I got the Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meal book recently and have been flipping through it every night contemplating which recipes to try out and admiring all of the food photography.  There was this photograph of figs and honey, which every time I looked at, made my mouth water.   The beautiful color of the figs captured in the photo, made me think of the sweetness of the succulent fruit.

When I was at City Super a few days ago, I saw some figs on the shelf and I was immediately reminded of the photo.  I picked up a box of the figs and looked at the price…~$90 for a box of 6.   My first instinct was to put it down, thinking that it’s a bit pricey for fruit.  I then remembered I had some honey that I had bought when I was in Japan recently, so I told myself that I already had half the ingredients for Jamie’s Figs & Honey recipe (figs, honey, mint leaves, lemon), and I would be using up the honey I got.  So I made the splurge.

I served this as a dessert after having a heavy pasta meal, and it was perfect.  The lemon and mint added a note of freshness to the dessert, which was good for someone like me who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth.  And best of all, this is the easiest dessert I’ve ever made [unless you count scooping out Haagen-Dazs ice cream].

Oh, and one last thing.  I wanted to share with you the honey I brought back from Japan.  There was this cute little shop in Kawagoe that sold different types of honey.  I got myself this small box of comb honey because I thought it looked pretty and I’ve never tried comb honey.  Below is a photo.

Figs & Honey

Serves 2

4-6 figs
2 lemon wedges
runny honey
2 sprigs of fresh mint

Wash the figs and dry them with paper towels. Cut off the stem of the fig and cut a cross on the top of each fig, then push in on the bottom so they burst open.

Serve the figs in 2 small bowls and add few mint leaves.   Drizzle some honey over the figs.    You can put as much or as little honey as you prefer.  I love the natural sweetness of the figs, so I prefer to only drizzle a bit.  Add a wedge of the lemon to each bowl and this lovely dessert is complete.  Enjoy~~

*Jamie’s recipe also adds a pinch of salt and extra virgin olive oil, I didn’t add this, but feel free to add if you like.

Source: Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meal