Prickly Pear Enchilada Sauce Food

CRIMSON PRICKLY PEAR SAUCE

Steps:

• Cut a 1/2-inch slice off both ends of the prickly pears, then make a 1/2-inch deep incision down the side of each one. Carefully (remember there are little stickers) peel off the rind, starting from your incision: The rind is thick, and, if the fruit is ripe, will peel easily away from the central core. Roughly chop the peeled prickly pears, puree in a food processor or blender, then press through a fine strainer into a bowl. There should be about 3 cups.
• In a medium-size (2- to 3-quart) saucepan, combine 2 cups of the puree with 1/3 cup sugar, and simmer rapidly over medium to medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until reduce to 1 cup. Cool.
• Combine the cooked mixture with the remaining1 cup of uncooked puree in a small bowl. Taste and season with lime juice, orange liqueur and additional sugar if needed.
• Advance Preparation:
• Covered and refrigerated, the sauce will keep about a week. The finished sauce (as well as the prickly-pear pulp) also can be frozen.

BEACHCOMBER'S PRICKLY PEAR JELLY

Steps:

• Harvest tunas (prickly pear fruits) wearing thick gloves. A 2 quart colander full to top should yield about 8 cups juice. Be sure to include a few that still are a wee bit green if possible. Do NOT handle these with bare hands (you will be sorry because they are deceptive- she writes while gnawing at her right thumb pad - LOL).
• Rinse the fruits in a colander (we have a lot of salt spray here). Then put them in a large nonreactive kettle with the 2 cups of water. Cover & bring to rapid simmer. Simmer until fruit soft - about 30 minutes.
• Ladle now mushy fruits into blender & blend with enough water to make thick slurry. Ok to do this after fruits cool if this recipe has been too high risk up to this point. Otherwise blend when hot but be sure to hold down blender lid with a thick cloth between it & your hand because boiling brilliant magenta juice with tiny tiny spines REALLY hurts! (Clorox cleanup gets it off countertops & walls).
• Pour blended fruits back into pan with residual water & stir.
• Drape 4 layers of cheesecloth in colander (which should sit in another pot or bowl) & dampen.
• Pour or ladle then pour the brilliant magenta fruit slurry into the cheesecloth & gather the edges to twist and squeeze the juice out (need to wait a bit if the mush inside is still hot). Your hands will be stained brilliant magenta if you opt not to wear gloves but the cheesecloth effectively sieves out any little spines.
• Rinse out the initial kettle (use those gloves just to be safe) and pour the strained juice back into it. Add lemon juice. Heat to boil & add the 2 packets of powdered pectin. Bring to a hard boil for 1-2 minutes.
• Add 7 cups of sugar, blend well & bring to a hard boil for 2 minutes.
• Ladle into sterilized 1 cup jars, lid & process in covered hot water bath for 20 minutes. Leave 1/2 inch headroom when filling jars & be sure to have jars in hot water bath covered by at least 2 inches of water.
• Remove from bath & place on flat towel on counter. Jars should "pop" within 5 minutes. ENJOY!