Cactus Poriyal

As you know, I bought some Cactus (or is it Cacti?) from the farmer's market on Saturday. I was amused by the prickly little thing and decided....hey, why not try cooking it? Needless to say, I got quite a few thorns stuck on my fingers. I had no idea how to clean or cut it. Thankfully, I had the Internet to show me how! Thanks Internet!

Growing up, I never understood why my mom and aunts would "Indianize" everything. Let me explain. For Thanksgiving, they would make 'masala turkey'..enough said. Well, it looks like I'm following in their footsteps because I Indianized the cactus. ;) I made Cactus Poriyal. For those of you not familiar with this, poriyal is a South Indian vegetable side dish. We cook veggies using mustard seeds, onion, cumin, coconut, turmeric powder, red chili, etc.

So, here it is people...Cactus Poriyal. :)


Thorny Cactus


The Cactus after it was cleaned..it looks like it was cleaned by a 5 year old. I had to wear gloves and use a paring knife.

Cut cactus

Cooking the cactus

Tada!!

The Cactus was quite slimy, like Okra. The more it cooked, the less slimy it became. I was surprised by the taste. It tasted sour and lemony, which I happen to like. My husband on the other hand, didn't care for it too much. He doesn't fancy sour things too much.

Will I make this again? Probably not. Only because my husband didn't care for it and I'd rather save all this work for making something he loved. I am happy to try something new, fun and different though. :)

p.s. Later on this week, I will show you what I made with the Banana Peppers from the farmer's market.