Cholla bud, chile, and chickpea salad

Tastes like desert. Cholla buds taste similar to artichokes - but really, if you don't have them, probably just makes some other salad instead.

1 cup cholla buds, cooked (could be fresh I guess - I used dry), split lengthwise
1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas/garbanzo beans (or equivalent freshly cooked, would probably be even better)
6 Hatch chiles, roasted, seeded, chopped
1/4 cup agua chiltepin (or cider vinegar and hot sauce)
splash of sesame oil
splash of peanut or olive oil
2 T salted lemon liquid
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Mix all in a bowl. Let stand for 20 minutes to blend flavours. Check seasoning before serving.

Would probably be even better with spring onions/green onions.

Desert/date brownie with prickly pear buttercream

I was in southern Arizona last weekend and it reminded me how much I love the Sonoran desert. It's enchanting in almost every particular, not least the taste. I may have slightly gone shopping, though not to excess, of course. Back home, I wanted to use some of those ingredients. Also, wanted brownies. And what is life without pink buttercream?

Took this as a starting point. But then it went thataways ... straight southwest. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh or frozen dates (not dried)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 5 T pecan meal
• 1/4 cup mesquite flour
• 1/4 cup black onyx cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup regular cocoa powder
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t cinnamon

Method

Line an 8 inch square pan.

Pour the water over the dates and leave until tepid. Blend or process to a smooth puree. Keep a cup of the mixture and save the remainder for another recipe. Add the butter and let soften if required until the mixture can be whisked smooth. Add the vanilla and eggs, whisk again.

In another bowl, put all the dry ingredients and gently whisk until blended.

Heat the oven to 375 F. Add the date mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until thoroughly blended. Turn into the prepared pan, smooth the surface. Bake about 20 minutes or until centre surface is dry and not jiggly.

Optionally, when cool, spread with prickly pear buttercream and sprinkle with prickly pear margarita/lemonade dry mix to decorate.

Prickly Pear Buttercream

• 1/4 cup prickly pear juice (or syrup or puree)
• 1 t triple sec or orange juice (optional)
• 2 T butter, softened.
• Icing/confectioners sugar - approximately 3 cups

Whisk butter and fruit liquid together until smooth, warming if needed. Whisk in sugar until desired consistency reached.

For the record, I used: 

• dates, a mixture from China Date Ranch CA & Sphinx Date Ranch AZ 
• pecan meal from Green Valley Pecans AZ
• mesquite flour from San Xavier Co-op Farm AZ
• wildcrafted prickly pear juice (actually collected the fruit from Utah but of course AZ is full of it in due season) 
• Jill's prickly pear margarita mix (can't find a link, you're on your own, sorry. Bought it in Tucson.)

Two milk cocktails

Idk, random things to try. Use really good delicious milk for these. I prefer the gin one, although the milk-and-rum has a pleasant gentle simplicity to it too.

1 oz Waterpocket distillery cacao rum
4 oz milk

Like chocolate milk for grownups.

1 oz rose and juniper syrup (or rose syrup would probably work fine)
2 oz whole milk
4 oz gin
6 dashes cardamom bitters (or allspice bitters, esp if you use plain rose syrup.)

Stir and serve over ice.

Knickerless minx

Will warm you up from the inside and, um, goes down real easy. No pictures of this one, probably just as well.

1oz Waterpocket cocoa & rum
6 dashes grapefruit or orange bitters
1 marshmallow, regular size (or 2 - 3 small)
Mayan cocoa powder
Barrel smoked sugar
1/2 oz 1/2 & 1/2 or heavy cream
Few ice cubes

Mix bitters with rum. Dip the marshmallow to dampen, then dip again into Mayan cocoa powder to coat. Sprinkle with smoked sugar, spike on a pick and set aside.

Optionally, rim a ceramic beaker with rum and smoked sugar or Mayan cocoa powder. (If you rim the beaker, you could toast the marshmallow instead of sugaring it. Meh, ain't nobody got time for that. Do this only if you already have a campfire lit anyway.)

Add the cream to the rum with the ice cubes. Stir, strain into the beaker. Garnish with the prepared marshmallow.

Serves one. Make more than one; your companions will thank you.

Orange and almond cake

A beautifully moist, dense, and comparatively healthy cake.

1 whole fresh orange
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 T brown sugar
4 eggs
300g ground almonds
1 tsp cardamom
2 tsp baking powder

In a small pan, bring the whole unpeeled orange to the boil with water to cover. Simmer 2 hours.

Remove the orange, discarding the water. Chop roughly, saving any juice, and let cool.

Prepare a 9 inch cake pan. Heat oven to 350 F. Add the sweetening and eggs to the orange in a medium bowl.with an immersion blender, blend til no large pieces of orange remain. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Put in cake pan, bake approximately an hour or til done.

Golden beet salad

I made this, and it's really good. But there is no recipe, bc I just flung it together. So I am trying to at least write down all the ingredients. I think this is it. But it might not be.

3 golden beets, raw, shredded
Bunch cilantro, chopped

1 T fresh mint, chopped

Bunch green onions, chopped

2 bulbs roasted garlic
1 tsp ground long pepper
About 1/4 cup cider vinegar
Walnuts, toasted, chopped - 1/2 or 3/4 cup?
Walnut oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt lemon juice from Moroccan style salt lemons

Balm Yet in Gilead

Another gin cocktail. Quick to mix, tastes like magic or possibly like there was a rain of gin onto flowering orange trees in a distillery.

Use good gin, you'll taste it more than you think.

Good dietary source of consolation.

Serves 0.5 - 1 person:

3 T gin, frozen if possible
2 T Curacao or triple sec. Less sweet is better.
1 tsp orange blossom water.

Stir. Sip. Smile.

Mesquite and Prickly Pear Cheesecakes

Taste all the desert. Recipe is adapted from https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/gluten-free-mini-cheesecakes/ but the flavours - flavors, I should say - are all my idea. If you like a sweeter filling, you could add more honey.

Crust
1 cup pecan meal
1/4 cup mesquite flour
3 T melted butter

Filling
16 oz cream cheese
1 T honey
1 t orange blossom water
1 t vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/4 cup mesquite flour

Topping
1/2 T (1/2 envelope) plain gelatin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup orange or clementine juice
1/3 cup prickly pear juice

Set the oven to 350 F/ 180 C. Set out 12 silicon muffin cups on a baking tray (or use a 12-hole muffin pan.)
Mix the crust ingredients. Divide evenly among the cups and press down with back of spoon, a glass, or fingers. Bake for 10 minutes.

While crust bakes, soften cream cheese until it can be beaten smooth with a whisk. Add the honey, orange blossom water, vanilla, and eggs and beat smooth again. Whisk in the mesquite flour.

Cool the cooked crusts slightly. Divide the filling evenly among the cups and smack the pan to level the filling. Cook for 10 minutes or until no longer jiggly.

Soak the gelatin in the water for a minute. Heat until hot, stir until smooth. Add the juices and let cool. Divide among the cheesecakes - about 1 T each. Optionally decorate with candied orange peel or dried orange. Chill.