Well, the
prickly pear is not a common ingredient in most kitchens. Being a cactus fruit, they're quite a bit of work for not a lot of juice, but what you do get its colorful, flavorful and great for cocktails or vinegarette. It doesn't really taste like anything except prickly pear, so until you try it I can't really describe it to you. They're very fresh, can be a bit crisp and, I dunno... old world. It has a sense of history to it; a story you can only let your tongue tell to you.
When picking them out, go for the ones soft to the touch, but not rotting or massively bruised (shop for them like you would for a peach). Unless you are familiar with them, handle them with gloves so as not to get your self with the fine needles. I say fine because they don't so much hurt, but they irritate like hell and you have to tweezer the thousands of small threadlike needles out. Some stores have them pretty well scraped so you may not have to worry, but they rarely get all of them.
To prepare them...
1) Cut off the ends, then make a slit down the vertical length of the fruit.
2) Peel it apart. Think of the fruit like the earth, with a crust, mantle, and core.
Like so: [(O)]
The crust and mantle peel easily off the core, [( O )], leaving you with the seedy core.
3) Cut the core up and press and mash through a fine sieve (maybe process in a food processor first if you want). You want to get out all those inedible seeds. Afterwards, you are then left with the bright pink juice.
The juice is refreshing with a splash of tequila, gives new life to lemonade, or mix with some light red vinegar for a salad dressing. Reduce it for 15 minutes over medium heat for a great sauce for ice cream or as a glaze for pork. I've also heard of people making jam or utilizing the juice or seedless puree for prickly pear ice cream.
Maybe I'll even figure out a cupcake recipe with it someday? Hmm...
Update 3/1/07: I have gotten a lot of questions as where to buy these. Nugget Markets in the Sac and Davis areas seem to carry them. You can also go and pick them yourself if you see a nopales cactus (they're everywhere in California and the Southwest), just be just to handle them with heavy gloves until you have just the core as they won't have been cleaned of the needles like in a market. Some bushes can be found on the UCD campus across from the Chem 194 building and in the UCD Arboretum near the horse stables. Many markets will do special orders, and prickly pears are cheap so you can always go that route as well.
I haven't been feeling too well, so I was glad I had this all set up. I made lemonade a few days ago, because lets face it, fresh lemonade is fantastic. I also had a lot of leftover prickly pear puree, so I added a few tablespoons of water and froze it into ice cubes.
