While eating dinner in Mexico with some of the local people, I mentioned I was able to buy cactus leaves in the local supermarket but had no idea what they tasted like. They then ordered a couple of different appetizers using cactus. One was grilled, cut in slices about 2 inches wide, and then had cheese melted on top. Delicious. The other way, they were cut into short thin strips and cooked with red onion and maybe some other things, but I don't know if they were boiled or fried. I also was wary of preparing them because of the spines but I noticed in the supermarket this week that the spines were almost removed. The eyes still needed cutting out. I found a bag of ready cut strips, so I tried them. I washed them but noticed they got a bit slimy, or gelatinous. I dried them off. I cooked chopped onion and mushrooms in a little olive oil and added the cactus. It got more slimy, but I cooked them a short time and served it as a side dish. Not bad, tasted a bit like green beans and still had the crunch. Does anyone have a favorite recipe for cooking cactus? Should I have steamed them?
Also they mentioned that the fruit of the cactus is edible but full of seeds, which you eat. It is also what they use to get red and shocking pink dyes. Janice Janice Blair Crystal Lake, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois, USA www.jblace.com http://www.lacemakersofillinois.org To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com.
