Cas­sa­va is a gem of many names, “mani­hot es­cu­len­ta”, “aip­im”, “yu­ca” and “man­dio­ca.” An es­sen­tial in­gre­di­ent to many West In­di­an kitchens be­cause of ver­sa­til­i­ty and will keep you feel­ing full and will cut down a greedy ap­petite.

Keen on main­tain­ing a bal­anced di­et and need an­oth­er carb to boost your week­ly regime? Opt for cas­sa­va! Cas­sa­va pro­vides an abun­dant sup­ply of car­bo­hy­drates, keep­ing you feel­ing fuller for longer. The tapi­o­ca starch con­tent in cas­sa­va pulp aids in gut bac­te­ria pro­duc­tion to en­hance di­ges­tion. In an era of holis­tic lifestyle changes to com­bat over­whelm­ing food in­tol­er­ances, tapi­o­ca starch is the key source of many gluten-free flours.

Raw cas­sa­va can con­tain tox­ic cyanide com­pounds there­fore it must on­ly be con­sumed when cooked. The out­er skin should be thor­ough­ly peeled with a par­ing knife, from top to bot­tom, like a pineap­ple. Fur­ther wash­ing or soak­ing in cold wa­ter af­ter peel­ing, re­moves any re­main­ing tox­ins.

Al­ler­gic to wheat flour? Cas­sa­va flour lifts you out of the abyss of re­stric­tions in­to new­found re­silience. Is your bak­ing gene en­thused to ac­com­plish a new culi­nary mile­stone? Say yes to cas­sa­va pone! Like sweet­bread and co­conut drops, cas­sa­va pone is a well-loved dessert in Trin­bag­on­ian house­holds. Grat­ed cas­sa­va, pump­kin and spices all com­bined in­to a fa­mil­iar lit­tle baked square of good­ness.

From boil­ing to fry­ing to bak­ing, cas­sa­va dish­es grant ul­ti­mate sat­is­fac­tion. Served up your soft boiled cas­sa­va with toma­toes and salt­fish for the ide­al pro­vi­sion and fish com­bo. Cas­sa­va al­so makes the per­fect snack in the form of cas­sa­va chips. This de­li­cious snack is made by fry­ing thin­ly sliced round cas­sa­va rounds in hot veg­etable oil un­til crisp to get gold­en cas­sa­va chips (crisps). Serve with salt or a spicy sauce for that spe­cial game night!

Ja­maica’s favourite salt­fish and ac­k­ee is in­com­plete with­out bam­my, a thick flat­bread made from cas­sa­va flour. The cas­sa­va dough is soaked in co­conut milk and fried un­til gold­en brown. Al­so, there’s the tan­ta­lis­ing mag­ic of cas­sa­reep, a thick syrup com­posed of spices and the boiled juice of grat­ed cas­sa­va. This key ad­di­tive flavours the Guyanese pep­per­pot.

Cas­sa­va dates back be­fore the dawn of Eu­ro­pean coloni­sa­tion. From chew­ing sun-dried or cooked leaves for pro­tein to grind­ing ‘man­ioc’ for flour to fer­ment­ing cas­sa­va juice to pro­duce a beer-like drink, the Tain­os and Kali­na­gos pro­found­ly ex­pe­ri­enced the purest plea­sure of cas­sa­va’s mul­ti­fac­eted na­ture long be­fore our ex­is­tence. Vive le man­ioc! For with this culi­nary de­light, time stands still and the palate proud­ly chants: Let them eat cas­sa­va!

Ar­ti­cle by Jus­tine Daniel

My name is Jus­tine Daniel and I am cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing my stud­ies in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies and Lin­guis­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. A cat la­dy, crick­et con­nois­seur, Car­ni­val ba­by and John Lennon fan. A granny in a mil­lenial’s body with an in­ces­sant wan­der­lust na­ture.

Mot­to: ‘Life is what hap­pens to you while you’re busy mak­ing oth­er plans.’