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Recipes

The fun of gardening in a sustainable way stretches into learning about what native foods are edible. People who lived in California long before we did ate these foods to survive. At CNGF events, members have had a grand time savoring some of these delicious dishes made from native edible ingreients. Try them yourself!

For these recipes and others, see our sources for native California ingredients.

The recipes are courtesy of Cowboy Chef John Farais and Eco-Chef Aaron French.

Entrees

Big Game Stew

2 pounds ground bison, venison, or elk meat
3 cups acorn flour
1/2 cup Amaranth flour
1 cup pine nuts
1 bunch allium (wild onion) or green onions, diced
2 cups fresh nettle leaves
3 arrowhead roots
12 small cama bulbs
6 cups water (more if needed)
Sea salt and pepper

  1. In a tall pot, heat game meat in 2 cups of the water.
  2. When meat is almost cooked through, add acorn flour, and stir into meat.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients through the last 4 cups (or more) of water and cook for another 15 minutes on medium high heat.
  4. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.

Pan Roasted Muscovy Duck with Nettle, Pinenuts, and Honey Glaze

1 Muscovy Duck breast
Sea salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups white wine
1 finely chopped allium (wild onion), or scallions
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup fresh nettle leaves
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Score the skin of the breast. Rub with salt and pepper.
  3. Place in hot skillet over medium heat and cook skin side down about 7 minutes.
  4. Turn breast over and finish cooking in oven about 12 minutes or until pink.
  5. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

While duck is cooking in oven, prepare sauce:

  1. Add stock, wine, allium, and honey together in a saucepan and reduce until liquid thickens slightly.
  2. Add pine nuts and nettle.
  3. Salt to taste and drizzle over sliced duck breast.

Native Crab Cakes

2 pounds or 4 cups of cooked Dungeness Crab
2 cups Amaranth and Hazelnut flours combined
4 eggs, beaten
4 allium stalks
1 cup finely diced nopales (cactus) pads
1 cup rehydrated rose hips
3/4 cup dried nettles
4 tablespoons Sunflower oil

  1. Rehydrate rose hips by adding ½ cup of water.
  2. Heat a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil.
  3. Sauté nopales pads until soft. Their sap will be released. Let cool.
  4. Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
  5. Form mix into round patties and fry in a pan at medium heat until brown on both sides.
  6. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and let cook for 3 to 4 minutes more.

Mesquite Seared Rabbit

1 rabbit, either whole or cut into pieces
1 cup Amaranth flour
1 cup Hazelnut flour
3/4 cup Mesquite flour
Sea salt and pepper
3 tablespoons Sunflower oil
3 cups rabbit or other stock

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine amaranth, hazelnut and mesquite flours into mixing bowl.
  3. Dredge rabbit in flours, making sure to get inside crevice and under legs, if leaving whole.
  4. Heat a large pan over medium high flame. Add oil.
  5. Carefully place rabbit in pan and sear each side, top and bottom until brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.
  6. Take out of pan, place into baking pan. Add 3/4 of the rabbit stock and put into oven.
  7. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
  8. Turn heat down to 325 degrees F.
  9. Cook a whole rabbit for 60 to 90 minutes or pieces for 45 to 60 minutes, adding rest of stock as needed to prevent drying out.
  10. Cool and pull meat from bones.
  11. For serving, reheat rabbit in stock or in sauce.

Chef's note: You can freeze bones for making stock.

Piñon Cakes (Pine Nut Cakes)

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

1 cup piñon nuts (pine nuts)
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
Vegetable oil for shallow frying

  1. Place the piñon nuts, powdered milk, wheat flour, and salt into a food processor with a chopping blade.
  2. Pulse 5 to 6 times and scrape down the sides. Continue this until the mixture resembles a coarse sand.
  3. When the nut and flour mix is well blended, begin streaming the water slowing in while the processor is running.
  4. When a ball of dough forms, stop and scrape down the sides, and blend until the ball forms again.
  5. Remove the dough from the processor bowl and pinch off small amounts to form balls about the size of a golf ball. Roll the ball in your hand to make sure it is well formed and then press it into a flat disc about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick.
  6. Heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until a small amount of the dough begins to bubble when dropped into the oil.
  7. Add the dough patties carefully and allow these to fry until they are brown on one side. Flip to fry the second side. Once the Piñon cakes are done, remove from the hot oil, and drain on a wire rack or a paper towel.
  8. Serve immediately while still hot. If needed, keep in a warm oven for a while before serving.

