Читать книгу Enjoy: New veg with dash - Nadine Abensur - Страница 17

This is one of my dream breakfasts. I’ve even converted my blokey man (for which read Antipodean Neanderthal – his words!) to it. Drier figs will need longer cooking to soften them up. You can cut corners by using the glossy, semi-dried ones that come in vacuum-packed foil-lined bags.

SERVES 6–8

20–24 dried Turkish figs

250g mascarpone cheese

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1 tablespoon orange blossom water

For the orange blossom syrup:

225ml orange juice

225ml water

225g caster sugar

4 cardamom pods, crushed

3–4 black peppercorns

¼ teaspoon orange blossom water

a sprig of coriander

a dash of lemon juice

Put the orange juice and water in a pan and add the figs. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3–4 minutes, then remove the figs from the pan and set aside. Add the sugar, cardamom pods and black peppercorns to the pan and stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Return to the boil and simmer, without stirring, until syrupy. Then return the figs to the pan for a couple of minutes with the orange blossom water, coriander sprig and lemon juice.

Lift the figs out and allow them to cool completely. Mix together the mascarpone, icing sugar and orange blossom water and put them in a piping bag fitted with a nozzle pointy enough to pierce the figs easily. Fill each fig so it balloons out, almost fit to burst – a little of the filling gently oozing out will tempt all the more. Transfer to a large bowl or cake stand and pour the cooled syrup over. Serve in long-stemmed cocktail glasses with a little of the syrup drizzled over.