Passion Fruit and Lemon Water

中文菜谱： 百香果柠檬蜜饮

Passion fruit has beautiful name in China.  We call it “fruit with a hundred fragrances”.  It is true.  Passion fruit deserves that name.  When you closely smell a passion fruit, you can pick up the scents from pineapple, mango, pomegranate, strawberry, lychee…and dozens of other tropical fruits.

It is indeed an amazing and delicious fruit.  Besides eating it with a spoon, I also love making all kinds of drinks with it.    I posted “Iced Tea with Passion Fruit and Berries ” before.  And we are making passion fruit and lemon water today. 

Ingredients：

2 passion fruits
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced
3 to 5 teaspoons honey （adjust the amount according to passion fruits’ tartness and personal taste）
2 cups of mineral water
ice cubes

Directions：

Cut the passion fruits open in the center.  Scoop out the flesh and add it to two glasses, along with thinly sliced lemon and honey.

Add half mineral water.  Stir with a spoon until honey dissolves.  Add ice cubes and remaining mineral water.

Isn’t it easy and simple? 

You will have 2 wonderful and amazing delicious drinks in less than 2 minutes!

Passion fruits’ taste and flavor are delicate and refreshing, which makes it the perfect drink for summer. 

If you like tea, just replace mineral water with black tea.  It is very tasty too!

Iced Tea with Passion Fruit and Berries

中文菜谱：

百香果柠檬冰红茶

I use 1 passion fruit for 2 glasses of ice tea.  It doesn’t show much in the photo.  But trust me, a sip of the tea, you can tell passion fruit is in the tea.  Its aroma is so strong, intense and unique that I can’t help falling in love with it the very first time I tasted it.

Igredients for ice tea: (serves two)

1 passion fruit
2 to 4 strawberries
1/2 lemon
2 to 3 black tea bags
8 to 10 blueberries
2 to 3 tablespoons raw honey (or adjust amount to personal preferences)
ice cubes
2 to 3 cups of water

Directions：

Boil the water in a small pot.  Remove from heat.  Add black tea bags.  Discard tea bags after 8 to 10 minutes. 

Add honey to the tea when it cools down to not too hot to touch.

Thinly slice lemon and strawberries.

With a sharp knife, cut passion fruit into halves.  

Scope the juice and flesh to two glasses.

Add lemon, strawberries, blue berries and ice.

Add black tea.

Stir and serve immediately.

Lemon Custard for Macarons

中文菜谱： 马卡龙柠檬酱夹馅

I haven’t baked macarons for a long time, mostly because they are just too sweet for my personal taste.  I bought some fresh cute yellow lemons on my last trip to grocery store.  They are perfect for making lemon custard. 

Normally lemon custard requires a large amount of butter, which intimidates me a bit.  So I experiment in my kitchen several times until I create this wonderful lemon custard recipe.  It is sour and sweet, more sourness than sweetness of course, which neutralizes the overwhelming sweetness from macaron shells.  The balance between lemon acidity and sugar is very fascinating.  I think I going to stick to lemon filling macarons for a while.  O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

2 fresh lemons
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon gelatin powder
1 tablespoon butter
2 to 3 tablespoons water

Directions：

Rinse the lemons, and pat dry with kitchen towel.

Use a grater or vegetable peeler to get as much yellow lemon zest as possible. 

Cut each lemon into halves.  Juice each piece with a citrus juicer

2 lemons yield about 1/3 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoon lemon juice.

Light beat the egg yolks with a whisk

Fill a small bowl with water.  Sprinkle gelatin powder on top. 

Add lemon zest, butter, sugar and lemon juice to a medium sauce pan

Cook over medium low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Slowly add lemon mixture to the egg yolks while whisking.

Transfer lemon sauce back to the sauce pan.  Add gelatin mixture.

Cook over medium low heat and keep stirring.

Lemon custard sauce will thicken.  When it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, remove from heat.

After lemon custard cools down, it can be used as filling between macaron cookies. 

The extra lemon custard sauce can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.  Microwave it for a few seconds and stir before using again.