Watermellon rind and dried fruit pie

I grew up in the desert southwest, and learned to view cooking as the fine art of salvaging food that was about to rot and grown in hard conditions. Capsaicin (the happy juice in chiles), for instance, is both a cheap high and a broad spectrum anti-microbial. Spicy foods both distract the eater from the quality of the ingredients and make it safe to eat. Refried beans is just cooked beans with the quickly rotting water replaced by slowly rotting fat. French onion soup is a combination of the last things to go bad on your average French farm. And so on.

Thus I was kind of shocked to read Ken's comments on selecting fresh, ripe fruit at its peak and baking it into pies as quickly as possible. I had long thought of pies as a way of preserving fruit, eeking out an extra week or so of edibility by coating it in sugar, itself a preservative in high concentrations, and heating it until everything died. This recipe is an adaptation of one of the few in Ken's book that seems to share this philosophy. Seriously, tho, you should buy Mr. Haedrich's book so I'm not the only one I know making these.

Before you begin, throw a large party and serve watermellon. Save the rinds.

Crust:
Basic flaky double crust

Filling:
3 cups watermellon rind, green part removed and chopped into squares
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup mixed dried fruits (no bananas)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3T brown sugar
2T brown rice vinegar (cider might work better)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg

Glaze:
1 egg
1 t sugar

Proceedure:

1) Recover from the hangover following the party. Watermelon daquaris are really good, but they tend to overstay their welcome. Rolling out a crust when you can't see straight is a bad idea.

2) Place the chopped rind and sugar in a saucepan, barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Let simmer 20min while you roll out the bottom crust and place it in a 9" pan. Once ready pour into a colander and let cool. Set the oven to 400F

3) Mix the filling ingredients in a bowl, turn into the pan, roll out the top crust and press it on.

4) Brush about half the egg over the top crust and sprinkle the sugar.

5) Place in the oven for 30min, rotate it 180deg and lower the temp to 375

6) Remove and let cool on a wire rack for 55min.

Normally, we don't eat half the pie the first night it's made, but we made an exception for this one. Also, since you can't split an egg, you might as well make two . . . (I made a pear pie as well, but that one came straight from Ken's book)