A Passion for Passionfruit

A coworker has a passionfruit vine that runs rampant in her back yard and every so often, tired of her rediculously fruitful crop, she brings passionfruits into work for her lucky workmates.

Last week she gave me 9 passionfruits and though I was stoked at getting so many for nothing more than a smile, I was a bit overwhelmed at what to do with them.

The last time she had given me 2 of the fruits and I had used their juicy pulp to make a passionfruit sauce to go over ice-cream. It was seriously tasty but I wanted to try something different. Something that was almost symbolic of my move to home-made life.


And looking through one of my favourite cookbooks Like Grandma Used to Make by Reader's Digest (which I was lucky enough to get 2nd hand at the Brisbane Lifeline Booksale for $15!) I saw recipes for cordials. It was like a light bulb went off above my head.

For my whole life cordial has always been bought from a supermarket. I always had the concept that cordial was some thing that could only be made in a factory with expensive machinery and mysterious secret ingredients. When I read Anne of Green Gables I learned that Marilla had home made cordials but it seemed like some long-lost art along with cheesemaking and fruit preserving. So deciding to make cordial felt liberating, like I was taking something back into the home where it had started.



The cordial recipe I used is below:

Passionfruit Cordial

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup passionfruit pulp (seeds included)
• kitchen muslin/gauze
• soda water to serve.

Add the sugar, water and juice to a saucepan. Bring to the boil and, with lid off, continue to simmer until the liquid has become syrupy. Remove from heat and add the passionfruit pulp.

Set aside for 45 min or until cooled.

Using a strainer, separate the liquid from the pulp. Put the remaining pulp in a large square of kitchen muslin. Squeeze and massage out the liquid still captured in the pulp. Note: Be careful not to let seeds escape. I'd advise using two layers of muslin as mine split a little.

Store the cordial in a sterilised glass bottle in the fridge. Serve with soda water or water.