Black Walnut (or Hazelnut) Crusted Catfish with a Maple Butter Sauce

4 catfish fillets, boneless
1/4 cup Black Walnuts or Hazelnuts, finely ground
3/4 cup crushed Kellogg`s Corn Flakes
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste

  1. Mix the black walnuts and Corn Flakes.
  2. Roll the fillets in the mixture and pan sauté in just a teaspoon of butter.
  3. Cook until done.
  4. For the sauce, bring syrup to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter. Serve with the fillets.

Hedgehog Mushroom & Mesquite Ragout over pasta conchiglie in Black Trumpet Romanesco

Chef Aaron French, The Sunny Side Cafe, Albany
www.eco-chef.com

California Native plants: Hedgehog & Black Trumpet mushrooms, mesquite flour, and agave (used in making tequila).

For Mushroom Ragout
1 pound hedgehog mushrooms, cleaned and in 1/8 inch slices
2 large yellow onions, peeled and quartered, then sliced thin
1/4 cup tequila
1/2 cup mesquite flour
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil

For Romanesco Sauce
1/2 pound black trumpet mushrooms, cleaned
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup dry baguette or other bread, in pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoons fresh garlic
1/2 cup roasted red bell pepper, skin removed
5 roma tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup red wine
1 teaspoon truffle salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 pound shell pasta

  1. Sauté onions in 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat until soft.
  2. Add mesquite flour, then turn down heat and cook about 30 minutes until transparent, stirring frequently and adding more oil if onions start to stick. Remove from heat.
  3. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a new skillet and heat until almost smoking.
  4. Add sliced hedgehog mushrooms and cook on high until soft.
  5. Reduce heat to low and return the onions to the skillet.
  6. Add the tequila and fresh leaves of thyme, and cook on low for 1 hour. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  7. Meanwhile, prepare the romanesco sauce and boil water for the pasta.
  8. For the sauce: Clean the black trumpet mushrooms and sauté in olive oil until wilted.
  9. Place mushrooms and remaining oil in a food processor. Add remaining ingredients to food processor and blend, stopping when the mixture is still slightly chunky.
  10. Cook pasta according to directions. Add sauce to drained pasta and toss in pan to warm.
  11. Serve, topping each portion with a spoonful of mushroom ragout.

Pacific Salmon Crudo & Watercress Salad

Chef Aaron French, The Sunny Side Cafe, Albany
www.eco-chef.com

California Native plants: Watercress, walnuts, prickly pear juice, agave nectar, Pacific salmon.

Prickly Pear Vinaigrette
1/2 cup prickly pear juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dry oregano
2 tablespoons agave syrup (or to taste)
1 1/2 cups olive oil

Watercress Salad
1 bunch Spring radish
1 pound watercress
1 cup walnuts

Salmon crudo (Prepare 2 hours in advance)
1 pound very fresh wild salmon, bones and skin removed
2 green onions, sliced thin
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons prickly pear juice
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Juice from 1 lemon

  1. Rinse the salmon and pat dry with paper towels. Slice the salmon across the grain in 1/8 inch slices. Place in a bowl and mix with remaining ingredients (up to 2 hours ahead). Keep very cold - perhaps chilled on ice.
  2. To make the vinaigrette, add all the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor or blender. With the machine turned on, slowly pour the olive oil into the mixture. Adjust the sweetness and/or the salt to your taste.
  3. Rinse the radishes, remove the greens, and slice very thin. Rinse the watercress, removing any tough part of the lower stalks.
  4. In a dry pan, toast the walnuts over high heat until golden brown, stirring often and watching carefully that they don't burn.
  5. To serve, toss the watercress with the vinaigrette and arrange in a pile in the center of a platter. Arrange the salmon slices in a star pattern around the edge of the platter, topping each slice with a thin piece of radish. Sprinkle the salad with the toasted walnuts. Serve immediately.

Nopales Breakfast or Lunch or Dinner

Courtesy Mona Anderson.

