Sticky sweet figs burst with flavor and freshness when paired with yogurt creme and crunchy pine nuts! The wine used in the steaming liquid and then reduced with a little sugar or honey to make this humble fruit a spectacular finish to any meal.
The best part: you can do all of the work in the morning and stick it in the fridge. When it’s time to serve dessert all you need to do is lay out the plates and layer on the components – you might want to bang a few pots and pans before leaving the kitchen to make this dish sound as fancy as it looks! ; )
Yogurt Creme is a fancy name for strained yogurt. I stumbled on this technique while searching for substitutes for sour cream for a Mexican themed dinner. I live in Italy and sour cream is difficult to find. When you find it, it’s just not the same sassy flavor of the sour cream that I’ve eaten when living in the United States. After tasting it… wow! I decided to also use this yogurt creme in a dessert to counter-act the sweetness and capitalize on the creamyness. Afterall, whole plain yogurt has a 3.5% fat content (probably a little higher when it’s been strained), while creme fraiche is 28% butterfat!
| Pressure Cooker | Accessories | Pr. Cook Time | Pr. Level | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 L or larger | steamer basket | 3 min. | Low (1) | Natural |
- 1 lb (500g) of Figs
- 1 cup good Red Wine
- ½ cup sugar or honey
- ½ cup of Pine Nuts (toasted or not)
- 2 lbs (1k) or plain yogurt
- Fine mesh strainer
- Pour out the contents of the yogurt container into the fine-mesh strainer.
- Spread out but do not press down.
- Place in the coldest part of your fridge to drain for four hours. If you wait too long, like 8 hours, you will get crumbly yogurt cheese and not a creme. If this happens, simply whip some of the liquid that has drained out back into the contents of the strainer. The yogurt will loose about half of its mass.
- Pour the pine nuts into the base of the cold, empty pressure cooker with nothing else on medium heat.
- Watch them carefully and wiggle them around so that they do not get scorched! Then, transfer them to another dish (the residual heat will keep cooking them).
- Add a cup of wine (or the minimum amount of liquid required by your pressure cooker) to the base of the pressure cooker. Place the figs standing upright in the steamer basket and lower into the pressure cooker (without the trivet).
- Close and lock the lid. Turn the heat to high until the pan reaches pressure, then begin counting 3 minutes cooking time at LOW pressure.
- When time is up, open the pressure cooker using the Normal Release method - press the button or lever until the pressure is released.
- Add ½ cup of sugar or honey and reduce the wine by about half, or until when you drag a spoon across the bottom of the pan you can briefly see the bottom (see photo).
- Simply add a dollop of yogurt creme on the plate, artfully arrange as many figs as you like to serve per guest, drizzle with a little of the wine syrup and finally sprinkle with pine nuts.
- Serve either immediately for warm figs, or chilled (if prepared ahead of time).
plain greek yogurt that’s all the fad and ‘in’ right now is also very thick and a good subsitute for sour cream.
It’s somewhat easy to make sour cream but w/o culture it doesn’t have the kick.
maynekitty//at//live//dot//com
Perfect timing! Some nice figs just made their appearance in the market! This looks like a delicious way to enjoy them.
Hi Kitty, we have “creamy” yogurt in Italy but they add sugar to it – even though its “plain creamy” yogurt! You’d think that since we’re so close to Greece… but no. No Greek Yogurt!
Franco! I do TRY to do a seasonal dish once in a while and if I can as soon as something appears so everyone has time to try it!! Can’t wait to see what Angelina would have done with figs, too! ; )
Ciao,
L
This is the first time on your blog and I can tell already that I will be back! I love using my pressure cooker, but YOU – look at what you do with one! These figs are awesome! Love everything about this recipe and will be making it. Great website!
Laura-
Love this recipe. Next time I see figs I’ll have to try it out.
You might want to add in the instructions if you are supposed to remove the pine nuts after toasting. It looks like it from the pictures, but reading the instructions I’d probably just pour the wine in.
Thanks for sharing all these great recipes! I’ll be doing the flower carrots for Thanksgiving.
mjskit, thanks! Come back and leave a comment to let us know which recipes your try, or post your own creations on our Facebook page.
DeDe K, I have updated the recipe to be more clear I really appreciate the feedback. Definitely not as exciting, but you could do this with dried figs, poached in the red wine (instead of steamed) for 8-10 minutes!
Ciao,
L