İncir Pestili Recipe

I'm slowly moving to autumn recipes, albeit sadly. However, the days I shared the Maras ice cream recipe seem like yesterday. Yes, as you can understand, I am a summer person. It's not that I love 35 C degrees heat. But I love to see the sun, the air to be bright, darkening of the air late, thin clothes, swimming in the sea, open windows, the house being always airy, to sleep without duvet, not to pay the bill of natural gas, watermelon, eggplant, strawberries, apricots, peaches, evening walks, the sounds of cutlery coming from the balconies at dinner times, knowing that stray animals don't get cold at night, and being able to fit in a backpack on vacations. I do not have the pleasure of watching the street through the window while it is raining and reading books under the blanket in cold weather. The rain always catches me outside and if I go under the blanket, I always fall asleep. In short, I'm already waiting for the summer to come.

But while I'm waiting, I'm trying to evaluate what the season brings. Fig is undoubtedly one of the most delicious yields of autumn.

Raw fig alone is as sweet, tasty and satisfying as any sweet. That's why the best way to consume figs is to eat them raw, and to save the ones that can't be eaten by drying. You can do this by drying the figs as a whole or by turning them into pestil. Pestil is the general term in Turkish used for dried fruit purees. It has lots of variations. With or without sugar, with pistachios, walnuts or hazelnuts, covered with grated coconut, etc. I wanted to share one of the basic ones with you.

Making pestil is a bit time killer but the result worths it. But good news, it doesn't kill your time:)

Let me give you a timeline. If you come home after work in the evening and prepare it at around 7-8 and let dry at room temperature until morning and put it in the oven before you go to work, it will probably be ready at around 8-9 in the evening. This time will vary depending on the juiciness of the figs. You should evaporate its juice for as long as possible and wait for it to become fully elastic. You should spread the fig puree evenly on the tray for each side to dry evenly. If you spread it thinner than I do (like spreading two trays of the same amount) it will dry earlier, but you will get a thinner, plastic like pestil. I wanted it to be thicker so I spread it at this thickness. But of course, you should prepare it the way you will love. Again, one thing you need to do to prepare it according to your taste is to taste the puree before spreading it on the tray and add sugar if you feel it's necessary.

Enjoy the recipe...

Enjoy...