We seem to go craziest for the foods that require some effort to be palatable. Whether it's Civet coffee beans or the fruits off a cactus, we apparently sometimes need for our food to be a harvesting challenge.
Prickly pear looks like a hot new flavor for beverages and candy -- the lightly sweet flesh of the cactus fruit runs from pink to magenta, which often adds interest to drinks. Like with beets, the color runs off onto your hands and acts as a natural dye.
In order to eat the pulp, you have to peel away the rind and core out the hard black seeds. The leaves, which are also edible, are known as the nogales, while the fruit itself is often called the "tuna pear," or "tuna fig."
It can easily be turned into jelly and syrup, or added to tequila. Sorbet made from the fruit's juice, simple syrup and lime is outstanding as well. Prickly pears have been a traditional staple of diets in Mexico, but products based on prickly pear flavoring have just started to gain popularity in the U.S. over the past decade. The Tomorrow Show tagged it as a future flavor of candy.
Around town, it's been featured as a weekly special at Fresher Than Fresh Snowcones.
Lemon Prickly Pear is a popular choice, garnering 13 percent of the
vote for the favorite flavor of 2009 on Fresher Than Fresh's blog
(Blackberry Lavender is at 19 percent). Natasha's Mulberry & Mott in Leawood's Mission Farms also offered prickly pear popsicles this summer.
And prickly pear margaritas keep popping up as the modern take on the classic cocktail. For years, prickly pears have been suggested as a potential hangover cure, so a prickly pear cocktail has a built-in audience. It will be an interesting race between the prickly pear and the Buddha bear to see which catches on with the public.
[lmage via Flickr: kreyten]
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I 2nd the mention of prickly pear margaritas. I used to have them now & then when I lived in Portland, at this great place named Oba (recommend their happy hour if you're ever in PDX). They're brilliant and beautiful, and absolutely delicious. And calorie-free, I'm sure. ;-)
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