Pickled Jicama

I often see fine-looking jicama in my local Mexican grocer, and I just as often buy it. It’s one of the best $1.50 investments I can imagine making. It’s really all about the texture: when it’s good, it has the crunch of a honeycrisp apple, making it perfect for salads and, when finely minced, as a crunchy snappy little topping for fish and tofu. You can make killer salsa out of it, too.

I think the trick is to slice it very thinly; thicker slices have a texture, color, and shape too similar to a raw potato. The Benriner remains the essential tool for getting really thin slices (talk about great investments; I use mine almost daily).

I was slicing away at a jicama today, not really knowing what I would do with it, when I thought: hey, how about some quick pickles? I had just purchased a large bottle of good rice vinegar and a new global flavor blast I’ve been playing with — much more on this later — bottled passionfruit syrup, from Taiwan. So there it was: my sour, my sweet, and my ingredient to be pickled.

Jicama, like tofu, is pretty much a blank canvas, so we can impart any flavor we like into it. I must say: these pickles are great! The passionfruit has some major passion to it, and the crispy slice of pickled jicama is the perfect delivery vehicle for it. Just a little mound beside my snapper fillet tonight ought to fill the bill nicely.

And, a final bonus:the liquid will make superb salad dressing. Take it out of the fridge, drizzle some in a cup, pour in some olive oil, swirl it around, and voila, instant, delightlful salad dressing!