Fig confit

Forget chutneys and pickles - fig confit is the nicest possible condiment to have with cheese, cold beef, charcuterie, sausages, meatloaf, ploughman's sandwich, cheese...

Something with figs but not jam was the objective. Why not jam? Because I’d be the sole consumer and however much I love jam, I only have it very occasionally.

Cook for yourself

Which is a wrong line of thinking and a wrong attitude. How many cooks with an uncharming audience of picky eaters never bother to make something they completely adore, only because ‘it’s not worth making it just for me’? Wrong – it’s worth it. You’ll appreciate it. You’ll be the worthiest consumer and the most objective critic.

Cooks are never fussy

You see, we the cooks are usually the adventurous lot. Fussy eaters are never good cooks. I strongly suspect that a lot of food phobias could be cured by the phobic preparing the dish, the product, the hateful foodstuff themselves.

I’m the least fussy person on earth but I wasn’t that keen on grilled fresh mackerel until I cooked it, understood that it needs to be salted like a herring and herbed like a medieval tincture before exposure to violent fire, best of all on a barbecue.

My favourite reconstructed fusspot, The Weather Man, has produced dishes he’d not have looked twice at before he started cooking seriously. You want to encourage versatility in your home eaters? Get them to help you cook. I know, I know, easier said.

So taking the two points above, I know what I’ll do: I’ll get TWM to make fig jam. And then he’ll have to eat it too. For the time being though I give you fig confit, which is certainly worth making too.