Cactus Soup recipe

[JOH]

The Virgin Islanders discovered that the tender pads of the prickly pear cactus, when de-throned, formed soft yet crunchy chunks that resembled the texture and flavor of okra in soup.

Nutrition: 186 calories, 7 grams fat, 77 milligrams cholesterol and 554 milligrams sodium per serving (with 1 teaspoon pond salt for recipe).

Ingredients:

* 1½ pounds oxtail
* Sea salt
* Flour
* 3 to 4 tablespoons cooking oil
* 3 cans chicken broth
* Water
* 3 leaves bay rum bush
* 1½ cups cactus, chopped (use
* 1 parrot fish or yellowtail, poached
* Dash local hot pepper sauce
* 2 small onions, chopped
* 1 tin broken shrimp
* 1 12-ounce can V-8 juice

Method:
Trim fat off oxtails. Salt the tails with pond salt, roll in flour and brown all sides in oil. This takes about 20 minutes. Use a large heavy fry pan.
Add chicken broth, plus 3 cans of water and bay rum leaves to the browned oxtails. Simmer or cook over low heat.
Add smooth, chopped cactus. Select tender young pads without woody fibers. It is necessary to simmer the cactus and oxtail in broth, covered, over low heat for 2 hours, until the meat will fall off the bones of the oxtails. During this long, slow cooking, drain off one cup of broth and poach or steam a parrotfish or yellowtail in the broth, plus a few drops of local hot pepper sauce. After 15 minutes, remove the fish and separate the fish from the bones. Add the fish and chopped onions to the big frying pan. Drain, rinse and add one tin of small broken shrimp.
After the cactus soup has simmered for 2 hours, add V-8 juice.