Following on from a thread on one of the messageboards about Yacon, OH decided to order some strange tubers from RealSeeds (Yacon wasn’t available): Oca (scarlet, with white eyes) and Ulluco (Cusco market & mixed, Ullucus tuberosum). The information on both packets say to basically grow and use as you would potatoes. Both develop tubers late in the season - October or even November, so basically, don’t dig up too early. For Oca (Oxalis tuberosum), it says that they can be quite tart but with exposure to light on a sunny windowsill, this can make them sweeter. Oca - delicious roasted, or even mix with potatoes for mash. Storage improves the flavour though the tubers may shrivel.
The Complete Book of Vegetables, Herbs & Fruits (Biggs, McVicar & Flowerdew) has a page devoted to Oca. “Tubers form in autumn when day lengths are less than 9 hours.” The plant is bushy, the leaves remind me of clover. They could be grown under runner beans… There is a warning regarding calcium oxalate (it says that in South America, they are dried in the sun until floury and less acid). “Oca can be eaten raw, roasted, boiled, candied like sweet potato [I wonder what that is like] and added to soups and stews. Use leaves and young shoots in salads or cook them like sorrel.” They have a recipe for Oca with (smoked) bacon. Ulluco is not listed in the book.
Roger Philips & Martyn Rix’s Vegetables mentions both. They have a fantastic picture of Oca for sale in a market in Peru (though I have just noticed the caption says its okra but another picture in the book of the same market has the correct spelling in the caption). Ulluco tubers can be dried and made into lingli (like chuno, a freeze-dried potato thing).
Should be interesting anyway.
Categories:
