{"id":5167,"date":"2014-03-04T17:25:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T01:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/?p=5167"},"modified":"2014-03-10T16:23:56","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T23:23:56","slug":"prickly-pear-margaritas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/prickly-pear-margaritas\/","title":{"rendered":"Prickly Pear Margaritas!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This just in: prickly pears are PRICKLY!!!<\/p>\n

\"Cactus<\/a><\/p>\n

Cactus Pear Margarita with rose & lime…sublime<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Yes, they are aptly named. Can you believe it? Well I couldn’t. I was\u00a0too<\/em>\u00a0good for gloves.\u00a0Too<\/em>\u00a0good for tongs.\u00a0Too<\/em>\u00a0good for a regular ol’ kitchen towel. I picked ’em right off the ol’ cactus bare handed. Boy, was I stupid…<\/p>\n

I didn’t immediately feel the teeny tiny invisible prickles so I continued to prep the prickly pears cutting away the thick outer skin and roughly chopping the gorgeous magenta flesh.<\/p>\n

It was only when I washed my knife and the hot water hit my hands, that I felt the sting. Not just a sting, but a burn that ran through my fingers, through my palms, through my wrists. So let this be a lesson to you: wear gloves when you hold these bright pink flirtatiously sweet CACTUS pears! They are the Scorpians of dessert fruit.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0129\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m a little dismayed at the recipes I’ve read online for prickly pear syrup because most call for the fruit to be pulverized first in a blender. But this isn’t necessary. I think it’s better to cook the fruit down with some sugar then press the soft flesh through a chinois to catch all the crunchy little black seeds.<\/p>\n

As for interesting ways to use this syrup there are many: as a garnish to guaijillo BBQ pulled pork tacos, on roasted chicken as a glaze, and also as a sweet elixir to mix with tequila in a margarita or rhum in a mojito. Check out \u00a0the blog: Hunter Angler Gardener Cook<\/a>\u00a0for a tasty prickly pear glazed pheasant recipe.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0092\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prickly pears have a watermelon-like flavor that begs to be mixed with other fruits. Raspberry and Prickly pear is a great combo. I also like adding flower water essences (like rose & orange blossom) and spices such as: cumin, coriander, guajillo, pasilla, cayenne, and smoked paprika.<\/p>\n

It is watery tasting when eaten raw in the same way a watermelon is, but when reduced into a syrup it is seriously sweet with little acidity. Keep this in mind. Lime is a natural balance for the prickly pear. Or if you are using this syrup in a savory dish as a meat glaze then add a little vinegar (sherry, red wine, or white wine) to balance the sugar and make it more of a gastrique<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this isn’t the first fruit that comes to mind for Spring but I’m having a lot of fun using this pretty cactus pear on Pie Ranch right now. Stay tuned for a nopales (cactus) Quiche and a prickly pear glazed pork roast….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This just in: prickly pears are PRICKLY!!! Yes, they are aptly named. Can you believe it? Well I couldn’t. I was\u00a0too\u00a0good for gloves.\u00a0Too\u00a0good for tongs.\u00a0Too\u00a0good for a regular… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[682,969,7],"tags":[26,1319,132,1010,1320,1318,901,203,1323,1321,245,1009,270,283,323,836,945,379,1316,1011,404,447,1315,484,1314,510,511,537,548,860,699,604,1317,1322,618,632,638,639],"class_list":["post-5167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fruits","category-pie-ranch","category-recipes-2","tag-amy","tag-cactus","tag-chef","tag-cinco","tag-cocktails","tag-cut","tag-damour","tag-de","tag-desert","tag-drinks","tag-featured","tag-fiesta","tag-fruit","tag-glaze","tag-how","tag-image","tag-lime","tag-make","tag-margarita","tag-mayo","tag-ms-glaze","tag-party","tag-pear","tag-pommes","tag-prickly","tag-recipe","tag-recipes","tag-salt","tag-savory","tag-seasonal","tag-spring","tag-sweet","tag-syrup","tag-tequila","tag-to","tag-tuna","tag-unusual","tag-use"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/DSC_0075.jpg?fit=4288%2C2848","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kn35-1ll","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5167"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}