Fig Cups
1/2 lb. washed figs Chopped salted almonds 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 cup wine Stuff figs with almonds. Put sugar, lemon juice, and wine in chafing-dish; when heated, add figs, cover, and cook until figs are tender, turning and basting often. Serve with Lady Fingers.
A chafing-dish sweet from the era when a spirit lamp at the table was fashionable entertainment. It works just as well in a small covered skillet.
- The figs are driedThe figs are almost certainly dried -- "washed figs" points to dried figs rinsed of the dust and sugar bloom they picked up in the box. Half a pound is roughly 12 to 16 Calimyrna or Smyrna-type figs; the softer, moister Black Mission figs also work and cook faster.
- Chafing dishA covered vessel over a spirit lamp — gentle, indirect heat, closer to a modern skillet on low than to a burner on medium. Use a small heavy pan with a lid; the point is to keep the wine barely simmering so it reduces to a syrup rather than boiling away.
- Stuffing themSnip off the hard stem, then work a knife tip or a chopstick into the top to open a cavity without splitting the fig. Two or three almond halves per fig is enough. Salted almonds are the intended contrast to the sugar and wine; unsalted nuts leave the dish flat.
- The wineHalf a cup, unspecified — a sweet fortified wine such as Madeira, marsala or port suits this best. A dry red will need more than the two tablespoons of sugar given.
- TimingDried figs take 15 to 25 minutes of covered simmering to soften through, depending on how leathery they were to start. Turn and baste as directed; the exposed tops dry out and toughen if left alone.
- If the syrup tightens too farThe liquid reduces quickly in a wide pan. Add water or more wine a spoonful at a time; a scorched sugar-and-wine syrup will taste bitter and cannot be rescued.
- Yield and servingServes four, three or four figs each, spooned over with the syrup while hot. Lady fingers are the crisp sponge biscuits sold as savoiardi; any plain dry sponge biscuit does the same job of soaking up the syrup.