Let's eat some cactus!

[swords]

Nope, not Peyote.. damn!

So I finally found out some things to do with the Optunia leaves they sell at the grocery stores. So I made a few pans of beef and cactus burritos for work this weekend!

First you gotta scrape the spines, just use a big wide knife and cut off all outter edges, then wash them in cold water

Do not scrape off all the skin, they become a big slimey mess! I did that with the first pad and then tried to dice it. It was like a bunch of green worms having an orgy, all slimey and gooey! That went in the trash! Just scrape off the spines and cut off all around the edges and wash them then dice them up like a big flat gren pepper:

First I sauteed them with onions then added the meat and black/green olives, garlic & herbs. The light green stuff in the pan is the cactus you can't see much but there's a 1/2 lb of cactus in there.

The meat was browed fully and wrapped with cheese in corn tortilas.

The Cactus is interesting. Raw it's very cooling to eat diced bits, they remind me of a cross between a cucumber and a green pepper but it has a very sweet aftertaste. Cooked in the burritos they are stiffer than a green pepper but don't give me the heartburn I always get from them and seem to add a certain sweetness.

 

[petmantis]

Yum yum! i ate one of those yesterday, at the annual Montreal cactus eaters convention.

 

[rattler]

the Optunia up here taste kinda like a banana thats not quite ripe.....roll them in sugar and they are pretty good....slimy when skinned is right but ive never felt it was a problem....but i never diced them either, but the pads i used were more round and about the size of my thumb......skinned, rolled in sugar than ate........

 

[swords]

I've heard the smaller ones are more tender. I got the smallest they had, they had some that were like 12-18" in size! Have any of you tried the Optunia flower buds? I haven't seen those available here but I've heard about them. I thought about saving one pad to try and plant but since I screwed up that one I used my growing experiment one.

I thought it was just nasty after I skinned it and the slime started running everywhere and I was afraid to cut it using my knife so I put it in a food chopper... then it turned into a pureed glob of what looked like that "wacky fun slime" they used to sell in plastic jars when I was a kid!

 

[rattler]

could be ive only picked up wild growing ones during the summer and they may be a lil lacking on moisture compared to the ones yah bought

 

[maneatingmoo]

Looks good! I'd like to try some of that. The only weird-ish food at the grocery store here is pineapples.

 

[rattler]

Looks good! I'd like to try some of that. The only weird-ish food at the grocery store here is pineapples.

i know the feeling

however if yah got a gas grill......fire it up and get it as hot as it will go......slice up the pineapple, melt some butter(real butter, not the fake crap), dip the pineapple slices in the melted butter than get them good and completely covered with cinnamon and sugar......throw them on the grill till the sugar/cinnamon/butter mixture caramelizes flipping them once in the process and you have an outstanding snack.........my wife will eat them till she makes herself sick.......if yah feel like experimenting, throw some vanilla in the butter or add some allspice to the cinnamon/sugar mix........

 

[CPlantaholic]

That brings back memories from my mission trip to mexico a few years ago.
A family that we built a home for (actually about the size of a shed), had a small property with a shack for their home., but they crammed so many of those cacti in their yard that you could barely walk through there. They used the leaves as food, but also sold them on the corner of their street to try to come up with a little extra money.

 

[Est]

Man, Swords, you are really rockin' the "sounds like drugs" topic titles lately. lol

I've always been interested to see some dishes that people make with those, so thanks for sharing!

 

[swords]

Nopalitos!

Here's a pic of a vendor selling the harvested and pre-sliced pads (mod resize if needed)
People eat them raw (very "cool" tasting some people say like watermelon but I don't taste that similarity.) or boiled, steamed, sauteed or fried. Next time I'm gonna make fajitas with the cacti fried in long strips as you see here.

Barbecued pineapple! Reminds me of the "kebabs" we made at the Renaissance faire, mushrooms, pineapple and onions with some sort of terriyaki-like sauce and grilled - oh yeah! nothing like traditional dark age European foods! lol!

 

[maneatingmoo]

however if yah got a gas grill......fire it up and get it as hot as it will go......slice up the pineapple, melt some butter(real butter, not the fake crap), dip the pineapple slices in the melted butter than get them good and completely covered with cinnamon and sugar......throw them on the grill till the sugar/cinnamon/butter mixture caramelizes flipping them once in the process and you have an outstanding snack.........my wife will eat them till she makes herself sick.......if yah feel like experimenting, throw some vanilla in the butter or add some allspice to the cinnamon/sugar mix........

Oh wow, that sounds good. I might just have to try that some time. Pineapples are still great fresh. I tried cutting one up to eat, but the center is all hard, so I ended up throwing a lot of it away.

 

[swords]

Moo buy a "pineapple corer" otherwise cleaning them is a nightmare - ah the miracle of canned fruit!

Man, Swords, you are really rockin' the "sounds like drugs" topic titles lately. lol

I'm just having fun - it guarantees views right?!

