Rick Bayless How to Prepare Nopal Cactus
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2022
- This is perhaps the one ingredient I get asked about more than any other, so here's how to use this often-perplexing ingredient.
One by one, clean the cactus paddles: Holding a paddle with a pair of tongs, trim off the edge that outlines the paddle, including the blunt end where the paddle was severed from the plant, then slice or scrape off the spiny nodes from both sides. Cut the paddles into ½-inch squares or into ¼-inch strips (if any are longer than about 2 ½ inches, cut them in half). Scoop the cactus into a medium (2- to 3-quart) saucepan and add a little oil, a good sprinkling of salt and some sliced onion. (For a pound of paddles, you’ll need about 1 tablespoon oil, ½ teaspoon salt and a small sliced onion.) Cover and set over medium heat and cook, stirring once or twice for about 5 minutes. Uncover the pan and continue to cook, stirring regularly until all of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is just beginning to sizzle in the oil, about 5 minutes more. Spread onto a large plate to cool.
🌵 WHERE TO USE NOPALES 🌵
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In the late 70s I lived in the foothills around Tucson. When my younger sister came out to visit from CT, I got the idea that we should try making prickly pear jelly since I was surrounded by the cactus, they were full with fruit and I had just read a recipe for it in the newspaper. Well!!! That is a story she still tells to this day because it's not the large thorns you have to be careful of, it's the very, very small hairlike thorns that will get you and stay with you!!! Learned the hard way!😄😄
Oh, dear, me too. I made the mistake of washing the kitchen towels I used in the processing and cleaning the prickly pear, in with my sheets!
Really enjoying this new series. I feel like a lot of Americans (myself included) tend to avoid specialty ethnic stores because it's intimidating & confusing. You are totally demystifying it. Thank you!
try nopales sometime. dont get weirded out by the texture. but it is tasty.
Robbie, most Americans are introduced to other cultures food through mockery and insults.
Not much different for American food abroad. We are the most obese nation in the world...
Mexicans are American.
I feel the same in pre-dominant … feeling is mutual .. I’m Mexican.
I love nopales and tunas, they are part of my heritage, thanks Rick for this video. 🌵
Que sabroso! My abuela used to cut these and cut of spines with a knife….she would cook them and add with scrambled eggs and also serve with fideo. Fideo!!! Food of the gods!!!
I buy the ones already cut up. I boil them for 3-4 minutes in water, drain & mix with egg n onion. They taste delicious.
for some reason nopal goes really well with eggs
My grandmother would use a knife and like a peeler scrape off the thorns. Then boil them and then cut them and cook them with onions and eggs. Sometimes with onions and tomatoes and potatoes. Ty Rick...been watching you since you did shows with Arlene, I believe her name was, when you first were in Mexico. Muchas Gracias por todo senor.
There's a TikTok channel completely devoted to preparing the cactus paddles and "cleaning" them. I can watch for several minutes, but it's nice to see it with Chef Rick's instruction.
If you have never had nopales you are missing out. Well cooked nopales are one of the best and healthies dishes you can have. They go with just about anything.
Hello chef Baylee’s I never knew that cactus could be so delicious . Am from the Caribbean and we use cactus for back pain, we clean it and soak it in coconut water and you woke up brand new the next day . Also I use for as my hair treatment for hair growth.
Hola Chef Bayless, Nopales son mis Favoritos especialmente en mi receta favorita Pollo a la Mexicana, en el Area donde vivo no hay tiendas con buenos Nopales por eso decidimos plantarlos en el patio de atras de mi casa y yo los corto los limpio y los preparo de mil maneras diferentes
I love nopales with scrambled eggs. I first pan fry the nopales until just starting to lightly brown, then add the scrambled eggs and cook as usual.
I was in Patzcuaro just 2 weeks ago and tried it with raw nopales. It was amazing. I've made it twice since then and I love it even better than cooked.
Thank u Chef, glad to see them featured I use newspapers underneath as I take spears off, then simply throw them away. Give a good rinse, chop and boil. I boil with onions ( to pull babas) then discard.2 cloves of garlic and sprinkle bit of dry oregano. I let boil for 20 minutes. Recipe from Dad who was from Zacatecas.
Gracias chef. One of my favorite foods. I have three nopaleras in my backyard. Love them!!!
I never cared for nopales, my mom loved em. That changed though years ago. My mom and I went to the local swap meet. A lady was selling tacos. I decided to buy a nopales taco w/chile Colorado. It was very good. I liked it ever sense! Like that old saying, Don't knock it, until you try it.
