Hi there,

Today I am going to share with you two recipes using fig preserves. A few years ago, my husband planted two fig trees. (We live in New Jersey, so you can see I married an optimist). Well, to my delight, the trees produced an abundance of figs. Like any other fresh fruit, the harvest comes all at once. So I decided to make preserves and freeze the preserves to keep the sunshine to warm us for the long winter ahead.

Fig Preserves

Ingredients

• 7 cups of figs
• 3 cups of sugar
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/8 tsp of pepper flakes

Directions

• Combine the whole figs, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan.
• Cook and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the juice is as thick as desired
• Ladle into 1/2 cup containers and freeze

Fig Glazed Bake Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 container of fig preserves
• 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
• 2 salmon filets
• sprig of thyme
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 soaked cedar plank

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 or light outside grill to medium
• Place salmon filets on the plank
• slice 1/2 way through the salmon filets and place sprig of thyme in the cut
• squeeze the lemon juice over the filets
• combine the mustard with the preserves and smear on the salmon filets
• grill or roast to desired degree of doneness

Special note:

I completely get that not everyone has fig preserves hanging around in their freezer. Don’t hesitate to buy fig preserves and stir in a little bit of heat to the jar. The measurement for supermarket fig preserves would be 1/2 cup.

When I cook on the plank in the oven, I place the plank on a piece of aluminum foil. The kitchen will smell a bit of cedar which I don’t find offensive but if you do, the exhaust fan will eliminate the odor swiftly.