When I was young and living at home, we had a budgerigar that lived in a cage that hung on a wrought iron stand. Under the cage was a spot for a pot plant of some description, in which for no particular reason was a cactus, a prickly pear to be exact.

As is the way with families when there is more than one child, we always argued over who should have to clean the cage. On this particular occasion I must have failed to mount a persuasive argument and it fell to me to do the deed.

On picking up the cage from its hook, it slipped and fell. With my hand still underneath I tried to steady and catch it, but the whole thing pushed my hand into the top of the cactus. You know when you eat a very hot chile and for a second or two you think that everything is going to be all right, but then it's not? Well that is exactly what happened with the fine spikes of the prickly pear.

Mum grabbed some tweezers and slowly and painstakingly pulled out the miniature forest that had suddenly taken root in the back of my hand. After a bit my whole hand went numb and it was quite some time before it returned to normal.

So years later when I first tackled the fruit of the prickly pear, I well knew to wear gloves. I recall one time when I was friendly with some Italians who I was helping to bottle tomato sauce one season, they had a huge one growing in their backyard and were delighted that this Aussie boy was keen to eat some. In a display of bravado that some Italians are prone to, the man of the house delighted in picking them without gloves!

I do not recommend it.

The fruit of this cactus is very refreshing, but without a lot of flavour, it is probably more about texture. We sat there peeling the skin off and eating them whole and very good they are like that on a hot day, but they do take on other flavours quite well. You might like to try this, which is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by the excellent cook Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at least once.

1 cup of sugar syrup, made from equal parts sugar and water
1/2 small hot chile
2 slices ginger
2 mint leaves
25 ml Cointreau
juice of one lime
1/2 kg (1 lb) prickly pear fruit
a few mint leaves

Place the sugar and water in a pot and add the chile, ginger, mint leaves, Cointreau and lime juice. Bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes, strain and leave to cool. Meanwhile, with gloves on peel the prickly pears and slice across into pieces. When the sugar syrup is cool pour onto the prickly pear and leave to marinate in a cool place for three to four hours. Serve garnished with finely sliced mint leaves.

Labels: prickly pear