My next kitchen mission was the search for another unknown food to me, jicama*. When I looked for it in the grocery store, I started looking amongst the most common tuber in the U.S., the potato. No go. A nice clerk led me to a top shelf in seasonal fruits, and I asked him about its' preparation. He laughed and said "I don't cook!", but he did tell me it was sweet. I could see it was a root vegetable.
I had it pretty solid in my mind that I would do a savory dish, since the green banana adventure was still fresh in my mind, but I was open to ideas. The next most popular recipe I found online for jicama is a slaw very similar to the humble cole slaw, our summer BBQ staple. Nah, I didn't have the fixings for that, nor a main dish to go with. I stuck with fries, always a solid idea.
They came out great! A little bit of garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, a dash or two of hot sauce, then fried in olive oil, and they were as good as any limp fast food offering. Since they have a sterner texture than potato, you can go well done with this root, and the fries will still be fluffy inside. It's a pretty fibrous and tough root, chewy and a bit sweet. I could see it doing well as a salad, too. So here it is, my first jicama dish.
Happy cooking!
