Mango Passion Tart

The first (last and only other) time I had passion fruit was in India. There was a passion fruit tree growing in the backyard of an Indian gentleman I was visiting, and I couldn’t stop staring in absolute awe. So, he very kindly cut one open on the spot and gave me more for later, just like you would do with apples or pears (except it was passion fruit). And another time, the auto-rickshaw driver who was taking me around for the day pointed to a tree and said it was a mango tree. I asked him, “How do you know?” And he looked at me as if I’d asked a silly existential question and said, “Because it is a mango tree.” And so I asked again, “How can you tell it’s a mango tree?” And to this profoundly bizarre question he said, “Because mangoes grow on it.”

I couldn’t believe that in some part of the world passion fruit and mangoes were so common they grew in backyards and on the side of the road and so ordinary that you couldn’t tell what made them different. And that they grew on trees, like normal fruit! I sort of imagined them to just spontaneously happen or something. Because here in Korea, mangoes and passion fruit are practically worth their weight in gold. Going through the list, I’d pegged the mango-passion fruit tart to be one of the last ones I’d be able to get around to. But I found the passion fruit much sooner than expected, and then I found rather reasonably priced mangoes. I thought it’d be many moons before I could get a hold of both fruit at once…

I thought passion fruit looked like tropical pomegranates when cut and frog eggs when drained. Sadly, they exuded a lot less juice than I expected. I was so afraid I’d overcook the curd and waste precious passion essence that I actually undercooked it, and so it came out quite runny.

The hardest part was cutting and layering the mango slices (and I thought it would be the easiest part!). I’d left the mangoes in the fridge for a few days and they’d become very soft and were even beginning to brown in places. When cut, they were very slippery and kept gliding off my fingers. It’s so hard to get the right degree of ripe with fruit! 

The tart: coconut cookie crust, passion-fruit curd, sponge cake layer dabbed with rum, and glazed mango slices. What can I say? It was absolutely ambrosial. The mango and passion fruit have this flavor that is at once rich and subtle, like they basked in and soaked up the intensity and aroma of the sun. The coconut crust gave a nice milky-tropical touch too. If ever the stars line up again and I can acquire passion fruit and mango at the same time, I would love to make this tart once more!