A friend gave me some lovely ripe figs a week or so ago, about 1.8 kilos in all.

I bottled a few but reserved a previous kilo to make a family favourite of fig and port paste.

All was going well until I decided to go and feed the chickens, after all it wouldn’t take long.

I thought I’d turned the hotplate off, but alas, in my haste, I’d inadvertently switched it to high.

I could smell the disaster as I came back near the house.

Thankfully a neighbour had dropped in at the crucial moment and whisked it off the stove and tipped the untainted top portion into another pot.

There was still just a tiny hint of the burn I the mix (let’s call it caramelisation), though surprisingly not unpleasant.

Still disappointed at my foolishness and following the principle of there’s no such thing as a failure, just something you haven’t found a use for yet……

So next – I made burnt fig and port ice cream by using some of the paste as the flavouring. It is beyond delicious.

It matched perfectly with tonight’s dessert of maple caramel glazed banana cake.

The only issue now is ……. however on earth will I ever manage to duplicate that paste with its hint of smokiness, as I would surely like to!

(Within the next day or so I will post the recipe for the fig and port paste.)