Some people will consider this the first weekend of autumn, but, succomb as I may to those plums and first apples, I am holding on firmly to summer for a few more weeks if I can.
I prepared this fig leaf apéritif about a week ago. As it only takes a few days to infuse, now is still the time to make a bottle for those last late summer evenings. There won’t be much of a thematic clash, September is fig season after all.
This recipe is particularly exciting for those of us who live in the North, as it just uses fig leaves. For all optimistic boreal gardeners and green city dwellers (many London gardens have a fig tree stretching its branches above the fence within reach of the sidewalk…), who monitor those trees with anxiety and trepidation, monitoring the evolution of each fruit, this is the solution.
Even if the figs never ripen there is a path straight to Provence with this apéritif.
The recipe comes from Thom Eagle via Diana Henry about two years ago. It bears repeating every year.
Fig leaf wine
10 fig leaves
One bottle (75 cl) dry white wine
160 g sugar
One giant glug of vodka
Crumple the fig leaves and place them in a clean jar with the white wine, sugar, and vodka. Stir or shake well, and leave to infuse for 3 to 5 days.
Strain out the leaves and pour into a bottle with a tight lid.
Serve over ice.
Nettle and Quince 
11 July 2020 at 09:17 |
Hi, thanks for the recipie! I’ve been researching different figleaf liqueur recipes and would be interested to have your feedback! I infused in vodka for 4 days and strained, and then combined with a syrup that was made by leaving the simple syrup over the chopped leaves at 50C for 7 hours and then squeezing out all the syrup. I didn’t want to cook the leaves, because it changed the smell and flavor quite a bit vs. the smell of fresh fig leaves (it slightly smelled like when you leave a chamomile tea bag out for a day). Now I am 3 weeks into the aging process, and it is getting that kind of gross smell, almost with some acrid notes. Is this something that will go away as it ages? Did you ever notice any changes like that?
18 December 2020 at 05:56 |
Hello! I didn’t heat the syrup and leaves at all and that may be what caused the alteration. The recipe as I know it stays fresh smelling and tasting for months as long as it remains sealed, once opened it should be kept in the fridge and used within a week or so.
22 September 2018 at 16:03 |
This looks fantastic. I am totally going to give it a try!
8 October 2018 at 09:38 |
Great! Please let me know how it went.