Recipe: Figs, ham and blue cheese; my autumnal salad

[Subtle_badger]

I have developed this over the summer, starting with a Nigel Slater recipe in the Guardian. I am enjoying it so much that everytime I see figs, I end up shopping for gammon and blue cheese.

It's a pretty simple recipe: fry a gammon steak. When it's nearly done, add 2 figs cut or torn into 4 piece to the hot pan, cut side down. When the gammon is cooked, and the figs are jammy, remove to rest for a few minutes. Make the salad with the ham, figs and a blue cheese. Any cheese will do and I use Stilton often, but I think the mild and creamy Danish blues are best. Leave it at that, or add other salad ingredients to your taste. Generally it's tomato and avocado for me, but cucumber, green leaves or even beetroot (watch the total carbs) would be good. If the tomatoes aren't great, I will add them to the pan along with the figs, to intensify the flavour. Finish with a balsamic vinaigrette or mayonnaise. 😋

My philosophy is to eat seasonal fruit I love. I won't have much fruit over winter, but I will enjoy blood oranges in January, and stone fruit again next summer.

I input typical ingredients in cronometer and you can see them, and the resulting macros in the image.

[Cosmo501]

That looks and sounds amazing! x

[TheAwfulToad Ambassador]

figs + balsamic is a winning combination. Makes a great dressing for pretty much any sort of salad.

[Subtle_badger in reply to TheAwfulToad]

I'd been mostly using mayo, but inspired by this I made it again with a vinaigrette. It was a mistake. I chose the balsamic with the lowest carb content, and the acid just overwhelmed the sweetness of the fruit. I think it would be OK with a sweeter balsamic, or fruit from the height of the season.

Back to mayo until next summer.

[Lesley1234567]

That is amazing thank you

[help2020]

Sounds delicious thanks for sharing the ingredients

[sunny369]

this sounds delicious - where are you buying your fresh figs and are they ripe\? The last couple of times I bought figs I was so disappointed they had no flavor at all and have all but given up hope

[Subtle_badger in reply to sunny369]

Nothing exotic, I am just getting supermarket figs. They are from Turkey, and I let them ripen until they are quite dark and soft. They are sweet enough for me, and frying them concentrates the sugars, making them taste a bit sweeter still.

At the height of the summer, you can buy a box of them for around £4 from street markets. They are much sweeter and bigger, and probably don't belong on a low carb diet 😋

I'd forgotten, but a lifetime ago I had a fig tree in my garden. The figs never changed colour, so I would go and gently squeeze them to find which were ripe, and enjoy sun-warmed figs for breakfast.

[sunny369 in reply to Subtle_badger]

I do miss a street market, none round here unfortunately. I will have another go with the supermarket ones, maybe I just needed to let them sit and soften for longer, then as you say frying them might be the answer.

Fig trees in the garden - now there's a dream