Luscious and sexy

I grew up with a bit of an addiction for Fig Newtons. I don’t even like to buy them anymore, as they all jump into my mouth and disappear too quickly.

So it’s no surprise that the first time I tried a fresh fig, I was in love. It matters not to me that fig wasps become one with each edible fig while doing a pollination dance. I love them anyway.

Fresh from the tree, grilled with bacon or stuffed with blue cheese, figs have a sexy lusciousness to them. I put out a call online recently in search of a tree that needed harvesting. Luckily, I got an invitation to pick them ASAP. So I plan to make black pepper-fig jam and perhaps a fig tart drizzled with honey.

At Grange, pastry chef Elaine Baker has a mission fig-añejo spice cake on the menu, served with goat-cheese sabayon and fig-añejo-orange sauce. I’d better go try it, I think.