Mr Sudell might like this

I was writing about gardening this morning, about the advice given by Richard Sudell in his book, Practical Gardening and Food Production. Richard Sudell, 1892–1968,  was a British landscape architect and writer during the first half of the 20th century – he was not a professor! I elevated him! I shared his advice on nuts (cob/hazel/filberts, Spanish/ sweet chestnuts and walnuts) and figs. I was idling through another ‘practical’ book, Modern Practical Cookery, author unknown, and came across an interesting recipe for figs:

Fig salad

• ½ lb best dried figs or or about 1 lb of fresh (and miss out the vinegar)
• 1 gill vinegar (I might use another soaking medium as I don’t like vinegar – apple juice maybe?)
• 2 oz preserved ginger and syrup, cut fine
• ½ head of celery, chopped
• bottled salad cream (I would substitute mayonnaise or yoghurt)
• salt and pepper
• 2 oz boiled rice
• cress and small piece of cucumber, sliced, to garnish

1. if using dried figs, soak overnight, cut figs in quarters
2. mix all the ingredients together, including any left over soaking liquid if used (use your judgement on how much salad cream/mayonnaise/yoghurt to use)
3. arrange in a bowl and garnish with cress and cucumber

I think this would be really tasty well chilled, served with something like salmon, mackerel duck, cold lamb etc and nice crusty bread.