Prickly Pear Jam

Ingredients:

4 cups of prickly pear fruit and juice (from about 30 fruits)

1/4 cup of lemon or lime juice

1/2 tsp ground ginger (optional)
5 cups of sugar

Directions:

This fruit is full of rock hard seeds inside. They are like small pebbles and you want to get them all out of your jam. With a sharp knife, cut off both ends of the fruit and cut it in half. Remove the skin. Scrape out the seeds with a spoon into a bowl. They are surrounded by juice that can be used in the jam. Once the fruit and seeds are separated, put the seeds in a strainer or in a cloth ( the type used for cooking sticky rice.) Squeeze out all the juice and fruit and you will have the seeds only left. Throw them away.

Heat prickly pear fruit and juice, lemon juice and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes stirring constantly. Skim off the foam. Put the fruit and juice in a food processor or mix with a mixer for a minute or two until smooth. This jam thickens as it cools, so it will seem pretty loose at this point.

Ladle into sterilized jars or freeze.