Olive oil, just enough to coat bottom of skillet for onions
1/2 cup diced yellow or white onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (careful, too much can ruin)
2 cups diced Nopales, cooked and well drained
4 extra large eggs
Salt and black pepper

  1. In large skillet, saute onions in olive oil over low heat until clear.
  2. Add garlic and cumin; saute another minute, taking care not to burn.
  3. Add nopales.
  4. When thoroughly heated, make a well in the center and add eggs, stirring quickly and breaking yolks until all ingredients are coated and eggs are cooked.
  5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Serve with fresh tomato salsa (your own or store bought) and corn tortillas, or roll in flour tortillas and serve as breakfast burritos.

To cook tender nopales (prickly pear cactus pads):

  1. Pare off the spines, cut in small cubes.
  2. In a very large pot, boil in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes.
  3. Drain, rinse well, and store. Drain again before using.

Hamburger, Nopales, Chipotle in Adobo

Courtesy Mona Anderson.

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion, chopped
3 or 4 or more garlic cloves (to taste), chopped
1 16-ounce can tomato sauce and water used to rinse out the can
Salt and black pepper
Oregano
Diced nopales, cooked (as much as you like, no need to drain well)
Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce (with the Mexican food in most grocery stores; only need a few peppers from the can)
1 can of corn (or frozen) (optional, for color)

  1. In a skillet, brown ground beef with onions and garlic.
  2. After meat starts to brown, add the tomato sauce and the water used to rinse out the can. The ingredients should be thick and soupy; if not, add more tomato sauce.
  3. Add, salt, pepper, oregano, and nopales.
  4. Add a few Chipotle peppers and Adobo sauce (careful not to burst the peppers unless you want extra spicy).
  5. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
  6. Serve with rice (white, brown, or Spanish) and corn or flour tortillas.

To cook tender nopales (prickly pear cactus pads):

  1. Pare off the spines, cut in small cubes.
  2. In a very large pot, boil in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes.
  3. Drain, rinse well, and store. Drain again before using.

Snacks and Small Dishes

Elderberry Fritters

Makes 4 servings.

Elderberry flowers, clusters
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
oil for frying

  1. Make a batter from the flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and milk.
  2. Dip washed and drained flower clusters into the batter.
  3. Fry the battered clusters in oil (375 degrees F on a frying thermometer) for 4 minutes, or until golden brown.
  4. Drain on absorbent paper.
  5. Roll in additional granulated sugar. Serve hot.

Enyucados (Yucca Cakes)

1 pound fresh Yucca
2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and coriander to taste
Oil

  1. Peel the yucca and boil it in salted water.
  2. When cooked to the consistency of mashed potatoes, remove from heat and drain.
  3. Make a puree and add all ingredients, except oil.
  4. Form little cakes and fry in hot oil.

Yucca Root Chips

1 or 2 Yucca roots
2 cups Sunflower oil
Sea salt (optional)

  1. Peel yucca root.
  2. Slice very thinly, like potato chips, on a vegetable slicer or mandoline.
  3. In a deep frying pan, add 1/2 inch of oil, and heat over medium high heat.
  4. Fry chip on both sides until crisp, 2 to 3 minutes on each side, but don't let get too brown.
  5. Place on paper towels to absorb oil. Add salt if desired, but chips are good plain with a salmon tartar.

Yucca Root Chips

8 ounces Smoked Salmon 2 ounces soft butter 1 tablespoons Sunflower oil 3 ounces heavy cream 1 tablespoon lemon juice A pinch nutmeg Freshly ground pepper

  1. Chop salmon finely.
  2. Beat the butter and oil together until soft, then gradually beat in the fish until the mixture becomes thick.
  3. Mix in the cream, lemon juice, nutmeg, and black pepper to taste.
  4. Turn the paté into a small dish and chill.
  5. Serve with toast or cornmeal sage crackers.

Hazelnut Hummus

1 cup toasted hazelnuts (about 4 ounces)
   or
1 cup hazelnut butter
1 can (14-ounce) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons Sunflower oil or Hazelnut oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint, or coyote mint
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Coarse sea salt and pepper

  1. To toast the hazelnuts, bake in a 375° oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden under skins (break one to test).
  2. When cool enough to handle, rub in a kitchen towel to remove as many skins as possible.
  3. In a food processor, whirl hazelnuts or hazelnut butter until smooth.
  4. Add garbanzos, sunflower or hazelnut oil, garlic, mint, and lemon juice, and whirl again until smooth.
  5. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to thin to desired consistency.
  6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with hazelnut oil, if desired.

