Valentine's Day chocolate tart with fresh fig ice cream.
Photos by Monique Smith.
Figs are an exotic treat here in the South, where the
weather makes them difficult to grow, writes Bevan Smith.
Fresh figs conjure up many memories for me. They remind me of
my early childhood, growing up in Northland, where it was
common to have a fig tree at the bottom of the garden. From
my adventures abroad, they are a luscious reminder of
travelling through southern Europe during summer.
Fig trees were everywhere and many an offering of sun-ripened
fruit would be pressed into our hands by kindly strangers. We
would devour them, still warm from the sun, as greedily as
politeness would allow.
These days, most people in the South still regard figs as a
rather exotic treat. Their very low tolerance for frost means
it's hard to grow them down here and figs are hardly ever
seen on our supermarket shelves.
What I have learned to do though, in the face of this
dilemma, is to go online in search of the nearest grower who
may ship a box direct, or you could go directly to the
produce manager at your local supermarket and see if they can
get them in.
Supermarkets often only supply for demand but they have a
huge range of contacts and if you want something in
particular, like figs, they can usually get it for you.
In Marlborough, which is where we source our figs, the season
starts around mid-January and lasts for about five to six
weeks before taking a breather for a month or so and resuming
in March for a further two months. This growing pattern is
mainly because the different varieties grown arrive in a
series of flushes.
Some growers form collectives or co-operatives in order to
combat supply fluctuations and they also grow a wide variety
of figs to maximise their ability to continue to meet demand.
Figs do not ripen after being picked so they must be
harvested ripe and packaged, ready to go. This is, in part,
why they are more challenging to transport and have such a
short shelf life. Even so, for me this only seems to
intensify the anticipation and adds to my appreciation of
this very delicate fruit.
Apart from simply tearing them open and eating them straight
from the box, here are a couple of ways to serve figs and
make the most of them over the next couple of months.
Figs - a celebration of summer!
• Valentine's Day chocolate
tart with fresh fig ice cream
Serves 10
650g 70% dark chocolate buttons
350ml milk
220g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
3 free-range egg yolks
150g amaretti biscuits, lightly crushed
1x 28cm fluted sweet pastry case, blind baked
Place chocolate and milk into a stainless steel bowl. Heat
over a large pot of simmering water, stirring until chocolate
has melted.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add egg yolks
and mix well. Stir the creamed mixture into the chocolate
until combined.
Pour into pastry tart base and refrigerate for an hour.
Remove tart from tart ring and place gently on a flat serving
plate. Cover tart with crushed amaretti biscuits and dust
with icing sugar. Slice with a very hot knife and serve with
whipped cream.
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