Composition and calorie content of the exotic jicama plant. Useful properties of root crops and dangerous qualities of ground fruits. Pachirizus recipes and interesting facts about the culture. In no case should you take risks and eat pods, seeds, vine stem and leaves - these parts of the plant are very poisonous. Young pods can only be eaten by locals who know exactly the time of their formation and will not allow themselves to taste the already toxic fruit.
After contact with the poisonous parts of the creeper, you must thoroughly wash your hands. Symptoms of poisoning - respiratory failure and paralysis of the lower respiratory tract - develop within 2 hours after contact with the plant in adults and 1 hour in children, death is inevitable.
Jicama recipes
The chance of finding root vegetables on the counter of the store is low, but if this happens, then you should not refuse to purchase a new product. A high-quality tuber is necessarily dry and hard, with a smooth surface; the smaller its size, the sweeter it is. Store it at home in a plastic bag on a shelf in the refrigerator, cut into slices. Useful properties are preserved for 2 days, then the water evaporates, and you can only enjoy the taste of an unfamiliar product.
Jicama recipes:
- Jicama salad with carrots … 2-4 tablespoons of a chopped mixture of raisins and dates - the seeds from the berries must be removed beforehand - mixed with freshly squeezed lime juice from one fruit. Set aside, let it brew for 15 minutes on a shelf in the refrigerator. At this time, rub 450 g of pachirizus pulp and large carrots on a coarse grater or cut into strips. Combine the ingredients in a salad bowl, add salt to taste, season with olive or corn oil and sprinkle with mint leaves with torn hands.
- Crispy Sweet Salad … Immediately you need to prepare a flat dish for salad - lay out the ingredients in layers. First, it is filled in one layer with torn lettuce leaves. A small jicama tuber is cut into small cubes, sprinkled with salt and laid out in a second layer - you can add a juicy crunchy apple with the same cutting to the same layer. The next layer is a mixture of pieces of tangerine and grapefruit, with the partitions and seeds removed, that is, the layer should consist only of pieces of citrus pulp. The construction is completed with a layer of pomegranate seeds. Sprinkle on top with a peppered mixture of orange and grapefruit juices, sprinkle with olive or corn oil, sprinkle with sesame or caraway seeds, make drops of honey. Then the salad is placed in the refrigerator for an hour to cool and infuse.
- Cuban sandwiches … Tofa cheese (350-400 g) is divided into equal portions, in this case 8 slices, and set to marinate. For the marinade, mix the chopped onion, 3 crushed garlic cloves, a glass of olive oil, juice from two oranges. Marinate for 10-15 minutes. A small jicama tuber (300 g) is cut into strips and also marinated in orange juice from one orange, generously seasoned with paprika and chili. Put the pan on the fire, fry the tofu until golden brown on both sides. Then the tofa marinade is boiled separately in the same pan. The marinade is drained, and red bell peppers, cut into ribbons, are fried in the same pan. Cut the sandwich buns, grease the inside with mustard, spread the fried pepper, cheese, marinade, add half of the pickled cucumber and put it back in the pan, pressing the lid on top so that the sandwiches do not open. Once the cheese has melted, serve. The hikama in this dish is a side dish.
- Dumplings with seafood … The dough is kneaded according to the usual recipe: 350-450 g of ordinary flour and 250 ml of ice water, a little salt. After the kneading becomes easy to get away from the hands, roll all the dough into a ball and let it brew for 15-20 minutes under a towel at room temperature. Then blanks for dumplings are formed and covered with cling film so as not to dry out. Minced meat for dumplings is prepared as follows: mix grated jicama with boiled and peeled shrimp, chopped green onions, a pinch of corn starch and a couple of tablespoons of sesame oil. Salt and pepper. To get a thick but elastic consistency, add a few tablespoons of sake - rice vodka. For thickening, the mixture is placed in the refrigerator for 1-3 minutes. Proportions of ingredients: peeled shrimp 300 g, jicama - 150 g, 1, 5 tablespoons each of starch, sesame oil and sake, 2 chives. Dumplings preparation technology - steam processing. Better to use the bottom bowl of a steamer or spread out in a multicooker for 7-10 minutes. While the dumplings are cooking, you can do the sauce - mix 1 feather of chopped chives, a teaspoon of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of sesame oil.
- Soup … The amount of broth or water depends on the taste of eaters - vegetables are cooked quickly, the liquid does not have time to boil, and its volume must be determined in advance. Carrots are grated, onions are chopped - vegetables are sautéed in vegetable oil. Sweet peppers are cut into strips. You can use cabbage or broccoli. The hikama is cut into equal pieces. The liquid is brought to a boil, cabbage and green beans in pods are dipped into it, frying, whole red onion, bell peppers and jicama are added 5 minutes before readiness, salt and pepper generously. When serving, you can sprinkle each portion with herbs - dill, cilantro or parsley, all at once or at your choice, add mint leaves, sour cream or a little lemon juice. The vegetable soup can be consumed cold.
- Guacamole sauce for fast food … It can also be used to dress fried meats and potatoes, improve the taste of bacon, and pair with traditional pickled cucumber and pasta sandwiches. List of ingredients: 1 tablespoon each of olive oil, chopped cilantro and finely chopped jicama, 1 chilli, 1 mango, chopped red onion - 3 tablespoons, 1 avocado, half lime juice, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Chili peppers are fried in oil until bubbles appear on the peel, then peeled, cored and pulp is minced. Peel the mango, chop the pulp, mix with pepper, cilantro, red onion and lime juice, pepper and salt. Separately mix avocado puree with jicama, add to the pepper mixture.
When using jicama in a diet, it is consumed raw, seasoned with lemon juice or soy sauce. In this case, pepper and salt is undesirable - seasonings stimulate fermentation, and this increases appetite.
Interesting facts about hikama
The jicama leaves resemble grapes, and the bunch of flowers resemble acacia. The color of flowers can be white, yellow and even blue, depending on the variety. The aroma of flowers is weak - slightly spicy. At night, flower petals close. Blooming all year round.
The most popular plant variety is pachyrrizus erosus, jicama de Leche, which is most often found in Mexican markets. For export, jicama de Agua is grown more often with smaller, strong flattened root crops that are easier to store and pack.
In combination with other products, jicama is a versatile vegetable. It can be served with citrus fruits, with all kinds of traditional vegetables except potatoes and beets, with herbs and spices.
The indigenous population of South America used the pods and branches of the vine for fishing. They threw them into the water, and the fish, breathing oxygen from the poisoned water, floated up. The catch had to be thoroughly washed with running clean water.
Now the powder made from dried ground parts of plants is used in agriculture to destroy pests - cabbage caterpillar, Colorado potato beetle and others. The use of the powder does not bring any harm to nature.
What to cook from jikama - watch the video:
Jicama seeds, despite their toxicity, are used in traditional medicine recipes for the treatment of dermatological diseases. Especially effective medicinal formulations fight inflammatory processes in parasitic infections. You should not independently use the recipes of Indian healers when treating the skin. It is not known how to prevent intoxication - in the presence of scratches and scratches, rotenone is absorbed into the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body. But it is absolutely safe to use jicama tubers for food.