Culinary Explorer
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Jus de Figue de Barbarie
Created by Chef Zohra
Late-summer prickly pears pressed into a cold Moroccan street-side juice, floral and faintly melon-sweet, strained clean of their hard seeds and poured for whoever has come in from the sun.
When the figues de Barbarie arrive, the season announces itself from the roadside before the market does. Yellow, orange, sometimes deep red, the fruits sit in baskets with their tiny thorns still pretending to be harmless. This is late-summer juice, aknari, cold enough to bead the glass and sweet enough without much help.
Treat the fruit with respect. The flesh is generous, but the seeds are hard, so you blend only until the pulp loosens, then strain it well. Crush the seeds too long and they'll give you grit where you wanted silk. That is the little rule that decides the glass.
Serve it very cold, with a squeeze of lemon if the fruit asks for brightness. No fuss. A few glasses, a plate of fruit skins set aside, someone coming in hot from the street. Une table, c'est une porte qu'on laisse ouverte, a table is a door you leave open, even when the welcome fits in one glass.
Ingredients
ripe prickly pears (figues de Barbarie, aknari)
Quantity
8
chilled if possible
cold water
Quantity
250ml
plus more if needed
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
1 to 2 tbsp
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe prickly pears (figues de Barbarie, aknari)chilled if possible | 8 |
| cold waterplus more if needed | 250ml |
| fresh lemon juiceto taste | 1 to 2 tbsp |
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