Middle Eastern dried fruit compote

If you are making gifts from the kitchen, use containers that will be useful after the contents are eaten. Search $2 shops, supermarkets, Trade Aid shops, party shops and op-shops for imaginative and economical containers, wrapping and ribbons. Don't forget to decorate with herbs and flowers from your garden. Then fill with these kinds of goodies.

Snap lock storage boxes, wrapped in tinfoil with a ribbon and filled with chocolate bark. * A vintage bottle filled with raspberry vinegar. * A pretty or groovy tea towel tied with string and cinnamon quills. * Sri Lankan spice powder packed in a bright pink plastic pod, found in the lunchbox section at the supermarket. * Fill old preserving jars, with preserved lemons or this compote recipe below.

Ingredients

1	Dried fruit, enough to fill the number of jars you plan to make (Main)
1	Mixed nuts, enough to fill the number of jars you plan to make
1 sprinkle	Raw sugar
1 splash	Orange blossom water

Directions

1. Buy a selection of dried fruit including apricots, raisins, sultanas and figs, and a selection of nuts, almonds, pistachio, pine nuts and cashews.
2. Place these in a bowl and just cover with boiling water. Leave for a few hours to plump up.
3. Sprinkle with raw sugar and orange blossom water and mix to dissolve the sugar. It should be quite sweet, but go easy with the orange blossom water.
4. Pack into your jars and refrigerate. This is not preserving and is best made a few days before giving. It will hold in the fridge but needs to be eaten fairly quickly or it will start to ferment.