Past Newsletters
Vol 2 No 5

In Pursuit of Chocolate

Rabitos, a Spanish Delicacy

These "bonbons" are made of dried figs filled with liquor and chocolate truffle filling, and then the entire fig, including the stem is dipped in chocolate. The delicacy you are about to experience has been awarded the distinctive Quality Mark Alimentos de Extremadura from The Direction of Commerce and Agrarian Industries of Extremadura. We suggest that when eating the figs, slowly bite through to enjoy each layer…chocolate, fig, and filling.

Figs were domesticated as early as 4000 B C

Rabitos are made in Almoharin in the Spanish region of Extremadura, which is in the southwestern corner of Spain. ... an area that is traditionally known for its scrumptious figs. 15 artisans make these Rabitos, and the production is limited to approximately 70,000 kg. The bon-bons are made with a variety of fig called the Pajarito. The Pajarito fig is unique to this part of Spain due to the fact that the warm climate enables the fig to ripen in a short period of time. This results in a very small fig that is mellow in flavor but full of concentrated sweetness, it also means the hundreds of seeds inside are tiny, so it has a different texture than you might expect.

I’ll be upfront from the beginning and tell you that I’ve never been a fan of figs. My father always tried to get me to eat them growing up because of their nutritional value and I have avoided them ever since.  When I was traveling through Italy several years ago, I was offered many a fig and never did I partake… you might say I had a mental block when it came to figs. 

700 Varieties
All Colors of the Rainbow

About a year ago I was at a food show and it was my third day of eating… it’s a tough job but someone has to do it!. Food shows are essentially several areas the size of football fields, filled with vendors tasting other vendor’s goodies. Now as much as this may sound like the most wonderful event for a food lover (and for the most part it is), you do taste some stuff that you wouldn’t feed your dog, and unlike wine tasting, no one offers you a spittoon!

Anyway, it was my third and final day of the food show and I was feeling extremely stuffed. I was visiting a booth that a wonderful man named Miguel was working. He imports a fabulous array of Spanish food. Miguel offered me a chocolate, and being the chocolate geek that I am, I popped it into my mouth, no questions asked. What ensued was the most amazing taste bud explosion I had experienced during the entire food show… and possibly in the previous year leading up to that point! 

In 1575 Figs Were
Introduced to Florida

What I found so delicious was the balanced chocolate flavor (not too sweet, but not bitter) and interesting texture. So you can imagine my surprise when Miguel explained to me that this was a fig filled with chocolate truffle. Now if only my father had tried to make me eat these kinds of figs I would never had had a problem!  So you can enjoy your Rabitos knowing you are eating something good for you (yes I know they would be healthier without the chocolate, but this is a chocolate club after all). Since my fig revelation a year ago, I have been reading a lot about figs and this is one interesting fruit. And their sweet, slightly astringent flavor, and soft, succulent flesh is a perfect combination with chocolate!

Figs Leaves Were Our First Clothes!

The Old Testament (completed in 500 BC) describes Adam and Eve’s first clothing to be fig leaves… the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

4000 BC: Archaeologists like Daniel Zohary, think figs were one of the first fruits to be domesticated in the Eastern Mediterranean area. They are thought to originate from Asia Minor, and in mythology they represent abundance and wisdom.

2500 BC: Sumerian scribes write about figs on clay tablets

300 BC: Greeks were well aware of the fig’s value and considered them more precious than gold. Plato called figs a food for athletes. 

200 AD: One of Jesus' parables deals with a fig that failed to produce.

1575: The Spanish introduced Figs to Florida.

1769: Spanish Franciscan missionaries brought figs to California and established a mission in San Diego.

Some Figs Have a Bizarre Sex Life

Information has been excerpted from The Weird Sex Life of the Fig.  For the complete article go to http://home.earthlink.net/~raygivan/   Ray Givan's Fig Web Site is a site for serious fig enthusiasts, but he also links to other sites for beginners.

The common fig is a member of the genus Ficus that includes some 2000 tropical and subtropical tree, shrub and vine species worldwide. Over 720 varieties of figs have been identified: 89 caprifig, 129 Smyrna, 21 San Pedro and 481 common fig varieties, and many of these varieties have never introduced into the United States. In Spain figs grow in abundance and amazing variety. Here in the United States figs don’t have as strong a following, but in the Mediterranean they are used fresh, in savory meals and most deliciously in candy. In fact the Mediterranean’s use figs in just about anything. 

Although many fig varieties do not require pollination, some do. All ficus species have a syconium… an enlarged, fleshy and hollow peduncle with closely massed tiny female flowers on its inner wall. The problem is these flowers are borne on the inside of the syconium. They never open to the outside world like respectable roses, cabbages and apple blossoms. So how do they get pollinated?

