The idea for this dish came to me the last time I was in Florida visiting my parents.  My mom picked up these delicious black mission figs from the farmer’s market.  When I go home, I completely resort back to childhood, opening and closing the fridge, perusing for snacks each time I pass the kitchen.  This time, I kept intermittently pulling the figs out of the fridge, cutting them in half, sprinkling each half (generously…) with brown sugar, and torching them for a brûlée’d snack of sorts.  Sweet, subtle, with a satisfying caramelized crunch from the brown sugar.  And with whipped cream?  Heavenly.

Fig trees grow throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and even South Asia, figuring prominently in the dishes of those regions.  My mom reminded me the other night that it was such a treat – going over to a “favorite” aunt’s house when she was a girl, plucking ripe figs from the tree in her yard, and eating them fresh on the spot.  Figs perish easily, and their flavor quickly declines off the tree.  I can only imagine at this point the intensity of flavor of a freshly picked fig.

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