Nopales, a Prickly Affair

Nopales are from a wonderful tasting cacti (the nopal) that comes from Mexico though it can be found in other places such as in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to name a few. They have been a part of Mexican cuisine for 1,000's of years. The nopal is also known as the prickly pear cacti. The prickly pear which is more well known outside Mexico is the beautiful red prickly fruit/flower that buds from the nopal. The paddles or pads of this lovely cacti are what we refer to as nopales or nopalitos (when prepared) and are used in many different ways. You can boil them, boil then fry, or grill them. You can eat them in a salad, in a taco, with scrambled eggs, the list is endless and once you understand the flavor I think it's really about making it your own. It doesn't necessarily have to be made in a Mexican recipe.

You want to choose relatively small nopales (if you are going to harvest them yourself), around 8 inches in length, and you will have to wear gloves to protect you from the spines. If you are going to purchase some, the only place I've seen them is in Mexican groceries.

Nopales have incredible healing properties that are just beginning to be tapped into (well, I should say - tapped into in N. America because the Mexicans have known for a long time they're good for you!). I have no doubt they'll synthesize some ingredient or other from them and put them in a bottle, but in my opinion: buy them for 50 cents, take them home, cook them yourself! Nopales are said to treat digestive issues, diabetes (they regulate blood sugar levels), and high cholesterol. They also happen to be high in vitamin A and C. If you were to use them for medicinal purposes some examples of usage would be as follows: if you are pre-diabetic or are diabetic, this is an excellent snack replacement or addition to your food choices as it would potentially help to further decrease your blood glucose levels; if you have digestive troubles, this is an excellent soothing plant for your stomach and can be added to salads or eggs or whatever you choose to eat it with; likewise for those with high cholesterol, add it to your diet to help combat your cholesterol levels along with some of the other things I have discussed you would have a nice combination of foods that you know can lower cholesterol (see hibiscus/flor de Jamaica entry).

I chose to make a light salad of nopales which turned out wonderfully but in the next round I am going to make them roasted on a barbeque grill.



1. First, I washed the nopale (I only used one for my lunch today), I cleaned off the sides which were rough by slicing them off, I used a peeler to cut out the dark rough "eyes" (much like potato eyes), then I boiled it for approx. 12-15 mins in salt water (once it turns olive green and is soft you can take it out). Drain the water.
DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR NOPALES THEY WILL TURN STICKY AND GROSS!





2. I let it cool and then sliced it into thin strips, placed it in a bowl, added one thin sliced garlic clove, lots of lime, sea salt and pepper, and that's it! Delectable.



3. If you want to go further with this, buy some fresh soft shell taco's (I like the corn based ones), toast them lightly on a flame, put a few slices of the above nopalitos in there, some white cheese (I used the Mexican white cheese, crumbly and not too heavy), a dash of yogurt, and some chili - DEEEELISH, do it.



The Gourmet Sleuth has a wonderful and extensive entry on nopales here: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/nopalitos.htm#Nopales%20History.

Here is an entry from someone who ate nopales while he was undergoing chemotherapy:
http://mycancerchronicles.blogspot.com/2007/09/nopalitos.html

If you want a more technical and scientific explanation (also incredibly interesting), go to Miguel Angel Gutierrez from UCLA's Department of Biological Chemistry article here: http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclabiolchem/nutritionbytes/vol4/iss2/art3/

Mexican Grocery

I ended up only being able to go to two of the three designated markets yesterday, and only one is worth writing about. The Sultan's Market (aka. the Lebanese purveyor I mentioned yesterday) was a small shop with prepared foods and not much else, I thought I'd buy olive oil there but it was kept on the bottom shelf, with dusty warm bottles, next to the food station - NOT good. So, nay to that market. But the wonderful news is that Cermak Produce (aka. the Mexican market) on W. North Avenue in Chicago is glorious and resplendent.



I spent $54 and bought food for at least 5 days.



The market had beautiful cuts of meat, an amazing variety of vegetables and legumes, and there was an endless selection of chili's available - I bought two in dried form: chile morita (in Spanish it is spelled chile and I usually do so as well but have been experimenting with the English spelled chili), and chile guajillo. All in all I probably counted about 20 different varieities of chili's (fresh, dried, or powdered) and I was in heaven. I also found "alligators tail" (as they refer to it in Thailand), or better known as fresh Aloe vera - many of you have used it in products or know that it is rich in vitamin E, etc, but it's hard to find it in the US fresh in it's original plant form. This was an exciting find for me! You can use fresh Aloe vera by slicing off the thin skin and applying directly to a wound/scar/burn or you can also use it in food though it's not something super tasty (as far as I've learned how to cook it). I also found fresh nopales and there was a variety of other cacti that I'll return to explore later. There were a few herbs I couldn't identify which I'm going to research and experiment with as well. The limes were 10 for a dollar and were juicy and lovely - this was also thrilling (they're usually 2 for a $1 in the large chain groceries and they're rather dry in the cheap Chinese groceries). The butcher section was also incredible, every cut known to mankind in terms of pork - I got ribs and ground (boring), but I really want to go back and get some pigs feet and cow tongue in the near future when I have a good partner in crime to eat it with. Alas, the fish section wasn't all that, I much prefer the Chinese grocery for this as everything was frozen in the Mexican one. I bought fresh corn tortillas, queso blanco, red beets, plain yogurt (they had the Greek variety), cilantro, garlic, white onions, garbanzo beans in their leaf covering, tomatillos, Jamaica flowers (for this lovely sour tangy sweet juice that comes from boiling them), cheapola avocados (another bonus!), fresh oregano, lentils, black beans, osso bucco, tamarind juice, bananas, ginger, watermelon, onions, strawberries, nopales, chili's (two kinds), ground pork, ribs, and fresh baguettes. All of these things have their place in medicinal cooking of course, as all food has it's value in TCM and is used for what those values are. The only things in fact that would not be "medicinal" are processed foods. In any case, I will be writing about black beans, flor de Jamaica, and nopales this week as I make dishes with them. Below are the pictures from the market.











Mmm, dried hot chili's!



Interestingly, they put together little packages for a good price (instead of buying all the ingredients separatly in bulk), for soups/stews (pictured as sopas) - brilliant idea!



Tomatillos (little sour green tomatoes), they also were selling mini versions which I've never tried but will next time. I once made a pickle, peanut butter, tomatillo sushi roll (my friend Traci can attest to this). It was good. Truly.



Mexican chayote, a tropical trailing vine which produces fruits, which are treated more like vegetables than true fruits.



Close up of chayote, there is also a smooth version.





Nopales



Aloe vera in the midst of all the plantains.



Scallions with bulbous bottoms.



A plant I have never used, it did not have a particularly strong scent (in fact, barely any at all) - it is an "Aztec plant with a flavor like broccoli, the tender tips are used for salads, cooked in butter with onion and garlic like spinach. Fine Mexico City restaurants use young tender seed heads dipped in batter and cooked. This was apparently an important crop for the Aztecs and the people who lived in Mexico before them. " (I got this excerpt from a plant purveyor but I will double check this info).



Pork, glorious pork!



Finally, just outside in the front of the market is a little stand with salsa music blasting, a grill for pork skewers, and soft luscious tacos.