NOPALES

The leaves of the prickly pear.  We had to try them sometime, didn't we.  We have eaten them before, always inadvertently, in restaurants.  In salads or in one of those dishes of whose contents we were ignorant.

The internet has lots of sites telling you how to peel those prickly spines off, but why would you bother when there are women sitting on so many sidewalks doing it for you.

So we bought a bag of them.  Here they are "marinating," as if something could penetrate that skin.

And on the comal.

El sr J's very Mexican idea of what to do with them:  beans, rice and prickly pear.

I, however, at the gym, watched Chef Oropeza make tinga de pollo con nopales. (http://televisa.esmas.com/al-sabor-del-chef/).  I had no idea what "tinga" meant until I looked it up.  It's chicken in a tomato sauce.  Big deal.  So here's my dish.  There's a nopal underneath all that chicken in tomato sauce with fried tortilla strips on top.  Haute Mexican.  And a side of rice.

Not worth the effort, really.  We probably won't buy them again, even though they're full of vitamins and minerals.  They are in a category with okra and grits.  And menudo.  And mofongo.  And chicharron.