FFM: Picking up the Pawpaws

Found at the Farmers Market

I happened upon my first ever pawpaw at the Temescal Farmer's Market. The yellowgreen and eggplant-purple spud presented like an oblong passion fruit and caught my eye because I'd never seen such a thing. I picked up what turned out to be as soft as an overripe avocado. The farmer told me it was a pawpaw, which was like telling me I was holding a dinosaur egg. Ahhh, the mythical treasure of that oft-sung childhood ditty "picking up pawpaws, putting them in a basket". A review of the traditional lyrics indicates that many a child has gone missing in the pawpaw patch, but gives few clues beyond that.

The farmer told me that the fruit was also known as custard apple, but a look at wikipedia fixes them as a distant cousin. The interesting thing about them is that they appear to be the only species in the family that gets out of the tropics. Family members include the cherimoya, the ylang-ylang (with it's heavy-scented bloom), and the soursop. A listing from the California Rare Fruit Growers notes that while pawpaws are "native to the temperate woodlands of the eastern U.S.," they have been successfully adapted to Northern California (from San Jose upwards into Oregon). And thus, there are pawpaws at my local farmers market.

The possibility of natural fruit custard excited me from a raw food perspective - I imagined raw flan, raw banana cream pies, and the like. For brunch guests, I stripped off the heavy pawpaw peel and squeezed the contents into a bowl. In a normal sized pawpaw, I'd say there is about a 1/4 cup of custard-like material tops. Pawpaws seeds look like dried black kidney beans and are covered in a fibrous film much like an apple seed or core. The contents become firmer around the seeds, but might soften up with further ripening. The one I disgorged was still somewhat green. I have one full-on purple one that I'll try next.

We sampled the custard-like material, but sadly, no one went back for a second taste. The pawpaw had two distinct phases. The first is a delightful banana pudding texture and flavor that made me think I had discovered a godsend of a fruit. The second phase was a not-so-good taste for most of my guests. Hidden behind the banana was a hint of anise that turned acrid and fell flat on the tongue. I am guessing a hardy helping of sweetener could rescue the pawpaw finish and keep it in happy custard land.

I found an article on pawpaws from the Kansas City Star archives in which they interview a guy who makes pawpaw cheesecake - sounds promising. According to this article "In 2004 Slow Food USA included the pawpaw in its Ark of Taste, which identifies desirable foods that are disappearing and seeks to raise awareness and create markets for them." I was hoping for the cheesecake recipe, but alas, they only had one for pawpaw cookies with black walnuts. The article suggested that the fruit custard could be substituted for bananas in recipes. I'm guessing you would need 2-3 pawpaws to equal 1 banana. Because of the fabulous custard texture, my first thought is to explore recreating the banana cream pie my grandmother and mother make - but I'll need a lot more pawpaws and there's no pawpaw patch nearby. *sigh* (The KC articles are not available anymore, but you can currently watch this video from them on pawpaws.)

Update: The ripe, fully purple pawpaw was sweeter start to finish, with a faintly spunky aftertaste - preferable to the acrid ending of the not-so-ripe fruit.