The prickly pear is a cactus fruit that is in reality a berry. The pulp of the prickly pear is sweet and rainy with an aroma and style similar to a mix of the tastiest tropical and subtropical fruits, strawberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, fig, and banana.
The salmon or pink to magenta colored flesh of the prickly pear may also be sliced or cubed and eaten raw as quickly because the fruit’s arduous black seeds are removed. The flesh may also be puréed and added to yogurts, sorbets, or ice cream or used as a flavoring for drinks. In Mexico, the prickly pear is known a “cactus candy.”
The prickly pear fruit is in most cases 2 to 4 inches long and egg or barrel shaped, in regards to the size of a kiwi fruit or small guava. The outdoor is thick and coarse and can vary in color from green to yellow to orange or pink or purple, or relatively of a large number of those. The color of the fruit and flesh is preceded by means of blossoms of the identical color.
The prickly pear’s pores and pores and skin is principally the fruit’s rind and is covered with stiff spines that must be in moderation removed. Nopales are the leaves of the cactus pear which moreover may also be eaten. They too are lined with prickly spines or hairs.
Season. The peak season for prickly pears is past due summer season by means of early wintry weather, September to December throughout the northern hemisphere.
Make a selection. Select small, blank, unblemished, deep-colored prickly pears which can also be corporate then again not arduous. The fruit will yield to refined pressure when ripe. The outdoor must be shiny. Keep away from fruit that is moldy or broken. Prickly pears are ripe for roughly each week.
Store. Prickly pears may also be refrigerated in a plastic bag for 2 to a couple of days. Corporate prickly pears will ripen and soften at room temperature in a few days.
Get able. Use care in getting able the prickly pear for cooking, a pair thick leather gloves is really useful. Remove the sharp spines with pliers, bring to a close ends of the pear, make a shallow slit throughout the pores and pores and skin down the length of the fruit and peel once more each and every the inner and outer layers pores and pores and skin once more from best to bottom with a sharp knife. The prickly pear will have small stinging on the subject of invisible hairs. You’ll be able to remove the ones hairs by means of passing the fruit by means of an open flame. To remove the seeds, press the fruit by means of a sieve or foods mill. You’ll want to remove the seeds previous to cooking, differently they’re going to harden throughout cooking.
Cook dinner dinner. Simmer prickly pear slices with water and sugar for 15 minutes or until easy, combine, drive, and chill. You’ll be able to combine this purée with white wine vinegar or cider vinegar to make a salad dressing.
Serve. Serve prickly pear entire, cubed, or thin sliced in fruit cups or salads or sprinkled with lemon or lime juice. The sieved flesh may also be served in punches and cocktails or as a flavoring for sorbets and yogurts. Prickly pear purée can be used as a filling for tarts and cakes or to make jam or juice.
Style partners. Prickly pear has a style affinity for banana, honeydew melon, lemon, lime, orange, tequila, and watermelon.
Nutrition. Prickly pears are a very good provide of magnesium and potassium and as well as contain calcium, diet C, and sodium. The prickly pear is low in power.
Prickly pear knowledge and trivia. The prickly pear could also be known as tuna pear or tuna fig, cactus pear, Indian fig or Indian pear. In Britain the prickly pear is called the Barbary fig or pear. In Israel, the prickly pear is called Sharon’s fruit. In Spain prickly pears are known as tunas and in Italy the prickly pear is called fichi d’india.
Prickly pears are native to the tropical spaces of the Americas and have been eaten by means of native peoples since earlier period. The prickly pear is a member of the Optunia cactus family with more than 300 species. Most originated in northwest Mexico or the southwestern United States. The best recognized varieties are ‘Cardona’ which has a large purplish purple flower and fruit and ‘Amarilla’ which is maximum recurrently yellow.
The botanical establish of the prickly pear is Optunia ficus-indica.
