Fig and Red Wine Preserves

Many years ago, when I was a kid growing-up along the bayous of south Louisiana, my great grandfather, Francois Gaspard,  owned a fig orchard - around a dozen trees or so.

Some of the trees were huge and grew to 20 or more feet tall and produced an abundance of fruit. Every year our families would come together to harvest the fruit and make preserves for the winter.


Grandma had a way of transforming figs into just about any fruit taste you wanted. Strawberry fig preserves was my favorite. You could not tell the difference from the real McCoy when my grandma finished working her magic.

This evening I wanted to experiment with making fig preserves using an unlikely companion - red wine. Merlot in particular. And, I must say, it turned out pretty good. It's so easy to make, too.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. of ripe figs
• 1 cup of red wine, (or pure grape juice)
  
• 1/2 cup sugar

I quartered the figs and soaked them in the red wine over night in the refrigerator.

Using a medium sauce pan I added the figs, wine and sugar and cooked everything on medium-heat for approximately 30 minutes until all of the alcohol was burned off and the sugar had converted into a thick syrup. I stirred occasionally to prevent burning.

The preserves were cooled down at room temperature before refrigeration.

Fig preserve sandwiches with sliced American cheese are great!

It's a good and sweet snack for anyone who is constantly on the go. These turned out great.

Try it. You will like it.

Bon Appetit!


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