"Fruit of the Desert" Episode (Not a Gay Joke)

Prick•ly•Pear•Fruit: A native fruit grown in Southwestern landscapes atop a Prickly Pear Cactus, see also Spineless "Prickly" Pear Cactus in domestic settings. This fruit tastes similar to a watermelon, light and sugary.

After processing PPF can be used for many different recipes- just like the cactus itself (popular in Mexican Entrees like enchiladas and in our case, Cactus Fries). But this day we're gonna make some PPF Jam and Syrup.

We started off with an expedition into the dessert wilderness. Conveniently, only 30 minutes from Tucson, Vail residents own backyards filled with bountiful Prickly Pear Cactus. With a pair of gloves, sun hats, tongs, golf cart...

(Artist's rendering of the safari vehicle and friends)

...and a 5 gallon bucket we were ready for our hunt.

Birds and other animals feed on the best fruit.

Pictured above are two different fruit. The one on the left, is a deep pink, ripe and tasty -- on the right you can see white and brown, probably bitter and dehydrated. There are many ways to identify a ripe and tasty PPF but the fail safe, all knowing way is to cut one open yourself and taste it.

Miranda, Guest Star, bringing us today's Food Romance.

You have all of your fruit together, and now you're ready to process it. It helps to soak the fruit in water prior to removing its outer layer of skin and thorns. Once you're ready, you'll take a small knife and cut off the top and bottom of the fruit. Then, with your fingers holding the freshly cut ends, begin to peel away the sides of the skin . [Foreskin joke omitted] With really ripe fruit, the skin just falls off. Otherwise you will need some extra help cutting the thorns out.

Once you have everything peeled, You cut them in half vertically and take a spoon to scoop out the seeds and juice in to one bowl- and put the "meat" of the fruit left over in another bowl.

Seeds and Juice (left), PPF "meat" (right)

Artful photo op.

The process of straining the seeds from the sweet juice and "meat" of the fruit is long and stressful. And please take our advice and do not use coffee filters. We were most successful using a metal strainer. Put the strained PPF juice, sans seeds, back into the pot with the "meat" of the fruit, add agave nectar or honey (alternatives to adding processed and bleached sugar cane), and simmer off the water for a couple hours. Add Fruit Pectin. Warm jars to package the jam in. Pour. Let cool. Serve.

*To make a syrup for a salad dressing, martini mix, BBQ marinade- simply separate from seeds, and don't combine with the PPF "meat", and then continue on in the steps above.

HOT SEX TIP: Bake up a little cookie or crumpet to serve along with the jam. ONLY use Mesquite Flour (flour made of mesquite tree bean and pods found locally at farmer's markets or www.nativeseeds.org) to keep it native, gluten free and charm the pants off of anyone who appreciates culinary genius. Plus it doesn't just sound cool it tastes awesome.

L-word,

Hank and Laura and Miranda