Grilled cactus paddle tacos with soy-citrus glaze
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2023
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**RECIPE, SUCH AS IT IS**
nopales (figure 1 paddle makes 1-2 tacos)
soy sauce
citrus (I used a lemon and a lime for maybe 2 lb nopales)
honey
mild, fresh chilies, ideally in pretty colors
garlic
onion, ideally a sweet variety
fresh cilantro or other herb for garnish
fresh ripe avocado (enough for each taco to get a slice)
spices
oil
tortillas
Nopales are the tender spring growth of paddles on a prickly pear cactus - they'll grow at the tips of the stems and you'll recognize them by their lighter color and big, floppy spikes. The big spikes won't hurt you, but the tiny hairs (glochids) will lodge in your skin and hurt. If your paddles haven't been pre-cleaned, handle them with tongs until you get them scraped and washed.
Use the edge of your knife to scrape all the thorns and tiny hairs off of both sides of each paddle - scrape thoroughly to dislodge any lingering glochids. Trim off the edge all the way around paddle. Wash and drain them thoroughly to get rid of the glochids.
Marinate the paddles in some citrus juice, fresh chopped garlic, soy sauce, spices and olive oil. Leave them there as long as you can, but 20 minutes would help.
While you wait you can mince up your chilies, onion and cilantro for garnish. The avocado I try to slice right before I assemble the taco.
Heat your grill (or a pan with a little oil in it) until very hot. Take the nopales out of the marinade and get them cooking on their first side. Flip them when you get some color on them, and continue to cook until the paddles are very floppy.
Boil the reserved marinade to reduce into a thick, salty sauce you can toss into the nopales later or drizzle over the tacos.
Toast your tortillas at the last minute now, if you desire.
Slice the nopales into strips and consider tossing the reduced sauce through them. Assemble the tacos with nopales, some minced fresh onion and chilies, a slice of avocado, cilantro and maybe that salty sauce on top. 
Хобби
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I'm surprised an ex professional journalist and professional food writer is "recommending" generative AI. They're wellsprings of misinformation (an antithesis of journalism) and they create easy and instant content which is usually hard to do (your current job).
Very disappointed in you picking up a sponsor that is pushing generative AI. You're a journalist, you should be able to recognize the damage these machines are going to do. I love your content, but please be responsible on this front.
@@HyperDash I think you'll find generative AI is coming whether you like it or not.
@@mrunderscorecool I don't like it, and I intend to fight it every step of the way. Tell me not to if you want, I guess, but art is my livelihood, and I'll be proud of the luddite badge if that's what people want to call me.
@@mrunderscorecool it is, and we don't, dude. that's the point. we can't do anything but fight it on every front there is.
To keep up with the cactus theme of the cuisine, all Adam needs is cactus juice as his drink. Good beverage too.
It'll quench ya. Nothing's quenchier. It's the quenchiest. -Cactus Juice
Ok, I think you've had enough. ;)
Love the avatar reference
Ok, this is my favorite comment.
🤣
I have a feeling Adam drank too much cactus juice, he seems to be making a lot of cactus videos recently
"I feel like I should end with a pun about prickly or sharp things...but I've already made my point."
My mom cooks these often for my family. Instead of just scrapping it off and being unsure if you gotten most the spikey ends, you can just roast them off on the stove top on broil or high heat for a few seconds each side and then go through the process of scrapping with the knife.
I am also a proponent of the burn→scrape→wash method 👍🏻
Doesn’t he already know how to do that with the fruit?
@@bensoncheung2801 he did that with both the fruit and the paddles last time he cooked these, but they were more mature. Adam probably didn't feel the need to burn these because they have less of the spiky bits.
@@gabrielferreira7550 Ah, alright then.
@@gabrielferreira7550 Also, probably because this is a recipe video, and some people who're following the recipe could lack access to a campfire to burn the glochids off.
As a mexican, I absolutely approve this recipe. Even with the soy sauce and the pepper, it is not that far off to the tacos I can get around the corner.
