as they're furry and less sweet than the seed-filled flesh inside) or sliced on my muesli, quartered and swaddled in prosciutto with a bit of blue cheese inside as the Italians traditionally do, and also baked in a delicious, rustic clafoutis so simple any idiot could make it. Here it is:Collect half a kilogram of fresh, ripened figs, grease with butter a mid-sized shallow baking dish or pie plate and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together one cup plain flour, teaspoon salt, and cup sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together four eggs, 1 cups full cream milk, one cup whipped cream, one teaspoon vanilla extract. Slowly pour this mixture into the flour mix, then sieve it all into the pie plate or baking dish.Cut the figs in half or quarters depending on their size, then place them into the runny batter seedy-side up, close together so you can get a bit of fig in every bite. Add a daub of butter to each. Bake it for the better part of an hour until the edges are puffy and golden, then remove it from the oven, dust it with another tablespoon of sugar, and let stand for 15 minutes. The clafoutis has a texture like custard and is excellent hot or cold.
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