Restaurants in our city are now open. We are at partial capacity at the restaurant that I work in. We're too short staffed to have a full house at this point. Nobody wants to work when they are getting government money. Now they are having a good time and enjoying the sunshine and the dining out.
This patio is across from our apartment and next to our bosses sandwich shop. It's around the corner from our restaurant. All three places are vegan. This place is a vegan pub where drinking beer is the highlight of the experience. The food is mediocre vegan pub grub. I have heard this from others.
Marc and I have no desire to go to any restaurant. The spell has been broken .
We do enjoy eating though. Sometimes we like to really indulge in sinful treats, like fried finger foods. In the old days before we were plant based only, we would go to restaurant pubs after work and order things like fried calamari. We would chase it down with a pint.
Today I have taken cactus and turned it into pub grub, by simply breading and frying them.
Cactus is becoming more and more popular it seems. At our restaurant which is a vegan Mexican theme we serve cactus tacos made from canned cactus. I am not a super fan. But I look at them all day.
I found some fresh cactus at the local grocer which was strange to see, so I was compelled to pick it up.
The first time I ate cactus was over twenty years ago in a Mexico City restaurant. It was a cactus salad. I thought it was strange to eat cactus but it is common in Mexico. I just loved that salad. It was not something I had again until last year when I started working in this restaurant.
This Nopal cactus is the one that has bright red prickly pears growing from it. They are everywhere in Mexico. When we were living there for months they were growing like weeds in some places. I often dreamed of stealing them from neighbors but I didn't do it. There's always a dog barking behind a fence. Plus I would have needed gloves.
To clean the prickly thorns off you must be careful. I use a knife and a peeler. It requires gloves or the ability not to touch the thorns but that's for the experts.
After removing the thorns, I rinsed them very well. They're slimy like aloe. I sliced them into spears.
I made a wet batter from flour, water, onion powder, garlic power, paprika, salt pepper and oregano and around a teaspoon of baking soda. It wasn't measured but I started with approximately 2 cups flour then added water to make a thick batter.
After dredging the cactus in the batter I coated them in panko bread crumbs. You could use any breadcrumbs.
After they were all coated I put them in the freezer while I made the chutney for dipping.
I have been given so much jackfruit from my kitchen manager it's almost annoying. I have to cook it or I get a weird reaction to it. I made a jackfruit chutney dipping sauce. Instead of mango chutney I used jackfruit and instead of small chilies I used jalapenos since it was a Mexican-ish kind of thing.
I put about 2 cups of ripe frozen jackfruit into a pot with two jalapeno peppers, 1 cup sugar and boiled it down.
While it was boiling I browned 1 chopped onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 shallot, juice of two limes, 1/8 cup tablespoons cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon cumin powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 1 teaspoon mango powder, 1 teaspoon Asafoetida, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds.
After everything was cooked I added them together in a blender and blended until smooth.
Then I cooked the cactus spears in hot oil on medium high heat.
I try not to indulge too often in fried food but when I do, I have to throw in some salad. In a pub, you would have most likely had fries on the side but I just can't understand how so much fried food could be eaten in one shot without feeling like you ate cement. I used to do that.
I have to admit this was my favorite cactus dish so far. Of course breaded fried things are quite fun to eat.
It passed the test when Marc gave a two thumbs up. He was surprised at how he loved it, especially after making fun of cactus tacos all day at work.
Have a peaceful day folks!
