Grilled fig, mint and hibiscus flowers
In recent years, figs have been part of our desserts because of
their relationship with Mediterranean culture and summer evoking memories. However, figs are one of the few fruits that do not
have acid notes and sometimes could be excessively sweet. When
reflecting about product essentiality one wonders if each characteristic could be separated from the other and assembled
could be separated from the other and assembled
together in a different way; for instance, to enhance figs sweet
flavor and aroma on one side and figs creamy pulp and crunchy
delicate skin on another side. The objective was then to take
advantage of product virtues and mask the so-called defects
(excessive sweetness) using different techniques in order to create
the feeling of having eaten only the fig essence.
Aroma impregnation under vacuum was used to introduce
citric and mint aromas into the figs. In this case, the
impregnating solution was citrus fruit juice infused with mint.
The process involved repeating the steps of ambient pressure-vacuum for five times, in order to create a pore expansion in the figs when decompressing and consequently the absorption
of the impregnating solution under vacuum. The excessive
sweetness was balanced with the freshness of mint leaves and
the acid of the citric juice. The result was a fig with its
characteristic sweetness enhanced by new aromatic notes that
reminded of traditional medicinal syrup