Sweet Treat of the Week. 'Fig, Raspberry and Cardamom Pie.'

This recipe is from 'Good Food' September issue. Page 14.

From the onset the article 'Nice as Pie' in the magazine grabbed my attention by its rather fabulous pictures of pies. I was determined to attempt to make one of those glamourous babies from the selection of the three on display in those glossy pages. 

All sounded rather nice: 'Bramley and Blackberry pie', 'Plum and Marzipan'. But all presented also an advantage, for the first one, I have a big Bramley apple left from last week 'Rustic Apple Tart' in the kitchen screaming at me: 'Use me' from her bowl. For the later, my partner is fond of marzipan, and I of plums. But I chose to do the 'Fig, Raspberry and Cardamom' one.

The reasons behind the decision are multiple. First, 'come', look at that picture: isn't she a gorgeous pie that you would love to be able to make and present proudly with a 'tada!' ? 
Second, to add to the temptation, I happen to love figs and the use of cardamom was a little exotic twist which is exciting in pudds. 

















But my big third, which heavyweight pushed the balance in the mode: 'I have to do this particular pie', was the massive glut of raspberries we had this year in the garden. Our mature raspberry bush is about 2,5 metres long and 2 metres high running along part of the fence. It has been very productive year on year, so much so that the freezer is jammed pack with raspberries to use up. If I had 'one' apple asking to be used up, I had hundreds of raspberries making their pleas in my head: 'Eat us, eat us, pretty please. Look at your freezer: free some space.' 


So I could not miss that brilliant opportunity. Now, I cheated a tad, a tiny bit on that recipe: I am still not confident into making my own pastry, so I used a shop bought sweet pastry. In my excuse, it was rather an incentive to not mess up the pie. I will forgive myself in the knowledge that I am learning one step at a time. After rolling a beautiful casing and lining it into the dish, :0) came the hard task of filling it. 

I retained myself from eating the figs, I was quartering. One year, 
really back in the days, I bestowed a baby fig tree but it died six months later attacked by some pests. I am kin to give it another good go in the future, knowing that my gardening skills have much improved since. However our garden is a patio one which means, we have to make the most of the space we have. Any fruit trees would have to be trained in pots or large containers, like my lemon tree which grew from seed and followed me from flat to flat, and gave me its first lemon last year and plenty this year. 


It is a very joyous pride to have a tree that grows with you. It gives you a sense of time, of the seasons, of the years going by as it grows taller and stronger. In my case it started with just a pip and a dream which challenged what people told me then: 'you can't grow lemons in England'. Almost twenty years later or there about, the pip from that shop bought lemon is doing his show in my garden, proving me that dreams can come true, providing they are given the right amount of TLC. The funny thing is: the year that tree produced his first lemon, I published my first book. Never give up on your dreams. Keep them alive. 

On that bitter sweet note, I will add a constatation, the only person that can fit your shoes is you, and live your life is you. You can not be made to fill a hole, a pigeon hole that does not suit you. To be able to walk, head high in the sky, feet steadily on the ground, follow your heart and your path will be drawn before you. Trying to fit significant others ideals and dreams, even if you love them, destroy the essence of you, your own purpose in life. Peer pressure or family do not own your feet or life: you do. Take a glimpse of who understood how to deal with a Cardamom. The answer is none because both have generic basic lids for all their products. One has generous holes which allows you to pour heavily and spend more on the long term, the other has tiny ones which doesn't allow peanuts unless you screw the top off and let it go. Ideally, make the world accept your uniqueness, and like the Cardamom spicing my pie, make it understand your particular taste. You are unique and you are bringing something to the table. We need everyone to make a World. 

Right, I made a pie, with a glorious mix of raspberries and figs, all mixed together with rosewater and cardamom, golden caster sugar, cornflour and ground almonds. It looked like a mountain, a big hill to climb with a sheet of pastry. 

With the glorious task to make it look nice, picture perfect, I must say I was so crap at it that it kills me with laughter. I tried to do the hearts thingy things with no bespoke damn cutter. When I realised I would destroy the pastry to oblivion trying to match that picture with my tools, I stopped at four hearts, sticking the cut out ones on the side as decoration, which made eight  altogether. 

'Give me Hearty'! When the result came out of the oven, it was not picture perfect. But it was what it was: a very nice home made pie. It tasted great with just one little problem: the texture. Figs are grainy, raspberry just as well and cardamom also. Thinking about it, I would have blitzed the ingredients, sieved them and do some sort of cheesecake instead for their combination works awesomely. 

We gave the pie a joint three stars. I enjoyed the experience although it was more challenging than the first time. It was a big learning curve on what goes together taste wise in a dessert, I must say.