Jicama, a root vegetable from Central America, won't win any beauty contests.
On the outside, it's a large, tan-colored, sometimes misshapen root with a thick, tough skin. Luckily, what counts is on the inside, with a subtle flavor that tastes like a cross between apples and potatoes, and a crunchy texture that brings interest to any dish.
You'll find jicama in many Mexican salads and salsas. It's also a popular street food, often sold raw, cut into sticks along with cucumber and mango, and sprinkled with lime juice and cayenne.
In Shrimp, Jicama and Avocado Salsa, the jicama delivers a delightful crunch that will keep you coming back for more.
What brings the flavor, though, is an unexpected combination of lime juice and, strangely, ketchup. Yes, ketchup is an odd ingredient to find in a salsa, but somehow, in this salsa it works well. Maybe because this isn't the traditional type of salsa that you'd spoon onto a taco. It's really more of a cross between shrimp cocktail and ceviche.
Unlike a ceviche, where the protein is "cooked" in an acidic liquid, the shrimp is briefly boiled in a salty, acidulated water. It's then tossed and chilled in lime juice, before jicama, sweet onion, jalapeño, cilantro and avocado are added.
The combination of the lime juice, jalapeño and a bit of ketchup is what gives it a shrimp cocktail-like quality. While it's difficult to understand, the touch of sweetness from the ketchup, reined in by the tart lime juice, pulls the entire dish together, highlighting all the other ingredients, rather than covering them up.
Tortilla chips seem like the perfect vehicle to get this salsa from the plate to your mouth, but it can certainly be eaten on its own, on a bed of crisp lettuce or even as a taco, nestled into a warm tortilla.
