Beirut on my mind today. This fragrant, chewy fig jam is made using dried figs. It makes me reminisce of lavish Lebanese brunches and lazy halloum and fig jam sandwiches for dinner on the balcony. The lovely Marilyne of @thesweethobby kindly gave me her mom’s recipe to share with you all. Step by step in my highlights, recipe below:
Fig jam
Chewy Fig Jam
Prep time:
Cook time:
Serves:
- Times
- Description
- Image
- Ingredients
- Method
- Notes
- Nutrition
BY YASMINE IDRISS
Beirut on my mind today. This fragrant, chewy fig jam is made using dried figs. It makes me reminisce of lavish Lebanese brunches and lazy halloum and fig jam sandwiches for dinner on the balcony. The lovely Marilyne of @thesweethobby kindly gave me her mom’s recipe to share with you all.
Ingredients
- 1 kg Roughly chop of dried figs, keep aside
- 750 grs of sugar
- 750 ml of water, in a heavy based large pot.
- 2-3 star anise (or use 1 tspn aniseed powder in the water)
- a scrapped vanilla pod (or 1/2 tspn vanilla extract), optional.
Method
To make the sugar syrup
- 1)
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, whisking from tome to time.
- 2)
Add a squeeze of lemon.
- 3)
Remove any foam that forms at the surface.
- 4)
If you have used star anise, remove them now.
- 5)
Add the chopped figs to the thickened sugar syrup and simmer on a gentle heat until the figs absorb all the liquid. Keep stirring.
- 6)
Lightly toast 75grs of sesame seeds. Keep aside to cool.
- 7)
Chop about 50grs of raw walnuts.
- 8)
Crush some mastic (meskeh balls, about 5), and freshly grate a pinch of nutmeg
- 9)
When the figs mixture has thickened, add the mastic, the nutmeg, the sesame seeds and the walnuts. Mix well for another minute then transfer to your glass jars.
Notes
You can sterilize your jars in the microwave or in a dishwasher (or ask Google!). I didn’t as Marilyne’s mom recommended to invert the jars instead. I also made sure there were no air bubbles trapped at the bottom of the jars. I gently tapped them on my worktop and used a metal skewer to get rid of any air pockets. That will help in making sure these jams are as safe as possible.
Still, I will keep my jars in the fridge and not in the pantry as I didn’t sterilize my jars