Oh the sweet, smokey flavor

The land here is as dry as Melba toast, with no promise of rain in sight. The only thing that's thriving are the mesquite trees and the cactus. There's a plus to this though; it's now the time of year when the mesquite trees, shed their long finger-length seed pods, or beans, and this year there's a bumper crop.

According to the old timers, if a horse or cow eats too many of the sugary-sweet bean, they go "plumb loco" for a short time. Which makes sense, because if the bean has a large natural sugar content, the poor beasts are more than likely suffering from what we refer to as a "sugar high". As many of you living in the Southwest already know, the mesquite tree is a very valuable commodity. A few years ago, barbequing buffs tried using the wood of the mesquite in their pits, and loved the sweet flavor it gave the meat.

I personally found, that if you add a few dried mesquite beans to the fire before the meat fully cooks, the sweet smokey flavor is intensified.

The beans can be ground into meal, used in recipes, and has a high nutritional content; the Southwestern Native Americans discovered that centuries ago.

Here's a pretty good mesquite bean jelly recipe.

I gathered some beans yesterday; and so, after a lunch of migas and nopalitos, I'll throw the beans on the fire and smoke my chicken.

What's your favorite exotic food? Have a great weekend!