Cactus paddles and knob onions charred on the plancha, hit with lime, salt and chile. Sour, smoky, and the thing that sits next to the mezcal all night.
25 min4▲easy
Make it
You need
4 nopal paddles (cactus), fresh
8 knob onions or thick spring onions
2 tbsp neutral oil
Coarse salt
2 limes
Ground chile piquín or chile de árbol
Salsa martajada and warm corn tortillas, to serve
Method
Scrape the spines and nodes off both sides of the paddles with the back of a knife, then trim the thick outer edge. Rinse.
Score the paddles lightly on both sides in a crosshatch. This lets the sticky liquid escape rather than pool.
Oil and salt the paddles and the onions.
Grill or plancha over high heat, 4-6 minutes a side, until the bright green turns olive-drab and the surface goes dry and blistered. Cooking off the slime is the entire job — pull them early and the texture is unpleasant.
Grill the onions 8 minutes, turning, until soft and blackened in patches.
Slice the paddles into strips. Dress with lime, coarse salt and chile powder, and serve with the onions, salsa and tortillas.
Where you'd actually eat it: Pulquerías and mezcalerías, and the grill stalls outside markets. Pulque natural, or mezcal with an orange slice.
From behind the bar: Sal de gusano is made from moth larvae, so it is not vegan despite what half the internet says. Use plain sea salt with ground chile instead.
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Roasted ginkgo nuts on a skewer VEGAN
銀杏 (ginnan) · Tokyo
Jade-green nuts, roasted until translucent, salted, five to a skewer. Bitter, faintly sweet, slightly sticky. An autumn thing, and the most adult snack on the board.
20 min4 as a small dishfair
Make it
You need
30 ginkgo nuts in the shell (autumn, Japanese groceries)
Fine sea salt
Short bamboo skewers
Method
Crack each shell with pliers or the flat of a heavy knife — a firm squeeze on the seam, not a smash. The kernel inside should stay whole.
Heat a dry heavy skillet over medium. Add the shelled nuts and a pinch of salt.
Roast 5 to 7 minutes, shaking constantly, until the brown skins loosen and the nuts turn from opaque yellow to translucent jade green.
Rub them in a dry towel and pick off the skins. Some will resist; leave them.
Thread 5 or 6 per short skewer, salt again while hot.
Serve immediately. They firm up and go rubbery as they cool.
Where you'd actually eat it: A yakitori counter in October when the ginkgo trees along the avenues drop and the whole city smells faintly of it. Hot sake.
From behind the bar: Ginkgo nuts contain ginkgotoxin. Adults should stop at about 10 in a sitting; do not serve them to children at all. This is a real limit, not a superstition.