This is an easy and delicious cooling dessert and it’s made from the bit that you usually throw away when you cut a musk melon.
Musk Melon.
This is what you do:
Scoop out the seeds of the musk melon and rub it through a sieve with a plastic spoon. You will end up with some thick sweet-tasting musk melon pulp.
Musk Melon Seeds.
Meanwhile boil 10gm of Agar in 900mls (1 quart) of water. You can buy agar from Chinese Super-markets or Health Food Shops.
Packet of Agar.Dissolving Agar.
Once the agar has dissolved, mix in the melon pulp. I also added passion fruit pulp with seeds. I used the wild Mayan Passion Fruit, Kun Batz…how’s that for something special!
Kun Batz.
Refrigerate for about an hour and enjoy! This is a healthy alternative to a cream bun. 😉
The days are getting sunnier and drier and so we are able to get up at 4am and finish all our work by 10am. Gnome has been cleaning up the coconuts and brush-mowing all the tall grass and small trees in that area. We have managed to use up all the fallen coconuts so presently, we are unable to process any coconuts until Gnome procures a big stick (20 feet or 6 metres) to knock them down. Gnomes do not possess the character trait of scaling heights (unless in emergency situations) so anyone waiting for our coconut products needs to wait for the big stick. He would rather have his feet firmly planted on the ground…Gnomes are kinda earthy creatures.
During the midday heat, we are (romantically) reading the Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica textbook together (thank-you Ted Berlin for your generosity in sharing such wonderful works). I read out loud whilst Gnome makes occasional comments on the specific herbal monographs that we read about. Interestingly enough, it takes him less time to understand the Traditional Chinese Medicine model. I still have my feet firmly (somewhat) entrenched in “anglo-thinking” whilst Gnome understands Chinese concepts better since he grew up in Asia. To put it in his terms: I am a “banana”; yellow on the outside and white on the inside and he is an “egg”; white on the outside and yellow on the inside. It is so funny because he thinks he is more Chinese than I am and I am Chinese but happen to have been brought up in Scotland.
Yes, you have guessed it…we are closet encyclopaedia readers and we are “coming out” with it. Well, I suppose that is how we became doctors…by reading copiously.
Anyway, enough about us. I am sure that you just wanted to know about the Passion fruit melomel! Well today, I sieved out the pulp and juice of 10 passion fruit:
Passionfruit seeds and pulp.
I added water to the pulp (an extra 2 litres or 2 quarts). We then added about 750mls (3 cups) of honey to get a specific gravity of about 1.09 to 1.1 which translates to a 12.5% alcohol content. I then sterilised the solution by boiling it up. Next, I poured it all into a 1 gallon carboy and sealed it with an air-lock.
Passionfruit Melomel.
The last step is to “pitch the yeast” which just means adding the yeast once the mead has cooled down. And then you wait for the bubbling (fermentation) to commence…Blub Blub Blub!! Wait a while, wait a little longer and when you can not possibly wait any longer, you drink it! How easy is that? Munckin Magical Melomel!! Try to wait out at least 3 months!!
Happy Sunday to you all!! We have some more fruit on our farm; luckily this time, there is an abundance so we can share with the birdies, pacas, dogs and guinea-pigs.
The mulberries are giving plenty of fruit. There is one particular tree which is half hidden in the shade of a huge African oil palm so the birdies have not spotted this one. This year, we will be able to make mulberry Elixir (liqueur).
Mulberries.
This is wax-apple; we are into the second year of fruiting and it is producing so much. They are related to the Molly (Malay) apple but these fruits are crunchy in texture like apples. The guinea-pigs really love these ones!
Wax Apple.
The passionfruit are just starting to bear. I like to combine the pulp of this with the Mayan passionfruit (Kun Batz) to make juice. I find the Mayan variety is sweeter so that it helps to balance the acidity of this type.
Passionfruit.Ripe Kun Batz.
With all the passionfruit juice making, I have ended up with a whole lot of seeds. As an experiment, I tried toasting them on a skillet in a similar manner to pumpkin seeds. They actually turned out to be a very tasty snack/condiment; as you toast them, the residual passionfruit pulp around the seeds caramelises to add a unique sweetness. I used the toasted seeds as a condiment on soup which worked a treat. The crunchy texture gives an extra bite to a meal:
Toasted Passionfruit Seeds with Soup.
