Cantankerous, yes, but delicious

Prickly desert cactus sounds like the last thing you’d want to eat. But -- surprise! -- once the spines are off, cactus is juicy and tender, great in anything from salads and soups to main courses and even desserts.

The variety we’re talking about is Mexico’s nopal cactus -- prickly pear. You may have seen it right here in town, growing wild or in someone’s backyard, a sprawling plant composed of oval “paddles.”

These are what you eat. They’re best when young, about the size of a hand or a little larger. Cut into strips and cooked, they look a bit like green beans. The flavor is delicate, not what you’d expect from a cantankerous-looking desert dweller.

For centuries, Mexicans have eaten nopales in everything from stews to salads and omelets. So embedded is the nopal cactus in Mexican culture that it appears on the flag and on coins. A cactus plant supporting an eagle holding a snake was, according to legend, the sign that led the Aztecs to found their capital, Tenochtitlan, on the site that is now Mexico City.

Mexican cooks love to get creative with nopales. On a recent visit to the little town of Santa Rosa near Guanajuato, I came across a nopal liqueur, made by a women’s co-op that has a shop on the main street. The women also make a sweet, firm paste, called ate, from cactus. It’s cut into chunks, to eat like candy. In a health food store I spotted nopal cookies, and in Mexican pharmacies I’ve seen nopal shampoo.

But that’s not all this plant can do. Beside the paddle, the nopal cactus produces a fruit that is small and seedy, but sweet and delicious. In Spanish it’s known as tuna, which naturally causes endless confusion among non-Spanish-speakers accustomed to tuna casseroles and tuna sandwiches. Imagine their shock at coming across an agua fresca (a sweet drink) or a paleta (a popsicle) -- made with tuna.

Here, nopales are in every Latino market, and sometimes they show up at farmers markets and well-stocked grocery stores. The paddles are sold whole, or you can find them cleaned of their spines, cut up and packaged.

When shopping, look for nopales that are small, tender and bright green rather than large, thick and faded. Avoid any that are flabby and soft. Some markets provide tongs for picking up paddles that still have their spines. But don’t worry if your market is tongless -- grab a plastic produce bag or two, and use them to shield your fingers.

Removing the spines is not difficult -- it just takes a sharp knife. Hold the paddle on a slant and slice downward, starting from the base, not the rounded top. Trim off the edge of each paddle, and discard the thick base. You can also try a sharp vegetable peeler, but you may have to go back with a paring knife to cut out some stubborn spines. As you work, grip the cactus with a potholder, dishcloth or thick glove.

Once you’ve mastered this procedure, you’re ready to experiment, or copy the way local Mexican restaurants treat nopales. Cooked nopales remain slightly firm and resilient, unlike vegetables that soften when boiled too long. They keep well if cooked in advance, which is handy if you want to scramble eggs with nopales for breakfast.

Tacos Clarita on East 4th Street in Los Angeles serves nopalitos asados (grilled nopales), topped with grilled onions and jalapeno strips. Guelaguetza in Koreatown ladles Oaxacan-style fajitas -- thin-cut salted beef known as tasajo, cooked with tomato, onion, bell pepper and Oaxacan string cheese -- over nopales. Teresitas in East Los Angeles simmers espinazo (pork spine) with cactus.

The nopal champion, though, is Mary Carmen Salas of La Parrilla restaurant in Boyle Heights. Salas has written a flier for customers that explains what nopales are and where they grow. And she uses the fresh cactus in a lot of dishes. “It’s healthy food,” she says in the flier.

The most unusual is huarachito Tizoc, a nopal sandwich filled with shrimp and covered with tomatillo salsa and cheese. The long oval nopal paddle resembles the sole of a huarache sandal, she says, explaining the name. Huarachitos also come filled with beef or chicken.

La Parrilla’s big meat and seafood combinations, called molcajetes, include nopales too. They’re named for the stone mortars in which they are served. Nopalitos, says Salas, is the proper word for cactus that is cut up and ready to eat. Her nopalitos a la Mexicana is cactus cooked with tomato, chile and onion.

The most popular cactus dish, found in markets all over Mexico, is cactus salad. A simple chopped mixture of nopales, tomato, onion and chile, it’s sometimes tossed with crumbled Mexican cheese and flavored with cilantro or oregano. It’s common in restaurants here too. Senor Fred in Sherman Oaks puts cactus salad on the plate with carne asada, but the most interesting cactus dish at that restaurant is chile verde, a pork stew with nopales. Chef Juan Carlos Leon simmers the nopales in water before combining them with the other stew ingredients.

