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Here in Australia, every second garden has a passionfruit vine. Practically. We tend to prefer the ones with a dark purple skin, but the yellow or red skinned ones are becoming popular these days.
A hint: crinkled skins on passionfruit indicate age. A really old passionfruit tastes VILE, and you'll find the pulp dried out inside. A ripe passionfruit should come away from the vine very easily, and left to its own devices, will simply fall off by itself. If you have to tug at it, leave it a day or two longer.
I have many, many recipes for using them, but the best way to eat them is simple to cut the fruit in half and scoop out the pulp and eat it there and then - or spoon it over ice cream. You eat the seeds and all.
A fruit salad without passionfruit, is, IMO, not a proper fruit salad!
Try adding a passionfruit to your icing mixture - you probably won't need any other liquid. Use it to ice your favourite plain cake. Or better still, to ice a Vanilla Slice.
Vanilla Slices
quantity of puff pastry
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten (or 2 egg yolks, beaten)
vanilla essence
Roll out pastry to 1cm thick, cut into oblongs 4x10cm, bake in a hot oven until risen, then reduce heat and cook until lightly browned. Meanwhile, melt the butter, stir in the sugar and flour, and then the milk, a very little at a time, beating all the time, until all the milk has been added and the mixture is smooth. Continue stirring for a further 3-4 minutes, then remove from heat and mix in the egg and vanilla essence. Return to a low heat and cook for another minute or two, then allow to cool. Spread custard mixture over half the prepared pastry cases, then cover the custard with the remaining pastry. Ice the top layer of pastry with passionfruit or lemon icing and decorate if liked with desiccated coconut of chopped nuts.
Note: If you prefer not to use pastry, line a Swiss roll tin with plain savoury biscuits, pour the custard mixture evenly over, then top with another layer of biscuits, and cover this layer with icing. When set, cut into squares as desired. [NB. Biscuits in Australia are NOT scones. They are cookies - in this case, crackers.]
Here are a couple of passionfruit recipes for you:
Easy Passionfruit Slice
250g plain biscuits
1 tin condensed milk
juice of 2 lemons
1 cup desiccated coconut
juice and pulp of 1 large passionfruit
30g butter
1 tablespoon water
3 cups icing sugar
Line a slab tin with biscuits, cutting them if needed to fill the tin. Combine condensed milk, lemon juice and coconut, spread over biscuits and top with another layer of biscuits. Heat the passionfruit juice, pulp, butter and water over moderate heat. Remove from heat and add the sifted icing sugar, beating until mixture is smooth and creamy. Spread the mixture over biscuits in tin. Refrigerate for 2 days to set.
Passionfruit and Tomato Jam
500g cooking apples, peeled and chopped
pulp of 9 passionfruit
1kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1.4kg sugar
Cook the tomatoes and apples gently in a saucepan until soft. Add warmed sugar, stir until dissolved. Boil rapidly for 30 minutes, then add passionfruit and boil until it gels when tested. Pour into warm jars and seal. [This is one of my favourite jams!]
Passionfruit Butter/Curd
pulp of 12 passionfruit
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Stir all ingredients over low heat until thickened. Bottle. [To die for!]
Passionfruit Cordial
pulp of18 passionfruit
2 teaspoons citric or tartaric acid
1 1/2 cups sugar
600ml water
Place passionfruit in a non-metal bowl, add citric or tartaric acid. Boil sugar and water, pour over pulp. When cool, strain. Add 1 tablespoon of fruit pulp. Fill into bottles. Dilute with iced water as a beverage, or spoon over ice cream.
Passionfruit Jam
12 passionfruit
3 cups cold water
juice of 1 lemon
625g sugar
Remove pulp from passionfruit. Put half the shells into a bowl, pour over 2 1/2 cups of the water and leave overnight. Next day bring to the boil, then cook gently for about 35 minutes or until the insides of the shells are tender. Scoop out this inside pulp with a teaspoon and chop. Discard the thin paper skin that remains. Put this chopped pulp into a pan with the fruit pulp and seeds, add remaining water and bring to the boil. Add lemon juice and warmed sugar, stir until sugar has dissolved, then boil rapidly until jam sets when tested. Let cool for a few minutes and turn into warm sterilised jars and seal. [I've only made this with the purple-skinned fruit, which gives it a nice reddish colour. But it would work OK with any passionfruit.]
Passionfruit Syrup
2 cups passionfruit pulp
2 cups water
4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon citric acid
Put passionfruit and water in a saucepan and boil gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Strain through a coarse sieve into a jug and rub seeds with the back of a wooden spoon to separate any pulp. Return liquid to pan and add 2 tablespoons of the seeds. Add sugar and citric acid and stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and boil gently for 10 minutes until syrup is thick. Test a little on a chilled saucer. Pour into sterilised bottles, seal when cold and store in a cool place. Shake bottle to distribute seeds just before using. Use as a topping for ice cream, as a cordial with soda or mineral water, or in a fruit punch with other fruit juices.
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my Uncle used to pay me when i was a kid to pull them. He then sold them and gave me the money. I think they made medicine from them. Never had wine or jelly from the though.
