Prickly Pear Cooking
A lesson on harvesting and cooking prickly pear fruit from the Prickly Pear and Mesquite Festival at Superstition Mountain Museum
This post has been replaced by Cooking With Prickly Pear And Mesquite In Arizona.
This post has been replaced by Cooking With Prickly Pear And Mesquite In Arizona.
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Hi Donna, What an interesting post. I have not cooked with prickly pear yet. Harvesting it does seem to sound like a lot of work, as does cooking and canning the jam. Think I’ll stick with you on this and buy it already prepared. 🙂
Yes, it does seem a lot of work. I might try it if I could buy the fruit already cleaned of its glochids, but I am not usually in this part of the country during harvest season.
Haven’t cooked with prickly pears but coincidentally, it was one of the ingredients the chefs were using in the Food TV Network’s “Chopped” last evening. Looks yummy!
Funny how those coincidences show up.
I didn’t know you could cook with prickly pears – I’d like to try it some time.
Prickly pear jams and syrups are readily found in the southwest states where prickly pear grows. I know prickly pear grows in other parts of the world, but I don’t know if is used for cooking in these places.
Who knew that you could cook with prickly pear??? How interesting! Like you, I’m not sure I’d go for harvesting them, but it does look good!
It fun to find out about ingredients in cooking you never knew about. I sometimes wonder how people figured out what they could safely eat and how best to cook it in the first place.
I remember tasting prickly pear candy as a kid when I grew up in California and I loved your post about how the fruit can be prepared and used to make many tasty dishes including jelly. We had prickley pear growing all over south Texas where we last lived and I always enjoyed the brightly colored yellow and red blooms.
I enjoyed hearing about how to prepare the fruit, even if it sounds a bit more involved than I am prepared to tackle. I love the blooms on the prickly pear cactus – so delicate and vibrant looking at the same time.
I did not know you could eat them! I am glad that you tried it for me! Super interesting post!
I can’t say it’s the most appetizing looking thing. Never tried it but you’ve piqued my curiosity.
Ken, the candy and preserves are actually sweet and tasty.