OH GOODY, MORE FIGS

I have guests coming for Sunday lunch. What to fix for dessert? (Dessert is always a dilemma.) Poking around in the cupboard, I came across the bag of dried figs I bought for the photo of dried fruits and nuts a few weeks ago. Fig tart, perhaps? Too fussy for my tastes. I’ll put it all in baking dish and call it “pudding.”

Dried figs from Málaga are dusted with rice flour before packaging.

Figs grow throughout southern and central Spain. In former times the fruit was far more important than it is today, a source of sweetness. In late summer, ripe figs were picked and spread to dry in the sun. When fully dried, they were packed into a serete, a woven straw basket, and cinched tightly closed. The baskets were placed in a fig press, which consisted of a wooden frame threaded with a thick wooden screw hewn from hard holm oak, and winched down. Once pressed, the figs were impervious to insect infestation and would keep for months.

Now I buy packaged figs, small Málaga figs that have been lightly coated in rice flour to keep them from absorbing moisture. (They can be eaten without washing.) There are also other varieties imported from Turkey. Any variety of dried fig can be used in the recipe. Cut small figs in half; quarter large ones. Dried figs are so sweet that, in my opinion, the dessert is sweet enough with no added sugar.


Figs are enhanced with various spice combos--anisette and cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, or, as I have used, vanilla and lemon.

Figs bake in a custardy-batter topped with nuts.

Dried figs are plumped in milk before mixing into the batter.

Dust the pudding lightly with confectioners' sugar immediately before serving.

Fig Pudding
Pudín de Higos

I found that the rice coating on the figs thickened the batter somewhat, so I used the larger quantity of milk. 

Serves 6-8.

1 pound dried figs
½ vanilla pod
Strip of lemon zest
1 ½ -2 cups milk
4 eggs
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Slivered almonds or coarsely chopped nuts (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar (optional)
Dessert sauce (recipe follows)

Use kitchen scissors to snip off stems.

Cut away stems from the figs and cut them in half or quarters. Place in a heatproof bowl. 

Heat the milk with the vanilla pod and lemon zest. Pour the hot milk over the figs and allow them to soak until milk has cooled. Discard the lemon zest. 

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Oil a baking dish (11- 12-inch rectangle or oval).

Remove the vanilla pod. Split it open lengthwise and scrape out the pulp. Add the pulp to a mixing bowl or blender. Add the eggs and oil and beat or blend until combined. Add the flour and salt and beat again to combine. 

Pour the batter over the figs and mix well. Spread the figs and batter in the baking dish. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds or chopped nuts.

Bake 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350ºF and bake 25 minutes more. Pudding is done when a thin skewer comes out clean.

Serve hot or cold, dusted with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. Serve sweet dessert sauce separately.

Sweet Sherry Dessert Sauce
Salsa Dulce con PX Sherry

Serve pudding with a sweet Sherry sauce.

½ cup light cream
¼ cup PX (sweet) Sherry

Combine the cream and Sherry in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer 2 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

And, more fig recipes:

Fig roll.

Fig and goat cheese flatbread.

Salad with grilled chicken and figs.

Chocolate-fig bon-bons.

Pork loin with fig stuffing.

Fig salsa.

MIDSUMMER’S FRUIT, AN EARLY FIG

If it’s coming up to midsummer, the festival of San Juan (June 24), it’s the season for brevas, early figs. Brevas are the first of two crops that a fig tree produces (sometimes). They arrive in early summer. A more abundant picking follows in late summer—August into September. 

 

To me it seems strange that a tree can produce two harvests and that the fruit from the two crops doesn’t even look alike. The first are larger, elongated, deeply purplish black. The second are smaller, usually green with a violet blush.  (The early figs actually develop from “embryonic” figs from the previous year that never matured.) 

Brevas are early figs, ripe by midsummer's eve.

Birds are pecking figs on my tree.

Brevas, the early figs, are so esteemed (and expensive) that it seems a shame to do anything other than eat them, raw, in all their glory. Brevas should be soft and, when fully ripe, may have slightly wrinkled or split skin. They don’t keep well, so it’s best to enjoy them when they first arrive in the markets (or, on the tree).

