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.)

Fizzy pink drinks

Because I can never leave well enough alone, and because I happened to buy an especially aromatic mint plant with an unusual floral scent ... and because summer's coming round these parts. We get through a lot of soda water as the weather heats up, but sometimes one just wants to ring the changes a little. Also, who doesn't like pink drinks?

The first two are more kid-friendly though probably too austere for many. I find cold fizzy drinks more refreshing when less sweet, though of course YMMV. Even 2 or 3 tablespoons of syrup is quite a lot for one drink IMO ...

Here, in increasing order of befuddlingness and also complexity, are four pink fizzy drinks.

Padparadscha spritzer is a deep orange pink
and a little alcoholic

Prickly pear fizz

For each serving, stir together 2 - 3 T prickly pear syrup and a little water or soda. Optionally, add a squeeze of lemon juice.
Fill to the top with soda and ice.

Real lemon, lime, and bitters 

For each serving:

• half a lemon
• half a large, or a whole small, lime
• 1/2 - 1 tsp Angostura bitters 
• simple syrup to taste (about 2 T) 
• soda water
• ice to serve

Wash the citrus thoroughly to remove any wax from the skin, then squeeze into a tall glass. Drop the fruit into the glass too for extra flavour. Add the bitters and syrup to taste, and a splash of soda. Stir together, add ice, and fill with soda water. Serve.

Padparadscha spritzer 

For each serving:

• sprig of mint
• splash of triple sec
• teaspoon of orange blossom water 
• splash of cherry moonshine (or kirsch, but you won't get the stunning colour)
• ice 
• can of soda water (optionally flavoured, but preferably unsweetened. Raspberry or lime goes well.)

Crush the mint in your fingers or muddle it in the bottom of a tall glass. Add the liqueurs and orange blossom water, then ice and soda.

Stir and serve.

White sangria

Makes about 2 litres. Serves fewer people than you'd expect (say about 3?) Long ingredient list but really simple method, and a fabulous festive accompaniment to a barbecue. Dangerously light and delicious. When you run out, top up the glasses with ice, tonic, and optionally gin.

• 1/2 cup triple sec
• 2 T orange blossom water
• 1 T rose water
• 1/2 cup cognac or brandy
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 lime, sliced
• 1 orange, sliced
• 1/4 cup maraschino or moonshine cherries
• 750 ml fizzy white or rose wine (NB I don't recommend anything fancy for this unless you are enormously confident in the sensitivity of your palate)
• 100 g raspberries
• 500 ml or so soda water
• (optional) 1/2 cup simple syrup
• 6 medium sprigs of mint, or to taste
• ice to serve

Mix the triple sec, orange blossom water, brandy, citrus fruit, and cherries together and refrigerate in a jar or closed container overnight. Optionally freeze for up to a week, keeping the cherries away from the citrus slices or the citrus will discolour. Defrost in fridge before use.

Shortly before serving, tip into a 2 litre jug. Stir in the wine and soda water. Taste and add syrup if needed. Float the raspberries and mint in the jug or in the glasses as you serve. Serve over ice, letting a few slices of fruit and a cherry fall into each glass.

Prickly pear juice

Prickly pear cactus in flower, May

This is easily the most blerghtastic thing I've made for ages. It's so pink there probably ought to be a law against it, but that's neither here nor there. However, it's also mucilaginous, a great word, so onomatopoeic, in that it sounds exactly as disgusting as it is.

But ... it tastes good, really good, even with no sugar added. (Unlike the fruit, which were also mucilaginous but bland and frankly a bit yucky.) Maybe I had the wrong kind of prickly pears. Maybe some things just taste better cooked.

Green curry salmon cakes

Serves 4 or 5 depending on appetite. Sorry no photos yet, these were made on a busy evening and I forgot. Will update next time I make them, because they were definitely good enough to make again! Prep plus cook time about 40 minutes.

Ingredients

1.5 lb fresh salmon fillet, skinned
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
1/4 cup fresh basil (more if it seems a bit wimpy)
1 clove chopped garlic
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp green curry paste
2 eggs
Dessicated coconut OR (GF?) panko crumbs as required ( approx 1 cup)
coconut oil for pan frying

To serve, per person:
salad greens, approx 1/2 - 1 cup
prickly pear syrup - approx 1 tsp
Hatch chile peppers, roasted and chopped into strips, approx 1 T
thick unsweetened Greek yoghurt, approx 2 T

Prep and cook

1. Slice the salmon lengthwise into thin strips, then crosswise to make small dice. Remove bones as you go. 
2. Chop the garlic and herbs finely, and add to the same board where the salmon is. Add the green curry paste and lime juice. 
3. With a broad, long, sharp, chef's knife, mix and chop the fish, herbs, and spices together. You want the aromatics evenly mixed with the fish, and also to mince up some of the fish so it will start to hold together as a very rough paste with pieces in it, rather than falling apart as individual pieces coated with herbs and spice.  
4. Once the fish mixture starts to hold together, add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly after each. It will get quite sloppy. I do all this on the chopping board, but you could turn it into a bowl if you want. 
5. Add coconut or crumbs to the mixture to make it firm again - if using coconut, remember it will take some time to absorb the liquid. 
6. Divide into hamburger-ish sized patties. I made 10 from this quantity, to serve 5 people as a light meal. 
7. Press more coconut or crumbs onto both surfaces of each cake. Leave to stand for ten to thirty minutes on a tray or plate in the fridge - a good opportunity to get the garnishes ready. 
8. Heat a little coconut oil in a wide pan and fry each cake until golden on both sides and firm. The exact time will vary, but about 3 or 4 minutes per side. It depends on how much oil you use as well as the heat. Start them out hot - it's better to turn them down so as not to burn, rather than to overcook them while trying to get a good colour on them. 

Plate and serve

On each plate, put a handful on greens, a blob of yoghurt, a tidy pile of chile strips. Drizzle a little prickly pear syrup around the edge. Put the hot cake(s) on the greens and serve straight away.