Along dry summer period this year meant that we had no edible fruit from the few fig trees on our finca on Mallorca. Our trees are very old and, admittedly, rather neglected; the lack of rain didn’t help. In previous years I’ve made jars of fig jam, hiding it at the back of the kitchen cupboards to retrieve during the winter months as a reminder of summer’s bounty. Or not, in the case of this year.

But we won’t be going without our figgy fix: we bought a jar of home-made figat menorquí from our favourite Manacor cafe, El Palau. If you’re ever in this Llevant town in Mallorca, you’ll find this welcoming and smart cafe near the front of the main church.

Fair-trade and local food products also on sale

Nofre, the owner, knows more about turning figs into delicious goodies than I ever will. We spotted the jars on one of the café’s shelves (he also stocks a few fair-trade and local food products) and I had to buy one.

Nofre told us his  figat menorquí (a Menorcan recipe) is made from figs, sugar, melon, orange, lemon, and batafaluga. I had no idea about that last one but my subsequent research suggests it may be an alternative name for matafaluga, which seems to be an aromatic aniseed-like herb. It sounds a delicious combination and as we won’t be popping open a jar of our own fig conserve this year, we treated ourselves to one of Nofre’s. We have high expectations that it will be delicious with the cheeses we’ve chosen to eat over Christmas on Mallorca.

Looking forward to a fig-tastic Christmas

Whatever you’re eating and drinking this Christmas, bon profit!

Text and photos ©Jan Edwards 2016