[Sca-cooks] Fw: Prickly pear fruit- request from my mother.

[Stefan li Rous]

Phlip asked:
> Anybody know how to prepare the fruit of the Prickly Pear? My mother
> sent me a request, and I'm hoping one of y'all might have a clue.
>
> > I have been frantically trying to find out how to prepare prickly 
> pear
> fruit (the easy way.) > I have been stymied from all directions.
Maybe this doesn't need to be said, but this request seems to be 
specifically about handling the prickly pear *fruits*. The prickly pear 
leaves are also eaten. In fact, they are probably more commonly eaten. 
Around here they often go by the Spanish name for these, nopales or 
nopalitos.

The fruit can be made into a jelly. Here is one site I found with a 
recipe for this:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/recipes/cactusfruit.html

Beware if you are picking the fruits from the plant, that the outside 
of these fruits are covered with thin, tiny, almost invisible spines. 
They can and will easily get embedded in you. The ones on the pads, or 
leaves, are bigger and more easily seen and avoided. I learned that the 
hard way on a survival camping trip years ago...

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****