How to serve figs?

• Slice the figs (you don’t need to peel them), macerate in a little sweet Málaga wine or PX Sherry. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
• Quarter the figs, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with sliced ibérico or serrano ham. The sweet fruit and salty ham make a brilliant pairing.

Serve ripe figs with sliced Spanish ham.

•  Arrange sliced figs on top of a custard tart. Glaze them with a little melted fig jam or orange marmalade.
•  Spread toasts with softened cream cheese. Top with sliced figs. Sprinkle them with drained green peppercorns. 
• Stuff whole figs with softened blue cheese.
• Garnish white gazpacho (ajo blanco) with chopped brevas in early summer (muscatel grapes in late summer).

Garnish white gazpacho with figs.

•  Add fresh figs to salad. Here’s a recipe for a chicken salad with figs and a dressing of ajo blanco.

Summer salad--grilled chicken and sliced figs.

 Salad with Grilled Chicken and Figs
Ensalada con Pollo a la Plancha y Higos

 Serves 4,

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 ½ pounds)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh thyme
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil + more for the grill
Salad greens
4-6 ripe figs, quartered
Ajo blanco sauce (recipe follows)

Place the chicken breasts in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle them with 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, thyme, vinegar and olive oil. Allow to marinate 30 minutes at room temperature or up to 8 hours, covered and refrigerated.

Use a ridged grill pan to cook chicken breasts.

 Heat a ridged grill pan until very hot. Brush it with oil. Lift the chicken breasts out of the marinade (discard marinade) and grill them 3 minutes. Turn 90º and grill 3 minutes longer. Turn the chicken breasts and again grill 3 minutes and turn. Grill until they are just cooked through, about 3 minutes longer. Remove the chicken to a cutting board.

Arrange salad greens on 4 plates. Slice the chicken breasts and place on the greens. Place the figs around the chicken. Spoon about 1 tablespoon ajo blanco sauce over each salad. Serve remaining sauce separately. 

Ajo blanco sauce (almonds, garlic, vinegar) complements chicken and fruit.

Ajo Blanco Sauce (Almond-Garlic Sauce)
Salsa de Ajo Blanco

Ajo blanco, which actually means “white garlic,” is a chilled summer soup, a white gazpacho (there’s a link to that recipe at the end of this post). This is a version that serves as sauce or salad dressing. Could ajo blanco sauce be the new tahini? Made with almonds, garlic, vinegar (or lemon juice) and garlic, quickly combined in a blender, it’s certainly just as versatile. Serve it with grilled chicken or fish, with green beans, potatoes or eggplant.

I used subtly sweet Pedro Ximenez Sherry vinegar in this recipe (see last week’s blog for more about vinegars).

Makes ¾ cup.

1 slice bread, crusts removed
2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup skinned almonds
1 clove garlic
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt

Make sauce in blender.

Break the bread into pieces and place them in a blender container with the vinegar and ¼ cup of water. Allow to soak 15 minutes.

Add the almonds, garlic and oil to the blender. Process until very smooth. Season with salt and thin with remaining ¼ cup of water.

Store the sauce, covered and refrigerated. If necessary, stir in additional water to thin the sauce.

Figs as soup garnish. http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/this-gazpacho-is-hot.html

Fig salsa. http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2010/08/summer-in-full-fig.html

Cold white gazpacho (ajo blanco). http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/07/ajo-blanco-pre-colombian-gazpacho.html

THE CHOCOLATE CONNECTION

Chocolate-covered figs, a sweet treat for Valentine's Day.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, everybody is writing about chocolate this week. It’s a good enough excuse for me too. Chocolates make a wonderful gift. Chocolate is reputed to be aphrodisiac. Chocolate, usually, is sweet, as in “sweetheart”. No matter if it’s only a marketing ploy, chocolate is worth the celebration.

