Tuna ( Prickly Pear ) Jelly

[mantella]

we try to pick wild plants on Sundays and incorporate them into our dinner, this Sunday we did something a little different... Instead of going to the woods we went to the side of the road, you see we live in TX and you cant go a mile without passing a patch of prickly pear cactus and this time of year the tops are showered in red fruit that I was going to make into juice (somewhat concentrated) and find good uses for it.
Good tongs work well when picking these berries and you will want to store them in a bucket, bowl, or paper bag to protect yourself from spreading the tiny fine spines that are on these berries. I PROMISE ITS WORTH IT!
(we picked 3-5 GAL in about 15 minutes in one spot)
Some of the fruit we picked

When you clean and prepare them you will need heavy rubber gloves ( yellow dish washing gloves will work), a sponge with scrubber on one side that you use only for this. Wiping the berries with a wet sponge and rinsing removes most of the spikes. You now need to cut off the ends.

Put fruit in a large stock pot and cover with water, bring to rolling boil, mash with potato masher or use food processor and bring to boil again for 30 Minuets.



OK you are now going to strain this through cheese cloth to remove seeds and any spikes that may have got passed the sponge. I strained mine several times.

Now you have your juice that you can make jelly, margaritas, pancake syrup, and more. I am making jelly and have a lot of juice left over so we will see what else I find too. Will let you know how jelly went soon (my first time and there really wasn't one good recipe for this, so.....)

[patricimo54]

You might try following your basic apple jelly recipe. Momma used it for her jalapeno jelly, it always turned out great.

[hillbillyken]

mantella

I did it once spent 2 months getting those dange little stickers out ...great pics

[mantella]

I made some jelly last night, but I am making some more. I still have 4 lt of the juice left. We need to get together soon I want to try to make wine since they are so abundant. I will follow up with the jelly recipe later it was just to late last night to do both on here.

[mantella]

Here is the jelly recipe:
2 1/2 cups prickly pear cactus juice
1/2 cup lemon juice ( I used lime)
5 cups sugar
1 box of powdered pectin
Hard boil cactus fruit juice, pectin and lemon juice for 3 minutes. Hard boil means the point at which the brew still bubbles even when you stir it. Add sugar and bring back to a hard boil for 2 minutes or until the jell point is reached.

Put in sterile canning jars, seal and heat process for 10 minutes.

[hillbillyken]

that loookssss gooood!

[dirtyd]

Makes me want to give that a try.

I've been wanting to make wine from them for awhile but the first time I ever tried picking some I ended up with the tiny spikes all over. I didn't realize it's the hairs/spins not the obviously spikes.

[maritimer]

That does look pretty good!

[badger]

Very unigue recipe! I'd be curious how the wine tastes. Karma to ya!

We bought some of those in the grocery store once. Funny I had to buy them when there's so many growing wild down there.

[patricimo54]

I guessing the ones you found in the store badger were of the spineless variety? At least that is what they sell down here. As you know they are abundant in our part of the world.

[mantella]

Today we went and picked two more buckets about 40lb and made syrup out of the juice we made last night. Here is the recipe:

(I put cornstarch in the ingredients, but I did not use it since we made it for margaritas)
about a cup of prickly pear juice
1 lemon, juiced ( we used lime )
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional)
pour juice into a medium saucepan.
Add lemon juice and sugar, and slowly bring to a simmer. Cook until syrup begins to thicken. If you want a thicker syrup, stir in 1 teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold water and cook to thicken.
Stir with wire whisk if necessary to smooth consistency.
For diabetics: Use an amount of your favorite non-nutritive sweetener equivalent to 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Since sugar causes thickening, you'll have to compensate by using a little more cornstarch, or use another thickener such as guar gum or xanthan gum.
AND HERE IS YOUR SYRUP

I will probably make more that I process in a water bath for future use.

[mantella]

Here is the champagne of margaritas!

Here is the recipe:

Prickly Pear Margarita Using Prickly Pear Juice (I didn't use this one I used the second recipe making it out of syrup and it is very sweet this one is suppose to be drier)
Preparation time: 3 minutes. Serves 1.
Measurement Conversion Table

Ingredients:

2 ounces Tequila
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce prickly pear juice
1/2 ounce Cointreau
Lime slice for garnish
Ice
Kosher salt


Instructions:

Combine ingredients with ice in a martini shaker, shake and strain out ice before serving
Moisten glass rims with lime juice and dip in Kosher salt
Pour into margarita glass, garnish with lime slice and enjoy!


Prickly Pear Margarita Using Prickly Pear Syrup (use first recipe if you dont like really sweet stuff)
Preparation time: 3 minutes. Serves 1.
Measurement Conversion Table

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces Tequila
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce Prickly Pear Syrup
1/8 ounce Cointreau
Ice
Kosher salt


Instructions: Combine ingredients with ice in a martini shaker, shake and strain out ice before serving
Moisten glass rims with lime juice and dip in Kosher salt (I used sugar)
Pour into margarita glass, garnish with lime slice and enjoy!

[badger]

Awesome! Keep them coming! ;D

[maritimer]

mmmm looks good! ;D

[patricimo54]

How does your champagne margarita compare to a true, pure, undefiled nectar of the gods Mexican margarita with equal parts of tequila, lime and triple sec? Good thread and great post. Karma to ya.

Concerning the wine, I have come across a recipe for a more dry Mustang wine that may be similar to, if not the same, website your mate sent us recently. I just transferred my wine making kit from my storage porch out to the North loft of my workshop.

Happiness is tiny bubbles racing to the top. Cheers!

[mantella]

I will wait to compare them to the Mexican Margarita until I have made both the juice and syrup with triple sec just to be completely fair. When we got home from getting the tequila we realized all the triple sec was gone and since I have made them before I used that recipe for the post and I prepared some with 2 parts tequila 1 part lime 1 part orange and 1 1/2 part syrup so I would still get to have some and have pics

[dirtyd]

That prickly pear marg might be the best looking thing I've seen on the Swamp.

Definitely karma worthy!

[mantella]

With the last 40lbs we picked we found a few ways to clean and process them a little better. We have found that a course scrubber from the hardware store makes the outside of the prickly pear as smooth as a tomato. We also started using leather gloves instead of rubber. Also to strain the juice the first time we used a mesh laundry bag then the cheese cloth to get out the bigger chucks.

[kilog55]

and all the times i was running through texas i wasnt sure if you could pick them or not didnt know if it was legal to cultivate them darnit

[mantella]

I don't know how legal it is, I use to pick them off my families property and lease, until now... But no one stopped me and I was in direct area the sheriff's office patrols through.

[kilog55]

thats why i didnt wanna pull the rig off the side and go nuts with my knife and a trash bag to bring home lol