When I was a kid, at the end of a meals at Christmas alongside nuts and dates, we used to have a delicacy called Chinese Figs. These were fig jellies rolled in sugar, sweet and deliciously figgy, sold in distinctive hexagonal black and red boxes with gold dragons on - I'm sure the packaging added to the general sense of occasion. They haven't been available for a lot of years and so, having seen this recipe in the Guardian for
mulled wine plum jellies, I thought I'd try and re-create some of the magic.
These are good, but not as good as the memory of the childhood ones, partly because the flavour is a bit heavy on the mulled wine (I'd have liked more fruit) and partly because they're still not properly dried (5 days later: if you try the recipe, I'd recommend drying them in the oven rather than being lazy and leaving them to dry on their own). But they're good enough to give me ideas about trying to create a fig version.
I love the idea of these and yours look just like the picture in the paper. Let me know if you develop any good refinements on the original recipe, I think figgy would good, also blackcurrant maybe?
ReplyDeleteMmm, agree blackcurrant would be good. My dad requested fig and sloe gin which think could work well - I said I'd do that next Christmas but he seemed to think that was a long time to wait!
ReplyDeleteWas thinking that dried figs would be better to get a more intense flavour, will let you know when I give it a try.