I discovered taking organic fresh and nature best food like black olives from a friend's organic fruit farm is really excitement to me.
Not only that, this wonderful friend of mine having many types of fruit trees in his fruit farm.
I started making pickles and simple cooking of fresh olive with all sorts of fresh Olive recipes and try to do it in different methods.
Again more variety of fruits like Figs, Longan and Durians. With the EM Microbes enzymes organic fertilizer this year really a fruitful harvest year to him.
Last week I brought some fresh figs to start writing something new recipes for my blog. I rarely see fresh figs selling in the grocery store. Last time we can only buy and used dried figs to cook soup, making salad and fruit wine, pickle or dried it as snack, it is ideal for making dessert and fruit jam.
I know the figs having great value of therapeutic benefits for our human body. I like Figs sweet flavor and its great color. But this figs do not taste good.
At first I do not know what to do with this small quantities of fig. It looks beautiful in dark red color. So I just keep it in refrigerator for 2 days, I know it can't keep for long there. Out of sudden I got my hands on of making my own homemade fruit jam with it. Beetroot combined with Figs the red dramatically in color combination really makes me feeling yummy.
Beets fig Jam - 2 beets
- 10 figs
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp of Maltose or malt sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 orange
- 1 cup of water
Method:1. Peels beets skin, wash figs and remove stems and bottom of the fig, and cut into small pieces.
2. Squeeze Lime and Orange Juice and set aside ready for use. Keep the orange peel and cut into thin slices.
3. Add water, sugar and malt sugar to fig, and bring to boil for 20 minutes, stirring until sugar dissolves.
4. Heat slowly to boil. Remove from heat. Set aside and let it cool then blend it with blender.
5. After blended into puree, pour it back to pot adds in Lime juice, Orange juice and orange peel slices and cook for a further 20 minutes until consistency of the fig and beets mixtures turn thicken.
6. Let it cool then fill into sterilized jars.
Why used orange peel slices for beets and figs jam
I choose beets, figs and orange that really makes wonder flavors and color for all in one tasty fruit jam. It’s just brilliant and delicious taste. Beetroot is wonderful cleansing and blood tonic. Figs also claims to be one of the blood building diet and purifier for energy and vital. This jam serve with toast really increased my appetite.
The taste of beets and figs both are slighly sweetened stuff, adding in orange juice and orange peel slices creates a little bit of sweet sour in taste, also balance the sweetness of the jam (sugar added). You may need to adjust the sugar depends on individual sweetness in taste.
This beets and figs jam without adding pectin, so I used malt sugar to bind its thickness plus let it boil until the desired thickness. I found that added malt sugar and lime juice used as a preserving agent without adding pectin still can make homemade jam last much longer.
Usually making homemade jam with last stage of steam the filled jar in boil water bath, is just for keeping this jam to store in longer period of consumption, but if you do not intend to keeping it for very long. Consuming it as fast as possible.
The nutrients and therapeutic healing in figsFigs is sweet in taste, high in natural sugar of "dextrose".it is highly recommended in Chinese traditional as alternative medicine herbs.
In cooking or making dishes in soup. Other than this Fig is great dietary foods and taking it as snack, it is rich in high fiber may help in losing weight. It contains of potassium, Vitamin A, D and calcium, Mineral substance and phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc, essential of 17 kind of amino acid content is very rich for human body. And rich in trace mineral helps to control blood pressure. Which aids in digestive system to ease constipation, treating heart-related disease, natural healing for dry cough with phlegm and soothing sore throat inflammation, Also includes of hyperoxide mutase, it improves and activate in immune system cell.
The figs in traditional Chinese medicine
In TCM used the fig leaves for treating diabetes, as it shown great result of anti-diabetic properties to those needed regular insulin injections, using fig leaves to make tea help to maintain insulin level, as well as fig leaves inhibited the growth of certain types of cancer cells.
Figs has iron which enriches and help in blood production that benefits women and to those lacking of blood (anemia). Thus, it improves blood circulation. In Chinese alternative medicine usage, figs have the wonderful healing benefits for decreases and reduce of blood stagnation, they believed blood stagnation causes diseases, irregular menstruation and pain in menstruation, tumors and edema.
Alternative healing by using Figs in cooking
Mix fresh or dried figs into cooked cereal, oatmeal, or cooked with porridge. This recipe is good for the spleen the profit to raise the blood to pass effect of the breast. As in TCM this is one healthy food good for pregnant, post natal maternity and confinement women help to produce more milk. It is natural and excellent laxative for children too. Be careful do not take too much of figs it may cause diarrhea.
Taking fresh figs may also help in healing Hemorrhoids hemorrhage, the fig includes one kind of special enzyme namely ficin, which has stimulation and promoting digestive disorder. which can dissolve toxin in blood, also includes Serotonin, it high sugar content stimulates brain may strengthen the mental ability and the physical strength.
For coughing, sore throat and improve digestive system by taking fresh figs that cooked with rock sugar, cooked it into syrup based to replace a natural cough syrup.
I like making natural herbs syrup partly due to my asthma and sore throat. With the knowledge and alternative healing methods in making all sorts of herbs syrup like this, it relieves my asthma problems. Therefore, my herbs syrup and "granny ways of healing background" kept me thinking of other uses of it, by "learning through my illness" inexperiments and needs passing on for sharing.
How to make Figs Cough Syrup
Ingredients:
- 12 Fresh figs
- 250g of brown rock sugar.
- 2 cups of water
The preparation is quite simple:
1. Melting rock sugar with 2 cups of hot water. Set aside and let it cool.
2. Wash figs and with the bucket each fruit compressing, mix compressed fresh figs and soaks the fig with melted rock sugar water for overnight.
3. Puts in the pot, after treating the fruit to percolation syrup.
4. Bring to boil to the juice concentration in thickness form like syrup.
5. Let it cool, and keep in sterilized jar and store in refrigerator for several day then edible.
This figs fruit syrup helps in digestion trace for those with a poor appetite, effect on soothing the swollen and painful pharynx and larynx. Mainly treats the weakness of spleen and stomach, the stagnation of flow of vital energy chest to be stuffy and improve circulation.
The beetroot
Beetroot is claims a blood-building herb that detoxify the liver and renews it with minerals and natural sugars. The beets juice contains betalains (pigment of beets) may exhibit anti-cancer activity which also stimulate the function of liver cells, bile ducts and spleen. It supporting role as blood purifier for detoxifies.
Beetroot is high carbohydrates and low in fat. It contains phosphorus, fiber, vitamins A and C, niacin, folic acid, biotin, .sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, and potassium. It has highest folic acid and in curing poor blood circulation, Anemia, constipation, piles and digestive trace system disorders.
I remember when young I got a lot of pimples on my face, irregular menstruation and pale looking complexion. My granny taught me how to cook a bloody red in color soup (beets soup with herbs) with the fresh or dried beetroot (Shu ti) to nourish the blood that cooked with Mugwort (Ai Cao) and brown sugar. Strain the soup and taking it 7 days before menstruation is due and as soon as menstruation period is over. She claimed that can help in detoxifying “blood” and purifying my pimples on face. The funny sweet taste combined with little bitterness works great as blood cleansing soup. Plus having good improvement in blood circulation with a very remarkable result at last.
But be careful do not over consumption big amount of beetroot as it will make your stools and urine turns red. It maybe harmless but make sure it is not mistaken as blood.
