JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Yummy Yuca

by

20140103

As I write my first col­umn for 2014, I'm think­ing about what I'd like to stress for this year.I would like my read­ers to be­come health­i­er with­out sac­ri­fic­ing taste and the over­all en­joy­ment of recipes.Too of­ten healthy is equat­ed with taste­less, but my view is that we should keep it sim­ple, buy lo­cal, eat fresh and flavour with lo­cal herbs and spices. With this in mind, to­day the spot­light is on one of my favourites, the ground pro­vi­sion cas­sa­va.Cas­sa­va or yu­ca as it's called in the Span­ish Caribbean, is not on­ly ver­sa­tile and de­li­cious, it's nu­tri­tious as well be­ing high in fi­bre and min­er­als. It's al­ways good when paired with fish and even salt­ed fish, ad­dic­tive when cooked up with onions, pep­pers and sim­ply ir­re­sistible when used in any of the recipes I've giv­en.When buy­ing cas­sa­va, al­ways buy fresh­ly har­vest­ed cas­sa­va. It should be lily white when it's cut through. Take it home, peel it and freeze it right away if you're not go­ing to cook it the same day. Cas­sa­va has a very short shelf life af­ter har­vest­ing.

CAS­SA­VA FRIT­TERS

1 lb un­cooked cas­sa­va, peeled, de­veined and cut in­to small pieces

3 cloves gar­lic

3 tb­sps chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/2 hot pep­per

1 tb­sps corn­starch

1/2 tsp bak­ing pow­der

1 egg

Salt and fresh­ly ground black pep­per to taste

METHOD

Com­bine all in­gre­di­ents in a food proces­sor and process to a fine paste.

Sea­son with salt and black pep­per to taste.

Drop by tea­spoon­fuls in­to hot oil and fry un­til puffed and gold­en.

�2 Makes about 15 frit­ters.

CHILI PINEAP­PLE DIP

1 cup low fat may­on­naise

2 tb­sps fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh pineap­ple

1 tsp chili pow­der

2 cloves gar­lic minced

Salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped cilantro or chadon beni.

METHOD

Com­bine all of the above in­gre­di­ents, sprin­kle with shad­ow beni or cilantro and serve with frit­ters.

CREAMED CAS­SA­VA WITH LEMON PARS­LEY GRE­MO­LA­TA

2 lbs cas­sa­va

1/2 cup milk

2 tb­sps but­ter

Salt

For the Gre­mo­la­ta

1 tsp lemon zest, fine­ly grat­ed

2 cloves gar­lic, minced

1/4 cup fine­ly chopped pars­ley

METHOD

Boil cas­sa­va in lots of wa­ter for about 20 to 30 min­utes, un­til very soft, drain and re­move in­ner core.

Heat milk with but­ter. Add to drained cas­sa­va and crush cas­sa­va un­til creamy.

Add gre­mo­la­ta and stir.

�2 Serves 4 to 6

GRILLED CAS­SA­VA WITH­LIME GAR­LIC SAUCE

2 lbs cas­sa­va, boiled and drained

1 tb­sps chopped gar­lic

1/3 cup olive oil or veg­etable oil

2 tb­sps lime juice

Salt and pep­per to taste

2 tb­sps chopped chadon beni

METHOD

Re­move in­ner vein from cas­sa­va cut in­to two-inch lengths and place in a shal­low bak­ing dish.

Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add gar­lic and lime, add salt and pep­per. Saut� for a few min­utes more, do not brown gar­lic.

Add chadon beni, stir and pour mix­ture on­to cas­sa­va, cov­er­ing all the cas­sa­va with the pieces.

Pre­heat broil­er and place cas­sa­va un­der broil­er.

Broil un­til hot and edges are browned.

�2 Serves 4 to 6


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored