Holy Jicama!

(Hint for non-Spanish speakers: Those words start with the same sound.)


This is a jicama. Until this week, I had never eaten the "Mexican potato," but I had a recipe from Julie's slowcooker book that called for some as a topping to yummy beef tacos. So I bought a big one. Much bigger than necessary. And I was left with a load of jicama and no idea what to do with it.

This is one of my favorite situations: having odd leftovers that I must somehow use, for, lo, I am loath to waste even the smallest bit of food.

It's potato-like, I thought, so why not make mashed jicama? I looked up a recipe on line that turned out to be a no-cooking, raw foods kind of recipe, but the ingredients looked yummy. So I modified it into a cooked version to suit my own tastes. I was very pleased with it. Here you go. What to do when you have too much jicama:

Rosemary Garlic Mashed Jicama

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled, chopped jicama
1 1/2 cups cashews (I omitted - for lack thereof - with no detrimental effects)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (or dried)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1-2 T. butter, softened
Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Boil jicama, as you would potatoes for mashed potatoes, for 20-30 minutes, or until tender. Drain. Blend in a food processor (It's a little tougher and chunkier than potatoes--or maybe I just didn't boil it long enough...), along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend till combined.

I had to get rid of some sour cream, so I had the mashed jicama with a very easy Sour Cream chicken and gravy. The gravy was nice, because it counterbalanced the spicy jicama concoction with its mildness. Any similar dish will do, but here's the one I did just for the heck of it.

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup white wine
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I just used three huge ones)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine the sour cream, soup and wine. Mix well. Place chicken breasts in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour sour cream mixture over chicken and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.