Prickly Pear Barbeque Sauce

When I was getting ready to leave my friends' house yesterday, I noticed all the prickly pears on their cacti.

"Do you have plans for all those?" I queried, pointing at all the tunas on the paddles, as I am always looking to cook with things from my friends' yards!

Plans for what? Mike asked.

"All those prickly pears," I answered.

Oh, no, I just let those fall on the ground. Why? Do you want some?

"Yes!!!!!"

He grabbed tongs, a long, knife, and a paper bag. I followed him out.

"I heard that I can burn the spines off with a torch. Is that what I should do?"

[insert much laughter] Where did you hear that?

"I read it somewhere," I answered sheepishly. It sounded like a good idea...all except for the fact that I have yet to locate my culinary torch since we moved.

No, you don't need to do that. He cautioned me against touching the prickly pears at all and showed me how to get to the meat without handling the fruit at all.

You slice the ends off. Make a slice down the fruit lengthwise. Then run your knife just under the skin all the way around the fruit. You're left with cylinders of prickly pear that are spine-free and safe to touch!

As we're headed to a bring-you-own meat barbeque on Friday, I decided to make some prickly pear barbeque sauce. I've made pumpkin barbeque sauce and rhubarb barbeque sauce before and figured this would be equally unique. And homemade barbeque sauce is so easy to make...

Prickly Pear Barbeque Sauce

Ingredients

1-1/2 C roasted tomato sauce (my recipe here, or you can substitute with ketchup)
1-1/2 C prickly pear juice and pulp*
3/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/3 C Worcestershire sauce
2 T raw honey
1 T organic dark brown sugar
3 T diced onions
2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed and minced
1 bay leaf
2 t curry powder
freshly ground salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste

*Place peeled prickly pears in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the fruit is completely broken down.

Procedure

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and simmer until it has reached the consistency that you want. Mine took between 15 and 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning - sugar, salt, and pepper - as needed. Place in sterile jars and refrigerate until ready to use. Use within week.

Comments

Connecticut Lobster Rolls, Canned Lobster Bisque, and a 2019 Henry Fessy 'Maître Bonhome' Viré-Clessé #Winophiles

This month the French Winophiles group is looking at affordable wines from Burgundy. Host Cindy of Grape Experiences wrote: "Burgundy, or Bourgogne, is known for its wines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir... as well as Aligote, Gamay, Sauvignon, César, Pinot Beurot, Sacy, Melon in lesser quantities. Many of the well-known wines are quite expensive, but there are plenty of values to be found." Read her invitation here. And there won't be a Twitter chat for this event, so you will have to dive into the articles themselves to read about our pairings and findings. Here's the line-up... Wendy Klik from A Day in the Life on the Farm enjoys Domaine Chevillon Chezeaux Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits, 2018 Paired with a Maple Pecan Chicken . Camilla Mann from Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares her love of Connecticut Lobster Rolls, Canned Lobster Bisque, and a 2019 Henry Fessy 'Maître Bonhome' Viré-Clessé. Jeff Burrows of FoodWineClick! explains why we should Look t...

Homemade Lorna Doone Cookies #SundayFunday

Today the Sunday Funday group is celebrating childhood favorites. Thanks to Stacy of Food Lust People Love , Sue of Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of Making Miracles , and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for coordinating this low-stress group. Today Stacy is hosting and she's given us the following prompt: "Childhood favorites. Did you have a favorite dish growing up? It could be something your family cooked or a restaurant dish, even a Chef Boyardee canned good or packaged ingredients like Rice-a Roni or mac and cheese. Recreate THAT dish from SCRATCH for this event." Here's the #SundayFunday childhood favorites line-up... Chili Mac from A Day in the Life on the Farm Ham and Mushroom Breakfast Burritos from Making Miracles Homemade Lorna Doone Cookies from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Homemade Wonder Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories K-Mart Sub Sandwiches from Palatable Pastime Kempakki Dosa from Sizzling Tastebuds Meat Chilly Fry...

Quick Pickled Red Onions and Radishes

If you've been reading my blog for even a short amount of time, you probably know how much I love to pickle things. I was just telling a friend you can pickle - with vinegar - or you can ferment - with salt - for similar delicious effect. The latter has digestive benefits and I love to do that, but when I need that pop of sour flavor quickly, I whip up quick pickles that are ready in as little as a day or two. I've Pickled Blueberries , Pickled Asparagus , Pickled Cranberries , Pickled Pumpkin , and even Pickled Chard Stems ! This I did last night for an upcoming recipe challenge that requires I include radishes. Ummmm...of course I'm pickling them! Ingredients makes 1 quart jar radishes, trimmed and sliced organic red onions, peeled and thinly sliced (I used a mandolin slicer) 3/4 C vinegar (I used white distilled vinegar) 3/4 C water 3 T organic granulated sugar 1 T salt (I used some grey sea salt) 6 to 8 grinds of black pepper Proce...

Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Search This Blog