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Saturday, September 27

cooking tunas: live feed!

11:10 am Just finished prepping tunas for cooking. This consisted of me gingerly removing tunas from paper bags with tongs, then holding them with a fork while scrubbing with the rough side of a new sponge. The sponge went directly into the trash. The tunas were cut in half and put into a big pot which went onto the stove.












11:18 Tunas are cooking merrily over low heat. I'm mashing them to get all the juices out.

11:25 Didn't take too long. Lots of lovely pink juices coming out. Looks benign, but I still have to strain all the glochids out. I hesitate to say it, but I don't think I've gotten any in my hands yet.

11:31 The kitchen smells "green", as Raphael says. Green and mildly fruity. Reminds me of pears. Regular old pears with their kind of mild, almost floral smell. Now for straining out the big stuff.



11:45 Big stuff dumped in trash. Now for the cheesecloth to get rid of all those pesky glochids.



12:08 Six layers of cheesecloth may be overkill, but I'll admit it - I'm scared. You should see the color of this stuff. It's dyed the cheesecloth bright pink (and my colander too, I think).

12:09 Alright. Back to straining.

12:22 Done! And now I have a big bowl of the prettiest juice you ever saw. Now I have to do something with it besides look at it.

12:40 Thinking syrup instead of jelly.

12:41 Hmmm...

12:51 I'll be back.












2:28 Syrup. Still got 3-and-a-half cups of juice in the fridge, too, for future endeavors. The syrup is delicious.

6 comments:

Wingal said...

That was actually kind of a disgusting process. I'm sure it all tastes very good, but there was something vaguely "serial killer" about the whole thing. Perhaps I shouldn't have watched "Criminal Minds" this evening.

By the way, you should check on the blogs, lady. I've written and it makes me sad that you don't care. Mew.

Anonymous said...

Umm, I just talked to someone from Phoenix and they had no idea what "tunas" were. Is this something you made up or is this Tuscan lingo?

Jenny said...

Nope - it's a real prickly pear-related term - quite commonly used in Mexico, I think, but I hear it all the time here, too. You know, during our many discussions of desert fruits that we all sit around and have while drinking fermented saguaro juice.

As evidence, I present this link to some prickly pear tunas painted by Frida Kahlo, because if Frida says it's true then it's got to be true: http://www.abcgallery.com/K/kahlo/kahlo26.html

Jen C. said...

You certainly taught me something new! I had no idea these things were called "tunas." I started reading your post and kept thinking, "where are the fish? what the heck is she talking about!?" Thanks for the education! ;-)

Jenny said...

You know I'm all about educating you people.

Terry-Lorenzo Family said...

OK, I need more education...what are glochids? I could look it up, but I'd rather just ask. I'm a little burned out looking things up to be a halfway informed voter. Hopefully, your post will help me know how to vote next month. Kill two birds with one stone.

Seriously, though, what are glochids?