Borough Market & Operation Domestic Goddess: Passion fruit Curd

As I drank my coffee this morning I tried to decide how to spend the afternoon...I only have a couple of weekends left in London, so would I spend today revisiting a favorite or doing something new? My original plan of going to Greenwich to sketch the view from the Observatory seemed dubious since the forecast called for rain and clouds.  I wasn't really in the mood for going to museums and being intelligent, nor did I want to allow myself to go be tantalized by the treasures at Portobello Road -- My budget and my suitcase are just too small.  As I was trying to make up my mind,  I spotted this announcement on Facebook from beloved Borough Market:

"Passion fruit is at the height of its season at the moment, so why not pop over to our various fruit and Veg traders in the Market to buy your passion fruit in bulk?"

Decision made.

Passionfruits, dragon fruit, blood oranges

Off to the Market Jess & I went.  We had so much fun feasting our eyes on all the beautiful produce.  I always come away from Borough Market full of amazement and delight over how much edible variety there is in the world!  We came back with 12 passion fruits, as well as some blood oranges and a dragon fruit.  The blood oranges will be used to make this cocktail, but I still haven't figured out how to approach this dragon fruit situation.  Honestly... I just bought it because it looked cool.  Any suggestions? 

Curd-making in progress...

I'd become fixated on the notion of making passion fruit curd, since a) I love curd, b) Nigella has a passion fruit curd recipe, and c) it had been a while since we'd revisited Operation Domestic Goddess.  Also, d) I love curd.  Oh, I said that already.  I decided to make a sort of pavlova, which is a popular traditional dessert in the British Commonwealth (apparently it's the national dessert of New Zealand?).  I bought a beautiful big meringue at the market, sliced the top off so I had a flat base, covered that with whipped cream and topped it with glorious passion fruit curd.  Delicious!

(Oh, and of course the afternoon ended up being clear and sunny, and I absolutely could've sketched in Greenwich...but then I wouldn't have ended up with passion fruit curd and a beautiful dessert courtesy of my favorite market!) 

Pavlova with passionfruit curd

Nigella Lawson's Passion Fruit Curd

11 passion fruits (I used 12)

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

150 g caster sugar

100 g unsalted butter

1 clean 350 ml jar

Scoop out the seeded pulp of the 11 of the passion fruit into a food processor and blitz for a few second just to loosen the seeds.  Strain into a jug or bowl.

Beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar together.

Melt the butter over a low heat in a heavy-based pan, and when melted stir in the sugar-egg mixture and the passion fruit juice, and keep cooking gently, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Off the heat, whisk the pulp - seeds and all - of the remaining passion fruit, let cool slightly, then pour into the jar.  Keep in the fridge.

Makes 350 ml.