Dulce de Pitaya del Desierto

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed copper cazo or 4-quart stainless steel saucepan
• •Long wooden spoon, the kind that will not melt at sugar temperatures
• •Kitchen tongs for handling the fruit
• •Small saucer kept in the freezer for testing the set
• •Clean glass jars or a wide ceramic Sonoran clay dish for storage

Instructions

1. 1

   Handle the pitayas

   Pitayas come off the cactus armored. Even the fruit picked clean at the mercado in Hermosillo will have stubborn gloquidia, the tiny hair-like spines that bury themselves in your fingers. Hold each fruit with kitchen tongs and singe any visible spines over an open flame for two or three seconds. Rinse under cold water and pat dry. Do not skip this. The senoras in the pitayeras of Bacum and Empalme have done this their whole lives and they still get stuck if they rush.

   If your hands do get a glochid, do not scratch. Press a piece of tape onto the skin and peel it off. That is how they take them out at the harvest camps.
2. 2

   Scoop the pulp

   Halve each pitaya lengthwise with a sharp knife. The interior should be bright magenta or deep coral depending on the variety, studded with edible black seeds. Scoop the pulp into a heavy bowl with a spoon. Leave the rind. You should end up with about 3 cups of seeded pulp. Do not strain the seeds. The seeds belong in the dulce. They give it the slight crunch that tells the eater this is real pitaya, not a jam made from something else.

3. 3

   Macerate with sugar and lime

   Stir the sugar, lime juice, and salt into the pulp. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. The sugar pulls water out of the fruit and the pulp loosens. This is your starting liquid. If your pitayas are very firm and the pot looks dry after the macerating rest, add the two tablespoons of water. Most cooks will not need it.

4. 4

   Start the cook

   Transfer the pulp to a heavy-bottomed nonreactive pot, copper if you have it, stainless steel otherwise. Add the cinnamon stick and the strip of lime zest. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a gentle simmer. Do not crank the heat. Pitaya scorches faster than you think and a burned pot ends the project. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

5. 5

   Reduce to a paste

   Lower the heat to keep the pot at a lazy simmer. Cook for 60 to 75 minutes, stirring every few minutes at first and then almost constantly toward the end. The color will deepen from bright magenta to a darker, glossier carmine. The pulp will pull away from the sides of the pot when you drag the spoon across. The right consistency is thick enough that a spoonful dropped on a cold plate holds its shape and does not run when the plate is tilted. The senoras in Sonora call this the punto de cajeta, the cajeta point, even though this is not cajeta.

   Keep a small saucer in the freezer. Every fifteen minutes once the pot has thickened, drop a teaspoon of the dulce on the cold plate and run your finger through it. When the line stays clean and the dulce holds a soft mound, you are done.

   Toward the end the dulce will sputter like a small volcano. Stand back and stir from the side. Pitaya at the punto burns the back of the hand and stains the wall.
6. 6

   Finish and rest

   Remove the cinnamon stick and the lime zest. Taste and adjust. If the dulce is too sweet for you, a few more drops of lime will sharpen it. Pour the hot dulce into a clean glass jar or a wide ceramic dish and let it cool, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes. It will tighten as it cools. Cover only once it is at room temperature. Warm dulce sealed in a closed jar will sweat and the surface will weep.

7. 7

   Serve

   Spoon the dulce over fresh queso fresco or panela. Spread it on a piece of pan de muerto or a thick slice of pan de pueblo. Eat it from a small clay bowl with a spoon and a glass of cold water. In Sonora they will serve it at the end of a comida campestre when the desert cools off in the evening. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Pitaya season runs roughly mid-May through late June in Sonora. Outside that window, you will not find good fruit. Do not substitute pitahaya rosa, the imported pink-skinned dragon fruit from Asian markets. It is a different species and the flavor is watery and wrong for this dulce.
• •The seeds stay in. This is not a smooth jam. The texture of the small black seeds against the soft pulp is the signature of pitaya done correctly. If you strain them out, you have made a syrup, not a dulce.
• •Adjust the sugar by tasting the raw pulp. Some pitayas come in sweeter than others. A very ripe red pitaya from Sonora can take as little as 1 1/2 cups of sugar. A firmer one needs the full 2 cups. No me vengas con atajos: taste before you sweeten.
• •Stored in a clean glass jar in the refrigerator, the dulce keeps for three weeks. The flavor deepens after two or three days. Spread it on a wedge of queso panela for a Sonoran merienda, the way they eat it in the small towns between Hermosillo and Ciudad Obregon.

Advance Preparation

• •The dulce can be made up to three weeks ahead and refrigerated in a sealed glass jar. The flavor deepens after a few days as the cinnamon and lime settle in.
• •If you have access to a large May harvest, the dulce freezes well for up to four months in clean glass jars with an inch of headspace. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 55g)