Monsoons and Prickly Pears

Last Saturday, Mardi and her sister Marci decided to make Prickly Pear jelly (and whatever other goodies they could devise from the delicious fruit) Marci stopped on her way down to our place and spent about an hour picking the fruit. Our monsoon rains have loaded the desert with fat ripe fruit! It's truly a crime not to use it if you can. I loved her description of how she chose the fruits. "I left the high ones for the birds and the low ones for the lizards and other little critters. So, if you see a patch of cactus with a band picked clean around the middle.........those are mine!"
She arrived with two, nearly full, five gallon buckets of cactus fruit, ripe and ready. By now, Mardi had called our good friends Marika and Sandy partly as reinforcements and mostly to just join in the fun. In no time, they had pots and cauldrons boiling on the big commercial stove in the outdoor kitchen. It Was Hot as Hell, even with the cooler "blasting". (so we work in our swimming suits, a quick dip in the pool now and then really helps)

Meanwhile, they had all put their heads together and devised a rather elaborate straining system using about everything we have. Cactus fruit has small stickers on it (no big deal) but there are also these almost microscopic little buggers which can really cause havoc. They are so fine, they will get inhaled! The final stage was to pour through several layers of muslin and a paper coffee filter. The bounty from all this was about eight gallons of prickly pear cactus juice. Nectar of the desert! We poured several gallons into ice cube trays to freeze for later use.

Sunday, Mardi and Marci began making the actual jelly. Recipes abound for this process but none of them seem to be complete or they are contradictory with each other. You just have to read between the lines and be a little creative. After a couple of false starts, the jelly was piling up like a real canning line.

It tasted wonderful! I took some of the juice and blended it with my Hummingbird mix.

They love it too!

Marci arrived Monday morning with her "Cordial Maker" a kind of odd little machine that looks to be a cross between an ice cream maker and a yogurt machine. What the Hell, let's try it. You simply take about half cactus juice, half vodka and some sugar and pour it into this contraption. Set the dial and wait a few hours. Voila! You have Prickly Pear Cordial! Simple as that. Hmmmmmmm...I think we may be onto something here. Sweet, thick, and it packs a kick! It looks as if we may need a few liters of this stuff just to make it through the winter.

The next plan is to devote a few gallons of juice to cactus wine. We have most of the stuff already and the fruit is ready to pick! I'll let you know how it turns out, in a few months.

Chow!

It might have been a wake, but the food...................!!

Our cousin's mom passed a few days ago. The funeral was yesterday with a wake afterward. We volunteered to cook the food because, that's what we do. Our cousins were overwhelmed by out-of-town guests and preparations. The last thing they needed was to try to feed 60 or 70 people.

As luck would have it, I had just installed my new grill on Sunday. I gave it a quick trial with a few brats and decided that it would be ok. It's not like my old clunker but I will get used to it. Besides, this one is a whole lot fancier! The real test came Tuesday. I first, grilled an 11 pound pork shoulder roast. The seasoning wasn't too involved as we were going to make pulled pork BBQ with it. I used the indirect grilling method on my trusty broiler pan @ about 275.

I left it on the grill for just over five hours and basted it regularly with its own juices. After about two hours, I tented it with a piece of foil. I think this helps keep in the moisture while not allowing things to get too dark.
As the pork roast cooked, I prepared a 12 pound beef brisket. This one got a wonderful sugar and chile powder based dry rub. Nothing particularly exotic, just add a little extra zippy enhancement without overpowering the wonderful beef flavor. When the pork roast came off the grill, the brisket went on. I kept the temp the same and followed the ironclad rule: NO looking for two hours! After that, I basted the brisket with its own juices. KISS cooking at its best. 6 hours later I turned off the heat and removed the beef, wrapped it with foil and let it rest for about another hour. Wednesday morning I sliced it thinly and poured some of the left over juice right back over the meat. Oh, I almost forgot, I also baked a big ham in the oven of our outside kitchen while all this other stuff went on. It was wonderful! but..............................

back to the brisket. We managed to get all the food to the wake by about one in the afternoon. everyone was really hungry from all the crying and the pressure was on. In no time at all and with a lot of help, we had a fabulous spread! We used an electric roaster for a makeshift steam table and put the pulled pork and beef brisket in it to stay hot. I was a little nervous as I had never cooked a brisket before. To add to my anxiousness, this is one of my favorite things to eat and it is always made to seem almost impossible to do right. (unless you have a $10,000 trailer mounted smoker, a keg of beer and a half dozen rednecks to keep you up all night cooking, tending and drinking) Now, I am as much a redneck as the next guy, and I am willing to do all that other stuff. If I have a couple of days to recuperate. Time just did not permit that much fun.

The first indication that maybe the beef was ok, was when I noticed one of the guests bragging about how everything but the brisket was fantastic! While talking up all the other food, he was loading his plate with brisket! Several times. At last, he confided, it was the best brisket he had ever eaten. This was a cool thing. Over and over, people raved about our food. Mardi had made a ton of other stuff all while teaching a class. We are so fortunate that an event like this is pretty easy for us to pull off now.

For us to be able to provide a wonderful meal and help lessen the grief of all the guests is truly a gift we are very thankful for. The rest of the day was spent telling stories, drinking and eating. I think everyone went home feeling just a little better, and a lot fuller.

Chow!