Recipes for Figs: Jam, Tarts and Too Much of a Good Thing

This really is a Côte d’Azur heartache. When their fig tree produced fruit in huge quantities the whole family indulged in the bounty. Sadly, Jemma found out the hard way that too many figs, fig jam, fig tarts are not a good thing, in her case.

The summer Philippe decided to make fig jam was the summer I couldn’t have any.

My husband brought two handfuls of figs into the kitchen and deposited them beside the sink. Teenagers Lolo and Phoebe followed him with their own fistfuls. The fresh sweetness of the fruits, plucked from Bellevue’s own figuier, wafted across the kitchen, where I was busy making coffee.

“We should make jam,” Lolo said to her father, taking up a strand of conversation they’d bandied about for a couple of years and, with this season’s bumper crop, had revisited in the last week.  Lolo chose a particularly luscious fig from the haul and bit into it.

Continue reading here for the original contributor blog post by French Lessons.  Like most families, Jemma’s decided to tease her and tempt her with exactly what she couldn’t have!

Recipes Made with Figs:

Thyme and Lime Scented Fig Jam. A delicious way to preserve a pile of figs.

Summer salad: Stuffed Zucchini Flowers with Goat Cheese, Figs and Ham.

Provencal harvest recipe: Duck Skewers with Fig and Shallot Compote. This recipe makes a perfect appetizer!

Another terrific appetizer: Roasted Figs with Cheese and Bacon.

Duck Breasts with figs excellent for cool weather.

And a sweet finish – Fig Tart with Orange Flower Custard.

Please forgive us Jemma!

Jemma Hélène

Jemma was born and raised in the US Midwest. A banker by trade, she slogged away at a Swiss investment bank in the UK and South Africa before moving – for decent spaces of time, anyway – to the South of France. At a similar stage, she also moved to the right side of her brain as a writer. She has published articles in Maclean’s, SuperYacht World, and various travel and university presses.

At this point Jemma lives mostly in Canada, but she spends the whole of every summer in the Côte d’Azur town of Antibes. From this seaside town of ramparts, situated midway between Nice and Cannes, she has penned her blog French Lessons since 2007. Each post captures a snapshot of the remarkable, real life of the French Riviera. “Consider these pages my summertime gift to you,” she tells her readers.

When not engrossed in things French, Jemma is - not in any particular order - writing a book, making music, performing motherly duties, expanding sustainable education in places that have less of it, promoting Canadian writing, and travelling off-the-beaten-track: over 90 countries, and counting.

You can reach Jemma through her blog site at French Lessons.