Cornmeal Sage Crackers

3/4 cup Acorn flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup toasted Sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped sage
1 cup boiling water, slightly cooled
3 tablespoons soft butter
1 teaspoons sea salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine all dry ingredients and mix.
  3. Add butter, a slice at a time and work mixture with hand into small balls.
  4. Add boiling water, a little at a time until you have a pliable dough, but that is not sticking to your fingers.
  5. Add water if too dry or flour if too wet. Knead to absorb any flour at bottom of bowl; dough should not stick to fingers.
  6. Take a small ball of the dough and roll out thin. Continue with rest of dough.
  7. Fit on ungreased flat pans and bake for 30 35 minutes until crisp.

Popped Rice

1 pound wild rice
2 teaspoons oil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup dried cranberries
Salt to taste

  1. Heat a pan over medium high heat, no oil.
  2. Put in single layer of rice, let it pop. (3/4 of it will pop, but it all gets toasted.)
  3. Remove the popped rice from the pan into a container.
  4. Add more rice in single layer and repeat.
  5. When all rice is popped, add 2 teaspoons of oil per pound, and salt to taste, and mix.
  6. Add the toasted pine nuts and dried cranberries and toss again.

Nopales and Avocado Pico de Gallo

Courtesy Mona Anderson.

1 cup diced Nopales, cooked, cooled, and well drained
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1 cup green onions, thinly sliced (or diced yellow onion)
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, or to your taste
4 to 6 tablespoons lime juice (2 to 3 limes)
1 tablespoon fresh Serrano or Jalapeno pepper, minced
Salt to taste
1 large avocado (peel and dice just before using)

  1. Combine ingredients, except for avocado, and let marinate for about 30 minutes, tossing and tasting, adjusting salt, or adding more hot pepper. Too hot? Add more tomato and onion.
  2. Just before serving, add the avocado, gently toss.
  3. Serve with tortilla chips.

To cook tender nopales (prickly pear cactus pads):

  1. Pare off the spines, cut in small cubes.
  2. In a very large pot, boil in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes.
  3. Drain, rinse well, and store. Drain again before using.

Cold Salads

Sea Palm and Pine Nuts

Yields 2 cups.

1 cup Dry Sea Palm (about 3/4 ounce)
2 cups cool water
1/4 cup raw pine nuts
1 medium onion, julienned
1 teaspoon Sunflower oil
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce

  1. Soak sea palm in water until softened, 5 to 10 minutes.
  2. Drain and retain soaking water from sea palm.
  3. Rinse sea palm in fresh water and drain.
  4. Cut into 1-inch pieces.
  5. Heat oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until transparent, 4 to 5 minutes.
  6. Add pine nuts and sauté until aromatic.
  7. Add sea palm and sauté 1 minute.
  8. Add 1 cup of the retained soaking water and the soy sauce.
  9. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
  10. Cover. Lower heat and simmer 15 to 20 minute until tender. Remove cover and cook away any remaining liquid.

Chef's note: You can use other seaweeds.

Sea Palm and Pine Nuts

Serves 4.

1/2 ounce Sea Palm fronds
1 small onion, julienned
1 small English cucumber, sliced in 1/4-inch half moons
3 tablespoons Umeboshi (Plum) or other Fruit vinegar

  1. Quickly rinse and then steam palm fronds in water for 5 to 10 minutes.
  2. Drain palm fronds and slice in 2-inch lengths.
  3. Mix fronds with onion and cucumber and season with vinegar.
  4. Let marinate for 1 to 2 hours.
  5. Garnish with nasturtiums or sesame seeds, and serve.

Chef's note: Reserve sea palm soaking water for cooking grains, beans, or vegetable dishes. Adjust salt accordingly.

Prawns and Nopales Salad

Courtesy Mona Anderson.

Measurements are approximate; don't worry about being exact.

