San Diego 365 Challenge

Day 10: Chayote and Chickenless cutlets | March 10, 2010

first off, let me just say that until today i didn’t know chayotes existed in the world, and secondly, even after visualizing them, i was shocked to discover they are a vegetable….a squash, at that.

chayotes look like bright green pears, only with a waxier complexion. these are of the gourd family, native to central america, found in traditional central amercian cuisine but also adopted into the repertoire of chefs worldwide! the whole of the plant has been historically used for a variety of reasons from home remedies to dinner recipes, to farm animal feed.

we found endless recipes, our options were pretty much limitless. jacques chose to cook the chayote – sautéed in the pan with oil, red chiles, garlic, pepper, salt and sugar. they were spicy and delicious. almost the flavor of a sweet potato, but the texture of a cucumber. i will remember to pick this little squash again, the next time i am at the market.

the chickenless cutlets were picked up at trader joe’s on a whim. jacques didn’t appreciate the texture much, but i almost prefer the texture of soy to that of real meat…as strange as it sounds, my rationale is that with soy products, there’s never the potential to bite into some freaky, unidentifiable cartilage bit – that’s one bit of ‘beef’ i’ve had with eating meat since i was little! ha ha. i’d eat the again, tasty.

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