This is Kingfish crudo, fig leaf, mascarpone, grape, as presented at Chianti Restaurant in Hutt Street in Adelaide.
The restaurant prides itself in serving fresh, seasonal food. This is exceptionally good, modern Italian food! As for seasonal produce, figs and grapes are in season.
I did not know what to expect of the taste of fig leaf infused oil, but it was very pleasant – for me, the fig leaf oil tasted grassy, slightly nutty and with a hint of bitterness.
And look at the colour! It is so intense.
I have made parsley, coriander, dil, mint and basil infused oil and making fig oil appears to be no different.
When making oils infused with herbs I have always used a blender and I have used the the aromatic oils to drizzle over foods like labneh, fresh cheeses like fior di latte, ricotta, burrata or fresh mozzarella (this category includes bocconcini), vegetables, especially potatoes and of course carpaccio, raw fish, usually referred to as crudo. As you can see by my suggestions for its use, the green looks particularly spectacular with white colours, but you can also imagine how a blob will look good on pureed soups – for example, think about Gazpacho (or Gaspacho), pumpkin, Vichyssoise, zucchini soup. Visualize it on pasta dishes too. And why not use a combination of fresh figs, a fresh cheese with a drizzle of fig leaf oil!
I do not measure ingredients, but as a rough estimate use 1 cup of good quality, fragrant, extra virgin olive oil to 3-4 fresh fig leaves (depending on size) or 4 cups loosely packed fresh herbs – use only the soft leaves of soft leafed herbs, for example – basil, parsley, oregano, dill, chives, chervil, fennel, coriander, tarragon.
Make sure you use bright green, healthy, fig leaves and not too mature.
Blanch fresh fig leaves, or the leaves of fresh herbs (with no stems) in some boiling water to soften. The blanching preserves the colour and the leaves will turn bright green.
Quickly transfer the leaves or herbs from the boiling water to an ice water bath and cool quickly. Remove the herbs from the ice bath, strain and squeeze out as much excess water from the herbs as possible.
Add the squeezed leaves to the oil with a pinch of salt and blend. Infuse in the oil for at least 1 hour. if you leave it overnight it will not suffer and in fact will turn a darker green. Strain the puree through cheesecloth or a fine meshed strainer. When I did this, strangely enough, the blend had coconut aromas.
Keep oil refrigerated, bring to room temperature before use.
I used a tea strainer to filter the oil for the photo below. I am not at home and therefore do not have access to muslin or a fine meshed strainer. If I had filtered this through muslin, I could have intensified the colour by squeezing the muslin and squeezing the green colour through. It still tasted great.
Experiment. Below: sorrel, basil, rocket.
See also: