Both recipes look wonderful. Here is the recipe I was given:
Baby Fig Spoon Sweet (Sikalaki Gliko)
Ingredients
2 pounds unripe figs (medium sized are authors favorite, as seed is just starting to develop)
3 pounds sugar
3 cups water
lemon juice (a couple of tablespoons)
cloves and/or vanilla (just guess!)
**See adaptation at the bottom to decide which recipe you want to make**
Wear gloves: Rinse the figs and poke a hole in each fig with a thick nail. This step will be a bit messy from the sticky latex oozing out of the figs.
I found that a small phillips screwdriver works just as well and is easier to handle. Okay, once you’re done poking the figs, put them in water and let them soak for a few hours. (overnight with 2 water changes is GREAT)
Next, boil the figs in plain water for 15 minutes.
When the 15 minutes are done, put the figs into cold water, then when they’re cool, drain them.
Dump the old water out of your cookpot, and and replace it with fresh water. Repeat the sequence of boiling the figs for 15 minutes, putting them in cold water until they’re cool, and then draining them.
Boil the 3 pounds of sugar with the 3 cups of water for about 5 minutes, then add the figs.
Boil the figs in the syrup for 15 minutes, then turn the heat off.
Leave the figs in the syrup for 12 hours.
Remove the figs from the syrup (and insert blanched almonds in a slit or two in the figs) and boil the syrup until it is thick.
Put the figs back in, along with the lemon juice, cloves, and vanilla.
Boil a few more minutes until the syrup is again well-thickened.
Put into clean jars and store.
Warning! The pot and colander you use will end up with sticky little smears of latex all over them. Can scrub it off with scouring powder. Suspect that the latex may even defeat nonstick cookware and would be very difficult to remove without abrasives, so I suggest sticking with cookware that you can give a good scrubbing to.
Adaptation: Wearing gloves, peel a thin layer of skin off first of all. Just dissolve asvesti(pickling lime) with 1 litre of water and put figs in) add more water just to cover them and leave them for a hour. Rinse well, put them in a pot, cover with water and boil until soft. (You know that they are done, when piercing them with the screw driver or a knitting needle, they will fall from the needle). Drain them, add fresh water to cover them, add the juice of 3-4 lemons, and let them soak for an hour. Drain water.
Here is where you poke a hole in them (and you add the almond if you like). Place them in a pot, add sugar and let them rest for half an hour.
Then bring to a boil and simmer for fifteen minutes only. The next day bring to a boil again and when the syrup is thick enough they are done. Remove from the heat, add the juice of half a lemon and vanilla and stir. (If you prefer cloves, add them with the almonds). Let them cool down before storing in jars.