Figs/Higos

August in Guanajuato brings fresh local figs/higos. Vendors along the roadways or sitting on the street near Alhondiga sell these plump ripe delicious fruits that can be the drivers for salads, main courses or desserts. Here are a few examples of how I have tried to use them.
For salads: quartered figs, toasted and salted pecans, avocado, lettuce with a Mexican blue cheese dressing.

 For main courses:

Grilled Lemon Garlic Lamb Chops with Figs on Rosemary Skewers
Finding good figs here led me to attempt to reproduce in Mexico a dish that I have enjoyed in North Carolina. This dish is grilled figs and lamb chops. It was with great happiness that I found figs (higos) to be plentiful and really delicious here in Guanajuato.
In North Carolina I preferred to use the large yellow spicy flavored Texas style Brunswick figs, but I more frequently used the smaller and sweeter Brown Turkey figs that are more common there. The figs I purchased this past summer during the Guanajuato 'fig "glut' were dark brown to purple and larger than a Brown Turkey with some of the spiciness of the yellow Brunswick. If anyone knows the names of the Mexican varieties, I would love to hear from you.
Finding lamb chops in Mexico has been a more difficult adventure. New Zealand lamb chops are my preference. I asked several butchers for chuletas de cordero (lamb chops). Most replied that they only sold beef (carne de res), pork (cerdo) and chicken (pollo).  At last a butcher at Mercado Hidalgo told me that I could find chuletas de cordero at nearby Commercial. He was correct - sort of. What I found there and bought was labeled Chuleta de Espaldilla Rebanda Come ( Chops of shoulder sliced eats). No clue on the label as to it actually being lamb although I was vigorously assured by the butcher that this was indeed lamb. It was certainly not the thicker and more visually beautiful New Zealand lamb chops cut from the back and including a rib that I was used to getting.  These chuletas were larger and thinner (rabanadas ) - and shoulder (espaldilla) cut. I think of a chop as thicker than a cutlet. So, I think I should use the term cutlet for these much thinner sliced (rabanda) 'lamb chops'.
Two other ingredients, lemons and fresh rosemary, also presented problems. Lemons are something I had just resigned myself to never see again, but I was lucky as a friend brought us a generous supply of small delicious lemons. I was also lucky to find a mature rosemary bush growing out of the scrub alongside a callejon near our casita.
So,  I put the Chuletas de Espaldilla Rebanda Come in a marinade that I made of lemon juice, garlic and balsamic vinegar for an hour or so while I set up a charcoal fire - an altogether different adventure.
I cut a half a dozen rosemary sprigs, sharply pointed on the end, and pushed them through aletrnating slices of lemon and figs - leaving the rosemay leaves on the sprigs.
When the charcoal was evenly grey and ready I put the rosemary sprigs with lemon and figs on the grill by themselves as the lamb slices (rabanadas) were thin and would cook quickly. I turned the sprigs over to sear the lemons slices and figs on all sides, and then moved them to the edge of the grill to caramelize. Then I placed the chuletas on the hottest part of the center and covered the grill. The rosemary produces a lot of fragrent flavorful smoke. I cooked them covered for a couple of minutes on either side.
 I then arranged them on a plate with the rosemary sprigs of figs and lemons to cool down a few minutes before serving.
The dish was good but more of a snack ( botano ) than a main course ( plato principal ) as there is little, but flavorful, meat on the Chuletas de Espaldilla Rebanda Come.
I told my friend, Conrad Lambert, about my inability to find the kind of lamb chops that I really wanted. Conrad solved the problem. He told me that Mega has frozen New Zealand lamb chops in a frozen food box across from the fresh seafood. Woo Hoo!
For desserts: Fresh and candied figs - on ice cream - try coconut! Or on slice of pay de queso from the PAN (spelled with the colors of the Mexican flag)bakery near Dos Rios.
Needless to say all of these dishes would not be put together in one meal, rather you may spread out the use of your kilo of figs over several days by having a fig salad one night, a fig main course the next and a dessert of figs on a third night to manage your fresh figs reasonably.