Prickly Pear- Habanero Salsa

I have very clear images in my mind of San Luis Potosi , Mexico, the town where I was born and where all my family comes from.

I love walking through the little pebble streets downtown , full of colourful colonial style buildings and churches, filled with street vendors, little markets and the plazas where I like to sit on a bench to rest my feet and perhaps enjoy a fruit ice lolly while I look at people passing by.

Prickly pears grow abundantly in the region and they are sold by street vendors whole, peeled and in a bag with a bit of ground chilli and lime juice , just a simple snack and a perfect example of the Mexican ingenuity born out of necessity too , where people just use what they have around them and transform it into a small business or a way to make a few pesos to feed their families.

These kind of memories are the ones that always bring me a lot of comfort and inspiration when I found myself missing home too much.

I look forward to walking through those streets again and buying a few goodies from the street vendors in the meantime these memories inspired this quick and very spicy salsa.

It’s so good on it’s own served with some tortilla chips on the side ready to scoop up all that loveliness or equally good served with grilled fish or pork during the summer months.

Now prickly pears can be very sweet when ripe or a bit sour when not ready but for the salsa is better to use ripe prickly pears, and now there is no need of discarding the seeds because they are part of the fruit and texture , so you must like prickly pears in order to like this salsa, do try it and let me know if you like it too!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 ripe prickly pears.

1/2 white onion, (finely diced).

1/2 cucumber, (diced).

1 habanero , or 2 jalapeños , you can also use banana peppers. (finely chopped, make it as spicy as you like, for this recipe I used 1 habanero pepper, got rid of the seeds and chopped it finely. You can use some rubber gloves when handling and avoid touching your eyes after).

1 cup of coriander , (roughly chopped).

1-2 limes, (juice).

3 tbsp extra vigin olive oil.

Maldon salt and black coarse pepper to season.

Method:

1. Begin by peeling your prickly pears as if you were cleaning a kiwi , remove the skin carefully and with the help of some rubber gloves to avoid any thorns from going into your hands. Once peeled chopped them roughly (as seen in the pictures).

2. Then in a medium bowl place the chopped prickly pears, diced onion, cucumber, habanero chilli, lime juice, extra virgin olive oil , a pinch of maldon salt to season and black coarse pepper, mix everything with a spoon and let it set for 30 minutes at least in a closed container in the fridge.

3. Once you are ready to serve add the freshly chopped coriander in and mix again with a spoon, it’s ready to served.