A lesson in recipe experimentation

Note to self: do not combine recipes.

On a recent grocery shopping trip, I decided Mr. Cents and I need to increase our daily intake of fiber, and therefore bought $60 of produce for just the two of us. Mr. Cents is an awesome husband who always helps me put the groceries away. (Also worth noting is his ability to wash and put away dishes!) Sorry ladies, he’s taken…

Upon putting away our surplus of veggies in the crisper, Mr. Cents tried to keep from smirking at the abundance of food which I insisted will NOT go bad before we eat it. He came across a large, white carrot shaped vegetable and looked confused –

“What’s this for?”

“Umm..well, to eat.”

Of course, I knew what he was thinking – what is this bizarre vegetable and what recipe will it be used for? The vegetable in question was a Daikon radish. In truth, what I really wanted was Jicama, but since I’ve recently discovered Daikon is more available and cheaper, I substituted. My intention was to cut said radish into strips and use in a veggie tray. However, a week later, the lonely radish still sat in the crisper, and I started to worry about my promise to NOT let any of the veggies go bad. So…off to find a recipe to use the poor radish.

I was drooling over a recipe for Jicama Mango Slaw, substituting Daikon for Jicama. However, I did not possess a single red onion, and the cilantro from my garden was looking quite sad.

Back to the drawing board. I tried the usual resources – supercook.com and allrecipes.com for ideas. Apparently, Daikon is not a commonly used ingredient in recipes. So, I also tried Jicama, which gave me more options but with pretty complicated instructions and some ingredients I didn’t have. Enter everyone’s favorite search engine, Google and Thai cucumber and radish salad magically appeared. Which was great news, because I also had a cucumber that had about 2 days left, tops.

I had the “brilliant” idea that I could use the lime and mango in the Thai cucumber salad and combine the two recipes. After chopping tirelessly for an hour, I threw everything but the basil in a bowl and let it marinate overnight. The next morning I took out my experimental salad to try. Interesting flavors, great texture with the Daikon, but kind of a weird taste. And the vinegar was rather…pungent. All the way to work I smelled something that resembled when the wind blows the wrong way from the sanitation plant. Eww.

Luckily, I made a LOT and was able to share my experiment with the office, who thought the concept of Jicama/Daikon was intriguing. I actually got several requests for the recipe, which I was hesitant to forward on, due to visions of many more pungent days in the office. Needless to say, I did learn something, so it wasn’t a total failure: my co-workers will eat anything, and like it.

At least, from a financial perspective, nothing went to waste. Back to the drawing board...without experimenting this time.