Recipe - Cooking With The Prickly Pear Cactus

The prickly pear cactus plant grows wild throughout the southern region of
Arizona where the air is warm and dry. It produces large, green, succulent
pads that bear plump, juicy fruits in the late summer months.

NOPALES

Prickly pear pads (nopales) have been eaten by the Native Americans for
centuries. The pads are picked from the cactus but nust be handled with
care; the hairlike spines that project from the pads can easily get caught
in your skin.

Cactus pads are found in most Mexican markets. It is better to choose the
smaller and thicker deepgreen pads because they are the most tender.
Usually fresh cactus pads ar esold whole. For convenience, however, they
may also be purchased in jars already minced and even precooked in their
natural juices.

To clean the whole pads, hold them with a kitchen towel and remove the
spines and rounded outside edge of the pads with a small paring knife or
vegetable peeler.

PRICKLY PEAR FRUITS

Traditionally, prickly pear fruits are harvested in late summer. A brush
made from wild grass is used to remove their fine, hairlike prickers and
soft spines. To remove the prickers in a more conventional way, hold the
fruit with metal tongs under cold running water and scrub the prickers off
with a vegetable scrubbing brush.

When selecting fruits from the marketplace, be careful to choose those that
are soft but not overripe. The may range in color from greenishyellow to
bright red, the latter being the ripest and best to eat. If the spines have
not been removed, be careful when handling the fruits; the spines are small
and difficult to remove from your hands. If only green fruits are
available, store them at room temperature until they ripen to red.

To extract the juice from the fruits, wash them thoroughly under cold
running water, cut off the ends, and cut in half lengthwise. Place then in
a food processor and puree to a fine pulp. Press the pulp through a fine
sieve, using a wooden spoon or spatula to remove the seeds, which should be
discarded. Use the juice according to recipe instructions. Twelve prickly
pears make approximately 1 cup ofjuice.

From "Native American Cooking," by Lois Ellen Frank

Posted by Michael Prothro KOOKNET
:þ Mike's Resort BBS, Fayetteville,AR,(501)5218920þ

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini