It’s perfume and flavour is definitely exotic and enchanting sometimes to the point of being intoxicating. From the outside it looks like a dented egg of purplish, yellow or greenish colour. Split it open and you will find a collection of crunchy black seeds covered with a clear yellow gelatinous flesh.

Passion fruit can be eaten raw in fruit salads or as we enjoy it here on the islands, as a flavouring ingredient in drinks. But its distinctive and assertive flavour brings to life many desserts and savoury dishes. The wonderful sweet-and-sour taste it imparts seems to combine the flavour of limes and berries yet its unique in itself and once you have accepted the taste; it’s hard not to embrace this absolutely divine fruit of the gods.

You should be seeing passion fruit in the next few months and it is always great to know what to do with all this lovely fruit when in abundance

Hint: If you’ve got lots of passion fruit to use, you can pulp the fruit and freeze in freezer bags to enjoy all year round.

To pulp passion fruit cut the fruit into half, scoop out the pulp with a teaspoon and pass the pulp through a food mill or a wire mesh strainer.

Passion fruit sorbet

[caption id="attachment_954590" align="alignnone" width="960"] Passion fruit sorbet -[/caption]

This is a delicious and refreshing fat-free dessert.

1 cup passion fruit pulp

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 tbsp lime juice

Make sugar syrup by boiling sugar in water. Cool overnight.

Combine passion fruit pulp with lime juice and sugar syrup.

Pour into drum of ice cream freezer and process according to manufacturer's directions.

Serves 8-10

Passion fruit syrup

This is a great way to use up excess passion fruit for use in fruit punch and other drinks

4 cups water

2 lb sugar

pulp from 8 passion fruit

In a large non-reactive saucepan combine sugar and water and heat until boiling.

Add the passion fruit pulp and boil for a further 20 minutes until mixture begins to thicken, Remove from heat cool and bottle. Refrigerate and use in place of a regular syrup in fruit juices or punches.

Passion rum punch

[caption id="attachment_954589" align="alignnone" width="829"] Passion fruit rum punch -[/caption]

1 cup fresh lime juice

2½ cups passion fruit syrup (recipe above)

3 cups rum preferably dark rum

4 cups water

½ tsp grated nutmeg

A couple dashes of aromatic bitters

Maraschino cherries and lime slices for garnish

Combine all the ingredients, pour into glasses with crushed ice and serve with lime and cherry garnishes.

Makes 8 cups.

Passion pie

[caption id="attachment_954586" align="alignnone" width="1024"] - Wendy Rahamut[/caption]

4 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

2 tbs cornstarch

1 cup evaporated milk

½ cup passion fruit puree

¼ tsp cream of tartar

1 pre-baked pie shell

In a small saucepan combine egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar and cornstarch, add milk and cook until mixture becomes thick, remove and stir in passion fruit puree, pour into pie shell and chill.

Preheat oven to 325F

Beat the w