Yeah, these ones look good. I might try them and I don't even like nopales that much
Latinx just off selling their food to american hipsters.
@@TheReaper0101 food can be enjoyed by everyone bro its not that deep😭
Si le sabe a los nopales el compa... Guácala te dijeron Latinx mejor mientanos la madre Gringo, es más cortés
@@TheReaper0101 que dice pinche gringo?
A tip for keeping corn tortillas soft after you've heated them up; wrap them in a slightly damp towel or paper towel or put them in a bowl and cover it with a plate or something. You want to trap the steam and keep them warm so they stay pliable. In Mexican households it is not uncommon to have a dedicated "Tortilla warmer" to keep the tortillas warm while people are eating. Also if you're lazy you can heat tortillas up easily in the microwave with a splash of water in a plastic bag or something to trap the moisture
If you don't have a tortilla warmer you can put the tortillas in a metal pie plates, cover with a damp, squeezed out paper towel and then a plate. If you know you will be a long time between when the tortillas are ready and the filler is ready you can put a regular towel around the outside of all of that.
Came here to give a reply like this, glad you beat me to it. ^This is the way, güey.
I live in the netherlands don't have these guys
I actually like the crunchiness
You should definitely not be putting plastic bags in the microwave…
I grew up eating these in Mexico, my mom would just buy Nopalitos from a jar at the grocery store. We would eat them as a salad with other meats or as tacos just like you did, we would usually crumble some queso fresco on top. What you made is as traditional as it comes!
A great way to get rid of glochids is with a kitchen torch. They burn away quickly and the cactus remains unburnt. I learned this growing up on a ranch in Texas. My dad would use a pear burner (big propane torch) to burn the thorns off a prickly pear cactus so the cattle could eat the cactus. As soon as my dad would light the torch and the cattle would hear the roar of it, they would come running
If they burn quickly from a torch wouldn’t they burn from cooking it for 10 min? Just curious.
@@joshualord6529i’d guess you wanna get rid of them right away. Lots of people seem to put them over the stove too. There weren’t many in this case so washing was probably good enough to get them ready to handle with your hands
@@joshualord6529they will leak into the marinade
Adam! I literally tried Nopal tacos for the first time at Paco’s Tacos in Kauai just 3 days ago. They were delicious and I feel like somehow I summoned this video with my choice. Keep making the great videos. My 5 and 7 year old boys watch them every week with me. Really appreciate the hard work it takes to make these great.
The Algorithm is gaining power in the real world.
Fun fact: Mexicans brought the cactus to Hawaii when they were hired by King Kamehameha III to train cattle ranching! The Hawaiian word for it, _pānini_ comes from _pā_ "wall" and _nini_ "fence" from one of its uses by these cowboys.
@@JohnDlugosz Soon it'll team up with ChatGPT and mine our nuclear launch codes. Terminator save us.
When adults believe in magic
You can always cure the the nopales with salt. Dice or slice, add a generous amount of salt and mix until alot of the goop comes out. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then rinse very well with cold water. This will get rid of pretty much all of the mucilage.
This would be a great addition to a new “why am I eating this?” Playlist
No, nopales are very healthy to eat, widely consumed and very affordable. It's more of a WHY WOULDN'T I EAT THIS? kind of thing.
@@MercenaryBlackWaterz yeah..... That's exactly why it would go in that playlist..... 🧐
@@wylanvallotton4462 I don't get it, please explain. I believe David M. meant it as in "why would I eat that?" And I say the opposite from a more informed perspective having grown eating this super food.
@@MercenaryBlackWaterz cuz the whole thing is "why would I eat that?" And then they tell you exactly why you WOULD/SHOULD eat that. That's the joke. The joke is in favor of your ideology and you're arguing against it because you are confused about the joke.
Cactus
If anyone is looking for a alternative to soy sauce in this recipe I highly recommend Maggi. My sister’s mother-in-law is from Mexico and always has it in her cupboard. You might need to water it down, I can’t say for sure. All I know is it tastes great!
