Nopales Time Is Now
Michael Sedano
Grocery stores now sell nopales ready to cook. Some worker has scraped off the thorns, washed, and diced the cactus. That's a wonderful addition to grocery aisle. But for others, there's foraging.
Neighborhood landscapers have discovered the beauteous opuntia in xeriscape plantings. Few of your anglo neighbors will be hep to eating that cactus, by golly, but they've heard of it. Here are some ideas to get them eating like a Mexican.
A born nopal-eater and having one en la frente, el Gluten-free Chicas Patas eats nopales all year long, not just for cuaresma.
The Gluten-free Chicano 2014
Peeling Nopales the No-Espina Way
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2014/05/raza-hollywoods-best-kept-secret-sci-fi.html
Sadly, the title misleads a bit. Any time a cook prepares fresh nopalito pencas, an espina or two is sure to find a finger or palm. Así es, the romance of el nopal.
A sharp paring knife and careful finger placement between the espina carbuncles are two secrets to preparing nopales.
Use a washable cutting board or work on newspaper. Draw the knife around the spiny perimeter of the cactus paddle, cutting away the outer ¼ inch of spininess.
Hold the penca flat and draw the knife across the face of the penca nearly horizonally. Most espina nubs cut right off. Dip the blade in a glass of water to wash away espinitas.
Steel the blade frequently to keep the edge slicing effortlessly.
Wash the pencas. There's a white espina in the top middle of the foto below.
Slice the pencas into ¼" strips. Draw the blade at a diagonal through the strips.
The nopalitos are ready to use in a salad, a stew, with scrambled eggs. Below, nopales simmer with carne de puerco. Later, the cook will add una torta de camarón.
See below for The Gluten-free Chicano recipes for nopales con tortas de camarón and a really fancy yet economical pumpkin hominy and nopales guisado.
The Gluten-free Chicano
Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón
Michael Sedano
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2013/02/nopales-chicano-photography-floricanto.html
A born nopal-eater and having one en la frente, el Gluten-free Chicas Patas eats nopales all year long, not just for cuaresma.
The Gluten-free Chicano 2014
Peeling Nopales the No-Espina Way
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2014/05/raza-hollywoods-best-kept-secret-sci-fi.html
Sadly, the title misleads a bit. Any time a cook prepares fresh nopalito pencas, an espina or two is sure to find a finger or palm. Así es, the romance of el nopal.
A sharp paring knife and careful finger placement between the espina carbuncles are two secrets to preparing nopales.
Use a washable cutting board or work on newspaper. Draw the knife around the spiny perimeter of the cactus paddle, cutting away the outer ¼ inch of spininess.
Hold the penca flat and draw the knife across the face of the penca nearly horizonally. Most espina nubs cut right off. Dip the blade in a glass of water to wash away espinitas.
Wash the pencas. There's a white espina in the top middle of the foto below.
Slice the pencas into ¼" strips. Draw the blade at a diagonal through the strips.
The nopalitos are ready to use in a salad, a stew, with scrambled eggs. Below, nopales simmer with carne de puerco. Later, the cook will add una torta de camarón.
See below for The Gluten-free Chicano recipes for nopales con tortas de camarón and a really fancy yet economical pumpkin hominy and nopales guisado.
The Gluten-free Chicano
Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón
Michael Sedano
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2013/02/nopales-chicano-photography-floricanto.html
 | |
| Grown from single penca planted in 1960. ©2013msedano |
You know it’s Springtime when opuntia cactus of the right varieties form plentiful buds and you keep an eye on them over the next few weeks until the pencas are large and still tender, deep green and ready to be picked, peeled, diced and cooked up.
But early February is not Springtime. The nopales stand bereft of buds. Still weeks to go before we can return to the old nopal and harvest some of its tender offerings. When he bought this land in 1960, my father kicked his heel into the hillside here, to soften the dirt. He dropped a penca where he worked and stepped on it, pressing it into the earth.
When there was still open land and groves in Redlands, people who didn’t grow their own knew the best places to pick nopales. Just as gente knew the groves where the best verdolagas grew, a favored field where the kelites were almost weed-free, they knew where the best tunas--hence the best nopales--grew. Nopales were a feature of the local landscape; in the wash, in alleyways, in a corner of an empty lot.
Some nopales are more delectable than others. The ones with fuzzy micro-espinas are inedible just because they're so much hassle, no one I know has ever eaten one.
Pencas need to be new growth, healthily green-colored, free of complicated espinas, and a scant half inch thick, so diced chunks have skin on two sides.
Always ask permission before cutting someone's nopales. Most gente will exchange recipes and urge you take a few more. I've heard some tipas request a few dollars to allow a forager to pick nopales.
Today, the local Mexican markets sell diced nopalitos in plastic bags, as well as whole pencas if you want them for grilling, or to cut your own.
The nopal forms the heart of comida de cuaresma. With scrambled eggs for breakfast, in a pickled salad for lunch, and Nopales con tortas de camarón for dinner, those observant of the Lenten stricture against eating meat find hearty eating in nopales.
I, like my people, always preferred the dish with pork, hence today’s The Gluten-free Chicano recipe features pork as well as shrimp and eggs with nopales. The dish is completely gluten-free.
Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón is down-home cooking, but also company food.
Ingredients
Medium onion
4 teeth garlic
three or four branches of cilantro
Two pencas or 1 pound diced fresh nopales.
