Jackie’s fruit salad
When making fruit salad, Jackie French saved the leftover pineapple peel and passionfruit skins and used them to make a refreshing, fruity cordial.
pineapple
passionfruit
banana
rockmelon
strawberries
mint
lemon juice
1 dash bitters (optional)
Pineapple and passionfruit cordial
peel of 1 large, or 2 small pineapples
skins of 10 passionfruit
4 cups water
4 cups sugar
2 heaped teaspoons tartaric acid
1 cup lemon juice
Method
1. Wash, then hull the strawberries. Cut the banana and rockmelon into bite-sized pieces. Put the fruit into a bowl. Add some fresh mint, and a squeeze of lemon juice to stop the fruit going brown.
2. Wash, peel and chop the pineapples. Add the pineapple to the fruit salad and put the peel into a large cooking pot to make cordial.
3. Wash the passionfruit. Scrape the pulp into the fruit salad and add the skins to the cordial pot.
4. Add the water, sugar, tartaric acid and lemon juice to the pot. Put a lid on and simmer for about 20 minutes, occasionally poking the passionfruit skins down into the water.
5. Strain the cordial, pour into sterilised bottles and store in the refrigerator.
6. Serve the fruit salad with a dash of bitters. Mix the cordial with water at about the normal dilution rate (1:4) or to taste. You can also try it with other mixers such as soda water or lemonade (low-calorie lemonade is best, otherwise the drink will be too sugary.)