gingerman

answer to the hairy veg – 'toes v 'does

Thank you for your suggestions as to the hairy vegetable in question below. This is not a gremlin Douglas, or a piece of oversized ginger Ron, but do watch this space for a photo of a rather surprising sprouting gingerman…

Lizzie and Chris obviously know their hairy veg. According to Morrisons, where I picked the thing up, it’s an eddoe. But eddoes are also known as taro, coco yam, arbi and nampi and are used in Indian, Chinese and Caribbean cooking. I’ve yet to have an evening in to cook the thing, and suspect it may be past its best now. Having sat languishing next some limes in my fruit bowl it has also taken on a peculiar limey smell. But I will give it my best shot tomorrow.

So here it is: the edible eddoe. I scrubbed off the skin, which came off remarkably easily, peeled it, chopped and then fried it. Under the skin it looked like a potato, but was a little slimy – driblets of a runny-nose-like goo attached themselves to the end of the knife and made me feel a bit queasy. Once fried in vegetable oil for ten minutes, the eddoe chips came up golden brown on the outside and remarkably soft on the inside. Up close the texture was spongy, with open pores. It tasted rather bland. In conclusion, I prefer potatoes: not so much novelty factor, but far fewer air miles.

answer to the hairy veg – ‘toes v ‘does

Thank you for your suggestions as to the hairy vegetable in question below. This is not a gremlin Douglas, or a piece of oversized ginger Ron, but do watch this space for a photo of a rather surprising sprouting gingerman…

Lizzie and Chris obviously know their hairy veg. According to Morrisons, where I picked the thing up, it’s an eddoe. But eddoes are also known as taro, coco yam, arbi and nampi and are used in Indian, Chinese and Caribbean cooking. I’ve yet to have an evening in to cook the thing, and suspect it may be past its best now. Having sat languishing next some limes in my fruit bowl it has also taken on a peculiar limey smell. But I will give it my best shot tomorrow.

So here it is: the edible eddoe. I scrubbed off the skin, which came off remarkably easily, peeled it, chopped and then fried it. Under the skin it looked like a potato, but was a little slimy – driblets of a runny-nose-like goo attached themselves to the end of the knife and made me feel a bit queasy. Once fried in vegetable oil for ten minutes, the eddoe chips came up golden brown on the outside and remarkably soft on the inside. Up close the texture was spongy, with open pores. It tasted rather bland. In conclusion, I prefer potatoes: not so much novelty factor, but far fewer air miles.

guess the hairy vegetable

What’s it called? Where’s it from? What should I do with it?