Passionfruit Sorbet

It all started on a particularly gluttonous night.  After devouring some all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, achieving the kind of fullness that makes you want to swear off ever eating again, something compelled me and my family to stop by a Michoacan ice cream place we had noticed on the way there.  It's not unlike me dad to eat some chocolate ice cream under the most unusual circumstances, but my mom and I are typically harder sells.

But when we walked in and saw a photo of their house specialty, we were intrigued.  What looked almost like a rich, French vanilla/chocolate chip ice cream was actually passionfruit sorbet, replete with natural seeds from the fruit itself.  At less than $2 for a scoop, we couldn't resist diving in, and the result was something tart, tropical, and totally refreshing.

Ever since then, we seek out passionfruit flavor wherever we can, but it's not always easy to come by.  Few ice cream shops serve this flavor (although some great gelato places in Europe do), and the fruits themselves are exceedingly rare in stores, costing as much as $4 a piece when they are available.

So it was with great luck that my friend stumbled upon an enormous bag of passionfruits for $10, from which he generously shared more than a couple handfuls of them.  I transformed them into this light and fresh sorbet, and although it's unlikely I'll have the fresh fruit available very often in the future, I hear you can buy the pulp in frozen form as an easier and cheaper alternative.

Fresh Passionfruit Sorbet

12 small passionfruits
1 lemon
3/4 sugar
3/4 cup water

Mix sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over a medium flame until all sugar is dissolved and liquid starts to bubble.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Carefully slice open the passionfruits and scoop the pulp (with seeds) into a blender.  Squeeze the juice out of the lemon into the blender, and add cooled sugar/water mixture.  Pulse 10-12 times to combine without crushing seeds.

Pass mixture through a fine mesh or sieve into a bowl.  If desired, add 2-3 tbsp of black passionfruit seeds back into the mixture - they add a nice crunch and a contrasting color.  Pour into a shallow glass or plastic container and freeze for 3 hours.  Mixture should be icy but not frozen solid.

Scoop icy mixture into a blender and blend for 10 seconds, until smooth.  Return to container and place in freezer until solid, about 1 hour.  Repeat 1-2 more times until mixture is smooth and frozen.  Serve immediately or freeze for later.