I picked up some fresh figs the other day that looked great.  Sadly, they were picked for shipping, not eating.  They were dry and mealy – not the sweet-and sticky I was expecting.  I’ve been eating fresh figs for as long back as I can remember.  I should have paid more attention but I let my impulse-buying gene take over for a moment.  Oh well.

However… if they weren’t great for eating out-of-hand, I knew I could sweeten them up in a BBQ sauce! Since I’ve been on a BBQ sauce kick, I thought it would be the perfect way to utilize them. We do have a “No Buyers Remorse” policy at home.  If we buy it – we use it.  It’s made for some interesting meals towards the end of the week!

And I was right.  The sauce was the perfect use for them.

I went Asian-inspired for this one.  After starting to break out ingredients I could see a lot of variations on the theme.  Asian BBQ – it’s not just Korean anymore!  Really!  Our cabinets overflow with Asian sauces and the like.  This was fun.

Fig and Plum BBQ Sauce

  • 12 oz fresh black figs, chopped
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 1 small green pepper, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 cups rice wine
  • 1 cup plum jam
  • 1/2 cup onion soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup coconut vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 heaping tbsp sambal oelek (chili paste)

Place onion and bell pepper in pot with sesame oil.  Cook until onion is translucent.  Add chopped figs and then remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil and then simmer about 20 minutes until figs are softened and sauce is thickened.

Using immersion blender, puree sauce until smooth.

It was really good!  The Asian bent worked well with the bone-in chicken breasts.  I was actually going to make a different sauce because I really wanted to make the Pommes Anna tonight, as well.  I finally decided it didn’t matter if the sauce was Asian and the potatoes were French.

Pommes Anna is a very traditional – and very easy – dish to make.  It is simply thinly-sliced potatoes layered in a skillet, liberally doused with butter, and then fried and baked until golden.

This was actually just one large russet potato sliced thin using a mandoline and cooked in an 8″ skillet.

Yum.

So…  a little east-meets-west-meets-our-house tonight.