Going Local: Passion Flower Fruit

The fruit of the blue passion flower falls into the category of wild growing foods that "look like they might but they won't" poison you. If you live in southern California (or South/Central America), you've likely seen these blue flowers and their subsequent orange fruits creeping across backyards in your neighborhood. I hit the jackpot of passion flower fruits, however, when I realized the chainlink fence enclosing parking lot near my office was absolutely covered with the orange buggers. So on a night when I knew I'd have plenty of time to deal with them, I harvested a shopping-bag full.

the actual passion flower and a few green fruits

Related to the somewhat more familiar passionfruit, these fragrant pouches are delightful to peel. You take off the loose, pithy skin and reveal a glob of blood-red seeds held together by a gelatinous membrane (I make it sound delicious, don't I?). Smaller but similar in texture to pomegranate seeds, the insides taste flowery, tangily sweet and slightly bitter.

brains or seeds??

I didn't find much on the internet in terms of recipes; instead I discovered that when found wild they're often eaten out of hand and called "maypops", "water lemons", "golden bell apples", or "granadillas". Also, if you boil the leaves or steep parts of the plant, you can make a drink tinged with just enough cyanide to make you sleepy and reduce stress. (Various reports differ depending on the species--obviously, I would not recommend trying this at home).

messy bowl of strained passion flower fruit curd

Anyway, remembering a long-ago consumed passionfruit curd, I decided to try the same with these close cousins. It turned out just okay--the flavor of the fruits is quite delicate and the egginess of the curd kind-of overwhelmed it. Perhaps a shot or two of lime juice could have punched it up, or I might have been better off just serving the seeds over some vanilla ice cream. Regardless, a fun experiment and a harvest I'll probably repeat on occasion. And now you know--next time you walk by a ripe vine, pop a fruit off and enjoy an exotic snack!

Another One Bites the Dust

Some of my favorites from 2006 (clockwise from top left): My first taste of mango with sweet sticky rice; peeps-topped cupcakes on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; spurred on by the May Eat Local challenge, becoming a regular at my local farmers' market and eating lots of carrots; concocting rhubarb schnapps; going as local as my work parking lot for passion flower fruit; and settling on a cozy neighborhood sushi bar.


It's been a yummy year here at Erin's Kitchen--as Shakira would say, my hips don't lie. Though gym-going rates high on the resolution list, you can expect much more deliciousness here in 2007. With the world only getting crazier by the minute, I wish you all comfort and joy in your kitchens and at your table in the year to come. Cheers and Happy New Year!