Should I grow it or eat it?

Judy Glattstein jglatt@ptd.net
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:34:58 PDT
Yesterday I was at an upmarket grocery store called Wegmans. In the produce
department they had some interesting bright red waxy looking tuber-like
things with an odd not quite bumpy texture, about the size of Russian Banana
fingerling potatoes. Grown in New Zealand, native to Mexico where it was
eaten by Incas and Aztecs (at least according to the sign over the bin.)
Nothing loathe, I bought some oca.

Did a web search on "recipes for oca" and got useless hits. Looked in the
RHS "Index of Garden Plants" Yes! Oca is Oxalis tuberosa. Has anyone grown
or eaten it? Do you have a recipe?

A search on "oca, plant native to Mexico" produced the following hit.

http://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/1492/…

But it really doesn't say much about cooking, other than that in the Andes
it seems to be freeze-dried first, then cooked. The search continues.

BTW, the LaRousse Gastronomique mentioned dahlias as an edible plant that
tastes like potatoes. Anyone out there boiled up some dahlias lately?

Judy, ever the insatiably curious elephant's child


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