Tomato and Cactus Stew

Ingredients for cactus stew

   This meal was extra cheap… we grew all the ingredients except the canned corn and black beans, and the spices and olive oil.

   It costs us perhaps $2 for the whole meal, which can serve four with some to spare.

   Growing a small portion of your own food is not that hard if you have just a bit of good space (with sun, water and a suitable soil).

   Our son moved to Los Angeles some years ago…. moving him in I brought some potatoes for him to plant… he dismissed the idea…. ‘People in LA don’t grow vegetables’ he said. And pretty much, he’s right. We’ve got people on food stamps, that have no idea that a meal comes from the ground…. that foods are not grown in packages ready to pop into the microwave oven.  In general, people have grown to be too far apart from their food supply….. and the natural laziness of humans makes it easier to sit around popping prepared ‘foods’ into appliances, rather than preparing from scratch… as long as the food keeps coming, gratification is sustained, and the need to go and scratch in the dirt growing good and healthy foods is discounted.

Here’s those same fresh ingredients (picked just moments before cooking)
chopped and in the frying pan.

I don’t follow recipes explicitly… I mean,
I don’t always have all the ingredients listed on recipes… who does?

It is my way to roam through the cupboards as I’ve roamed through life…
picking and choosing what I wanted right then and there…
usually what is in front of me does OK in a pinch.
It pays to not be too choosy all the time.. because the world is full of good stuff….
don’t pass by the good around you while you seek for ‘the best’.

tomato and cactus stew

This is how the tomato and cactus stew turned out.
The ingredients don’t have to be adhered to like a formula…
experiment, try different things, and spices.

I list the ingredients here not by quantity….
and do know that none of these have to be adhered to as a matter of dogma
substitution is  a proper way to approach cooking…
maybe even life

Tomato and Cactus Stew

Cactus leaves
peppers
tomatoes
Onions and Garlic
other vegetables

chop and fry gently in Olive Oil

add spices… for this I used:
Cumin
Cajun Seasoning
Paprika
Curry
Salt
Black Pepper

See? Cooking doesn’t have to be complex or hard…..
I’ve never met a great home cook (Like my Mom or Grandma)
who followed recipes exactly ALL the time
(there are times you must, don’t worry about them now).

My Granny could not pass on recipes well….
her quantities were in her head,
and matched the number of plates she expected to fill.

Maybe it’s a bit like weeding….
don’t sweat the small stuff,
cause there’s enough to do as it is anyway.

I’m a bit of a peasant actually…..
I’ll usually choose the coarse and simple for the elegant and refined.
Coarse and simple survives where I live,
‘elegant and refined’ gathers dust and rust…
I can’t use them, and in time they lose their shine,
and look sadder than the simple durable things near them.

And dang, was that a good meal…