1/8 lb chicharrón broken into 2" squares.
1 lb pork, 1/2 cubes".
Serrano or jalapeño chiles, sliced thin.
salt, red chile, comino powder, black pepper.
Eggs – 2 people per egg
2 oz ground dried shrimp powder (I large package)
Baking soda
limón or lemon
Tomato sauce
Water or broth, maybe milk
Nopales exude a viscous gum during cutting and cooking. This is a natural thickener to the sauce but can be unnerving to the first-time user.
In a smoking hot pan...
Mince onion and garlic and wilt with the sliced chiles in good olive oil.
Add cubed pork, brown.
Add sprigs of fresh cilantro.
Toss in the nopalitos and fry until they turn a deep green.
Lower the heat.
Add one or two cans of tomato sauce and the water from rinsing the cans.
Stir in pieces of chicharrón and let simmer twenty minutes or however long it takes to make a batch of tortas de camarón.
Tortas de Camarón
This torta is an omelette thickened with powdered shrimp.
Separate eggs. Add a pinch baking soda to egg whites.
Beat egg whites to light peaks.
Blend in egg yolks.
Stir in 1/4 cup of water or milk, salt, black pepper.
Stir in half the package of powdered shrimp.
Assess your needs. Add water and the rest of the shrimp if you'll need to make more tortas. The mix should be thick enough to form dollops, not pour.
Squeeze a lime or lemon half into the egg-shrimp mix.
In a hot pan...
Drop generous tablespoons of egg mixture into hot olive oil and spread the pancake with a spatula. Turn and cook until center is done. The tortas will brown very nicely.
Float the tortas atop the nopales and serve to table.
Place a torta or two on each plate, cover with a scoop of nopales and carne de puerco. Eat with your hands and tortilla de maíz.
Refritos, green salad, cold gluten-free beer, hot conversation at your option.
But early February is not Springtime. The nopales stand bereft of buds. Still weeks to go before we can return to the old nopal and harvest some of its tender offerings. When he bought this land in 1960, my father kicked his heel into the hillside here, to soften the dirt. He dropped a penca where he worked and stepped on it, pressing it into the earth.
When there was still open land and groves in Redlands, people who didn’t grow their own knew the best places to pick nopales. Just as gente knew the groves where the best verdolagas grew, a favored field where the kelites were almost weed-free, they knew where the best tunas--hence the best nopales--grew. Nopales were a feature of the local landscape; in the wash, in alleyways, in a corner of an empty lot.
 |
| Unusually thin penca. |
Some nopales are more delectable than others. The ones with fuzzy micro-espinas are inedible just because they're so much hassle, no one I know has ever eaten one.
Pencas need to be new growth, healthily green-colored, free of complicated espinas, and a scant half inch thick, so diced chunks have skin on two sides.
Always ask permission before cutting someone's nopales. Most gente will exchange recipes and urge you take a few more. I've heard some tipas request a few dollars to allow a forager to pick nopales.
I, like my people, always preferred the dish with pork, hence today’s The Gluten-free Chicano recipe features pork as well as shrimp and eggs with nopales. The dish is completely gluten-free.
Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón is down-home cooking, but also company food.
Ingredients
Medium onion
4 teeth garlic
three or four branches of cilantro
Two pencas or 1 pound diced fresh nopales.
1/8 lb chicharrón broken into 2" squares.
1 lb pork, 1/2 cubes".
Serrano or jalapeño chiles, sliced thin.
salt, red chile, comino powder, black pepper.
Eggs – 2 people per egg
2 oz ground dried shrimp powder (I large package)
Baking soda
limón or lemon
Tomato sauce
Water or broth, maybe milk
Nopales exude a viscous gum during cutting and cooking. This is a natural thickener to the sauce but can be unnerving to the first-time user.
In a smoking hot pan...
Mince onion and garlic and wilt with the sliced chiles in good olive oil.
Add cubed pork, brown.
Add sprigs of fresh cilantro.
Toss in the nopalitos and fry until they turn a deep green.
Lower the heat.
Add one or two cans of tomato sauce and the water from rinsing the cans.
Stir in pieces of chicharrón and let simmer twenty minutes or however long it takes to make a batch of tortas de camarón.
Tortas de Camarón
This torta is an omelette thickened with powdered shrimp.
Separate eggs. Add a pinch baking soda to egg whites.
Beat egg whites to light peaks.
Blend in egg yolks.
Stir in 1/4 cup of water or milk, salt, black pepper.
Stir in half the package of powdered shrimp.
Assess your needs. Add water and the rest of the shrimp if you'll need to make more tortas. The mix should be thick enough to form dollops, not pour.
Squeeze a lime or lemon half into the egg-shrimp mix.
In a hot pan...
Drop generous tablespoons of egg mixture into hot olive oil and spread the pancake with a spatula. Turn and cook until center is done. The tortas will brown very nicely.
Float the tortas atop the nopales and serve to table.
Place a torta or two on each plate, cover with a scoop of nopales and carne de puerco. Eat with your hands and tortilla de maíz.
Refritos, green salad, cold gluten-free beer, hot conversation at your option.
That's all there is to making delicious nopales con carne de puerco and tortas de camaron. Note, moreover, there are other ways to prepare and eat nopales, e.g., a salad. If you would like to share your favorite method of preparing nopales, leave a comment below, or email your detailed and illustrated recipe (link). You could become a guest columnist!
