Roasted Figs in Port Wine on Fruit Bread with Apricot Marmalade
Lovely, rich burgundy-colored figs and sauce accompany golden-brown pain perdu made with fruit bread. You may use any fruit bread for this dish, your own recipe or something from the bakery. Note that the figs soak in the wine marinade overnight.
Ingredients
- Figs
- Port - 2 cups
- Red Wine - 2 cups
- Confectioner’s Sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Cinnamon - one, 3-inch stick
- Vanilla bean - 1 split
- Violet Figs - 4
- Apricot Compote
- Apricots - 8, peeled, halved and pitted
- the weight of the apricots, in confectioner’s sugar
- Egg Yolks - 2
- Egg - 1
- Sugar - 1/4 cup
- Cold milk - 1 cup
- Fruit Bread - 8 slices
- Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup
- Confectioner’s Sugar - 2 cups
Instructions
To prepare the figs: Combine the port, red wine, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla bean in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Put the figs in a heatproof bowl and pour the wine mixture over them to cover. Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight in the refrigerator.
To prepare the apricots: Combine the apricots and sugar in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until the apricots have softened and lost their shape. Put in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator.
To finish the dish: Mix the eggs, sugar, and milk together in a large bowl and add the bread slices. Let soak for 30 minutes.
In a large saute pan or skillet over medium heat, melt half of the butter and let cook until chestnut color. Spread the confectioner’s sugar on a plate and dip the soaked bread in the sugar. Place the bread in the melted butter and cook until golden brown. Remove and set aside; keep warm.
In the pain perdu pan, melt the remaining butter and add the figs. Baste with spoonfuls of the wine mixture, cooking the mixture down each time until it turns to syrup before adding more.
To serve: Put two slices of pain perdu on each plate. Add a large tablespoon of apricots to each. Quarter the figs, cutting not quite all the way through, and open them out. Place a fig on each dish and drizzle the fig-wine syrup around the plates.