Spain has a very special chocolate connection, dating back to 1502 when Columbus first discovered cacao beans in what is today Honduras, on his fourth trip to the Americas, and sent some back to Spain.  But it was not until Hernán Cortés tasted chocolate in Mexico (around 1521), where the Emperor Moctezuma served it flavored with vanilla in cups of gold, that Spaniards took notice of the beverage.

The Spaniards added sugar to the bitter brew and, after that, chocolate became all the rage with the Spanish nobility. From 1521 until 1600, Spain had a virtual monopoly on the trade in cacao from the New World. Only after that did the British, Dutch and French expand cultivation of the treasured cacao in other parts of the world (Indonesia, Africa, West Indies). 

Chocolate was originally consumed by the Mayans of Central America. The Aztecs discovered cacao when they took control of Mayan lands in trade expansion. Known as “food of the gods,” it became so valued that only the nobility was allowed to partake of it.

Chocolate mona de pascua in a Barcelona shop.

In Spain, chocolate was deemed by the Catholic church to be an acceptable potion to be imbibed during Lenten fast days, when many foods were forbidden to the faithful.  Perhaps this is why chocolate is especially beloved during the Lenten season. Chocolate eggs, bunnies and chicks symbolize the springtime festival.  In Catalonia, the custom reaches extravagant proportions with the confection of monas de pascua, richly decorated chocolate delicacies consumed on Easter, when more than 300,000 of them are sold. 

I find it fascinating that, to this day, Spain favors drinking chocolate (see the recipe for chocolate a la taza  here) and has never really developed a repertoire of desserts such as chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, fudge, chocolate ice cream, brownies.

Nevertheless, artisanal products such as chocolate-covered figs, a product of Extremadura, are an exquisite rendition of the chocolate arts. (Order them here from La Tienda .) Or, make these bonbons yourself for your sweet love.

Hand-dipping candied orange peel.

I didn’t make the chocolate-fig bonbons pictured in the photo at the top. I purchased them at a local artisanal chocolate factory called Mayan Monkey Mijas. In the photo to the right, a chocolate artisan at Mayan Monkey dips candied orange peel in dark chocolate.






 

Chocolate-Fig Bonbons
Bombones de Higos

These figs have a chocolate cream filling and are bathed in bittersweet chocolate. Don’t worry if your hand-dipped bonbons don’t have a slick professional finish—they will still taste wonderful.

A thermometer is useful in tempering the chocolate coating for the bonbons. You don’t need a candy thermometer, as the chocolate never heats more than120ºF. Use a dairy thermometer.

Makes 75 bonbons.

1 pound small dry figs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups water
¼ cup brandy
16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or grated
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup boiling water

With a sharp knife cut a slit in the bottoms of the figs, leaving the stems intact.

Combine 1 cup sugar and 3 cups water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cook 3 minutes. Add the brandy, bring again to a boil, and stir in the figs. Remove the pan from the heat and let the figs macerate 15 minutes.

Drain the figs in a colander, saving the brandy sugar syrup for another use. Spread the figs on a rack and allow to dry in a well-aired place for 2 hours.

Prepare the chocolate cream filling. In the top of a double boiler over boiling water melt 4 ounces of the chocolate. Stir in the olive oil, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the boiling water. Place the pan over medium, direct heat and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Scrape into a heatproof bowl. Cool the chocolate, then refrigerate.

To stuff the figs with the chocolate cream filling, poke a finger or wooden dowel into the slit to make a hollow and use the tip of a small knife to push about 1/8 teaspoon of the chocolate cream into the center. Place each fig on a tray as it is filled. (You may not need all of the chocolate cream. Reserve unused chocolate for another use.) Set aside in a cool place (not refrigerator) for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.

Place the remaining 12 ounces chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Position a thermometer in the top section of the double boiler. Place over boiling water and melt the chocolate, stirring, until it reaches 125ºF.

Remove the chocolate from the heat and allow to cool to 85ºF.

Heat the water in the bottom of the double boiler to 90ºF and maintain this heat. Place the chocolate over the water again and let it warm to 90ºF.

Dip the figs, one by one, into the melted chocolate. Use 2 forks to remove them, letting excess chocolate drip off, and place the figs on a rack lined with waxed paper. Let the figs dry in a cool place for 3 hours.

