Pat's Fig and Ginger Jam

One of the most interesting times in my career was when I worked at the School of Life Sciences. The job felt like it was made for me. I took care of the HR, Finance, IT and general administration of the School Office.  In return, I got to see snippets of lab sessions, animal life, experiences of highly distinguished staff and any little "creature" issue I had was explained in depth  and with such generosity.  I was amazed at the hard work put in by the staff and the dedication to their chosen profession.  

One such person is Dr. Patricia Woolley - Pat, I called her.  You can look her up on Wikipedia - she completed her PhD in 1966 and travelled to Papua New Guinea to research Dasyurids in the wild. Imagine a young lady in the 80s wandering around in the forests and trapping animals with the help of the locals - she is a legend! I had the good fortune to work in the school office where she works as an Honorary Academic.  Pat comes in to work every single day and works on her research papers without fail. I have been to her office and got an insight into the extent of her travels from the artefacts in her room and the stories she has narrated. To be in her 90s, cheerful, sprightly, turning up to work everyday and being just as excited about her work now as she was in her youth....it is not something you see often. To top it all, she is a fantastic cook. She brought me this home made fig jam one time made from the figs in her garden. I got the recipe off her and I am dedicating this post with much respect to a great lady and top scientist.  I hope I am as sprightly and cheerful in my 90s! Truly amazing energy and dedication - not many of us would think of working for no pay! Hats off to her.

Ingredients:

500 grams ripe figs ( I used black and green figs), washed and quartered

250 grams granulated raw sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 stick cinnamon

3 cloves

2 inch piece of ginger, skin scraped and grated

Method:

In a deep saucepan, place quartered figs, sugar, grated ginger, lemon juice and vanilla essence.  Set aside until the sugar melts and the figs are macerated.  This process can take a couple of hours - it is preferred to leave it for a few hours or overnight for best results.

This is what the figs will look like once the sugar has melted and the liquid starts to rise up:

Place on the stove top and cook the figs on low heat until they are cooked. At this stage, if you want a thicker jam you can cook for longer and get a thick jam consistency.  I left the consistency slightly runny as I am going to use this with pancakes and ice cream.

Once it is cooled, spoon it into a sterilized jar. 

Serve with pancakes, ice cream or even in your cheese platter.

I served it with drop scones and thick cream.