Passionfruit

[helenjp]

We've talked about passionfruit in passing, but I came back from Ogasawara (Chichi-jima, Bonin Islands) with 2 bags of big, juicy, red-skinned passionfruit taht are just too good to waste. So let's hear your ideas for using and alcoholically preserving the good stuff (the skins shed a lovely red color too if you freeze and then thaw them...these passionfruit are plenty pretty, both inside and out).

There was a passionfruit "rum"-based liqueur made in Ogasawara...but the "rum" itself tastes more like shochu, and when I read the Shochu wiki, I began to see why...seems to have more to do with licensing laws than actual classifcation. The "shochu"-like character does mean that the passionfruit flavor comes out fairly clearly, but it doesn't deliver a wallop of passionfruit.

Passionfruit seeds - leave them in? Soak in sugar to dehydrate the seed sac and absorb the flavor, then dump the seeds and membrane?

And what goes best with passionfruit? I'm thinking white wine rather than rum...

[Kouign Aman]

Sours.

[thirtyoneknots]

Sours.

Whiskey Sours with passionfruit components were getting mentioned quite a bit some time back in British circles so it may indeed be worth investigating.

[Mattmvb]

They make an excellent alternative 'Bellini'. Scoop out the flesh into a sieve and stir vigourously to separate out the 'juice' (I've never been sure if that's the correct terminology when talking about passion fruit). Then just add a decent prosecco. This is quite tart, a lot of people prefer it with a splash of simple added too.

You could also try a Batida de maracujá, which I'm told is one of the more popular drinks in Brazil. Combine the flesh of a passion fruit with a large measure of cachaca, sugar to taste in a rocks glass and fill with crushed ice. As with the Caiprinha, there is always debate about whether it should actually be shaken - there probably isn't a correct answer. Personally I like to use half a passion fruit and add 15ml of so of lemon juice, using about 10ml of simple (1:1) rather than sugar, it is quite tart this way but that's how I like them.

Cheers,

Matt

[helenjp]

Thank you for the sours idea, and thank you Matt for your advice. The Bellini variation sounds spot on, a dry sparkling wine fits exactly with the image I had in mind, of something to bring out the aroma and lightness without being sickly.

Cachaca is something I will have to look for, but I suspect it might be quite similar to the shochu-like "rum" I brought back from Ogasawara along with the passionfruit.

Tartness...these passionfruit are peasantly tart. I'm not sure whether that's a characteristic of the red-skinned type, or whether it's because they are picked while smooth and unwrinkled, unlike the wrinkly super-ripe dark-skinned passionfruit I am used to from New Zealand.

[bmdaniel]

I made a passionfruit bourbon sour last night - a fine drink, but nothing to blow your socks off. I used lemon and then passionfruit syrup as the sweetener; It was a little hard to balance because I don't think the p-fruit syrup I have is sour enough to use alone, but in a classical sour proportion it was pretty bracing.