Drying my own figs!



Although having my own fig trees in the back yard means I've grown to appreciate raw figs, we simply get too many. We have two trees and we get more fruit every year--and unfortunately, there just aren't too many people we know who also appreciate fresh figs.  That means we end up with a surplus--after all, you can only cram your face with so many figs! And of course, it's a shame to waste food!

This year,  we decided to get a food dehydrator. It's very easy to use--basically, you line the trays with figs and set the temperature, and the next day you have dried figs.  Dried figs keep longer and seem to be a little more popular with people we know than fresh ones. The result of our first try at drying figs are pictured above--they aren't beautiful, but they do taste pretty good. The dehydrator itself just sounds like a fan--that's pretty much what it is.   Now that I've done a batch of dried figs (and have another batch drying away right now), I'm thinking about what's next.  I'll probably make some raisins if we have too many grapes (although that doesn't look like a problem we'll be having this year).  But I'm also thinking about doing dried tomatoes and banana chips. I don't even really like banana chips--but I might do a batch to see how they turn out--and because I can!

Dried Figs with nuts in their butts.

I'm all about real food. I like to snack on simple things that don't have a whole lot of ingredients, and lately, the nosh I've been crazy about is dried figs (because we got a mess of dried white figs on sale at a local produce store, and I still have a stash of organic mission figs we got at Nuts Online --seriously--if you love nuts, seeds, spices, and dried fruit, this is the place to go!) with almonds and pistachios stuffed into the crevice you have after pulling off the woody stem.

Because I am classy like that, I am referring to the resulting appetizer/dessert as "Figs With two Nuts up their Butts". Because I put both an organic salted almond and a large, California pistachio, in the, um, aperture of the fig. The result is so sweet and salty--and chewy and crunchy! This is definitely the thing that is tiding me over until my own fig trees give'em up (that will be late August, probably), so I can enjoy more elegant things like fresh figs with ham and blue cheese (another elegant, dumb recipe--halve fresh fig, stuff blue cheese on one slice, bandage halves back together with a slice of good ham--toast in an oven for like, 15 mins. It's ridiculously easy and Oh my literarily speaking God, I have to wait four, almost five months! Before I can taste this heaven in mouth again!)

So in the meanwhile, my fig-cravings are all about stuffing nuts into my dried fruit. Also--OMG! Do this--parmesan cheese with a drizzle of good honey and a Granny Smith Apple slice! No--shut up, DO IT!  Or if you "entertain", lemon-juice up some apple slices and slap them on a honeyed parmesan cheese "raft" and get these bad boys on a plate for your next wine (beer) and cheese "thing".

Re--freaking-dickulous. I'm of the opinion simple recipes kick the most ass. This is easy--totally kicks ass. Fruits and nuts--not just produce--they are an adventure!