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This entry is going to be short and sweet, because I've now realized roasted cactus isn't for me.

I set off the other afternoon on a walk from my house to the Mission district, where I was sure I could find some cactus paddles, or 'nopales' as the are called. I found some right off the bat at the grocer nearest Ti Couz, but the box of them had been out in the direct sunlight all day and they were hot, floppy, and generally sad looking.

I kept on hoofed it down to Mission + 19th St. where in all my excitement upon seeing nopales sheltered and cool in the shade, I immediately grabbed a paddle and ended up with a handful of prickles from the cactus spines. Ouch. Luckily, this grocer was also kind enough to sell bags of precut cactus so us rookies don't have to cut off all the spines ourselves. I got some of each.

The cactus paddles are the prettiest shade of green -- bright and lively, really pretty to have around. I wasn't at all sure how they would taste. For some reason I was imagining some sort of roasted aloe vera--but a friend of mine tipped me off that they actually tasted more like okra. At which point I almost backed out of this recipe.

The last time I had okra I was in Tanzania, a country where okra seems to be very popular alongside the mango for some reason. Okra with lunch and dinner, mango with every breakfast, okra, mango--every day. I really don't like okra, it smells unappetizing to me, like a roasted canned vegetable, and the consistency--stringy and viscous makes the hair on my neck stand on end.

Back to the cactus. I cut it, tossed it in bit of olive oil, spread it on a baking pan, and into the hot oven it went.

Of course I knew I was in trouble 5 minutes in. I took a look and instead of my beautiful bright green cactus, the chunks were a dull army green moving towards brown. And the smell, you guessed it--alot like cooked okra. Looked like okra, when I pulled it out, it tasted similar as well.

I didn't bother finishing the rest of the recipe which entails tossing the cooled cactus chunks in a salsa fresca, with some mexican cheese. I know, it sounded good in theory.

Okra fans of the world, I introduce you to a new recipe. Everyone else, take a pass on this one.

In some of the early entries on this site I didn't request permission to run the recipe I was writing about from the publisher so it won't appear here. The majority of entries on 101 Cookbooks will have the recipes attached, this just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't.

From: The New Joy of Cooking Page: 357

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