Passionfruit is my favourite food. More than noodles. More than crispy duck. More than any charcuterie, any fresh pasta, more than even hummus; I love passionfruit! It's so tangy, so sweet, so beautifully vibrant in colour. But it goes beyond that for me. In my head, this simple, pulpy fruit represents the exotic, adventure, and the unknown.

At the age of nineteen, a whirlwind of unexpected events led me to spend a few months in Israel. I had never traveled outside of the US or Canada before, and, I really had no idea what to expect from this new country. The flight was long and uncomfortable, but I passed my time with a book, and eventually went to sleep. When I awoke, the flight attendants wheeled over a cart, and gave me coffee, hot towels, and microwaved bagels with hummus and egg. I filled out my customs card, ate my breakfast, and soon enough, we were touching down in Tel Aviv. I pressed my nose against the window like a child, watching my first glimpse of foreign land get closer and closer.

I sat in the airport, ate a falafel, and waited to be picked up by my cousin Alan, a man I'd never met. When he picked me up, the sky was blue with twilight, and I couldn't believe, in January, how warm the air still was. We drove into the Negev desert, and he spoke of Israel and it's culture.  "There is an old joke," I remember him saying, "That the shortest amount of time you'll ever have to wait for anything in Israel is between a traffic light going green and somebody tooting their horn."

Maybe an hour into our drive, Alan pulled into the dusty parking lot of a small kibbutz. They had a wonderful produce market, he told me, where everything sold was grown right there. The shop was brightly lit and casual, with a curly haired young woman in purple linen pants perched on a stool by the register. 

"Pick out something you haven't seen before, and we'll buy it." Alan instructed me. 

I wandered the crates of fruit and vegetables until I saw a box full of little blackish purple orbs. They were about the size of eggs, maybe a little smaller, and quite wrinkly. I sniffed one and was surprised by it's punchy, sweet aroma.  Alan informed me that they were passionfruit, which I'd heard of but never tried. We bought a kilo, said toda, stepped back into the still, inky night, and headed back to Alan's for dinner. 

That evening, I sat with Alan and his wife around their kitchen table, drinking cherry tea and eating passionfruit with a spoon. This exotic new fruit gave me such a sense of wonder; I didn't know fruit could even taste like that! There, in that lovely little house in southern Israel, it occurred to me for the first time just how much of the world there was for me- for anybody- to see. Travel is such a significant part of who I am, and that night, the night my cousin Alan split a passionfruit open for me to taste, the world opened itself up to me for my first time. 

On another note, I do apologise for the incredibly long wait between posts; I moved, my mother moved, and I started a new job. I've been spread pretty thin. But I'm back on track, and will post a new interview tomorrow.

Passionfruit Curd Cake

This was a rainy day activity for me. It has been freezing here in Boston. This cake was nice with a big cup of tea while I stayed inside and watched Mad Men....

The passionfruit curd I made was the exact same recipe I posted last year.

For the cake:

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 tbsp passionfruit pulp or puree

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup passionfruit curd, to finish

For the passionfruit curd:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups passionfruit pulp or puree 

4 eggs, whisked thoroughly

Make the curd:

1. Boil a pot of water for a double boiler. Place a large, heat-proof bowl over the boiling water and reduce heat slightly. Melt butter and eggs together.

2. Meanwhile, beat together passionfruit and egg. When the butter and sugar is completely melted, add passionfruit mixture, and cook, stirring constantly.  

3. When the curd has thickened and can coat the back of a spoon, remove from heat and transfer to a sterilised jar.

Make the cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one by one, beating thoroughly. Add passionfruit pulp and incorporate.

2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Combine wet and dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

3. Spread batter evenly into a prepared pan. Pour over passionfruit and use a spatula to spread over the batter. "Swirl" the curd into the batter a bit.

4. Pop into the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Top with powdered sugar and serve with passionfruit curd.