One time, we were invited for dinner by our local friends. As one of the appetizers, they served us fresh Black Mission Figs that they just had harvested in their backyard. We were so excited, and tasted them. They were deeeeeeelicious! Our friends gave some of the figs for us to take home. We thought of eating as is again, but we came up with another good idea. "Let's make some fig sauce for the grilled chicken breasts!" Oh, my goodness. This turned out to be great! Figs are not only tasty, but you can also expect a lot of health benefits. Why not to eat them, right?
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| Fig sauce for the grilled chicken breasts |
Ingredients:
15 Black Mission Figs, cut in half
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (About 3 medium oranges)
2-3 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1/2 teaspoon dry rosemary
A pinch of salt & black pepper
Before starting...
You can use the store-bought orange juice in the bottle, but I highly recommend squeezing the oranges at home. The freshness and sweetness from the oranges is one of the keys to make the sauce tasty. Good luck!
Directions:
1: In a medium pan, comine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low to make it simmer until the figs get soft enough to be mashed.
2: Remove the harshness. This small effort gets rid of unpleasant flavor.
3: Mash with a masher until the sauce gets smooth enough for you. That's it!
4: Put some fig sauce on top of the grilled chicken breast seasoned with salt & black pepper. Leftover sauce could be used as jam for bread for the next few days. Please enjoy!
5: You may be surprised to hear that we recommend GSM (the red wine blended with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre) to pair with this meal. The grilled chicken breasts that were simply seasoned with salt & black pepper might have the light taste, but the fig sauce brings the big flavor with the sweetness and earthiness. Please give it try and let us know what you think!
Thank you so much for visiting Kula Vineyards Food & Wine!
This sounds great Ayako! We have a fig tree that we planted in our garden 2 years ago and I think this year it's figs will be ready to eat. I want to try this recipe but am confused about one thing. In step 2 you say to remove the harshness. I don't know what the harshness is. Can you tell me please?
ReplyDeleteRosemary,
DeleteThank you so much for your comment, Rosemary! Fresh figs from your yard is the best. You've been doing a great job on farming!
The harassment I meant was the scum. Some people don't care much, but I always think that skimming off the scum makes a big change in the flavor. It's the little bubbly stuff floating on top of the liquid. It brings the bitter & unpleasant taste on what you are making, so you don't need to have it. If you can make a little effort to get rid of them, I think this fig sauce will be tasty.
Thank you so much for asking a question. I hope you enjoy your fig sauce!