Summer fruits are awesome!

The plethora of produce is incredible: cherries to figs, to apricots, peaches, plums, grapes, figs, apples, and the list goes on. Having projects away form home get a little frustrating. I want to cook! I want to have fresh produce all the time. I want to make food and feed it to the people I love.

I made this pie when I was home alone and had some fruits around the house and an extra pie dough that I needed to use. I found seedless white grapes hanging from a beautiful cluster that I had to break apart into small pearls. I found some luscious red plums, halved then diced into chunks.

I like my pie with a flakey crust, and soft flavorsome filling. A thick crust of layers of butter and flour dough, encrusting the flavorful filling of ruby plums and pale green grapes fragrant of orange blossom water and cardamom. A middle eastern flavor profile in a western recipe. Best of both worlds.

I asked friends over to share this pie so that the crust won’t get soggy

Grape and Plum Pie with Cardamom and Orange Blossom

Ingredients

• 1 portion of prepared pie dough
• 800g white grapes
• 100g red plums
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 cardamom pods
• 3 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1 egg, whisked
• Brown sugar for sprinkling

Procedure

• Take the prepared dough out of the fridge to soften
• Wash and dry the grapes. In a large bowl separate the grapes from the stems. Cut the plums into small cubes and add to the grapes.
• In mortar and pestle, or a clean spice mill, whizz the sugar with the cardamom pods. Add the cornflour and mix. Add the mixture to the grapes and plums and toss to coat
• On a clean, lightly floured surface roll out half of the dough by rolling outwards then rotating until its around 3mm thick. Roll back the dough on the floured rolling pin and lay on the pie dish and cut the excess
• Scoop in the filling
• Roll the second half of dough and cut using a round mold. Arrange the round cuts around the pie dish, brushing each layer with the whisked egg. Roll out the remaining dough and cut it again until all the dough is used
• Pre-heat the oven to 200ºc and bake the pie on the lower rack for 10 minutes to seal the bottom
• Lower the heat to 180ºc and put it on the middle rack and bake for 40 minutes. If the top crust is starting to burn, cover it with foil and cook until the filling is done
• Cool for at least an hour before slicing and serving