Well, along the lines of ‘If the Lord gives you a lemon, make lemonade’ I therefore enclose the following recipes for your situation.
More recipes may be found at Rivenrock Gardens’ Web site.
Cactus Leaf Preparation
One should harvest the nopal cactus when the individual leaf is young and fresh. The leaves will generally be hand sized, they must have a glossy green sheen and be of minimum thickness, about 3/8” thick. When the leaf has grown too thick and has lost it’s sheen it will be pithy inside. The leaves are best separated from the main plant with a knife by slicing through the leaf approximately 1” above the junction point from which it grows from the leaf below. The stub left on the older mature leaf below will grow a new leaf from it’s surface, generally the next year.
The harvested leaf must now be rid of spines if any, glochids if any (the hair-like tiny spines that still get in the skin), or the green nubs that grow on the areoles of the spineless varieties. These green nubs will remove easily with a green scrubbing pad or cloth. The spines and glochids must be cut off with a knife by slicing through the skin under the areole from which the spines and glochids grow, this process is known as ‘skinning’. Once the leaf is safe to handle it is generally sliced french-fry style, or diced into 3/8” dimensions. The leaves are then most often boiled for approximately 10 minutes, and then mixed into some other food that has been already cooked, the ingredients are then cooked some more to blend flavors and eaten.
Nopalitos Con Chile (Cactus Chile)
# 2 lbs cleaned Nopales
# 1 Onion — sliced 1/8” thick
# 1/8 cup Corn Oil or Olive Oil
# 2 jalapeno chiles
# 2 Chili Serrano
# 1/2 bulb garlic
# 1 Cup cilantro
# Salt to taste
Clean and dice nopales. Chop onion into similar sized pieces and place in a large oiled skillet and begin to fry. Add garlic and chiles and salt. Cover and simmer until tender. Serve over diced and toasted tortillas or bed of rice.
Victoria’s French-Fried Cactus
This is one recipe in which we don’t boil the plants first, in this one the fresh cactus are cut into french fry style strips 3/8” wide and rolled in a batter of milk and eggs then rolled through flour, cornmeal or a combination of both. Frying in a skillet or deep fryer will give a deep gold/green color. They are great fresh out of the oil.
Seems I remember somewhere from my survival training that it was best to ‘flame’ cactus to singe the small spines.
Well, along the lines of ‘If the Lord gives you a lemon, make lemonade’ I therefore enclose the following recipes for your situation.
***Brought a smile to my face! If you could see our lemon tree...I swear if I sold them I could pay off the house!
Thanks for the recipes. I’ve had cactus jelly but never made it. It’s very good.
Oh, yes you certainly want to singe the needles. On some of them, the needles are so fine they look like velvet. Touch them, and you need a strong magnifying glass to get them out.
You learn very fast what not to touch!
I’ve only skimmed through this thread today. Hopefully will read more tonight. Gotta go start dinner.
Take care.
When I go to harvest any parts of cactus I try to find an area where I can build a small fire. (Well, if I'm getting more than a pear or two or a pad or two.) Wear leather gloves and leather jacket if you have one. Knee pads are good if you're going to kneel. Have pliers with long handles and a good sharp knife. I am a woman I don't know if the long handled pliers have an official name. But I use the pliers to hold a cactus pad or pear if I can then use the sharp knife to cut it off. Using the pliers to hold the cactus part I then hold it in the flame to burn off the spines. That works pretty well. You still have to watch for prickles but they are mostly taken care of in the field that way.
When I get them home I still use gloves to peel them "just in case." But, also the flame on a gas stove can be used to pass the cactus parts through to burn the spines.
I think sliced up prickly pear pad or fruit are good sauted in a little butter.