It feels so good to follow the Adam Ragusea Cinematic Universe and understand all the references to previous videos, or to understand something only because Adam already made a video explaining it. This episode is full of this - sweet onions, mucilage from the episode about okra and gumbo, the sharp things on cacti.
true! Glad im up to date with my ARCU lore
Onions of vidayuh, the mucilage stuff, i definitely feel like an old timer having watched almost every single video😂
Lol true ARCU fans have their lore down
Your vegan and vegetarian recipes always come out so well!
I think Adam has been doing food recipes with interesting stuff lately. Ice cream with dry ice, BBQ with liquid smoke, Tacos with cactus and so on…… What’s next? Steak with sulfuric acid?
That's getting towards NileRed territory. What a crossover that would be
why i season my sulfuric acid, not my steak
@@coryman125 Right?! He'll be like "You can turn your stale bread into antifreeze"
My guess is something with white wine
Predigested steak now here's where we're entering flavourtown
I use nopales as a replacement for sweet peppers when the plants are not fruiting. It's crazy how once cooked I cannot tell them apart. One important step people recommend is cooking the nopales in water a bit before frying because they are very slimy and the water helps to take some of the slime away.
I'm pretty sure the mealy texture you're talking about comes from uncooked corn tortillas they don't come precooked they come pre-prepared. Safe to eat does not necessarily mean precooked. And to cook something does not necessarily mean that it's going to taste good. So really it's just kind of a big old circle but from what I've found these two things are the main differentiators.
I was thinking the same thing. Those tortillas aren't ready to be eaten until they are cooked.
This looks incredible. Love your vegan recipes.
I'm happy to see you enjoy something I grew up eating pretty regularly. The most common way I'd eat them is either in some sort of spicy red stew along with sliced steak or just the nopales boiled and then sautéed with egg, onions, and parsley or cilantro. Top them with queso fresco and red salsa and you're in for a good time.
I’m glad you’ve gone back to your usual way of filming. I like how you show the food and what you’re doing up close. It’s a style unique to you and I think you should keep it up 👍
I sincerely hope we get a follow up video to this after you try a bunch of different methods to cook that cactus. 🤤
These fun meat alternative recipes are perfect! A great way to get inspiration while cutting back on meat.
Been years since I've cooked cactus. I always made chicken & cactus tacos with flour tortillas, pico, and sour cream. Man were they good. I might have to throw it back into the rotation!
Somewhere, Sokka is absolutely losing his mind
I'm super glad you're back to making good recipe vids. I've actually made a few of your recipes, and they're wonderful, and I've missed them.
Seems like a traditional Nopales taco to me. Good job!
loved the older ragusea style in this video, thank you
This video is classic Adam, love it!
Soy sauce and cilantro taste really good together. I use that combination in beef and cabbage soup a lot.
I had a chuckle when you mentioned that we probably have these growing in our yard. I live in Newfoundland. We're just finished having frost. My potato and carrots are just sprouting in the garden now.
Nopales are great! They're hard to find sometimes, but they're delicious
really? nopales are everywhere in my city
and yes i live in the US
In Germany not, so the comment is fair
canada has a lack. im still looking.
@@gyozanomics maybe it depends on where in the US, I'm kinda far from where Nopales are most popular, so that might be it.
Nopales are more of a dry climate vegetable, if you can find it eat it for sure just for its health benefits. The original super food and very cheap too.
No need to end it with a pun, your cactus information and recipe were straight and to the... point xD
Oh microbarbs! I've seen these in the mexican grocery store and I've never bought them. I always imaged them to be bitter. I wonder how that cactus would taste with a little liquid smoke.
I'd think a little liquid smoke would really enhance these. Then again, I REALLY like meat. I'd probably try to make it as "meat" flavored as possible, maybe even adding a bit of beef broth to the sauce. Or, better yet, cook some actual carne asada too and add some to the taco with the cactus.