 Place the figs in individual bonbon papers or in a box lined with waxed paper. They are ready to eat immediately, but may be kept, refrigerated, for up to 1 month.

THIS GAZPACHO IS HOT!

Hot gazpacho, a cooked version, served in a cazuela.

You probably think gazpacho is “cool”, as in chilled. But this one is “hot,” as in heated. It still qualifies as gazpacho because it’s made with bread and olive oil, the essential ingredients for gazpacho whether tomato-red or almond-white. (See the recipe for classic gazpacho here.)

I’ve got a second crop of tomatoes ripening and green peppers galore. As the days are finally beginning to cool (I hope the change of seasons also brings some rain), cold gazpacho is not as appealing as it was only a couple weeks ago. So I am making this “hot gazpacho.”

Ripe figs to garnish the soup.

In my village, where it’s known as gazpacho caliente or sopa de tomate, it is served with slices of ripe figs—also in season—as garnish. Sometimes it also has clams or salt cod added.

The soup can also be pureed.

The soup can be pureed, if you like, making it more like smooth gazpacho. But it is perfectly ok to leave it with bits of vegetables in the broth. This home-style soup is usally made with water, but chicken, meat or fish stock can be used instead. You should use enough bread to almost soak up all the broth. If it’s not tomato season, the soup can be made with canned tomatoes. No figs? Use grapes or chopped apple for garnish instead.

Lots of bread to soak up the broth.

Hot Gazpacho
Gazpacho Caliente 

Serves 4.

1/3 cup olive oil
4-6 thick slices of country bread
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2-3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
Red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups water or stock
Fresh figs, peeled and quartered
Mint sprigs
Chopped green onion

In a soup pan heat half of the oil. Fry the bread slices until golden on both sides. Remove and reserve.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and sauté the onion, pepper and garlic until softened, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook over high heat for 5 minutes more. Add the pimentón, cumin, pepper, pepper flakes and salt. Add the water or stock and cook for 15 minutes. (If desired, use an immersion blender to puree the soup with one slice of the bread.)

Immediately before serving place a slice of bread in each bowl. Ladle the soup over the bread. Garnish with figs, mint and green onion.

WILL THE FESTIVE SEASON EVER END?

Pan de higos--fig roll spiced with anise and sesame seed.

How do you say “Bah, humbug!” in Spanish? By the Twelfth Day of Christmas, I’ve had enough! Too much festive season, too much eating and drinking. I’m looking forward to getting back to hum-drum routines.

The final day of Christmas, Epiphany (January 6), in Spain is known as Los Reyes, Kings’ Day, when the three kings come from Belén (Bethlehem) bringing gifts for children and grownups too. Such excitement as they proceed through towns and villages the night before, throwing out caramelos (candy) and waving to the kids. And such ilusión, excited anticipation, as the little ones tuck into bed, visions of dolls, bicycles and computer games dancing in their heads.

This year the holiday falls on a Friday, allowing kids a whole weekend to enjoy their new toys before returning to school.

Traditional for Kings’ Day is the roscón de reyes, a cream-filled and fruit-studded ring cake. Not actually a cake, the roscón is a sweetened brioche yeast bread. I looked them over in the bakery section of El Corte Ingles department store where I was shopping yesterday, but decided against indulging. Nor did I see any good reason for yet another photo of the famous roscón—my Googled search turned up 3,990,000 entries!

Besides, I still have some holiday sweets left to enjoy on this last festive day. Among them is pan de higos, which translates as “fig bread.” It’s not really bread at all, but ground figs, spiced with anise seed and shaped into a compact loaf. The rolls are rather like fig newtons without the cookie.

I used to help a neighbor make dozens of these fig rolls. She would grind the spices in a mortar. She also added a little melted chocolate to the mixture, her secret ingredient, not found in traditional fig rolls. Now I buy the fig rolls in local shops. Sliced, they go nicely with dessert wine or, topped with serrano ham, as an aperitif.

Dried figs.

