Mandoline: Music, Gadget or Jicama Salad
 
My basic philosophy has always been if you can read, you can cook. But, then there are those things that just take doing them over and over, also known as practice. Practice can be a tedious labor. I’m not really sure which addiction is worse: buying cookbooks or reading blogs in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. This morning I came across a new to me blog The Accidental Scientist by Michelle. She describes the tedious job of preparing fava beans as “gentle labor”. Somehow that really resonates well with me. I like it. I’m unable to apply that idea of “gentle labor” to the learning of the julienne cutting technique. For years, I tried learning to cut those beautiful uniform sticks. I got frustrated and bored. What I did not get were beautiful uniform sticks. I saw somewhere a demonstration of a mandoline. Beautiful uniform sticks would be mine. Umm...It was really tricky to set that mandoline up. Once I got it set up, it worked beautifully. But, you know how it is when something is hard to use, it tends to get shoved to the back and brought out less and less. I forgot I had it. Then one night Sue and I were cooking and we invited David over. David worked at Sur la Table. It turned out David was gourmet educated and experienced. He had me pull out the mandoline that hadn’t seen light of day for probably 10 years. Showed me how to set it up and it hasn’t seen the back of a cabinet since. I’m really proud of all you talented folks out there who have put in those hours of practice and can julienne with the chef’s knife. I’ll keep my mandoline. I love cutting white and sweet potatoes with the mandoline. Saute the potatoes along with a little onion and red pepper and then when they’re almost crispy done hash browns, clear the center of the pan and throw in an egg. Great breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack. It’s hot. Like it’s hot, I’m hungry, I’m not cooking! And everybody is doing a salad. What is jicama? It belongs to the legume family. It looks like an out of shape brown ball. It is sometimes called a yam bean, Mexican turnip, Mexican potato, Chinese turnip, Chinese potato, ahipa, saa got, and lo bok. Wikipedia has even more names for it here. Jicama is a major ingredient in Popiah, a Hokkien-style fresh spring roll. It’s low in calories, high in vitamin C and crunchy! It is perfect for a summer salad. And I love it. Music To My Jicama Slaw 1 medium to large jicama 1 large carrot 1 medium English cucumber 1 small zucchini cabbage - optional and only a small amount 1 bell pepper - what flavor/color do you like 3 medium shallots 3 garlic cloves 1 bunch cilantro OR mint OR basil  To hand cut all those veggies would take me all day but I can run them out in no time, uniformly julienne with the mandoline. The dressing however is much more problematical. I’ve tried two dressings, one way to bland and the other way to spicy. I use Marzetti’s slaw dressing a store bought stand-by that is excellent. This is a super salad and begs for it’s very own super dressing. I’m working on a dressing I can call my own for it. Ideas? I’ll keep you posted. Meeta over at What’s for Lunch Honey has organized a really fun event. Make sure you check out the Blogger Postcard around the World - BPW event. It's going to be a tidal wave of postcards around the World! You can sign up there as well. http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn&q=http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-jicama-history-facts.htmlhttp://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=jicama&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wihttp://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/jicama.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jicamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popiahhttp://marzetti.allrecipes.com/http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2006/07/secrets-of-my-kitchen-my-italian-herb.htmlhttp://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2006/07/blogger-postcards-from-world-list.html#linksshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5shapeimage_1_link_6shapeimage_1_link_7shapeimage_1_link_8
I can Julienne, can you?
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Cooking Blogs: Sue’s Wild Cooking The Flying Apple Cream Puffs in Venice Traveler’s Lunchbox Albion Cooks Candiequince Bake My Day Lucullian Delights Lex Culinaria Béa’s Kitchen Kalyn’s Kitchen Cooking Debauchery Bron Marshall Toast A Finger In Every Pie Je Mange la Ville Passionate Cook Beyond Salmon Habeas Brulee Lick the Spoon Sweetnicks Kat on Thyme the cooking adventures of chef paz Weekly Dish Tip of the Iceberg All My Sons: Red Monk Bungie Non Cooking: Post Card Secrets Here’s To Happy Women Read Something So Cleaver Helmintholog http://web.mac.com/suzannevancil/iWeb/Site/Welcome.htmlhttp://theflyingapple.typepad.com/http://theflyingapple.typepad.com/http://creampuffsinvenice.typepad.com/http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/http://albioncooks.blogspot.com/2006/07/lentil-and-veggie-pesto-bake.htmlhttp://www.candiedquince.cahttp://bakemyday.blogspot.comhttp://lucullian.blogspot.com/http://gorgeoustown.typepad.com/lex_culinaria/http://www.beaskitchen.com/blog/http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shunahttp://www.cookingdebauchery.com/cooking_debauchery/http://bronmarshall.com/http://lindystoast.com/http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com/my_weblog/http://www.jemangelaville.com/http://www.thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/http://beyondsalmon.blogspot.com/http://habeasbrulee.com/http://lick-the-spoon.blogspot.com/http://sweetnicks.blogspot.com/http://kat-on-thyme.typepad.com/kat_on_thyme/http://thecookingadventuresofchefpaz.blogspot.com/http://www.weeklydish.com/2006/07/10/free-as-a-fish/http://dart1121.blogspot.com/http://monkey.org/~redmonk/blog/http://www.bungie.net/http://postsecret.blogspot.com/http://herestohappywomen.blogspot.com/http://readsomethingsoclever.blogspot.comhttp://www.thewormbook.com/helmintholog/shapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1shapeimage_5_link_2shapeimage_5_link_3shapeimage_5_link_4shapeimage_5_link_5shapeimage_5_link_6shapeimage_5_link_7shapeimage_5_link_8shapeimage_5_link_9shapeimage_5_link_10shapeimage_5_link_11shapeimage_5_link_12shapeimage_5_link_13shapeimage_5_link_14shapeimage_5_link_15shapeimage_5_link_16shapeimage_5_link_17shapeimage_5_link_18shapeimage_5_link_19shapeimage_5_link_20shapeimage_5_link_21shapeimage_5_link_22shapeimage_5_link_23shapeimage_5_link_24shapeimage_5_link_25shapeimage_5_link_26shapeimage_5_link_27shapeimage_5_link_28shapeimage_5_link_29shapeimage_5_link_30shapeimage_5_link_31
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