Gingered Figs - Slow Cooker Challenge, September 2014

'Tis the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'.  Hopefully we won't have too many mists just yet, as summer seems to have returned for a few more days, however I am looking for some fruitfulness as September's Slow Cooker Challenge is cook with FRUIT in your slow cooker.

Your dish can be sweet or savoury as long as it contains some fruit.  My recipe is a simple one,  I love baked figs and thought it would be easy to pop them in the slow cooker and it worked really well.

Slow Cooker Gingered Figs
4 ripe figs
50ml orange juice
4 dessert spoons Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve (or chopped preserved ginger)

1. Cut the hard part of the stem from the top of the figs, then slice a cross into the top of each one, be careful not to cut all the way to the bottom or your figs will fall apart.
2. Place the figs in the basin of the slow cooker, open out the sections of the fig a little and fill the space with a dessert spoon of Ginger Preserve.
3. Pour the orange juice around the figs and cover with the lid.
4. Bake on low for 2-3 hours.
5. Remove the figs from the slow cooker to a serving dish, pour the juices into a pan and bring to a rapid boil, reducing the syrup by half, then pour this over the figs and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
6. Serve with greek yogurt, drizzling the syrup over the figs and yogurt.



If you would like to take part in the Slow Cooker Challenge, then please: 

• Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen
• Use the Slow Cooker Challenge logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook and #SlowCookerChallenge and I will re-tweet it to my followers AND post your picture on the dedicated Pinterest Board. 

Rules: 

• Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from another website, please link to the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

The phrase 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' comes from John Keats' poem 'To Autumn'

Labels: figs, fresh figs, Fruit, Ginger, September, Slow Cooker Challenge, spiced ginger Mackays

posted by Janice @ 06:30 14 Comments

Spiced Ginger Red Cabbage

Spiced Ginger Red Cabbage
I love baked red cabbage in the winter months, it's easy to make, will keep well in fridge for 2-3 days and can be reheated just before a meal, it would be perfect with Christmas lunch or served with left over ham or turkey after the big day.   The Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve adds a nice kick to this dish making it even more warming than usual.

I'm delighted to say that this post is part of #ChristmaswithMackays a 12 days of Christmas feature being run by Mackays, a family run Scottish company who make their preserves in small batches in the traditional way. 



1/2 a medium red cabbage
2 medium or 1 large onion
3 apples
3 tbsp Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve
1 in/2.5cm peeled fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tbsp white or red wine vinegar
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1. Pre-heat the oven to 325F/160C.
2. Slice the cabbage, peel and slice the onions. Peel, core and slice the apples.
3. In a deep ovenproof casserole dish, build up layers of cabbage, onion and apple and finely chopped fresh ginger, add a tbsp of Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve and start the layers with the cabbage again. There should be around 3 layers. Finish with a layer of cabbage.
4. Sprinkle over the salt and the soft brown sugar.
5. Add the wine vinegar.
6 Put a lid on the casserole or use a piece of foil.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1 1/2  - 2 hours.  When the cabbage is soft, it is ready.



You can make this even more festive by adding fresh cranberries and an additional tbsp of soft brown sugar to counteract the acidity of the berries.

Many thanks to Claire at Mackays for the samples of Mackays preserves, I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own. 

Labels: Ginger, red cabbage, spiced ginger Mackays

posted by Janice @ 13:24 5 Comments