Fig Roll
Pan de Higos

The village where I landed back in 1966 was not undiscovered. The benign climate, brilliant light, beautiful landscape and, then, low cost of living attracted artists, writers and many retired British, who built villas in the environs. Promoting such development was an architect who built many of the first villas. His houses had some signature details--copper-clad fireplace chimneys, terra cotta floor tiles, and fig presses converted to plant stands.

Fig presses are, indeed, beautiful objects, consisting of a wooden frame threaded with a thick wooden screw, hewn from hard holm oak. The presses were used to press dried figs.

Fig trees grow everywhere, even springing up wild in rock crevices. In former times the fruit was far more important than it is today, providing a source of sweetener in place of honey or sugar. What wasn’t consumed by humans made good animal fodder.

Ripe figs, picked in late summer, are spread to dry on a ground cloth in the sun. When fully dried, they are packed into a serete, a woven straw basket, and cinched tightly closed. The baskets are placed in the press and winched down. Once pressed, the figs are impervious to insect infestation and will keep for months.

Makes 4 (6-inch) rolls.

2 pounds dried figs, stems removed
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup blanched and skinned almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon aniseed, ground
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
grated lemon peel
3 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted (optional)
¼ cup sweet anise liqueur, brandy or sweet wine 
3 tablespoons sesame seed, toasted

Sprinkle the figs with half of the powdered sugar. Put the figs through a food grinder (or chop them in a batches in a food processor). There should be about 6 cups of pulp. Place it in a bowl.

Put aside 16 almonds. Chop the rest and add to the figs.

Mix the remaining powdered sugar with the cinnamon, aniseed, pepper, ginger and lemon peel. Sprinkle over the fig mixture and mix it in.

Add the melted chocolate, if using, and the anisette liqueur, brandy or sweet wine. With the hands, knead the mixture to blend well.

Divide the fig mixture into four equal portions. Roll each into a log, about 6 inches long and 1 1/2 inch thick.

Spread the toasted sesame seed on a sheet of waxed paper. Roll the fig logs in the sesame, patting to flatten the logs slightly. Press 4 reserved almonds into the top of each of the fig rolls.

Let the rolls dry for 12 hours, then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap.

To serve, cut the rolls crosswise into disks and place on a candy dish.

End of the festive season--view from my terrace with North Africa on the horizon.

SUMMER IN FULL FIG

Figs, plump, luscious and sweet, are one of the pleasures of summertime. My fig trees are pretty 
insignificant—one is out of reach beyond a bramble patch and the fruit of the other is consumed by field rats before it even ripens.

Luckily, my friend Charlotte has a garden where figs thrive. One enormous, sprawling tree is laden with fruit. Several smaller trees bear different varieties of figs. Charlotte used to dry her figs, spreading them on tarps in the late summer sun. They were then packed in a woven basket, cinched tightly and taken to a fig press. Pressing preserves the figs and keeps out bugs. With a reduced household, she can no longer make use of quantities of dried figs, so she doesn’t bother with drying anymore. She gives away fresh figs to all comers—including the washing machine repair man who took away 10 pounds of them. As a favored friend, I have all the figs I can possibly eat.

I have several favorite ways with fresh figs. Figgy ice cream (see the previous blog posting for the recipe) is one. I adore fig and chicken salad with tarragon dressing, a recipe I culled from Gourmet magazine many years ago. Figs pair beautifully with thinly sliced serrano or ibérico ham, making a simple but elegant starter. I’ve made fig jam and fig chutney, but, in fact, I prefer not to cook ripe figs.

That’s how I came to invent this fig salsa. It goes beautifully with foods from the grill. I especially like it with pork, lamb chops or chicken breast. Yesterday I served it with pan-fried pork tenderloin. I've got the leftovers to spread on a chicken sandwich.

The salsa is juicy and piquant, just right for summer meals. It keeps, covered and refrigerated, up to 2 days.


FIG SALSA

Makes 1 ½ cups salsa, serving 6 as an accompaniment.

