Stuffed Sourdough French Toast
- Usual french toast ingredients (milk, eggs, cinnamon, blah blah blah)
- LaBrea sourdough bread sliced with a hole cut in the sides
- Dickinson's (Black Raspberry Preserves and Apple Butter) - free during Super Doubles week
- Butter flavor cooking spray
I normally venture to the Ladson Fairgrounds for chicken business. But while we were there, my husband and I always stop by a Hispanic produce stand on the north end of the fairgrounds. In the past I've gotten great recipes for new international meals and last Saturday was no different. Since I learned that cactus was edible, I have planted it in my yard and at the school garden but I never tried it for myself. When I saw it at the produce stand with the spines removed, I decided to buy some to spice up our Sunday dinner. Turns out that cactus (or nopales in Spanish) has a texture similar to okra. Traditionally, its chopped, boiled and drained before adding to salads or other recipes.
JOEBOB22's Pueblo Stew on allrecipes.com seemed like the perfect recipe for our first foray into cactus eating. When one comment suggested adding pinto beans and rotel tomatoes, I knew that this was our new favorite Mexican recipe. I used the last of a pork loin to make the real deal and also made a vegetarian version substituting zucchini for the meat. I didn't add the queso fresco or the spicy peppers but both were stews were outstanding anyway. JoeBob22's stew also calls for hominy, one of the few food items I struggled to find a recipe for when I worked at the Food Bank. Oh well, now I know. Next time I make this stew, I'll be sure to add a can or two.
Easy Pueblo Stew
- 2 tbsp oil
- 3 cans pinto beans (I used dried pinto beans which must have been old because they were still hard after 4 hours of cooking - the stew was so good that we ate it anyway)
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 potatoes, cubed
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 cooked pork loin, cubed
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tbsp ground cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- handful each cilantro, papalo and epazote, rinsed and coarsely chopped
- 2 freshly cooked prickly pear cacti (nopales), drained and rinsed
- 2 can Rotel tomatoes