There's a lot going for passion fruit. The plant produces beautiful flowers, fragrant fruit - then there's that name. It sounds like it should be served at a full-on seduction meal, along with champagne, oysters, caviar and long, lingering looks across the candlelight. So it was much to my disappointment to learn that passion fruit is not named for its aphrodisiac qualities, but because it is thought to symbolise the crucifixion of Christ. What a pity.
Nonetheless, they are a delicious, exotic fruit. They don't look promising: they're about the size of a mangosteen and, when ripe, the deep-purple skin is wrinkled and shrivelled. Buy fruit that seem heavy for their size and are soft when you squeeze them, otherwise you'll end up with thick shells containing little pulp. They have a wonderful, sharp scent and the semi-liquid pulp is studded with crunchy, edible seeds that are often strained out before use.
Passion fruit are expensive but a little of the pulp goes a long way - it can be used, scooped straight from the shell, to garnish a plate or sauce a dessert. It is also made into preserves, drinks (usually containing little of the actual fruit) and syrups. Professional pastry chefs have access to a delicious frozen passion-fruit puree (without the seeds), but this doesn't seem to be available to the general public.
For a quick tropical drink, stir the pulp into chilled carbonated water. An alcoholic version can be made by stirring the pulp into chilled sparkling wine, but don't waste top-quality champagne on this drink. Another popular use is in tropical fruit salad: cut mangoes and pineapples into chunks, add peeled and seeded rambutans, lychees or longans, then stir in some passion-fruit pulp, seeds and all.
If you have an ice-cream maker, passion fruit makes a refreshing, extravagant sorbet. Make a sugar syrup with a solution of two parts sugar to three parts water. Stir to dissolve the sugar then bring to the boil and let cool. Mix the syrup with an equal amount of strained passion-fruit pulp - briefly whiz the pulp in a food processor, then force through a sieve. Stir in fresh lemon juice to taste then process in the ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions.
For Australians, the passion fruit's most obvious use is for pavlova. Make baked meringues in the usual way, but add a little white vinegar and hot water while whipping the egg whites. Spoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets then bake in an oven at 150 degrees Celsius until crisp and firm to the touch (the vinegar and hot water make them soft in the centre, but they should be cooked all the way through). Decorate with whipped cream, fresh fruit such as strawberries and kiwis, mixed with passion-fruit pulp, then dot more passion-fruit pulp around the plate.