I've tried them and I didn't Iike them. But they are healthy, so it's great if people like them. I must say once I had them in a type of guac and they weren't so bad.
Aww the way you said baba
I pick one up not realizing the needles were very tiny. That was fun
Yes please! More Mexican Grocery Store techniques!!!!!
Orale chef, I’ve never gotten down w/ nopales. Lol…a family member used to scramble nopales w/ onion, tomatoes, and eggs. Man I couldn’t stand that! Lol…tasted like slimey green beans to me! 😂
Hola Chef Rick...my husband and I love nopales, especially when I make tortitas de camaron, yummy!
Finally. I always wanted to know how to this. Thanks! I’ve been making your cochinita pibil recipe for 15 years now. Always a hit.
You can also grill them, I like them better than “Al vapor”. What you need to do is cut them in strips but without separating them, that is don’t cut until the narrow part, then season it with a little salt on both sides and use a comal to cook them, or the grill. You can also grill some panela cheese to go with the nopal. It’s really good and healthy. You can use fork and knife to eat it or just grab a tortilla, add some salsa and give a big bite… 😆😋🤤🤤
They're so good, we put them in everything from breakfast tacos to soups, even breaded and deep fried they're good.
Best series on UA-cam right now. Keep it going, Rick!
Love them in breakfast tacos scrambled with eggs, and you’re right about the pork stew. A local restaurant serves Guisado de Puerco con Nopales which is to die for.
I have never had nopales before, or the prickly pear fruit, that comes from these plants. I'd like to try it one day. Cheers, Rick!
They sell them pickled in jars , in Mexican grocers and many other grocery stores. So good to eat as a salad with tomatoes and onions. Just rinse them good and remove the onions and cilantro that was packed with them and add the tomato and onions eat on a tostada, YUM!
@@vickycamarena4697 Thanks! I have neighbours who are from Mexico. I've also seen a Latin American food store in Edmonton, Alberta, where I live. I'll see if they have them. I think we have other Latin American grocery stores too. They may have them. Cheers!
Try them if you can they're really good!
@@toddstropicals I'd like to. Cheers! ✌️
The fruit (in Mexican Spanish called the "tuna") is very good. It's sort of but not quite like a citrusy watermelon. Those you should definitely buy de-quilled instead of trying to do it yourself.
I love Rick but the cleaning step of the nopales looked a little sloppy to me, I would have definitely rinsed the nopales and the cutting board before cutting them into strips, any of those thorns making it into the final dish would be really unfortunate
I was thinking that too.
Who said Mexican food isn't healthy? My mom taught me how to clean these...just with a knife and bare hands. Not easy but can be done. Ensalada de nopales is an excellent dish and very traditional in many parts of Mexico. Ingredients: nopales, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, jalapeños and season with jalapeño vinegar, dash of oregano and salt to taste. Enjoy! Mmmm!
Your recipes never disappoint Rick Bayless- when I’m looking to find a good Mexican recipie I always start with you- and usually end with you. ❤
Have you boneless and skinless chicken thighs cooked with pickled nopales and cilantro leaves with ground up oregano oh and serrano pepper. In a tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes. Omg it is so good. First cook chicken in little oil then add fresh chopped tomatoes with tomato sauce cover to make the chopped tomatoes cook. Add fresh chopped cilantro and Donna Maria pickled nopales including the serrano pepper with ground oregano mix and cover to cook.
Please season the chicken with salt and cumin. Serve over steam white rice and pinto beans. Please taste the chicken and tomato sauce you will add cilantro or oregano to taste.
Sometimes you just add cilantro or other times just oregano.
This recipe comes from a little town Sabinas Hidalgo, it is in Mexico
Nuevo Leon state or it could be Coahuila state. Well off the road to Saltillo from
Nuevo Laredo. Maybe someone from the town can give you more on the yummy recipe. Love watching your show.
Thanks for showing how you cook them. I add chopped garlic to the onion and add cilantro to steam along with the nopales. I don't mind the "baba". It's also good for your gut health. Think I'll make some tomorrow 🤔 I look forward to your next video.
Love nopales!! More of your incredible recipes with this treasure, please!!
This nopal recipe turned out great! Super easy.
Great presentation. Such a great simple method. Great job
Oh thank you so much for this video. I love nopal. I would always shy away from cooking the paddles, as I really was not sure how to cook them. I love nopal with egg 🥚 and of course corn tortillas.
