Tea Soaked Figs

Ingredients

125g sugar

½ a lemon
2 whole cloves
½ a cinnamon stick
2 vanilla pods, split and scraped
10 figs cut in half
500ml water
3 sachets of earl grey tea
150ml strega liquor (Italian digestive liquor)

Method

Mix the sugar, lemon, cloves, cinnamon and vanilla into the water and bring to the boil.  Remove from the heat and infuse the tea for 30 minutes.  Pour the strega liquor onto the figs, remove the tea bags from the syrup and pour onto the figs. Soak the figs for 3 days in the liquid, and store them in the fridge. These can be served with either a sweet or savoury dish, but I personally recommend serving these delights with something sweet. Maybe even something as simple as clotted cream, or a vanilla bean ice cream.

For those who have never come across strega liquor before, here are some interesting facts about it. The recipe is a mix of 70 herbs and spices which include Samnite mint, Ceylon cinnamon, Florentine iris, Italian Apennine juniper, fennel, and saffron. The saffron is the key to Strega's signature yellow color and the mint and juniper are two of the most pronounced flavors within the herbal mixture. It is aged in ash barrels which allow the flavors and aromas to develop.

Bon Appétit