Two fig clafouti


	Two figs on a blue plate by Elda Abramson available as a print from Pauntley Prints

Taken from "Vegetable Heaven" by Catherine Mason
(Pauntley Prints, 2002, ISBN: 0-9534879-3-6, price £20.00)
[other sample recipes]

Although it sounds like a character from an old John Wayne movie, this recipe is actually a delicious and soothing hot breakfast or brunch dish for a cool autumn morning. At a pinch it could double as a dessert, although I find the mixture of warm fruit and eggs particularly suited to the morning. The combination of fresh and dried figs tastes wonderful and also makes the expensive fresh figs go much further. If you can't find dried baby figs, use normal sized figs and cut them into quarters after soaking. Stir a spoonful of runny honey into a jug of thick Greek yogurt to serve alongside the clafouti.

120 g dried baby figs (but see note above)
3 luscious ripe fresh figs
a scrap of butter for the baking dish
50 g self-raising flour, sifted
50 g caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
40 ml milk
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
pinch of cream of tartar (optional)
a sprinkling of icing sugar to garnish
Greek yogurt and honey to serve

Oven temperature: 190°C (375°F, gas mark 5)

For this recipe you need a ceramic flan dish 30 cm in diameter or similar.

Put the dried figs to soak in boiling water while you prepare the other ingredients. Use just enough water to cover them. Prepare the fresh figs by snipping off the stalk ends. Cut them into quarters vertically, then cut each quarter in half to give triangular-ish chunks. Butter the flan dish.
Put the flour, caster sugar, egg yolks, milk and vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat with a whisk for a few minutes until the mixture goes quite pale and frothy. It will start out yellow and go noticeably paler.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until they form snowy peaks. Add a pinch of cream of tartar if you have any – it helps to increase the volume.
At the last minute, whisk the baking powder into the egg and flour mixture, then gently fold in the egg whites. Pour about three quarters of this mixture into the buttered oven-proof dish and cook for 3 minutes to set the surface of the mixture and stop the fruit from sinking.
Drain the dried figs, take the dish out of the oven and arrange both types of figs over the surface in a random but pleasing pattern. Pour the remaining batter mixture around them (the idea is for them not to be completely submerged) and return the dish to the oven for 12–15 minutes until the batter is just set. Sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve before serving.

SERVES 2–3