Some hints on useing Nopales (prickly pear paddles) in the kitchen

[Speedy]

This is a great green veg.
You dont even have to plant it,
just throw a paddle on the ground and it grows on less than 200mm annual rainfall!

Nopales -Opuntia spp.

they have to be handled with a bit of care
and prepare carefully.
If you do eat some glochids (prickly hairs) they're just a bit irritating.

Chose small, new growing 'paddles' that are about 5-8mm thick and about 15-20 cm long
cut off the bumps where the glochids are with a knife.
wash them if you dont trust that you've got all the prickles off.
The one on the left is not yet preped and the ones on the right are ready to cut and cook.



Here are two ways to cook them.
Cut the nopales into cubes.


Fry onion and garlic for about a minute in a bit of oil,
in this example I fried a dried Guajillo chile breifly (careful not to burn it) and removed before cooking onion.
Then add cubed nopales to pan.


Grind cooled chile and add to pan with salt to taste.


cook for about 10-12 min in own juices til mucilage comes out and it's ready


some people cook in a few changes of water to get rid of the slippery texture,
but i find it loses a bit of flavour, besides it's not as slippery as Okra anyway.

Now here's how to do it on a hotplate or BBQ plate.

Cut nopales so they're joined at the base.
Like a hand with lots of fingers.
Dip into beer (traditionally Tepache) and quickly throw onto hotplate


Cook 4-5min then turn and cook the other side til done.


they can then be cut through as strips and used in tacos or chopped and used in salads or as a side dish.
These were eaten with various combos of the following ingredients:-
shredded beef, fresh, warm maize tortillas,
Sour cream, cheese, avocado, Epazote and purslane lvs and salsa verde.

Taste and texture?
well, ...not too dissimmilar to partially cooked green capsicum, crisp but slippery.
Flavour ... hmmm again, green capsicum comes closest , I think.
it has a nice sort of acidic tang that balances well with the onions , garlic, chile and salt.
It feels good to eat.
...well, I keep cooking and eating it .

[eco4560]

Thanks Speedy. It almost makes me want to swap my wet subtropics for a patch of desert!

[purplepear]

I like the tequila near the first recipe, Speedy. And for someone who espouses the virtue of chokos, I will not comment on blandness. Can it be used (as is okra) to thicken gumbo? The fruit looks interesting too. Thanks for the post Speedy.

[eco4560]

I thought they were tomatoes posed artfully. Are they cactus fruit instead?

[Shortlyone]

No need to move to the desert Eco, Opuntia ficus-indica grows just fine in SEQ as long as it is in a good free draining sunny spot.
Also ficus-indica is the only Opuntia that's allowed to be grown in Qld.
The fruit does look a little like Koubo - (Cereus hildmanianus/ peruvianus)

[Speedy]

Yes, Tequila (or Mezcal generally) is usually close by in my kitchen while I cook, just a cheap one in this case.

the fruit in the pics are actually tomatos.
I'll post some pics of the different Tunas (prickly pears) later.

I also have Cereus spp. from different sources, but too young to fruit yet.

[pebble]

This is a great thread Speedy, thanks!

I had one of these growing in a pot for years. It never got more than about 5 paddles. I gave it away eventually. The one that came off though was massive, bigger than me. And that was in a cool maritime climate. I'm definitely going to look out for another one now.

[purplepear]

A bit off topic Speedy but what is the device near the beer bottle?

[Michaelangelica]

A local Italian gardener has a huge plant.
I have started a few plants if anyone wants one. They used to be common especially in WA until the Dept. Ag. decided they were noxious weed.
A local chef used to make ice cream from the fruit.
Very occasionally you see fruit for sale in Greengrocers.
They have to be the ultimate desert/ low water food plant.

[ppp]

I little new snippet .. there might be other uses for prickly pear too

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-millions.html