Cooking Dasheen

So today I thought I'd be a bit adventurous. Last Saturday, at the Portsmouth Market, we bought a lot of fresh fruit (probably more than we needed but it was all so cheap and there was so much variety we couldn't resist) and one of those things we bought was three dasheens. According to wikipedia, dasheen is a tropical vegetable that is toxic in its raw form, but the toxins are killed by cooking.

I found a recipe in the Ross Spouses Cookbook (which is AMAZING) for dasheen french fries. And so, since these things have been sitting on my counter for a week, I decided to try it. The first thing the recipe tells you is to wear gloves when preparing dasheen, since it releases a toxin that causes an itchy reaction in the skin. I'll have to let you know how it turns out. I'm not sure if this is working right (I'm on the frying stage and I think I may have boiled them too long... they're a bit soft.... but I boiled them for less time than the recipe says so who knows).

Here are a few photos from my dasheen cooking adventure.

 

Yum! A pot full of toxic, uncooked dasheen waiting to boil!

 

The second dasheen I cut up. As you can see, it looks a bit like very white, very... textured potato. What you can't see is the icky slime that's left whitish residue on my counters and in my sink which I will have to clean carefully because I don't really want an 'itchy skin reaction'.

 

And the last dasheen, not cut up yet. Looks yummy huh? And in case you can tell, yes that is a hairy, hard covering. And it's slimy, did I mention that?

I'l have to post later to let you guys know how they tasted. I might let Ryan be my guinea pig... the slimy was a bit nasty and I'm not sure if I really want to eat it. Although the fried bits are no longer slimy so maybe I'll be brave.