Wednesday, August 6, 2008

KItchen Adventures: The Jicama, Pt. 2

I did some poking around, and it seems that jicama is normally consumed raw and chilled -- sliced or julienned and eaten in salads, slaws, and salsas. The most common recipe I found is to just enjoy slices drizzled with lime juice and chili powder. Easy enough. I might dedicate about a fourth or fifth of the monstrous jicama I bought to this to give it a try. I'm also pumped to see if raw jicama slices please me as something to dip in guacamole in place of tortilla chips.

I also saw in a couple of places that the jicama's apple-like texture lends itself well to recipes that would normally call for apples. Just sweeten it a little more with some Splenda and use it in a nice low-carb "apple" dumpling or something.

While all of this sounds promising, what I've really been craving is something hot, crispy, and salty. Something all-American that can be the ultimate low-carb side dish to the easy bunless hamburgers and hot dogs I eat a few times a week out of convenience. What I really want is something to fill the void left in the absence of french fries, potato wedges, and baked potatoes. And (for me, anyway) cauliflower does NOT fill this void. Am I expecting too much of the jicama?

I remembered that Jamie had posted this jicama hash brown recipe at the Low-Carb Examiner, and I'll probably try it, but I'm skeptical, because I tried something similar with zucchhini once and found it totally repulsive.

And then there's THIS, which looks completely, amazingly, mouth-wateringly delicious, but with 48 grams of sugar per serving, is not quite practical for my purposes. Anyone know of a no-carb substitute for honey?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the ticket is frying them up in some leftover fry grease from McDonald's. Then the jicama will absorb all the right flavors without any of the carbs. That's not a totally creepy thing to walk into a restaurant and request, right?

Tracey said...

I love it!

Wait. Do you mean that I should ask McDonald's for some leftover grease and take it home to fry, or should I wander into a McDonald's with a little cup of french-fry-cut jicama and ask if they will please fry it for me?

Either way, I'm down.

Anonymous said...

Oh, either. I guess I was thinking the former, but your low-carb life is hard enough, and they should help out by doing some of the work for you.

Tracey said...

Agreed. Or maybe if I just demand jocama fries enough times, they'll have to start carrying them there.

Yes?

Tracey said...

JOCAMA!

Amy Dungan said...

I posted this on your other jicama post... but definately fry them. I slice them really thin, like potato chips and fry them. My family goes through them in no time flat.

As for the apple pie thing - *gag* I, uh, um.. didn't like it much when I tried it.

Anonymous said...

Sugar Tree Honey is a SF honey you can buy at Walmart, next to the regular honey. It's pure malitol syrup, though, so beware the intestinal side effects. But since you asked.....

Tracey said...

Amy: Sorry it took me so long to respond to this, but I was out of town for a bit. Thanks for the tip. I will definitely have to try that.

Anonymous: Thanks to you, too! I'm always excited to hear about SF products I don't have to order, so I'll have to check that out.