A Prickly Pear Cocktail

In yesterday’s blog post I discussed how to juice prickly pear cactus fruit. Now, what to do with that juice. Thanks to Stephen Rudicel for improvising this recipe:

Prickly Pear Fruit Cocktail
1 part tequilla
2 parts prickly pear fruit juice
1/6 part lime juice
1/6 part Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
Dash of bitters

Shake with ice and serve.

If you can think of a catchier name for this drink, feel free to comment.

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9 Comments

  1. I think I am allergic to tequila, too. I ordered a Long Island Tea and became ill. It turned out it was Texas Tea. Another time before that, I only had a sip of something with tequila, and was ill then. No, I was not plastered either. Friends thought I was just a wimp. I am.

  2. I’m thinking it should be called the “drink like a tuna.”

    Or maybe the “Baloo” (after the Disney character who advises Mowgli on how to pick prickly pears without being harmed).

  3. So I ran some prickly pears through the food mill and ended up with something close in viscosity to green snot. Mixing that with tequila seems like a waste of good booze.

    Am I supposed to strain the strained pear pulp before using it as a mixer or does it go in straight from the food mill?

    Thanks.

    • Hold off on that tequila, Bruce! Erik is at the Heirloom Festival this week– and this recipe is his. I wasn’t even around when he and his buds created it, so I don’t think I can answer your question.

      However I am curious about your “green snot” description– is your fruit green? Ideally you’d be using sweet, ripe fruit (yellow, orange, red or purple, depending on the variety) You’re not using the pads instead of the fruit, are you?

      Check back with us this weekend– I’ll point this comment out to Erik when he gets back.

  4. Hi Kelly,

    Well, I couldn’t wait. Thirsty neighbors… I used what I had and it was great.

    I’d bought 2 types of prickly pear – green (the clerk, in broken english- swore they were ripe) and red. The red were about half the size and weren’t nearly as viscous. Our mutual friend Nance Klehm was over here and commented that they were the biggest PP’s she had ever seen. In any event the gooeyness turned into a kind of slush once I mixed it all together.

    Also substituted a simple cherry syrup, from dried cherries reconstituted in boiling sugar/water, for the Luxardo. The cherry liqueur was a little out of my budget for this experiment.

    • Excellent! Your dried cherry sub. is a great idea. I have no idea what’s up with the green fruit, but in my experience our orange/red fruit isn’t viscous. O! the mysteries of prickly pear!

      Best wishes to the Chicago Crew!

    • I’ve seen the fruit sold green in our local Armenian market. I’ve never worked with it so don’t know the way it is used. I do know that this fruit comes in just about every color of the rainbow, though red/purple is the most common. Our’s is orange. And good substitution.

  5. Love what you are doing, I’ve got beautiful prickley/pear fruit. I’m allowing mine to get really ripe picking it when the roadrunners peck and eat it. I want to try using cow-toung fruit tomorrow. We have many different type and would like to document it. What thoughts do you have?

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