Also, we had some as an accompaniment to cassava hash browns and steamed young pumpkin. They added an extra “sweet and sour” flavour to the dish.
Toasted Passiflora Seeds with Cassava Hash Browns.
I would definitely recommend the toasting of passionfruit seeds. It just requires 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat on a skillet. Make sure to stir it around to stop it from initially sticking. You will know when it is done when the pulp caramelises around the seeds. It is so versatile that you can choose to eat it with sweet or savoury foods.
The Mayan Passion Fruit (Ketchi name is Kun Batz) is still in season. It is a vine which voluntarily grows around cultivated trees and it can also exist in the rainforest of Belize.
Kun Batz Green Fruit.
They have beautiful flowers so can they also be grown as an ornamental:
Kun Batz Flowers.
The fruit can be eaten green like a vegetable (like cho-cho or zucchini).
Green Kun Batz Steamed.Kun Batz in Miso Soup.
If you let it ripen, you can eat the fruit pulp like a passion fruit.
Ripe Kun Batz.
The seeds and the pulp are edible and can be eaten alone or mixed with yoghurt or ice-cream. Today, I sifted out the seeds to get the pulp and the juice:
Kun Batz Seeds and Pulp.
I used a total of eight fruit and towards the end, added a cup of water to the remaining seeds to try to extract the last of the pulp. I was able to make a quart of juice from this method. When I tasted it I felt that it was sweet enough that no sugar was required. Compare this with normal passion fruit which is quite acidic which requires sweetening in order to enhance the taste. This is Kun Batz juice with a sprig of mint:
Kun Batz Juice.
The Kun Batz juice is divine!! The taste of the juice is a combination of pineapple, banana and canteloupe melon with mild exotic hints of passion fruit. It is unique in that it has a mildly sour taste but it is sweet enough that no sugar is needed.
I have a whole lot of fresh seeds to sell so check out The Apothecary. To my knowledge, nobody is cultivating this bush fruit so if you are into rare and exotic plants, then this a definitely one to add to the list!
Planting Instructions:
Passiflora seeds have a hard shell so pr-treat the seeds before planting; Soak the seeds for 24-48 hours in warm to the touch water, just prior to planting. Once pretreated, plant seeds 1/2-1″ deep in moist, sterile soil. Keep soil temperature consistent at about 70-85F. Cool soils will significantly delay seed germination time.
Estimated germination time under optimal conditions: 6 weeks to 6 months.
Plant spacing for this vine is 10 feet (3 metres) apart and can grow to about 20 feet tall. Will start fruiting in about 12 months.
I have not written formally about our Elixirs but I am preparing the way for further pages on this subject. The dictionary definition of Elixir is as follows:
An elixir is a clear, sweet-flavored liquid used for medicinal purposes, to be taken orally and intended to cure one’s ills.
And so to fill you in on the background of Elixirs, or Liqueurs, they were once used as a preservation medium for plant-based medicine.
We make Elixirs because we enjoy the process of making them from different herbs and fruit on our farm, which vary from year to year. In addition, there is a seasonal variation so it helps to keep up our interest through-out the year. Elixirs can be enjoyed as a pleasurable drink for the tasting experience alone but for us, the important thing is that it is also Medicine preserved in a bottle.
This is just a brief introduction and I will be writing more about this over the next few weeks. We are preparing for an Elixir tasting at Cotton Tree Lodge which is a few miles down the Barranco Road. So, today I brought out some to bottle. Here are a few pictures to show you the clarity and clearness of these products:
Mature Roselle (Sorrel) Elixir.Passion Fruit Elixir.Cacao Fruit Elixir.
When we first make the elixirs, they are cloudy and gunky with all the raw materials mashed together. So, when we eventually get this clarity, which takes at least 12 months, we are tremendously proud and pleased with the results. It is a representation of our time, patience and love.
I bottled the Elixirs into Just A Smidgen 2 oz bottles which are great as little tasters:
Row of Just A Smidgen Elixirs.
Also…
today, Gnome bottled some of his mysterious beverage…I hope he will write some time to tell you about it:
