How do I eat cactus?

[avram]

Hmm. Those look more like red potatoes, don’t they?

I stopped off at the Korean grocery on Flatbush on my way home from the movie; I picked up a couple of pieces of cactus (two for a buck), figuring I could look it up in The Visual Food Encyclopedia for storage and preparation instructions, but the book has no listing for cactus.

They weren’t being sold in the refrigerated section, so I figure I don’t need to fridge or freeze ’em. And the spines have already been removed (or were never there in the first place), so that’s not an issue. But the sign just said “cactus”, nothing more specific, and I don’t know if these things need to be cooked or peeled or whatever. Any tips?

BTW, when looked at under my florescent kitchen light there’s a lot more yellowish-green in these things than there was under the incandescent lights in my living room, where I painted them. And there are small specks (that didn’t come out so well in the scan, or in the painting for that matter) that I’m guessing were where the spines used to be.

Comments

[redbird]

What you have there are cactus fruit. Peel and eat. You don't need to cook them; I don't know what happens if you do. (I doubt they become poisonous, but they may or may not be palatable when cooked.)

Cactus-as-vegetable is green and might be labeled nopalitos; those are cooked, but I don't know the details--I had it in a Mexican restaurant in Madison, and it wasn't all that exciting, just a basic green vegetable, with the flavor being from sauce/spices.

[avram]

Thanks! The web pages I found said that some cacti are edible in themselves, and some bear edible fruit, and didn't give me enough details to know what was what.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

May I just say how much I like your illo of cactus fruit.

MKS

Alors! Le dilemme de la cacti!

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

One eats le cactus the same way that zee porcupines make ze love. How you say? Vairy vairy cairfully.

Do not poquer le spine into le roof de la bouche. It will be, how you say, painfoool.

Sabra!

[(Anonymous)]

As redbird notes, that there is fruit. It's Prickly Pear, aka Sabra, the spiny-but-sweet-inside fruit that Israeli's took as a namesake. These look de-prickled already, so just de-rind and dig in. (again as redbird notes). Beautiful, ripe examples, by the way, from how the piccy looks.

--BSD