When all else fails . . . 

make jam! Or pâté. Or pasta. Or a pork roast. Or leftover lobster and shrimp turned into a salad with greens and avocado. Or stuffed zucchini blossoms. All these things and more I have done this week or will do today or tomorrow if my knee cooperates. A slight accident in Riverside Park precipitated the cane and the hobble, but we're enduring the lot. It's called manning up, or to the Brits, doing our bit! In Italian, we'd just say "corraggio!"

Fresh Figs

So, first on the hit parade we have fig jam. They're in season right now and a perfect past time in preparation for the approaching cold weather. It's very simple, actually. Just a bunch of figs with a bunch of sugar and a squeeze of a lime (my personal preference) and some orange extract (a drop or two of that will do), soaked over night in the sugar, which completely liquifies by morning's light, and then cook it to the semi-candy stage and placed directly into jars and leave it until you need to eat it. Quite simple really. 

*If you're ambitious and have the time to wait a period of 3 months or so, you can add 1/4 cup dry mustard mixed with 1/4 cup white wine, 1 tablespoon mustard seed and 1/4 cup cider vinegar for a very spicy Mostarda di Ficchi. The technique is basically the same. The most important issue here is the sterile jars and caps and complete eradication of air which pollutes the jar (and the jam or Mostarda) with bacteria. Both the jam and the Mostarda can be stored for up to a year but once opened, should be refrigerated and used within a 2 or 3 months.

Fig Jam

2 boxes fresh figs (halved, quartered or sliced, depending on how fine or chunky you want your jam to be)

2 cups superfine sugar

juice of one lime 

1/8 teaspoon orange extract

Fig Jam

Halve, quarter or slice the figs (your call here) and put them in a stainless steel saucepan large enough to hold them comfortably with the rest of the ingredients. Add all ingredients to the figs, stir gently to coat the figs with the sugar and cover the pan and leave overnight. Periodically, you should check on the figs and give them a turn or two with a rubber spatula, but only a little. You don't want to disturb the shape of the figs. After sitting "in the dark" all night, there will be a great deal of syrup. 

Place the saucepan on the stove over moderately high heat and bring the mixture to the boil. Lower the heat to the simmer after 4 or 5 minutes stirring at a running boil. Continue to stir periodically, checking vigilantly to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. If there is anything sticking, the heat is too high. Cook at a simmer until the liquid has almost completely reduced and you can see the bottom of the pan when you wipe it with a wooden spoon or spatula. You will have a thick mass of fig jam. At this point, I usually take a hand blender and process the mixture into a spreadable consistency but if you want pieces of fig in the jam, you can omit this step. 

This amount of fig jam will require 2 small Ball jars with tops and caps, all of which should have been sterilized beforehand. Fill the jars with hot jam and with any utensil that is comfortable (a butter knife works here), push the fig jam down to remove all air bubbles. I personally bang the jar on a couple of kitchen towels to push the bubbles up to the top. Once you've completed this process, cover and store the jars in a cool dark place.

Fig Mostarda

One difference between the jam and the mostarda: I don't process the figs into a paste as I do for the jam. The mustard gives the figs a rather hot and spicy flavor. The quantities of mustard and mustard seeds may be adjusted to compensate for personal taste; less for mild and more for hot and spicy.

Mostarda di Ficchi

1/4 cup dry mustard

1/4 cup white wine

1 tbsp. mustard seed

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Dissolve the mustard in the wine, add the wine mixture, the mustard seeds and the vinegar to the master ingredients and follow the recipe for fig jam above. Complete in the same exact way and store for up to a year in a cool dark place. It will be ready to eat within 3 months.