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Passionfruit Cordial
(from Earthly Delights (Harper Collins Feb 2001) There
are very few fruits that at some time or other haven't been regarded as
aphrodisiacs.
Apples
of course, because of the Garden of Eden, and peaches 'cause of a sort of
similarity with buttocks if your mind was well and truly headed in that
direction in the first place, and it's probably best if I didn't go into details
here about the sexual connotations of figs and bananas, much less mangoes and
certainly not chilled melons...
But
there is one fruit that no one has ever ever claimed to be an aphrodisiac, and
that's passionfruit.
I
suppose it's ironic that the one fruit with passion in its name has never been
supposed to inspire it. in fact the 'passion' in passionfruit refers to
spiritual passion, not good old lust at all.
It
was all a little teaching device of the Jesuit missionaries in South America.
The 10 petals of the passionfruit flower refered to the 10 disciples present at
the cruxification, and the thin curling passionrfuit tendrils are the whips that
scourged Christ on the way to the cross, and if you look at the flower closely
you can see the crown of thorns... well, about as obviously as a peach resembles
a pair of buttocks anyway.
In
fact passionfruit in Australia have traditionaly had much earthier connotations.
They used to mostly grow over backyard dunnies, which is a very good place to
grow your passionfruit, because they need plenty of fertiliser and moisture to
keep growing strongly, and dunnies usually were pretty rich in both of those.
You could also gather a passionfruit or two on your way up from your early
morning dunny call to have over your cereal at breakfast.
(My
father used to pretend to read the paper as he trotted down the path to our
dunny. That way he didn't have to answer the cheery 'hot enough for you?' from
the bloke next door. The bloke next door wasn't quite our sort. He'd planted a
choko over HIS dunny.)
On
the other hand, passionfruit is one of the most delicious sexiest fruits in
existence, especially spooned out of the shell, fresh picked and warm from the
sun. Passionfruit cordial is also possibly the best cordial. in the
world.
If
there is anyone out there who remembers what fizzy passionfruit drink used to
taste like when they were five years old...well, home made passionfruit cordial
tastes like that and a hundred times better. It is one of those lovely domestic
luxuries that every home should have.
Passionfruit
Cordial
2
cups white sugar
1
-2 cups passionfruit pulp (can be frozen)
1
cup water
juice
of two large lemons
2
level teaspoons tartaric acid
Bung
the white sugar and water in a saucepan. Boil five minutes. Add the
passioinfruit pulp and lemon juice. Boil 2 minutes. Strain- you'll really need
to stir the residue round and round to force the pulp through leaving the seeds
behind. Throw the seeds to the chooks. Add the tartaric acid. Stir well and
bottle. Throw out if it bubbles or grows mould.
And
if you get any lustful stirrings after drinking it, never underestimate the
power of suggestion. Just blame the missionaries. After all, they named the
things 'passionfruit'.
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