Nice to see you again. I use to watch you on tv every week
Nice. I actually have several nopales plant in my garden. I grill them with olive oil and salt and pepper. They are really delicious. I’m going to try your suggestions. Thank you so much.
i love this recipe and nopales. super easy i just add them to mu burritos. delicious.
Love to hear you talk about New Mexican vs Mexican dishes.
Excellent 😎
I've been wanting to try these!
I love nopales!! My favorite way is simply grilled. My mom would make score marks on them, season them with salt and pepper, and cook them on both sides in a skillet. So good! It really brings out the citrusyness of it.
Excellent thank you so much🦋
I clean my Nopales like you. One of my favorites is coating them with olive oil and get some char marks on the grill both sides. Take some shredded Queso Oaxaca cheese place on one paddle and cover with another and grill til cheese melts………Muy delicioso
Sounds great!
One a time a friend from Wisconsin came by my yard in Arizona and marveled at the nopales growing here. I told him that people eat them. So he picked one off of the plant and started eating it. He was pulling stickers out of his hand and mouth for days. lol
Thanks for the reminder....!
Love nopales and chorizo and eggs wrapped in a flour tortilla !!
Cool! I like nopales and always wondered.. scrolled through my subscriptions looking for your latest but couldn’t find it. I’ve watched so many of your videos but just realized I wasn’t subscribed and now I feel a bit bad. Fixed that problem in a hurry though!
Nice video man.
I love them
i had traditional cactus fried up at a mexican resturant as a side dish with eggs, beans and other things. So good, like a better version of a green bean to me
I found a dish in Oaxaca that was I believed called sopa de Oaxcanios? Fire roasted tomato pepper soup with fried tortilla strips, cactus, and a thin omelette with Oaxacan cheese inside. Omelette soup is amazing!
The same cleaning and cooking styles works well with prickly pear cactus which you can find all over the USA Southwest.
Nopales remind me of my mom and the food she would make when i was a kid.
Thank you for the excellent technique and knowledge. It sounds like if we intend on adding these to a salsa or mole, best to sauté the nopales in parallel and add them at the end of any stewing period. Are there applications where you add fresh nopales at the start of a longer-cooking dish?
Hey there, I like your thinking. You're free to try, but the 'baba' would seep into the dish and probably give it a slimier mouthfeel than you'd like. That's the reason most people boil and drain the nopales separately to get rid of it. Bayless' method here does the same thing, by cooking off the slime. Hope this helps!
Are all cactus created equally? In other words, I am growing cactus around my house, not sure if they are edible? Kind of like cactus control.
They are all edible
تسلم ايدك. استاذ الله يوفقك
I cook them fresh with tomatillo sheaths ... the papery covering of tomatillos.. together with the onion, no water. It is so versatile and nutritious 🤤... cold in salads or warm in stews, scrambled eggs with potatoes...
Nopale tacos with a pineapple/habanero salsa are so damn good
In fact, pineapple and nopal get along pretty well. Have you ever tried "jugo verde"? One of the best fiber sources and cholesterol disintegrers: nopal, pineapple, celery and, if you want, a dash of lime juice. Better if you add some pure honey.
Maybe someday I will live near a Mexican market, that would be nice. Keep in mind a lot of your fans just don't have them.
Hello Rick with the nopales what I do I just buy them out of a jar rinse them out leave them in the colander this is the way I cook them I heat up some hamburger some sausage and then after it's fully cooked then I put the nopales in there salt pepper beat up like six eggs cook it all the way through sprinkle cheese on top of it roll it up in a tortilla and that's how I eat mine no nopales
I made cactus tacos thanks to this video
They have a very green bean/pole bean smell when cooking, perhaps a viable alternative!
when you put cactus in a blender with water, it forms a goop like flax and chia - so I bet it's great to substitute.
yay ty rb
My grandma grabs them while she peels them, and our home way of cooking them sometimes is with special sauce made out of chilies for it.(Jalisco)
Turning nope into yup into yum, since the 90's!
Always wanted to learn how to cook these. However, it looked like you cut the second paddle directly on top of the thorn’s you scraped off the first paddle, the same with the onion? It would seem that your cooked cactus would be full of thorns?
do these need to be washed prior to taking off the thorns?
Absolutely not
PLEASE REPLY. What and how do you clean your cutting board?? I've been watching you for years. LOVE these vids. Watched your show on TV when it was on. And have eaten at your restaurant in Chicago, which is still the best meal I've ever had in my 69 years of life. And ALL these years I've wanted to know how you keep your board clean. Sanitized? Scoured ?