Leon insists on fresh cactus. “The flavor [of the canned] would ruin the flavor of my food,” he says.

When fresh ones are so easy to find, why use anything but? And don’t let the spines scare you. Remember, you’re the one with the knife.

*

Chile verde with pork and nopales

Total time: 2 hours

Servings: 4

Note: From Senor Fred

Tomatillo sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound tomatillos, husks

removed, rinsed

2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and torn into large strips

1 jalapeno, stem removed

3 bunches cilantro, chopped

3 sprigs epazote, tough stems removed

1 teaspoon dried Mexican

oregano

1 1/4cups chicken stock

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook just until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeno, cilantro, epazote leaves, oregano and chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Remove the sauce from the heat. Cool it slightly, then puree it in a blender.

Pork and nopales

1 tablespoon oil

1 pound trimmed pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2pound nopales (cactus

paddles), trimmed, peeled and cut into 1- by one-half-inch pieces

4 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and cut into 1- by one-half-inch pieces

Tomatillo sauce

Salt, pepper

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the pork and sear until lightly browned. Add 2 cups water and the salt and simmer until the pork is tender, about 30 minutes. The liquid will reduce to a few tablespoons. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a separate saucepan, bring 1 quart of water to a boil. Add the nopales and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the nopales from the heat, drain and rinse with cold water. Combine the nopales and the poblano pieces and set aside.

3. Add the tomatillo sauce and the nopales mixture to the pan with the seared pork. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Each serving: 404 calories; 25 grams protein; 25 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams fiber; 24 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 70 mg. cholesterol; 883 mg. sodium.

*

Guisado de nopales (stewed cactus paddles)

Total time: 50 minutes

Servings: 4 to 6

Note: From Inelva Carrasco Espinosa of Oaxaca

1 pound nopales (cactus

paddles)

1 pound plum tomatoes

1/4 medium onion

1/2 cup water, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large sprig epazote

2 teaspoons chicken stock base

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Trim, clean and wash the cactus. Cut each paddle into half-inch squares. Drop the cactus pieces into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.

2. Trim the stem ends of the tomatoes and cut the tomatoes into quarters. Place them in a blender container with the onion and one-fourth cup water. Blend thoroughly.

3. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the tomato mixture, epazote, chicken base and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

4. Add the cactus squares and the remaining one-fourth cup water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently, uncovered, 5 minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, thin with a little water.

Each serving: 52 calories; 2 grams protein; 7 grams carbohydrates;

3 grams fiber; 3 grams fat;

0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol;

464 mg. sodium.

*

Huarachitos Tizoc

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings: 4

Note: From La Parrilla restaurant in Boyle Heights

Salsa verde

1 pound tomatillos

1 jalapeno, seeded

1 clove garlic

1/3cup cilantro leaves

1 tablespoon oil

1/4teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon chicken stock base

1. Remove the papery outer husks of the tomatillos and the stem and seeds from the jalapeno. Place the tomatillos and jalapeno in a pan of water, bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until the tomatillos are softened, about 7 minutes. Drain.

2. Place the cooked tomatillos and jalapeno, the garlic and the cilantro in a blender and puree until smooth.

3. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the tomatillo mixture and cook 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and chicken stock base. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Huarachitos

1 pound jumbo (16 to 21 count) shrimp

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

4 tomatoes, chopped

8 (4- to 5-inch-long) nopales (cactus paddles), trimmed and peeled, left whole

Salsa verde

1/2 cup shredded Jack cheese

1. Peel the shrimp and cut into one-third- to one-half-inch pieces.

2. Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp pieces and cook until they turn pink, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Heat a griddle until very hot. Oil it lightly. Add the nopales in a single layer, in batches, and cook over high heat for 2 minutes, then turn and cook 2 more minutes on the other side.

4. Place 1 nopal on each of

4 ovenproof plates. Cover with one-fourth of the shrimp mixture. Top each shrimp layer with another nopal. Pour salsa verde over each, then sprinkle with cheese. Place under the broiler until the cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Each serving: 244 calories; 15 grams protein; 20 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams fiber; 13 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 83 mg. cholesterol; 425 mg. sodium.

*

Prepping the prickly pear cactus