Prickly Pear Sorbet

Ingredients:
4 prickly pears, prickles removed
3 tablespoons simple syrup
1 tablespoon tequila
1 tablespoon key lime juice

Directions:
Cut each prickly pear in half length-wise, scoop out the insides. Discard the skin. Place the pulp in a blender and pulse until smooth. Pour through a sieve to remove the seeds then return to the blender. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Pour into an electric ice cream maker and churn about 25 minutes or until frozen. Serve immediately or freeze in a freezer safe container.

Yield: about 2 modest servings

My thoughts:

I had never had prickly pear before but I don't know why not, they taste sort of like a tart watermelon and are a vibrant magenta. I wasn't sure what to make, but in this heat only making something cool makes sense. The resulting sorbet is really creamy, slightly tart and a breeze to make. The only tricky thing about prickly pears are the seeds, they are really had and spread throughout the flesh, so pureeing and then straining is really the only way to go but luckily the seeds are so hard, they don't crack or chip even when in contact with a powerful blender blade so the task isn't too arduous.