Yes, you can purple-up your favorite margarita with prickly pear fruit juice!
• Pick your ripe tunas (purple fruit of prickly pear) with barbecue tongs, put them in a paper grocery sack. A half sack is more than enough for several batches of ritas.
• Let ‘em sit for a couple of days, then the glochids (tiny thorns) kindof fall off (rub them off with a paper towel).
• Peel tunas with a potato peeler or knife.
• Cut tunas in two, take out the seeds with your thumb, over a strainer,
saving the juice that goes through.
• Put the purple pulp and any juice you save in a food processor.
• Here are the proportions for making the tuna concentrate:
- pulp from 8 tunas
- 4 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon mint leaves, chopped
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup or sugar
• Mix above ingredients together, heat lightly in saucepan.
• Cool and put into ice trays or a tupperware container, freeze.
• Add a few cubes to the blender when making normal, limeade-type margaritas (1 small frozen limeade, same container of tequila, ice). Leave out the Cointreau or other sweetner.