Sunday 24 March 2013

Passion Fruit Curd

It's getting close to Easter and close to the end of the deadline for this month's Forever Nigella.

Although I have my 'main event' in mind for this, I'm getting twitchy that I won't get it blogged in time (let's face it, I haven't even baked it yet at the time when I'm writing this post), but never fear. As a teaser, a sneaky peak, I can bring you one of the component parts, made on Friday evening, in readiness for said main event. I'm not going to give the game away entirely, but I'm sure you can guess what I might end up doing with this gorgeous jar of passion fruit curd.

Now before I go any further, given that it's Palm Sunday when the final product of my labours are to be eaten, and it's for this reason that I made passion fruit curd rather than lemon curd for the purpose for which it is intended, I thought I would explain that the passion fruit comes from the passion flower (no really!) and is so called because it was used by Spanish missionaries when they were trying to explain the crucifixion of Jesus - also known as the passion of Christ - to the indigenous population. The success of this is not so well documented, but in case you were interested, the missionaries likened the stigmas of the passion flower to the nails in Jesus' hands and feet, the threads of the passion flower were like the Crown of Thorns, the vine's tendrils were likened to the whips used to beat Jesus, the five anthers represented the wounds he sufferes and the ten petals and sepals resemble the Apostles (excluding Judas and Peter). Whether you subscribe to that or not, it's a beautiful flower


But I'm digressing. So Passion Fruit Curd from How to be a Domestic Goddess and also in Feast can also be found on Nigella.com so if you are so inspired you can find the recipe there. It uses 11 passion fruit and I suppose you could extend the metaphor to suggest that Nigella was thinking of the 11 faithful apostles when she dreamed this up, although I suspect she was more likely thinking about cake...

There's a very fiddly bit which is sort of glossed over which is the bit where you have to sieve the pulp and juice from 10 passion fruit to separate it away from the seeds, but if you whizz it all in a food processor briefly, this can help.



Once you've done that, it's pretty straightforward as far as making curd is concerned. You just need the time to stir it all constantly over a very low heat and it can take a bit of time. believe me, I have been that person with a pan of lemon flavoured scrambled egg before (obviously, when I was making lemon curd that time). Don't be tempted to put the heat up or stop stirring, even for a second - it will come good in the end. Fortunately, Nigella doesn't promise that it will all be done and dusted in 10 minutes (unlike others I could mention, and naming no names, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall). I was a little concerned that she made no indication whatsoever of how long it might take, but in the end it was about 35 minutes to get the orangey curd thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. 


After that, it was but a moment to whisk in the contents of an 11th passion fruit before putting into a jar (unless you have an immediate use for it...)


This month's Forever Nigella is hosted by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bake on behalf of Sarah at Maison Cupcake


12 comments:

  1. I love fruit curd but being a sweet toothed pansy I sometimes struggle with passion fruit - it's a gorgeous colour though!

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    1. It is a good colour isn't it? I have a sweet tooth but i do love the sharpness of passion fruit too.

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  2. I just discovered Lime Curd & how easy (but time-consuming) it is - so much nicer than the shop bought stuff and you know exactly what ingredients went into it.

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    1. It's delicious isn't it - all curd is if you ask me. Nigella uses lime curd to fill a courgette cake. it is a match made in heaven!

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  3. I've made this before too from the same recipe. It's lovely. And, every day's a school day - I didn't know any of that about the passion flower.

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    1. It's quite interesting all that stuff (well, I think so, but then I could just be wierd). I was vaguely aware that there was some relevance to Easter, but I actually looked it up and there you go. I am thinking the curd might make some tasty muffins

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  4. Isn't passionfruit curd just fantastic? It's my favourite curd (of the ones I've made so far anyway), although raspberry is pretty hard to beat too.

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    1. ooo raspberry curd - now there's something that's speaking to me quite loudly...

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  5. I haven't tried passionfruit curd yet but I do like the sound of it. I made Nigella's cranberry curd (from Domestic Goddess) last year and it was really good so I recommend that when cranberry season rolls around again. Thanks for entering this into Forever Nigella.

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  6. The curd is beautiful! I hope you will be joining us for this month's Forever Nigella.

    http://agirlinherkitchen.blogspot.com/2013/04/forever-nigella-colourful.html

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  7. That looks lovely, I cheated in mine and used store-bought lemon curd! I love the taste of passionfruit too.

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