Fig leaf

Feuille de figuier

What it is

The green smell of a fig leaf is largely coumarin, the compound behind new-mown hay and tonka bean — the fruit holds almost none of it, which is why leaf and fig taste nothing alike. Handling the leaves in strong sun can burn the skin, because the sap carries furocoumarins.

In the kitchen

Toast a leaf briefly over a flame or in a dry pan until it smells of coconut, then steep it in hot cream or milk for fifteen minutes and take it out. Left in to cool, it turns bitter and grassy.

Goes with

Cream Almond Apricot Goat cheese Gilt-head bream Honey

Same species

Dried fig Fig

In season alongside

Blue corn Borlotti bean Butternut squash Celtuce Fairy ring mushroom Parasol mushroom

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