[i posted this on another cooking forum that hadnt had any posts in a while. figured id post it here, too, even though theres been more posting here.]
since theres so many of them around here, i thought i'd put them to good use.
we'll start with some good ol beef bones. a nice sun-dried skull with horns will do nicely. gently roasted in the desert sun, its packed with flavor just waiting to come out. break the horns off so the it will fit in a large pot, then cover with water and add some salt. since tumbleweeds are rather tough and woody, even when cooked, we're going to add that to the bones and just use it for the stock. take a medium tumbleweed and break it up so that it fits in and around the skull. let all that simmer (with the horns) for at least a good 6 hours or so, preferably overnight.
mmm, smell that aroma. the bones give a nice base while the tumbleweed adds on some nice woody, slightly grassy layers. once your stock has developed nicely, get those bones and weeds out of there and lets get ready to finish.
youll need some lizard meat for this. head out to the board an hour or two before noon and you should find plenty of lizards sunning themselves on the hot rocks, practically pre-roasting themselves for you. thats gotta give them some nice flavor... the best is to catch em just before it gets too hot for them to be out and they hide for their afternoon siesta. round up a good dozen or so, depending on size, and kill em and clean em. its best if you can leave em whole (just remove the guts, like cleaning a fish) but if you cant handle that, carefully fillet them, removing the bones.
chop up some onions and garlic and sautee those in a medium pot. when the onions are starting to get nice and soft add in the lizards (or lizard meat). let that brown a bit and then add some amaranth seed for some starch. dice up a couple yukon gold potatoes, too, and toss those in there and sautee all that for a bit, letting the flavors mix and meld together.
next we're gonna add some prickly pear cactus pad. this will be a source of liquid as well as a nice earthy, slightly sweet flavor which will fit in nicely into our stew. add that, sautee a bit more and then its time to add in our tumbleweed stock. add enough to cover everything, plus an inch. bring it to a boil and then turn down and let everything simmer for an hour or two. by then, the starches from the potato and amaranth should have thickened everything up nicely add a few sage leaves for the last ten minutes or so. check if it needs more salt/pepper and then its ready to enjoy!