Yasemin's Kitchen: Walnut Stuffed Figs – Cevizli Kuru İncir Tatlısı

Walnut Stuffed Figs – Cevizli Kuru İncir Tatlısı

I grew up in the Western part of Turkey. The region we lived in (Aydin) is famous for its figs. When I was a kid, figs were never sold in the market or stores. Most everybody in our town had fig groves. For those families like mine who were not farmers, your neighbors would send you baskets full of fresh figs almost every morning. They were huge baskets (or maybe I was little), lined with grape leaves at the bottom to serve as a cushion for the fruits, a layer of grapes on the leaves and figs on the top. They only pick the very ripe ones and so early in the morning that there would still be dew on the fruit.

Figs are very rich in fiber. For this reason I guess, adults used to warn us kids that if we drink too much water after eating figs, we would have diarrhea. Luckyly nobody ever listened to the advise. We did eat figs and drank water to our hearts' desire, and of course, nothing happened.

Come winter, we had dried figs. Most evenings, for dessert, people used to eat dried figs with walnuts stuffed in them. I call them fig bombs. They are delicious though not exactly your low calorie snack.

Figs stuffed with walnuts: Fig Bombs!

My grandmother used to make this dessert with dry figs at least a couple of times every winter.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried figs
2 cups warm water to soak the figs
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 table spoon unsalted butter
Handful of walnuts for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Wash and drain the figs. In a bowl, let the figs soak in warm water for 30 minutes.

Put butter in a shallow pot. Heat the pot until butter melts. Spread the butter to the bottom as evenly as possible. Turn off heat.

Remove figs from water. Cut the tops. Open up a hole at the top. Fill each fig with walnuts. Place them in the shallow pot with the openings at the top.

In a separate pot, combine milk, water and sugar. Warm it, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk mixture to the figs. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. Let it cool to room temperature. Transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with walnuts.