1/2 pound (1 cup) cooked prawns (or shrimp)
2 cups Nopales, diced, cooked, cooled, well drained
1/4 to 1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup diced Roma tomato (or any kind)
4 tablespoons lime juice (2 to 3 limes)
1 teaspoon fresh Serrano or Jalapeno pepper (amount to suit your taste), minced
Some cilantro leaves (optional)
Salt to taste

  1. Combine ingredients and let marinate for about 30 minutes, tossing several times.
  2. Serve cold on tostada shell.

To cook tender nopales (prickly pear cactus pads):

  1. Pare off the spines, cut in small cubes.
  2. In a very large pot, boil in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes.
  3. Drain, rinse well, and store. Drain again before using.

Spicy Fruit Salad

Courtesy Mona Anderson.

3 or 4 tunas (prickly pear fruit), peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
2 large mangoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
1 papaya, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
Pine nuts (optional)
Baby coconut (optional)
Other fruit (optional)
1/4 cup lemon (or lime) juice
Salt
Chile pequin (dried chile powder, or substitute cayenne) found in Mexican food stores

  1. In a bowl, combine ingredients up to the lemon juice.
  2. Add the salt to lemon or lime juice until you can taste the salt, then add the chile powder, until it reaches a level of heat that you like. (The trick is to reach the right combination of lemon, salt, and chile powder. Chile will increase in intensity as it sits.
  3. Add the spice mixture to the fruit and toss. In a few minutes, the flavors will mix.
  4. With a spoon, sample some of the juice at the bottom. Make adjustments to taste: more lemon, salt, or chile powder.

Note: You can cheat and buy ready-made powder of chile, salt and lemon at Mexican food stores. Be aware of the preservatives, though.

To cook tender nopales (prickly pear cactus pads):

  1. Pare off the spines, cut in small cubes.
  2. In a very large pot, boil in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes.
  3. Drain, rinse well, and store. Drain again before using.

Desserts and Sweets

Mesquite Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups whole wheat flour
3/8 cup mesquite meal
1 cup oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips or raisins
2 eggs

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Blend first five dry ingredients (flour, meal, oats, baking soda, and baking powder) in medium bowl.
  3. Blend margarine or butter and sugar. Add eggs.
  4. Combine all ingredients until well blended
  5. Drop by rounded teaspoons on an un-greased cookie sheet.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cocoa Chia Brownies

2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 cups CHIA seed
4 eggs
1 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. Mix dry ingredients (sugar through CHIA seed) in a large bowl and stir well.
  3. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well.
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and gently mix until flour is well incorporated.
  5. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" pan.
  6. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Acorn Brownies

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup acorn flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pine nuts, hazelnuts, or black walnuts, chopped and toasted

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. In a pan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat on the stove.
  3. Remove from heat and stir well.
  4. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, and dry ingredients.
  5. Spread into a well greased 9" x 12" or 8" x 10" pan.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes. Do not overbake.

Pumpkin Piñon Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup Sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups roasted pine nuts

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cinnamon.
  3. In a large separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla, mix well.
  4. Stir in pumpkin puree, dry ingredients, mix well, then fold in pine nuts.
  5. Pour into two 5" x 9" loaf pans and bake for 45 minutes, until the bread springs back when touched.

Berry Cobbler

Makes 6 servings.

1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
3/4 cup honey
1 quart fresh or frozen berries

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine milk, egg, butter, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Stir in cornmeal and 1/2 cup of the honey to make a batter.
  4. Place berries in the bottom of a buttered baking dish and spoon remaining honey over berries.
  5. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls over berries and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until berries are hot and bubbling and crust is golden.

Chef's note: California native berries are currant, elderberry, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, and cranberry.

Prickly Pear Brûlée

Makes 6 to 8 servings

6 egg yolks
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup prickly pear, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or other fruit)
   or
2 tablespoons of prickly pear juice for each ramekin

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, lightly whip egg yolks.
  3. Add cream, 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, and vanilla.
  4. Blend the custard well and strain.
  5. Distribute fruit or juice evenly between ramekins.
  6. Pour custard evenly over the fruit.
  7. Set the ramekins in a pan with at least 2-inch sides and fill the pan with hot water reaching halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
  8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the custard is softly soft.
  9. Remove from oven and let sit in the water for 20 minutes. Then take out ramekins and let cool.
  10. Chill until ready to serve.
  11. At serving time, sprinkle sugar thickly on top of brûlée and use propane torch to light sugar until dark golden brown. Sugar will melt in 30 seconds. Serve immediately.