{"id":19,"date":"2010-01-25T17:16:16","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T09:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=19"},"modified":"2010-07-20T20:05:01","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T12:05:01","slug":"19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/19\/","title":{"rendered":"Make your own – Port soaked figs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I almost ran out of port soaked figs!\u00a0 To some of you that may not sound like a crisis but my pork fillet stuffed with wild rice, port soaked figs and marinated feta just won\u2019t be the same without them.\u00a0 So off I went to one of the stores that I knew stocked the brand that I like.\u00a0 They are from a local producer and have that sticky sweetness that can only come from soaking a beautiful piece of dried fruit in a sticky, rich, luscious liquer like port.\u00a0 Once inside my destination, I asked one of the staff where I might find them and discovered there was one jar left on the shelf.\u00a0 The jar was a different shape than I had seen previously and it appeared a little smaller but it is the last jar so I snapped it up.\u00a0 Upon my arrival home, I not only discovered that the jar was a different shape but it also contained almost a third less than the jar I had\u00a0purchased a few months ago for the same price.\u00a0 Now we all know that economic times have been a little tough lately but a third less………….it was too much for me to bear.\u00a0 So being the determined (and I admit, sometimes stubborn) person that I am I decided to try and make some myself by reading the ingredients, doing some research and taste testing the two products side by side.\u00a0 I pulled out one of my favourite local ports (I like the name and the label as much as what is in the bottle), some dried figs and a few other necessary ingredients.\u00a0 After an afternoon of experimenting, I came up with the following recipe that I hope you all enjoy making as much as I did.<\/p>\n

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port soaked figs (recipe created by Fiona from Food 4 Thought)
\nmakes approximately 400g<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/span>
\n150ml port
\n40g sugar
\n50ml water
\n2 star anise
\n1 cinnamon stick
\n6 whole black peppercorns
\n175g dried figs, stems removed
\nSterilised jar\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Preparation
\n<\/span>Place the port, sugar and water into a medium size pot over a medium heat.\u00a0 Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves.\u00a0 Add the star anise, cinnamon and\u00a0peppercorns, increase the heat to bring to a boil.\u00a0 Add the figs\u00a0and simmer for 20 \u2013 25 minutes, or until figs have softened.\u00a0 Turn the figs several times throughout the process.\u00a0 Remove from the heat and allow to steep for an hour minimum.\u00a0\u00a0 Remove the figs from the mixture and place them in a sterilised jar.\u00a0 Remove the spices from the liquid and add the sweet\u00a0nectar to the figs.\u00a0 Seal and keep for up to 3 months.\u00a0 I keep mine in the fridge.<\/p>\n

ease: 9\/10.<\/strong> (This is not difficult, just takes some time).
\nprep time: 10mins.
\ncooking time: 25mins<\/strong> + 1 hour<\/strong> steeping + 5 mins<\/strong> jarring.
\ntotal: 1hour 40 mins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong> \u00a0These are delicious. \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, the\u00a0batch that\u00a0I made is not identical\u00a0in flavour to\u00a0the purchased product and nor would I want it to be, because then it wouldn\u2019t be my creation.\u00a0 It is however a sticky, sweet, spiced concoction that I will be proud to use.\u00a0 The sauce that is in my\u00a0creation is thicker than that of its original counterpart but you can always add a little more water or even a dash of alcohol after it has cooled.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t worry too much about burning off the alcohol content because the original seems more alcoholic than its homemade cousin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

would I make it again: You bet<\/strong> \u2013 It was not only being able to recreate something that I no longer have to buy, it was the achievement of looking at a label and being able to figure out what to use to get close to replicating the flavour that made it a pleasure to cook these.\u00a0 Besides that there are some very delicious ways to use these sweet little morsels, the simplest being on top of vanilla ice-cream.<\/p>\n

I apologise for the quality of the photos, I couldn\u2019t set up my studio in time.<\/p>\n

I also promise to blog my stuffed pork loin recipe that I mentioned in my opening paragraph in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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I almost ran out of port soaked figs! To some of you that may not sound like a crisis but my pork fillet stuffed with wild rice, port soaked figs and marinated feta just won\u2019t be the same without them. So off I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,31,54,42],"tags":[103,104,124,113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}