Passion Fruit

Discovering exactly how quickly and easily fruit curds (like lemon curd and passion fruit curd) can be made in the pressure cooker is a game-changer.

This mousse-like dessert has the tartness of passionfruit and the creamy richness of sherbet without any of the hard work.

Chocolate cake is a beautiful thing on its own, but adding a thick layer of sharp passionfruit curd undercuts the heavy richness and balances the sweetness—which dangerously means that one slice is no longer enough…

If you were a sporty type at school, you may remember those little orange slices that were given out at half time during matches. A momentary respite from jumping and leaping in the air on a cold windy netball court in the depths of winter seems to be a vivid memory from my early teenage years. Naturally, giving you a recipe for orange slices may have proven uninspiring so, with a bit of cooking magic, I would like to introduce you to my watermelon Jell-O shots… A happy walk down memory lane with a very modern twist. For an alcoholic version, replace 1/2 cup of the water with some vodka.

This is such a sweet little dessert. As you know, I’m not one for sweet treats but this is a little pop of yumminess—perfect for dinner parties, and it won’t leave your guests rolling around on the floor with indigestion.

Store-bought ingredients are an easy way to spruce up old favorites, like coconut cream pie. Here, passionfruit curd lends its distinctive tropical flavor to the filling for a refreshing twist.

This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of Fox's MasterChef.

A blend of rums, exotic juices, liqueurs, aromatic spices, absinthe, and trepidation. One from the Soulshakers' greatest hits collection, this drink has been honed to a lethal edge over the past eight years at Gaz's Rocking Blues at London's Notting Hill Carnival and the Glastonbury Festival in southwest England.

Passion fruit has a sweet/tart flavor that is unique. It transports me to the tropics with every taste. It can be time-consuming to get the juice from passion fruit, so I recommend using frozen passion fruit concentrate, which can be found in some specialty markets or through some of the sources listed at the back of this book.

This is easily my favorite party drink. I combine the white wine of my native Alsace with the tropical fruit flavors I first came to love when I cooked in Thailand. It’s a natural pairing and tastes amazing with just about anything. Best of all, it’s meant to be made ahead of time, leaving me free to finish up dinner prep.

Watch out for these—they go down easy!

Passion fruit puree can be found in Latin grocery stores and online at amazon.com.

If you don’t have fresh passion fruit or pulp, make do by adding more tangerine juice. But I do advise looking around for it (see Resources, page 237), since its unmistakable flavor gives this sorbet an authentic taste of the tropics.

For some reason, whenever I’m interviewed, the question always arises: “What would be your last meal?” Or, sometimes it’s: “If you were stranded on a deserted island . . .” I find both to be rather morbid questions—who wants to think about their last meal or being stranded on a deserted island?—and I never quite know how to respond. But if I had to list the things that I couldn’t live without, I’d say chocolate and fried chicken. The third food in my holy trinity is passion fruit. If you haven’t tasted passion fruit, this pound cake is the perfect introduction. If I’m ever stranded on a deserted tropical island, I might get lucky and find a few vines of passion fruit and perhaps some cocoa pods, but I won’t hold out much hope for getting any fried chicken.

Passion fruit really lives up to its name, and its incomparable flavor becomes even more sublime in this paleta, where its tartness cuts through the richness of the creamy base. If you’re lucky enough to find fresh ripe passion fruit, buy it, because you can always store the puree in the freezer. To use passion fruit, simply cut it in half and scoop out the flesh. Otherwise, look for frozen passion fruit pulp in ethnic or specialty markets, as well as online, making sure that what you buy is just pulp, with no sugar added. If you want a little crunch and texture, use the passion fruit seeds.

The passion fruit is native to Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. It is grown throughout the tropic and near-tropic regions around the world and the pulp, juice, and seeds are used in a variety of ways. The juice is highly concentrated and is used as an additive to other fruit juices. The juice and pulp are used to make pie filling and jellies. The seeds are often used as a topping for salads and other dishes that benefit from an acidic punch. Passion Fruit Butter Sauce was an inspiration I had when barbecuing in Jamaica. I enjoyed the way the passion fruit was used with seafood there, and I thought it would also complement the flavors of grilled chicken and pork. Use this as a dipping sauce, or better yet as a baste or as a finishing glaze.

Through changes in breeding and feed, today’s commodity pork cuts are 16 percent leaner and have 27 percent less saturated fat than those of just fifteen years ago. In my humble opinion, this might be a little too lean. Lower fat means less flavor and moisture within the meat. Regardless, one of my favorite cuts of meat for the charcoal grill is still the pork tenderloin. This lean cut has fewer than three grams of fat for a three-ounce serving; that’s as lean as a skinless chicken breast. Sometimes the pig doesn’t get the love it deserves, you know? To highlight the versatility of pork tenderloin, I served this recipe, inspired by my extensive travels in the Caribbean, the first time I cooked for the James Beard Foundation in New York City. Although I served it as an appetizer right off the grill, it also makes a wonderful main course. It combines some of my favorite Southern barbecue flavors with the traditional acidic punch of the food of the islands.

The jolting flavor of passion fruit really explodes on the palate. Serve this with passion fruit seeds on a hot day. Or combine it with some meringues and strawberries.

Pat O'Brien's famous French Quarter bar in New Orleans gave birth to this libation, which became so popular that a special glass was created to contain it.

To neatly and evenly transfer the cake batter to the ramekins, Fleming likes to use an ice cream scoop, but if you don't have one, the batter can just as easily be poured.

These delicate gelées are wonderful for company—the passion-fruit purée gives them golden color and heady tropical flavor. As an added bonus, they keep beautifully for up to a month.

Though this recipe owes a debt to that icon of childhood desserts, Jell-O with whipped cream, the interplay of floral passion fruit and herbal basil is nothing if not elegant.