When i was in Phoenix two years ago for a conference, my sister-like friend Sam took me to this great Mexican restaurant (Comedor Guadalajara) for a brunch. I was curious whether people in desert actually ate cactus at that time, so she recommended this one amazing dish, nopalitos con huevos, to me. I would admit that I fell in love with nopal cactus after that one single dish and got totally addicted to it since then. After being back to Gainesville, I wanted to recreate this dish, and luckily, I found fresh nopales in the local market (La Aurora). So here we go, my experimenting protocol for nopalitos con huevos.
Objectives
Recreate a simple version of nopalitos con huevos without burning it or turning it to something else
Precautions
Wear proper personal protective equipment (apron) and try not to burn the kitchen or set anything on fire
Materials and Equipment
1 fresh nopal pad (La Aurora)
2 eggs (Publix #4141500466)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (Wesson #2700061216)
A touch of salt (Publix #4141500131)
1 red copper pan
1 cooking pot
1 bowl
1 plate
Procedures
4.1 Remove all the spines from the nopal pad. Be careful with the knife and the spines. There is a high chance you could hurt your fingers (based on my experience…).
4.2 Wash the pad and cut it into strips.
4.3 Boil a pot of water and cook the nopal strips in the boiling water for 3 minutes.
4.4 Cool down the strips in ice water for 5 mins and drain the excess water from them.
4.5 Scramble the eggs in a bowl.
4.6 Heat up the copper pan and put the vegetable oil in.
4.7 Cook the scrambled eggs in the pan until they are 80% cooked through.
4.8 Put the nopal strips into the eggs and stir fry them smartly until fully cooked.
4.9 Transfer the food from the pan to a plate and enjoy!
Notes
5.1 Could use butter instead of vegetable oil.
5.2 Could use some other seasonings, such as black pepper and garlic.
It wasn’t a disaster in the end so I will conclude this protocol is feasible.
Next time lol