They're not bitter; on their own they taste vegetal, like a green bean but the texture is somewhat meatier. Grilled nopal is common in mexico, so it goes well with smoky flavors.
I’m so glad you covered nopales! They’re definitely a staple and a childhood favourite growing up.
Hey Adam! not sure if you read comments, but give huitlacoche (corn smut) a try too!
on that note, why don't we eat it here in the states? seems like a waste given all the out of the ordinary ingredients they like to use in those new american restaurants
I'm sorry, but "corn smut" sounds like a genre on certain websites people prefer to peruse on their lonesome.
@@RaptorJesus taking farmers only to a new level
Because corn smut is basically the antithesis of the ideology behind all those places. They're striving to use every part of local and seasonal ingredients including the undesirable parts. Not to purposefully infect a crop to then throw out most of it.
I was given a cactus plant for christmas last year, and even though it's not old enough to prduce fruit, I'm still glad I can cook the paddles
Yum, I love nopalitos!
Way to go, Adam! Excellent meat alternative taco or just for fun taco!
I've been wanting to cook cactus after having them in a Molcajete. Thanks for a quick intro!
cactus tacos are my favorite part of the west coast, so many options. Going to have to try these soy sauce cacti
My favourite is the grilled nopal (no cutting in strips ) with some melted cheese on top ( any cheese of your liking ) straight to the tortilla and a good sauce! 🤤
6:12 next time try dipping the tortillas just a bit in the marinade and grilling them like that. Works even better if you marinade the nopales and the carne asada together too. Grilled nopales are definitely a thing here in southern Mexico, and you honored them very well!
As a massive fan of all things Mexican food I would totally try this vege taco 🌮. I’ve tried lengua taco before, so this isn’t too extreme in my head
Getting a box of vidalia onions every spring... you lucky dog. What an awesome gift!
I love prickly pear fruit juice. There's a taco joint I love that has prickly pear soda and it's delicious
My favourite part of going to Mexico is nopales for breakfast with some eggs and tortillas. I find they taste like asparagus.
The tamale lady that walks around our neighborhood with her cooler has cactus ones and they're my favorite. Never had them before and I haven't seen it on the menu anywhere, but that's what she said when I asked her what it was because it was better than the jalapeno or chicken ones (IMO).
Made these tonight following your recipe! Very good I'll be making them again, the sauce was my favorite part. I'm not a great cook so it could have been better, learned alot tho, I had my grill too hot so they were a little slimy. I bet if I had my grill a bit cooler, I could have kept them on there for longer without fear of burning them!
Traditional or not im super excited to see at least one food youtuber try and tackle a nopal recipe
Nopales are so good. So affordable in the big jars. Gotta try it fresh sometime
I miss the fire method, but this works too.
i just got into these myself. super good
Tastes so good that it'll make you thorny
I really like these, they absolutely make you sound both cultured and insane if you say what you are eating. If you want a weird way to make them taste awesome use equal parts soy sauce and vinegar or water, soy, sauce, and vinegar. The former can keep more or less infinitely even unrefrigerated but the latter with water is more approachable yet likely not shelf stable.
Keep the plant based recipes coming!
When frying corn tortillas, get a large bowl and lay a couple wooden spoons across the top. Drape the fried tortillas over the spoon handles, and when they take a 'set,' you have perfect pre-formed taco shells.
what a cute "Bye" at the end :)
they make a great addition to traditional pico de gallo (pepper, onion and tomato) which also tastes great with avocado
I recommend using a propane torch/weed burner torch to give the paddles a quick burn to get rid of the prickly spines, even tossing them on an open camp fire for a minute or so and moving them around to expose everything to the flame works good. Let them cool down, trim up and proceed to cook as desired.
I can't tell you how excited I am about this. My prickly pear just bloomed yesterday! Will you be doing a video focusing on the fruit?
He already did one: ruclips.net/video/d84Kj6CJTKI/видео.html
he already did
He already did, it's called "How to eat cactus without impaling yourself".
Thanks!!!
