Unripe or green figs are quite hard and when freshly picked they bleed a milky liquid that is sticky and bitter. However, green figs that have been cooked for a long time with ample sugar and spices produce a marvelous treat! Yisil Incir Receli (Green Fig Jam) is a recipe from a Marvelous book I have here by Ghillie Basan called, The Middle Eastern Kitchen.

I have modified the recipe somewhat, using much less sugar and adding a few of my own ingredients like flowers and spices. I’ll list the traditional recipe and then note the changes I made. Enjoy!

Makes roughly 5 cups of jam
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

1 pound small, immature green figs, washed and patted dry
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup water
juice of 1/2 lemon
Things I added:
2 tablespoons fresh rose petals
1 teaspoon orange flower extract
pinch of sea salt

(I used only 1/2 cup of sugar and still found the figs to be quite sweet. I dislike overly sugary things though and middle eastern desserts are often too sweet for me. Anywhere between 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar should be fine.)

Trim the knobby stalks off the figs and cut off any imperfections on the skins.

Put the water and the sugar  (and the orange flower extract) in a heavy based pan and bring to a boil, stirring all the time. Stir in the lemon juice and figs and boil rapidly for about 5 minutes.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes (add rose petals), until the syrup thickens and the figs are beautifully tender. During this time your kitchen will begin to smell somewhat similar to how I would imagine it smells in heaven. Divine.

Leave the figs to cool in the syrup, then spoon them into scalded jars. Leave them to stand for a few days before eating them. You may wish to mash them for more of a jam consistency or keep them whole as I did.

Unripe green figs