Yuca Root (Cassava)
Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Yuca Chips and Chipotle Mayo
Here is my little lesson (this information could be wrong since I just stole it off the internet): Yuca root (Spanish name for Cassava or Manioc) is most famous for being the source of the starch that makes tapioca and being poisonous (apparently it contains cyanide) when uncooked leading to diarrhea or death. In case you were wondering, neither of us are showing any signs of either scenario. Anyways, since it was our random food buy of the week, we had no idea how to prepare it. My belief is that nothing could be bad deep fried (except for pickles — even my memories smell like puke) so we prepared Yuca chips with Chipotle Mayonnaise — worse case scenario if deep frying didn’t work, then mayo would pick up the slack. Yuca is super dense and tough to cut, so you have boil the shit of it first in order for the frying to even make a dent. The only thing that I can compare it to taste wise would be tostones (deep fried flattened plantains) and to be honest I don’t think I would want to eat Yuka again. It has this moisture sucking starchiness in your mouth that kinda of robs me of all joy (David thinks this part is an exaggeration but since this is my opinion I win). I would tell you about how David liked it so much that he kept picking at all the crumbs after they were done but its already been established in too many posts that I am a picky bitch and David is a nice happy guy who likes everything. So I won’t mention it. Maybe its the Irish in me, but I vote for potatoes as number one root!
my favourite part of this post is nic’s glamour girl pose with beer and fried yuca.
ah yes–that shot owes its pure genius to David’s artistic direction
Man, I love cassava. Look up some jamaican recipes, try again, i promise!
Any suggestions on how to prepare it?
i just remember it like a boiled potato consistency. Likely swimming in chicken grease or something.
Haha maybe I get discouraged too easily! I will definitely look for another recipe then!
Hi!
I eat it a lot as a substitute to potatos. It’s really nice fried (or boiled) but I think you deep fried it too long! It tends to get a lighter colour than your photos show.
That’s very possible! We have tried cooking yucca again since that disaster and we both really enjoyed it stewed in a curry.
It’s a staple in Brazilian cuisine and i remember my grandma serving it boiled and cut into thick disks that she would sprinkle sugar on and usually served with a very spicy or salty piece of fish.
taro all the way but sucks for me must use glove to peel skin