Figs - Symbol of the Mediterranean in spreads and in combination with tuna

It is a mythical and biblical fruit, a symbol of abundance, fertility and sexuality, as well as the power of summer and scorching heat. This is a calorie, vitamin and mineral bomb, an extract of health that nature, who knows how many millennia ago, perhaps undeservedly, gave to man.

Its almost 900 varieties are distributed throughout the warm regions of the planet, but nevertheless, figs are a symbol of the Mediterranean, along with olives, its most popular trademark. The Mediterranean Sea is where figs are found. And vice versa.

Figs are widely grown in Zadar and its surroundings. Our gardens and allotments contain lush broad-leaved trees that provide pleasant shade in summer. You can find them in fields and along roads, emerging from Dalmatian thickets of intertwined Mediterranean shrubs; they find their place right by the sea, but also in the heart of the Dalmatian countryside. According to the traditions of this region, the first morning ritual in summer is a breakfast of two or three figs with a special small glass (bićerin) of homemade schnapps to get energy and motivation at the start of the day. This first gastronomic pleasure of the morning is completely authentic and original: the opening of the tender green skin and the revelation of its juicy and sweet core also carries a unique eroticism that explains the motivating side of this simple Dalmatian ritual.

To preserve figs for the long days of autumn and winter, hardworking Dalmatian women dried the figs in the bright summer sun to get rid of excess water while preserving all other valuables. Jams and marmalade were made from figs, and long-lasting cakes were made, for example, smokvenyak. However, this fruit, fresh or dried, can be found in many cake recipes, and fig marmalade is an excellent substitute for honey and even a seasoning for spicy meat dishes, such as big game.

However, no matter how popular and widespread figs were in these parts, local farmers did not pay too much attention to fig trees. Orchards with figs were rare, and culinary delights remained at the level of home industry and for their own needs.

Sandra Babac from Zadar, a successful radio journalist in Zadar and Zagreb, decided to “turn her life upside down” just under 20 years ago. From the bustle of the metropolis, she returned with her husband Alan Damjanic and their newborn son Josip to her parents' estate in Polac, about ten kilometers from Zadar, and devoted herself to growing and processing figs.

She was worried that this beautiful fruit, regardless of its value and taste, was here a “secondary” plant, which is always unshakably present in the person who neglects it, like an evil owner with a faithful dog. Along with a few existing old trees, Sandra and Alan planted an ecological plantation of approximately 500 young figs and initially decided to produce pekmez (jam). This is how the famous trademark “Šinjorina Smokva” appeared, now known throughout Croatia and even beyond its borders.

For nearly two decades since their inception, Sandra and Alan and their children, high school students Josip and Maura, have been picking juicy fruit from their trees every day in August and September. They made jam from freshly picked fruits in a small but modernly equipped room on the ground floor of the family house. Sandra's first dream has come true: she fills small jars with creamy jam and preserves the strength of the Mediterranean summer and its heat, as well as the unique taste and all the benefits of figs, so that we can enjoy them even after the summer is over.

And this taste in the morning, spread on a piece of warm bread, or a bold combination mixed with a good gin, will remind us of summer pleasures past and bring joy for the summer to come. Although Sandra admittedly produces a smaller and exclusive range of jams from Zadar's famous Maraska cherries, then whole mandarins and Lika plums and quinces from her own plantation, Šinžorina Smokva remains the best known and most sought after product. However, these five organic jams make up Sandra's Five Graces, arranged by warmer month.

While Sandra, Alan and their children pick ripe figs even in the hot summer sun and immediately prepare their spreads from them, Sandra's brother Vlado takes a small amount of figs for his restaurant "Pet bunara" in the heart of Zadar. Vlado inherited the restaurant business from his father Drago, who still helps Sandra and his son in their business, in the field or in the restaurant. Vlado Babac based the culinary concept of his charming restaurant exclusively on seasonal fresh products from organic farming. The innovative approach to cooking that Vlado and his team follow has taken this restaurant to the level of “something completely different”. Traditional, “ordinary” Mediterranean dishes are given a new face here and mixed in new, different delicious combinations that become unique gastronomic adventures.

The same goes for figs. As you might expect, Five Wells chef Šime Shkrokov drowned the figs Sandra sent him in some dessert or pie into an authentic, sensational dish using both fresh figs and their preserves. He called it simply - Adriatic tuna in fig sauce. Two culinary princesses were bred and raised near Zadar, one from the sea - the best Adriatic bluefin tuna, which Babac buys from the neighboring farm of the Pelagos company, mixed with Šinjorina Smokva figs.

The base of the dish is traditional polenta, which Chef Chime prepared with goat cheese and seasoned with thyme. He then topped the polenta with the first sweet and salty fig jam sauce. He briefly fried a few teaspoons of jam in onions and garlic, seasoned it with salt and Ning pepper and topped it with good cognac. He did much the same with the tuna steak - the chosen steak was seared in olive oil and butter and briefly broiled again, so the soft meat came out medium rare but retained the sea-fresh flavor of freshly caught tuna.

Meanwhile, the figs were baked in the oven with honey, butter and topped with Zadar maraschino liqueur, and they turned out to be a wonderful side dish for soft tuna. And the cook poured it with another sauce, made from red wine and demi-glace extract. Suddenly, an impressive balance of sweet, salty and sour flavors was created on the plate, in which our “ordinary” Mediterranean, Dalmatian and Zadar foods took on a whole new intriguing face because they found themselves in the company of the original taste of figs.

Yes, our chef Shime could make a delicious dessert with fresh figs or boil them in wine, as is the custom in Dalmatia on long winter nights with dried figs. However, these and similar combinations that arise thanks to the chef's creativity are the reason that guests return to the Pet bunara Restaurant again and again.