Passionfruit Curd

It started months ago when yellow passionfruit were in season in Hualien.  My aunt Meihung thought I might like to try them so she brought me a bag of them when she returned from a trip there.  I had no idea what the lightweight balls were, but she told me to wait until they became wrinkly and then cut one open and just eat by scooping out the inside.

From the distinct fruity smell I soon discerned that they were passionfruit.  Eating them fresh was novel, but a bit sour.  I started to think about the Lillikoi pie I enjoyed in Hawaii years ago and wound up at my computer flipping through recipies.  I didn’t feel like making a pie though.  I didn’t want to eat dessert but did want to capture the essence of the passionfruit.  Somehow I came across references to curd in pies and then came up with the idea of making passionfruit curd.  I looked up lemon curd recipies and figured I could just replace the lemon juice with passionfruit juice.

The result was yummier than I imagined.  Peter couldn’t get enough of it.  We put it on toast, pancakes, and added it to yogurt.  Soon I was noticing passionfruit sold in the local markets although they weren’t yellow, but rather purple.  The inside color was the same however.

Of course I asked my favorite farmers at the organic farmers market whether they ever sold passionfruit.  They told me to wait till June.  June came and still no passionfruit.  Finally, a few weeks ago, they finally appeared.  Since then, I’ve made some for friends as well as our consumption.  This week I made more in hopes of taking some home to Seattle and to have a lingering taste of Taiwan.

Passionfruit start out smooth.  This one has started to wrinkle a little bit.  They are at their peak sweetness when they are wrinkled all over although the rind should still feel hard.

These, for instance, are ready!  They may become somewhat discolored.  I have found this is ok.  They just can’t be soft.  The fruit is relatively hollow so they sort of feel like wrinkled ping pong balls.

Here is one cut open.  Black things are seeds.  They are wrapped in membranes and juice.  You can eat the seeds but I find them annoying.

Here are the juice/seeds before and after blending.  Blending it breaks up the membranes so that I can drain the juice out.

Unfortunately I have found you can’t just pour the processed seed/juice through a strainer and expect it to flow.  The seeds block up the holes.  So (and this is the most tedious part of making the curd) you have to sit there and stir the stuff so that the juice drains.  Eventually you are left with a pile of seed fragments which you scoop out and discard.  I had to do this a bunch of times because I could only pour a portion of the juice/seed blend at once.

Finally – liquid gold!  I used this juice where a lemon curd recipe calls for lemon juice.

And then the finished creamy end product over my homemade yogurt.  SOOOOO good.

Lucy and Leo helped out with my last batch.  Scooping out seeds/juice is a good activity for kids although you need to cut the fruit for them first.  Since they are sort of hard and slippery, cutting them should be done by an adult and with a serated knife.

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