New Years Cocktail Recipe: Prickly Pear Mimosas

Much as we love a good bottomless mimosa, it's sometimes nice to shake things up a bit. CJ Jacobson, the chef over atGirasol in Studio City, seems to agree. Instead of doing so with blood orange juice or elderflower, which are admittedly lovely, he makes his mimosas with prickly pear fruit.

Prickly pears can found from summer through winter at most Mexican markets.

"They are packed full of vitamins and minerals and are said to reduce the symptoms of a hangover, so we combined that idea with the hair of the dog notion and created a double dose hangover cure," says Jacobson.

Though they won't be open on New Year's Day, Girasol is doing a New Years Eve dinner comprised of foraged ingredients from the Los Angeles forest. The pre fixe is seasonally focussed and things won't be getting out of hand, he offered up a recipe for prickly pear mimosas to help those that overindulge while ringing in 2014.

Here's how it's done:

Prickly Pear Agua Fresca or Mimosa
Serves 10 agua frescas
Seves 12 mimosas

12 prickly pears, peeled
½ cup bergamot mint
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
Water as needed*
Fresh lime juice to taste

Combine prickly pear fruit, mint, and sugar into a blender. Purée and strain. Add water as needed until the drink has become the consistency of a thin smoothie if making agua frescas. For a prickly pear mimosa, add 6 oz of prickly pear puree to the bottom of a champagne glass, then float with 2 oz of Mionetto prosecco.