Now here comes the bizarre part… by the way, this is a test in reading comprehension. Two Figs might look alike but one of them might be a caprifig that is not edible. Well, you could eat it, but you wouldn’t enjoy the experience. It’s usually dry, pithy, and resinous. Very few critters, aside from goats, will eat the nearly seedless caprifig fruit.

Caprifigs host the tiny pollinating insect Blastophages psenes (fig wasp), which lays its eggs in the caprifig's tiny flowers. There are male and female fig wasps. The male fig wasp grows, mates and dies inside the very same caprifig fruit in which he was born. Female fig wasps are more carefree and thrill seeking. They leave the caprifig fruit through its ostiole or eye (picking up a lot of pollen in the process) and fly off in search of a new fruit at the right stage of development in which to lay eggs.

Female fig wasps lay so many eggs in each caprifig fruit that very few, if any, of the flowers ever produce seeds… normally that would endanger the survival of the fig species. Edible figs look just like caprifigs, but the flowers inside of the syconium have long styles that prevent the fig wasp from laying her eggs. If she enters the fruit of an edible fig, she will not find suitable flowers, but while she’s looking, she scatters pollen she picked up leaving the caprifig, and pollinates the edible fig. Each fig will produce several hundred to several thousand seeds per fruit, depending on the variety.

Overall, the situation benefits both figs and fig wasps. There are plenty of caprifigs to nourish the fig wasps and plenty of edible figs to produce seeds that develop into both fig and caprifig plants. The long styled flowers of edible figs develop into a juicy, tasty mass that some people fill with truffles!

Here, is where you come into the picture… I’ll bet you never realized you were so indispensable to the fig species. The seeds pass through our digestive tracts and those of birds and other animals and some of them will fall on favorable ground for germination.

Chocolami
Portugal’s Hidden Treasure

Since Portugal is only just beginning to be explored for gourmet food finds, I thought while we were tasting Rabitos, the incredible chocolate indulgence from Spain, we could hop across the border and taste a Portuguese treat. Chocolami is like a Portuguese version of a brownie… dense, moist, rich and chewy. The name is a combination of Salami and Chocolate. The Portuguese love their salamis so much that they had to make a sweet version, as well as their meat versions.

Chocolami is virtually unknown outside of Portugal so if anyone out there has Portuguese heritage please contact me and tell me all about these delicious treats. Just go to our web site and Ask Jude.

You can eat them cut straight from the log or better yet, I adore them warmed up in the oven and served with ice cream or thick cream. Remove all the wrappers and rewrap the log (covering it completely) in aluminum foil and place it in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes ‘till they are warmed through. If you like your chocolate with a crunchy outside heat for 15 minutes, then carefully unfold the aluminum and bake an extra 5 minutes to crisp the outside.  If you really want to go all out, serve with hot chocolate fudge (gourmet chocolate of course) or caramel sauce.  

Chocolami Improv

This is an extraordinary, tasty gourmet dessert that your guest will definitely remember…  It's great for a party, because you can prepare it in advance and it serves a small crowd.

Pistachios, chopped roughly 
Almond slices
Crushed chocolate-coated biscotti 
Orange peel 
Dried cherries, soaked in water for 1/2 hour 
Semi-sweet chocolate 
Butter 
Sugar 
Approx. 1 oz. Grin Marnier 

Melt semi-sweet chocolate with butter and sugar; mix well. Add nuts, biscotti and orange peel. Stir in liqueur. Add cherries last, stirring carefully so as to not break them up. Form salami-shaped roll on parchment paper. Refrigerate roll for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. Cut into slices with a hot knife.

Chocolami Improv #2

1/2 lb Maria cookies
4 egg yolks
8 Tbsp sugar
1/2 lb unsalted butter
1 cup of Brazil nuts crushed into large pieces
3 Tbsp of Port Wine or Cointreau
4 Tbsp of Nestlé Quick
1 Tbsp of dark chocolate
1 teaspoon of Nescafé

Melt butter and let cool. In a mixer, beat egg yolks and sugar until they double in volume. Mix in butter. Mix Nestlé Quick, Nescafé and dark chocolate with a drop of water or two and add to the egg and sugar mixture. Add liquor. Remove from mixer and add Brazil nuts. Crumble Maria cookies (if you can't find them in Latino markets, try Graham Crackers) into large pieces and add to mixture.

Spread mixture on a piece of plastic wrap and put it in the freezer, uncovered, for 1/2 hour. Remove from freezer and place on a clean kitchen towel. Roll it up until "salami" is formed and wrap it in a large piece of aluminum foil, longer than the "salami" so you'll be able to twist foil at both ends. Freeze for one day or overnight. Transfer to refrigerator until ready to use. Open "salami" at one end and use a large kitchen knife to cut it into thick slices.