Hey all! does anyone know if Mr. Bayless does any culinary classes in the US? I would love to learn more about this art and like his style. Feel free to reply if you know at all. Thanks!
Grilled with chorizo tacos
I'd be interested in learning the source of the assertion that nopales slow down the metabolism of carbohydrates.
Can I use instead of okra? Similar texture? I can get nopal easier than okra
Esta correcto se cocinan con su propia baba del nopal..cactus ...silantro.ajo.y cebolla...sal y listo. 👍
My grandma uses soluble/instant coffee like Nescafe when making nopales, when she is boiling them she adds a spoon or two of nescafe to get rid of the babas lol
It works better it you keep the knife on an angle to get the little picos off.
I wonder if the baba is like drinking aloe vera, which can be good for you but I read can also be hard on the kidneys. Edit: that's larger quantities, they have latex.
Where did you get that portrait of the luchador with the virgen mary? I see it at 3:54
Looks cool
I have a prickly pear cactus. It's a little more intensive to clean the pads. It's really sweet, so I turn it into a drink. It's not called cactus cooler for no reason (I know that's a soda without real cactus, but still). I also make cactus jerky.
Oh that is so interesting! How do you make a jerky? Cut into strips, but then smoke it or food dehydrated? The drink sounds so refreshing as well!
@@jenniferthom you can just eat it raw like raw jerky, but I will put it in the toaster oven and it will deflate to a jerky. I forgot if you add bbq sauce before or dip it after - but I think it does taste better adding bbq sauce before cooking it?
You can experiment with the toaster oven. Not sure about the dehydrator though - you don't really want it leathery.
The drink is on my personal website under 'mint julep'. I'm surprised the jerky isn't there, so I'll add it.
@@jenniferthom ok I posted the jerky recipes on my personal website.
i'm wondering if there are any mexican cactus drinks around? They sometimes sell cactus juice where I live.
Use a small paring knife and just slice away each thorn area
Show how to make nopales con longaniza....
As a kid i hated nopales, it was like how some kids hate broccoli
Ironically i loved broccoli lol
I just read that nopales and prickly pear's the same thing. I'm a little skeptical about the way you do it, as you don't run it under water, but I don't either. I actually go an extra step and peel off the thin skin at the top and the spike parts come out with it. The way it's scraped - I feel scared that the spikes will go into the pad, maybe that's me.
I have a verity that does not have those hard needles on them.
Is it safe to use in the same way as these?
I use a potatoe peeler around the perimeter.
I like nopales salad with milanesa.
Can they be taken Raw? I want to take it with other fruits in a milk shake. Would that be ok?
I couldn't help but notice, after you scraped the cactus you went right into cutting it then mentioned about cleaning the thorns away from the cutting area. You did this by scraping the board with your blade but went right to cutting again without wiping off the blade. It seemed like a bunch of the thorns made it into the slices. Wil they soften and be edible as they cook or should we be more careful?
Same question....you transition from nopales with thorns and cutting them to prep for tacos
You can also salt them and let them render their “baba” before cooking them.
this guy really moves in slow motion
I just cooked it. It fore surely needed acidity like vinegar. It offered a good crunch inside a pasta dish.
I use a fork to remove the stickers. I'm cooking some now
Chile verde with chayote and nopales 🤘🤘🤘🤘
It's Vava...😋 no offense. You cook good.
Could you blanch it whole then grill it? Minus the thorns of course lol
Good idea. Try it. I think the purpose of cutting it is to remove the gelatinous material. It reminds me of okra but thicker. It’s good for your cells, protects you against dehydration.
@@zaria5785 you can grill them directly but blanching remove the extra plainty taste of the jelly that some don't like
funfact: raw nopal smoothie is an old thing used for diabetes and weight control (minus the needles lol)
And yes some people replace Okra with Nopales and viceversa
Yes! I love nopal grilled. I swipe it with olive oil, sprinkle salt, add it to the grill.
It dries up a lot of the gooiness and tastes amazing. I’ve even eaten it as a ‘steak’ when I try to eat less meat.
I keep diabetes at bay by eating nopales a few times a week.
Where are now. Let’s meet tomorrow
I have acres of the same type you are working with. For years I thought about doing something with them but they look like a lot of trouble. Come by and you can have a few hundred pounds. lol
this is the easiest way. and delicious. boiling, don't waste your time.