You can do them in mole too, very similar to your pork loin mole recipe, and they're super good for you
Hibiscus flowers are also good too, the red colour is also a good facsimile for meat.
As a Mexican who grew up eating nopales i thank you for making this video i used to go up into the mountains with my grandma and harvest cactus to bring home wed burn off the needles and my grandma would cook while i made tortillas
an amazing follow up to the cactus video earlier!
If you brush a bit of oil or butter into the corn tortillas (before grill/frying) it makes them flexible and prevents "stiffening" even more
What a nice people in Vidalia!!!
This guy has the most wholesome style. Keep it up man ;) me gusta
we have some in our backyard! I'm cultivating some in pots
Chopping them into thin strips and small pieces and throwing them into some stewing pork or chicken is also common as a meat extender/vegetable adder for easy mexican meals. We used to make a stewed chicken and cactus pretty frequently when I was growing up as you could get jarred, "pickled", cactus for cheap but it was often pickled with some hot peppers for some flavor so I preferred the fresh version whenever we could get it as it tasted sweeter and more savory than hot. But still good.
Would love to see an episode on how to preserve and prepare that cactus a couple of different ways! It's an unsung hero of mexican food that deserves some spotlight!
Oh that sounds great
Love this stuff❤
Insanely jealous of Adam's lifetime supply of onions
Very cool and interesting ingredient. They dont grow where I live, but interesting none the less.
Still you can get them in brine
i had pickled cactus once in my spanish class one year and it was pretty good
Is it just me or have the videos felt different the last few months? It feels the quality has gone up substantially. Been really liking it
Surprised you didnt mention burning to remove spines. Looks tasty
I think grilling it removed any left over spikes that might be on the cacti
I once lived in a Mexican neighborhood in Southern California and my backyard had a lot of nopales growing in it. Not being Mexican, I cut them down but many of my neighbors (like the people I bought the house from) liked to eat them.
Cactus chorizo and eggs was a staple of my grandparents house growing up
Since you didn’t make a pun at the end of the video, I wanted to thank you for getting straight to the point.
I remember watching your first video about cactuses, and that's what got me so obsessed with your channel. Ever since ive watched that video i havent missed a single video you've posted, I don't like your podcast videos but at the same time i don't enjoy podcasts at all
Fun recipe 👍
My favorite part of going back home from university is always the nopales my mom makes
I love nepolitas thanks for the vid
i remember when my local grocery store in Germany sold Prickly Pear for the first time. I didn't know anything about the mini spikes & fucked up my ENTIRE weekend with those
he has finally mastered cactus eating
Boiling would also reduce oxalates, of which nopales have a fair amount. I guess you could split the difference and give them a quick blanch and then grill them.
My abuela loved nopales prepared with shrimp and scrambled eggs.
I grew up in south Texas, and this is a very common food around Lent.
"this is no one's traditional taco, but it's mine and it's real tasty"
legend!
Thank you for being a source of cactus factus
I say that box of onions has paid for itself
The bravest thing Adam has made
Didnt know you could eat the pads, had some in my front yard as a kid and ate the fruit all the time
A recipe so interesting it makes me want to live in a warm place where Opuntias thrive
You should try Azteca tacos. They have Nopales in them too.
It’s got some sort of meat in it and the entire taco is fried.
i love avocado, tho some have a ton of internal fibers (not fiber, long strings) that go from one end to the other so i always cut them into thin slices against that so they’re as short as possible. and it’s annoying getting off bits of peel if they’ve ripened too much.
I don't think I could buy cactus anywhere here in Europe where I live but I still enjoyed this video because its meatless and very entertaining to watch hehe
my brother in christ you left half the nopal on the board
but this is a good recipe and the correct way to cook it. Thank you for showing everyone!
There's an Eastern Prickly Pear version that doesn't have any thorns and it grows ok in cooler climates
that onion farm sending you onions every spring is the smartest move, they'll get free advertisement, even if you dont mention the farm just "Vidalia Onions" may get them traffic
That's one SHARP recipe eh Adam