Some of you may have noticed (as I certainly have, judging by the sudden appearance of twinkle lights and dancing polar bears popping up in store windows downtown), that the holidays are drawing near.
"What do you mean!?" you may say. "We just had Christmas not 12 months ago! It's still the middle of November! What are you trying to do to me???"
To that I say, Good people! I know it's early! I understand that Christmas can be overdone. I, for instance, would rather shove cauliflower in my ears than be forced to listen yet again to Boney M.'s Christmas album in the middle of July. (That's right, you know who you are!)
However, I must admit that I am a very traditional, down-home kind of girl at heart, and the Christmas season allows me to indulge in all the wonderfully cozy and creative things that are simply not sanctioned at other times of the year.
For example, when else can you take down all the pictures in your living room and wrap them up like Christmas gifts (complete with elaborate bows) without being hauled off to the loony bin? Never, that's when!
These are the simple pleasures and mild eccentricities that Christmas allows us.
You may well wonder what the heck figs have to do with Christmas. Well, basically nothing, aside from a few references in song to something called "Figgy Pudding" (which sounds made up, but actually isn't.)
However, one of my west coast friends mentioned that she and a group of people were doing a canning exchange this Christmas! (Genius! Why didn't I think of that??) and although I no longer live on the west coast, I felt could not sit idly by and let the opportunity for greatness pass me by.
In the tattered copy of Bon Appétit magazine that I
Fortunately, I happened to be taking a short trip home for my graduation, so I was able to tuck the jars into my luggage (safely wrapped in my pyjamas) rather than having to sell a kidney to pay for them to go via Canada Post.
Unfortunately, I bought the wrong size jars and didn't have time to exchange them (procrastination wins again!), so my recipe yielded only three very large jars. I brought two of them with me (one to contribute to the exchange and one as a gift for my dad's birthday), and kept one for myself. Judging by the amount of jam that was left in the jar by the time I got back a week later (ie: barely any), I'm guessing my husband liked it.
Drunken Fig Jam
from Bon Appétit, Oct 2008
A quick and easy way to sterilize jars is to stick them in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes. When you're ready for them, pull them out and put your hot jam into hot jars!
4 lbs of ripe fresh figs - washed, stemmed, and cut into 1/2" pieces (about 9 cups)
4 cups sugar
2 lemons
3/4 cup brandy
1/2 teaspoon salt
With a knife or vegetable peeler, remove the peel from the lemons (just the yellow bit...leave the bitter pith behind) and cut it into matchstick size strips.
Combine the peel, figs, sugar, salt and brandy and let it sit for about an hour. Give it a stir every now and then. It'll start to get really juicy and wonderful.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling until the mix thickens up and reduces to about 6 cups, about 30-35 minutes.
Alternate stirring and mashing it up with a potato masher to get rid of any big figgy pieces. Remove from heat.
Ladle the jam into your clean sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" of space at the top of each jar. Stick a thin spatula or other instrument down the side of the jars to remove any air bubbles.
Wipe the rims down with a clean damp cloth and cover with hot lids. Process the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Let cool completely.
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