Figs - description
Figs is a tall deciduous tree with tasty, very sweet fruits, like a small pear, with many small seeds inside. It is believed that the more seeds the fruit contains, the tastier it is. Its thin skin is covered with small villi. The color of the fruit, depending on the variety, may be purple, black, greenish, yellow. As soon as they do not call the fig tree, the fig tree, and the toffee tree, and the fig tree, and in Latin it sounds like a ficus, Ficus carica.
Figs - the tree is very old. According to legend, it was the fig leaf that was the only clothing of the first people on earth - Adam and Eve. His homeland is considered Asia Minor. The ancient Arabians began to cultivate the fig tree for a very long time. From where it began to gradually spread throughout the world, Syria, Egypt, Phenicia and other countries with a warm climate picked up the baton. Nowadays, figs grow in the Krasnodar Territory, Crimea, Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the countries of the Mediterranean, the Middle East.
Fig tree is pretty unpretentious. It grows on the soil depleted in useful substances - rocky shores, stones, and stone walls. But, since This plant is moisture-loving, the most powerful trees grow in river valleys, and where you can provide them with good water supply. Figs - long-lived, many trees live for two hundred years, without ceasing to bear fruit.
In the northern regions of this plant can be grown in pots, as a room flower. Propagated by cuttings. Even at home, it is capable of producing crops.
Figs - useful properties
Fruits of figs contain vitamins B, C, PP, A. It is rich in potassium, which has a very positive effect on the work of the heart muscle and soft tissues of the whole body, prevents fatigue, and removes excess fluid. Therefore, the wine berry is useful for edema, cardiovascular diseases, with intensive mental or physical labor. Iron contained in the fruit strengthens the immune system, has a positive effect on blood formation, therefore it is recommended to include berries in the diet for blood loss, skin diseases suffering from iron deficiency anemia. Fig is a natural antipyretic and diaphoretic remedy. To reduce the temperature, it is enough to eat a few fresh berries. Also, figs are a repository of phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, amino acids, pectin, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Unfortunately, this useful berry is not recommended for everyone. Figs contain a lot of fiber, oxalic acid, so it should not be used for gastrointestinal diseases (acute) and gout, dried fruits (dried fruit) are contraindicated in diabetes mellitus.
Figs - calories
The caloric value of 100 g of fresh figs is 70 kcal, dried (dried fruits) - 214 kcal.
Figs - use in cooking
Figs are used in cooking in dried, dried and fresh form for the preparation of desserts, pastries, sorbet and other sweet dishes. From fresh fruits make syrups, jam, jam, jam.
But it is used not only for sweets, fish and meat are cooked with it. Especially gourmets like to experiment with wine berries. Fruits of figs are stuffed with poultry, meat rolls, and cheese is baked with them. He shares his sweetness, giving the dishes exquisite and piquant - gives a special flavor to smoked meat, gently emphasizes the saltiness of ham or bacon. From figs you can cook a rather original side dish for baked poultry meat or pork - you just need to slightly add berries in honey and sprinkle with black pepper. Any cheese goes well with wine grapes, especially with mold or brackish goat cheese, if baked in a grill or oven.
Recipe Examples with Figs
Recipe 1: Pork with Figs
This dish is for real gourmets and ordinary lovers to eat tasty food. The taste of meat with a beautiful appetizing bacon crust is simply amazing. Originality and piquancy give him a fig and sweet soy sauce. For preparation, you need an oblong piece of meat, ideally a tenderloin, inside of which crushed figs with nuts is placed.
Ingredients: 600-800g of pork tenderloin, 100g of figs (dried fruit), 50g of nuts (a handful of cashews or walnuts), 5 table.lozh. sweet soy sauce, salt, 150g of bacon.
Method of preparation
Cut the tenderloin with soy sauce and leave to marinate for an hour. While the pork is infused, cook the stuffing.
Grind figs with a knife. Put the nuts in a bag or towel and beat with a rolling pin.
Bacon cut into thin slices.
On a piece of meat along the entire length, make a longitudinal section, so that you get a pocket for the filling, i.e. cut through the meat, but not to the end. Inside this cut lay a nut-fig filling, rolling a sausage from it. Pork salt a little. Strong zealousness is not worth it, because the bacon is already salty. Cut the edges of the meat to combine and impose the resulting roll with bacon slices, at the same time wrapping them with threads to hold.
Put the meat in the form, pour it with soy sauce and bake for about an hour (220C). Periodically, the roll must be watered with the resulting juice, then it will not be dry and will acquire a ruddy glossy crust. Finished meat a little cool, remove the threads and cut into slices.
Alternatively, you can make more than one big roll, and cut into longitudinal pieces, as in chops, and wrap small rolls. Then in time to bake them will need less.
Recipe 2: Chicken Baked with Figs
Unusual chicken with figs will appeal to many. It has a rather unusual, but pleasant taste, somewhat similar to the taste of chicken with honey and a very beautiful ruddy crust. A carcass weighing up to 1.5 kg is prepared - approximately one hour. The meat is very tender and fragrant. Figs during cooking becomes soft, it is quite possible to submit to the side dish, lightly sprinkled with pepper.
Ingredients: 1 chicken (1.5 kg), 10 pieces of figs (dried fruit), salt, French (Italian) herbs, 1 clove of garlic.
Method of preparation
Pour boiling water over figs and let it brew until the water cools.
Cut the carcass lengthwise along the breast and flatten it as for chicken tobacco. Grate the chicken with salt, herbs or seasonings at your discretion, crushed with garlic and leave to marinate for fifteen minutes.
Sprinkle the form or baking sheet with butter and place the figs in tight rows in the shape of a circle. Place the chicken carcass on the berries, making sure that it does not touch the baking tray, but lies completely on the fig pillow. Pour a glass of water and bake for about an hour until fully cooked (180C). After forty minutes, start every five minutes to pour the carcass juice formed. Figs emit a lot of sugar, which is caramelized, gives the skin a very beautiful rosy color.
Recipe 3: Fig Pie
The recipe is quite simple, but delicious cake-pie. It is made on the basis of unrefined olive oil (extra virgin), then the cake takes on a delicate olive flavor. You can take the usual vegetable, just a cupcake will taste more simple, without olive "raisins". And another secret - the more figs, the tastier. Ingredients: 300g of figs (dried, dried), half a cup of olive oil and milk, 250g of flour, 1 large egg, a pinch of salt, incomplete tea. baking powder, 150g of sugar, fresh zest of 1 lemon.
Method of preparation
Prepare products - cut figs into small segments, finely grate the zest.
Mix flour with sugar, salt and baking powder. In another bowl - milk, butter and egg. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour and knead the dough.
Mix the mass with figs and lemon zest, pour it into the mold and bake for about forty-forty-five minutes (180C). Pre-lubricate the form. The optimum diameter of the form - twenty-two centimeters.
Figs - tips from experienced chefs
- To make figs easier to cut, the knife blade must be dipped in hot water, and the fruit itself can be held in the fridge for about an hour - it will not become so sticky.
- Figs - perishable berry, so it should be stored in the cold, a maximum of three days.
- Figs should be eaten on an empty stomach - so it will bring more benefits.
- Plucked fruits should not be kept in a warm place, otherwise they will just ferment and spoil.
- In order to better absorb the nutrients of dried figs, they should be soaked in cold water for half an hour before eating.
- You can make a nourishing and quick snack from fresh fig berries - cut the fruit in half and stuff the flesh with raw walnuts or cashew nuts. Or pour honey over each half, top with a teaspoon of soft cheese or fat cream and bake in the oven for five minutes.
