• 6 ounces dried figs-use, a mix of white and black figs if available

• 1 cup or more of a sweet white wine such as a Riesling

• cinnamon stick or two

• sugar (I prefer a raw sugar) for a final garnish.

Trim stems off figs. Kitchen shears work best for this job.  Put figs into a bowl and add cinnamon stick and pour wine over top. Should be enough wine to nearly cover figs but they don't need to be drowned. Leave to soak over night or longer. (If you leave them longer you may need to add more wine as the figs soak it up. Use enough so that all the figs are in the wine.)

The next day, in a pan large enough for the figs to lie in a single layer, stew figs, wine and cinnamon over medium low heat until remaining wine is reduced to nearly nothing.  Figs should become glossy. Stir often enough to avoid burning.  When the wine has been cooked away remove from heat and either store your figs or serve with a sprinkle of sugar over the top. Discard cinnamon stick. 

Figs can be served warm or at room temperature.  They will keep fairly well in the cupboard in a jar or plastic bag for a good while, but do keep a look out for any mold, or store in the fridge.

 The original recipe below, only calls for good spice. Elsewhere in the same cookbook cloves, ginger and other spices are used but there is a preference for just cinnamon and sugar for a lord so I kept it simple. But you could certainly use your own choice of spices.  Try whole cloves, or candied ginger, added with the cinnamon stick.

 TO EAT FIGS IN THE FRENCH MANNER

COMER HIGOS A LA FRANCESA

Take dried figs, the sweetest that you can get, black and white, and remove the stems and wash them with good white wine which is sweet; and when they are very well-cleaned, take an earthenware casserole which is big enough, which has a flat bottom, and cast them inside, stirring them a little; and then put this casserole upon the coals, and well-covered in a manner that it is stewed there.  And when they are stewed, and they will have absorbed all of the moisture of the wine, stir them a little, and cast fine spice on top of them; and turn them, stirring in a manner that incorporates that spice in them; and then eat this food; and it is an elegant thing; and it should be eaten at the beginning of the meal.

6.            DUKE'S POWDER

POLVORA DE DUQUE (9)

Half an ounce of cinnamon, one eighth of cloves, and for the lords cast in nothing but cinnamon, and a pound of sugar; if you wish to make it sharp in flavor and [good] for afflictions of the stomach, cast in a little ginger.

This recipe comes from the Catalan text  Libre del Coch, Maestro Robert 1520 English translation Robin Carroll-Mann, 2001 

This is one of the dishes we served at our Yule feast in 2013 for more on the feast see

figs soaking in wine and spices, in this case black mission figs and adriatic (white) figs.

figs seething away

and served.

Other recipes from this manuscript

• Catalan Stew
• Catalonian Citrus Nut Sauce
• Marinated Mutton
• Potaje de Fideos
• Simple Salmon Pie

Other recipes featuring fruit.

• Apple Fritters
• Apple Puffs
• Apple Pillows
• Bryndons
• Cherry Puffs
• Gelly of Red Currents
• German French Toast
• Melon Salad
• Puffed Apples
• Raison Pie
• Sauce a la Matius
• Sweet and Sour Sauce for Pork
• Wardyns in Syrup