Fried Nopales

Wife found some good looking cacti and brought it home for me. I picked it. It was a bit too slimy for my preference. But then it occurred to me that that slim would hold cornmeal for deep frying.

OMG is this tasty. The cost is basically cider vinegar, onions, corn meal and frying oil. We need to go back and get more to plant here.

65 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 290d (1 reply)

stares at the nopal in my fridge hmmmmm.

FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 290d

Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 289d (5 replies)

Have you ever had fried okra (homemade, not the frozen prebreaded stuff), and if so how would you compare it? My brain says they look the same, but I feel like the nopales would be mushier. Either way, looks fantastic, absolutely would.

Edit: just saw your other comment, that’ll teach me for not reading the other comments first, haha. In my defense I was hypnotized by the nopales!

BreadOven@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 289d (4 replies)

I haven't tried it, although I just made a gumbo yesterday, should have saved some. Is it good? It seems like it would be. Does it still have that slimyness when it's fried?

FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 289d (1 reply)

Slime vanishes when fried.

BreadOven@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d

Awesome. Will have to try. Thanks.

Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 289d (1 reply)

I love it, ate it like popcorn when I was a kid! Weirdly in my experience the frozen, pre-breaded kind can retain some internal sliminess, especially when baked, but I’ve never encountered that with made from scratch (I imagine they’d do the same if you froze them first).

BreadOven@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 288d

Thanks! I'm going to try it at some point soon. Seems like a good winter dish.

distantsounds@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 290d (1 reply)

Never seen them fried before and that does sounds good!

FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 290d

Fried okra but better.

fartographer@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 289d

I used to keep a cigar lighter and knife with me just in case I found some exceptional-looking cactus while driving around here. I'd still do it if urban sprawl hadn't replaced wild cacti here in Texas with cultivated cacti in people's yards.

I was extra-frustrated this year when I saw all the prickly pears changing colors in people's yards, while knowing that no one actually harvests them.