Figs

Liqueur batter
Few drops of a good liqueur
Sugar

Standard Flour Frying Batter
4 ozs plain flour
a quarter of a pint oil or rather more of warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
a pinch of salt
1 lightly beaten egg white

Olive oil for frying

For sprinkling
Castor sugar

"Sieve the flour into a basin, make a well in the centre and into this pour the oil; mix well, and add the salt, then slowly add the water, stirring constantly until the consistency of thick cream is obtained.



Allow to stand for 2 hours or thereabouts, then stir in the lightly beaten egg white, and use a coating for fish or for fruits...."



"For these you need fresh figs that are not over ripe. Cut the fruit in two length ways, and spread on a plate, sprinkling them with sugar and with a few drops of a good liqueur, Benedictine, Rosolio, or some similar liqueur.



Leave for two or three hours, then drain, sprinkle lightly with flour, dip in frying batter, and fry in hot oil; drain and serve hot, sprinkled with castor sugar."

This recipe was taken from "Italian Cooking" by Dorothy Daly. It was published by Spring Books in Great Britain. For the complete copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org.... P.S. As far as I know (I may be wrong) but fig fitters are no longer popular in Italy. In fact, in Molise, the region my mother grew up in in the 1930s, fig fitters were not only not popular at the turn of the last century, but they were unheard of (Well, according to my mother anyway). Back then olive oil was rather expensive (even those farmers who had olive groves on their property avoided over-using it). Those farmers who had a lot of fig trees generally sun-dried the figs and kept them for use in the winter. That makes a lot more sense than frying them in batter. Perhaps fig fritters were popular with the very rich, though why anyone would take a perfect fruit and tamper with it is beyond me..... Photo and notes: Mary Melfi.

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