½ lemon, chopped
12 ounces firm, ripe figs (about 12), peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons minced shallot (about 1 shallot)
2 tablespoons chopped jalapeños (2-3 peppers) 
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves

Blanch the chopped lemon in boiling water for 1 minute and drain. When it is cool, combine the lemon with the figs, shallot, jalapeños, ginger, salt and lemon juice.

Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Stir in mint leaves before serving.

PRICKLY-PEAR ICE CREAM AND OTHER SUMMER DELIGHTS

Frosty and refreshing--prickly pear sorbet.

Yesterday, on the steps of the local market, a kid was selling higos chumbos,  prickly pears, the fruit of the cactus. Wearing gloves to protect his hands from the spines, he deftly sliced the ends from the egg-shaped fruits, slit open the skin and unwrapped the yellow-orange fruit.

Chumbos are an emblematic fruit of high summer in southern Spain, when August heat can soar to 40ºC (104ºF). The cactus grows readily in the arid countryside, where once it was used as primitive fencing, to keep farm animals in and intruders out. The fruit, sweet and very juicy, is an antidote to summer doldrums.

 

Cactus with flowers and fruit alongside a sculpture, "Fibonachi," by Paffard Keatinge-Clay. 

 But when I got home with my bag of peeled fruits, I remembered why I’ve never much liked chumbos—they are full of small seeds. The locals say you eat the seeds, but I don’t.  While they won’t break your fillings, the hard kernels are really not very nice.

Chumbos = prickly pears.

So, I plopped the chumbos in the blender, buzzed them until pureed, then sieved out those annoying pips. The puree—more of a thick juice than a pulp—had a refreshing flavor. How to describe it? Citrus blended with tropical fruit and watered down. Very nice. Perfect for making an icy-cold sorbet.

Well, not a true sorbet, which is made with only fruit and sugar syrup. My sorbet is really frozen yogurt.

My beloved ice cream freezer broke a few years ago. That little machine, a Braun, required no ice or salt. It was placed inside the freezer compartment of the fridge—electric cord trailing out to the nearest outlet. Perhaps it didn’t meet safety requirements, for I have never seen another one like it.

I place the fruit, yogurt and sugar in a deep bowl and puree them with an immersion blender. I pop the bowl in the freezer until the mix is partially frozen, then blend it again until very smooth, incorporating some air into the mix. I pour the mixture into individual bowls, cups or glasses.  That way, I can remove one, two, four or six servings from the freezer without having to soften a whole bowl of it.

Figs ripening on tree.

The basic recipe works with any fruit puree. August figs, ripening now, make a delightful sorbet, but nectarines, peaches or mangos are good as well. I originally made this sorbet using non-fat yogurt and artificial sweetener, in order to have a low-cal, low-carb dessert. Needless to say, full-fat yogurt is so much more delicious.

Ripe figs.

I vary the flavorings to suit my mood, to suit the fruit. The prickly-pear needs grated lemon zest. Some 
chopped mint adds to its refreshing flavor. Figs go well with vanilla, but I have experimented with a pinch of thyme instead. I like grated fresh ginger with mango and chopped basil with nectarines. A spoonful of Sherry, wine, brandy, gin, rum or liqueur adds flavor and the alcohol keeps the sorbet from freezing quite so solid.

Prickly-Pear Sorbet

Serves 6.

1 ¼ pounds prickly pears or other fruit, peeled and chopped, or about 1 ½ cups 
     pureed fruit
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Grated lemon zest
2 cups Greek yogurt
Sugar to taste (3 tablespoons to ½ cup, depending on fruit)
Chopped herbs such as mint (optional)
1 tablespoon Sherry or liqueur (optional)

Puree the fruit with the lemon juice. Sieve the puree to remove seeds.
Blend again with zest, yogurt, sugar and flavorings such as herbs and Sherry.

Place the bowl in freezer until partiallly frozen, about 2 hours. Blend again until mixture is smooth. Spoon into 6 glasses or dessert cups. Freeze until solid.

To serve, remove the glasses from freezer and let the sorbet soften for 15 minutes before serving.

Frozen yogurt with fresh figs.