Prickly Pear Jelly

The desert is just filled with this wonderful fruit, free for the taking.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Prickly Pear juice*
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 (3 ounce) bottle liquid pectin or 1 (3 ounce) pouch
• 1/4 teaspoon butter (to prevent foaming)

Instructions

Prepare the tuna

1. Use red, ripe, tuna (fruit). If fruit is very ripe, try to include some under-ripe ones to add pectin. A handy way to gather fruit is to use a long-handled fork or tongs and a heavy paper bag. It is not necessary to remove the spines, as they will come off when fruit is pressed through cheesecloth or filter paper. Brush the pears with a vegetable brush.




2. To handle these, first use tongs and a knife to scrape the prickly spines off, then trim the edges off. Some hold them over a burner to burn the spines off. After doing this, cut off the ends.
3. Slice the fruit (you need not skin it) into quarters and put into a pot with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Mash with a potato masher and strain the juice and water through a colander with two layers of cheesecloth to remove the seeds and pulp.

Prepare the jelly

1. Combine prickly pear juice, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add pectin and boil again for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir liquid as you add pectin, being careful not to let the mixture boil over. The longer it boils, the thicker the jelly.
2. Remove from heat and skim off any foam. Pour into jars and seal with paraffin.

Notes

*1 pound of fruit (tuna) will yield a little over 1 cup of juice, so to be safe, use about 1 1/4 pounds of tuna.

Prickly pear fruits are rich in vitamin C, and colored by betacyanins, both of which are powerful antioxidants. They are a good source of fiber, and are high in calcium and magnesium.

Here is a recipe for Prickly Pear Margarita.