One of the culinary highlights of the year is the annual Jicama (hee-ka-ma) meal….if you’ve never eaten yam beans or Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus), you haven’t lived!
I grow this subtropical vegetable in my office, which only gets sunlight for maximum 1 hour a day which isn’t optimal conditions (they are usually grown in open fields), but being a climber originates in forests, so it tolerates shade. I grew it’s brother on-climbing Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa) beside it, but that species didn’t produce much (perhaps it’s more sensitive to light?). I also didn’t think the taste was as good. Both species died down at the end of the year and I harvested the tubers in early January!
Jicama tubers are best eaten raw and are crispy and a little sweet. Being one of the lost crops of the Incas, much more popular in the Americas than in Europe, I served them sliced with a cooked quinoa mix – mixed home grown Quinoa and black-grained Henry quinoa from Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus), flavoured with chilis and lemony sanshō seeds (Zanthoxylum piperitum or Japanese pepper).
NB! Both species, Ahipa and Jicama are normally started from seed which I haven’t succeeded in growing myself!
Day Two: I didn’t eat it all yesterday, I needed a bit more, so I cooked up a third species quinoa, Fat Hen quinoa (Meldestokk quinoa), from the seed of one plant of Fat Hen or Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album). It was added to yesterday’s to give a Three species quinoa and jicama salad (two pictures added)
On the left, Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa; Andean yam bean) and Jicama (P. erosus, Yam bean) in my office; September 2016… I hadn’t realised that Ahipa doesn’t climb, hence the stakes on both plants…the yellow things are models of my company, OCEANOR’s marine environmental monitoring buoys that I tested in a wave tank back in the 80s!
Disappointing Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa; Andean yam bean) harvest….and I didn’t think the taste was as good as Jicama either
Not bad Jicama harvest, not as good as when I grew it in my sunnier office I had some years ago..
Trondheim Jicama
Home grown Malvik Quinoa, my own variety “Stephe” with Henry Quinoa (the black seeds) from perennial Chenopodium bonus-henricus (see my book)
Cooking the quinoa mix (first rinsing thoroughlly and throwing off the “soap” a couple of times).
Lemon is usually used in this recipe, but I don’t grow them so used sanshō (Japanese pepper, Zanthoxylum piperitum) in its place
Sanshō and chili mixed with the cooked quinoa mix
Add sliced yam beans with some home grown Physalis fruit
…and it was delicious of course! If you’ve never eaten Jicama / yam beans you haven’t lived :)
Day two and I needed a bit more, so I cooked up a third type of quinoa, this time Fat Hen Quinoa (the seed of annual global weed Chenopodium album aka Lamb’s Quarters)
I saw cultivation of and ate leaves of Japanese Pepper or sansho (Zanthoxylum piperitum) several times in Japan…these leaves had sprouted in my cellar (pot grown as two attempts at overwintering failed).. more later…
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