Actually related to that and probably the impetus for my mood is that I saw the funniest thing on Dr. Phil while waiting to leave for work. Their "Dangers of Salvia" episode - I laughed my arse off! They kept showing a live plant which was not Salvia divinorum and talking about how "dangerous" and "addictive" it is, neither of which is true. Other than a sore tummy from laughing so hard I also got a great character out of the episode based on the Texas lawman, his white stetson and inability to mind his own business. lol!

 

[seedjar]

Moo - always remove the hard center part of pineapples, unless you enjoy bleeding from your digestive tract. The core of the pineapple is made up of tough fibers and a corrosive chemical that is used to make meat tenderizer; when you eat it, the tenderizer softens your flesh and then the abrasive fibers cut it to shreds. If you don't have a corer, cut the pineapple into quarters along the line of symmetry (so each piece has part of the top and bottom.) The core can then be trimmed from the inner corner of the pieces. If you're barbecuing, you can use it as part of a marinade or rub to make a cheap cut of meat nice and juicy. Just make sure to protect your hands while handling it, and rinse the pineapple bits off before eating.
Nopalitos are great. There's a little Mexican restaurant nearby called "El Nopal" that specializes in them. Try them with a molé sauce! The sweet fruity taste goes perfectly with the richness of the molé.
~Joe

 

[swords]

Like I said - the miracle of canned fruit (pineapple anyway)! lol!

Another plus for pineapple it is said that when eating them the acid enters the bloodstream and dissolves blood clots and help keep them from forming.

I've never tried mole sauce before just seen it - can you describe the taste at all?

 

[DrWurm]

Moo - always remove the hard center part of pineapples, unless you enjoy bleeding from your digestive tract.The core of the pineapple is made up of tough fibers and a corrosive chemical that is used to make meat tenderizer; when you eat it, the tenderizer softens your flesh and then the abrasive fibers cut it to shreds.

That is one of the most cringe-inducing things I have ever read. My pelvic area is now stuck in clench-mode. Thanks man.

 

[rattler]

Moo - always remove the hard center part of pineapples, unless you enjoy bleeding from your digestive tract. The core of the pineapple is made up of tough fibers and a corrosive chemical that is used to make meat tenderizer; when you eat it, the tenderizer softens your flesh and then the abrasive fibers cut it to shreds. If you don't have a corer, cut the pineapple into quarters along the line of symmetry (so each piece has part of the top and bottom.) The core can then be trimmed from the inner corner of the pieces. If you're barbecuing, you can use it as part of a marinade or rub to make a cheap cut of meat nice and juicy. Just make sure to protect your hands while handling it, and rinse the pineapple bits off before eating.
Nopalitos are great. There's a little Mexican restaurant nearby called "El Nopal" that specializes in them. Try them with a molé sauce! The sweet fruity taste goes perfectly with the richness of the molé.
~Joe

ive never heard of this....the meat tenderizer part sure but thats nothing big......dried papaya is another common meat tenderizer.....but it basically only works if yah soak the muscle fibers themselves in it......pineapple juice is full of the meat tenderizer enzyme.....thousands of ppl a day drink it with out issue......as far as the central core, after some looking i cant find what you state anywhere.........

 

[seedjar]

Have you ever tried to eat a piece of pineapple core? It's nearly inedible, and if you persist at it, it cuts your tongue and cheeks up. That much I know from experience. It's been a long time, but I think I read the explanation of the enzyme and fibers in the book "Cats' Paws and Catapults" by Steven Vogel. Rubbing meat down with the cores was suggested to me by one of the produce clerks at the grocery store I worked at in high school. The enzyme is present in the juice, but not in high concentration. There's more in the stem/core, which is the part that's used to make commercial meat tenderizer.
Molé (molé poblano) is a sauce made from peppers, nuts, bitter chocolate, and onions (and garlic.) It has a rich, bittersweet, spicy flavor, with some smokiness from the peppers. It tastes kind of like some barbecue sauces, but without the tangy and overtly sweet elements - the flavors are more subtle. Definitely something you should try.

That is one of the most cringe-inducing things I have ever read. My pelvic area is now stuck in clench-mode. Thanks man.

Want to hear some stories about my dad's trauma surgeries? He's a doctor in the Army. He does amputations.
~Joe

 

[Est]

Another plus for pineapple it is said that when eating them the acid enters the bloodstream and dissolves blood clots and help keep them from forming.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't buy it. The blood is pretty heavily buffered, and with good reason. It doesn't take much of a change in blood pH to lead to serious problems.

 

[rattler]

there is a chemical in pineapple that is a blood thinner.....it aint an acid though in the way he says, its an enzyme that breaks down certain protiens called Bromelain and actually is used medically......it is recommended that ppl with certain clotting disorders not eat pineapple because of it.......as for the core being inedible, its tough, not inedible....it wont tear up your insides any more than any other high fiber fruit or veggie material.....

 

[Est]

there is a chemical in pineapple that is a blood thinner.....it aint an acid though in the way he says, its an enzyme that breaks down certain protiens called Bromelain and actually is used medically......it is recommended that ppl with certain clotting disorders not eat pineapple because of it.

There we go. Now we're talkin'. I always feel the need to mention the blood thing tough. Time and time again I hear people talking about how they're ingesting _________ to change their blood acidity and how great for them __________ is. :-\