Rich McCormack > wrote:

>
>Harlan Messinger wrote:
>>
>> I'm confused. In the past, I've read that yuca (cassava, manioc)
>> contains toxins that need to be removed before the tuber can be eaten.
>> Recently I've been testing some yuca-based recipes, and the first
>> several I tried involved grating or pulverizing them and letting them
>> drain. But other recipes involve no draining at all. I've followed one
>> of them, with no ill effects. And then it occurred to me: what about
>> when yuca is served in chunks in restaurants? If toxins need to be
>> drained, how would they even do that? Maybe the toxins are really a
>> non-concern. Can any of you enlighten me?
>
>Living here in sunny SoCal, when I think of yuca or yucca, I think
>of the spiky leafed desert plant from the lily family that grows
>wild in the surrounding hills or in cultivated suburban gardens.
>I have trouble associating yuca with the evergreen shrub that grows
>the tubers called cassava or manioc.
>
>Here's a recipe I found years ago in a supermarket handout that was
>printed in both Spanish and English. It calls for cutting the yuca
>in half lengthwise and discarding the fibrous cord that runs down
>the middle...sounds more like a stem than a tuber to me. Or, does
>the cassava or manioc tubers have a fibrous cord running down the
>middle?

Yes, they do. In my experience, the restaurants around here that serve
fried yuca don't take the tough cord out, either, which is annoying.
All you need to do is slice the yuca in half lengthwise and dig the
cord out, like digging the core out of a halved apple.

>Is it possible there's more than one kind of culinary yuca
>coming from plants that aren't related?

There's just culinary yuca, and it isn't the same as the member of the
agave family that is known as "yucca". It's extra confusing because
"yucca" is a variant spelling for the tuber--but that's probably a
result of the confusion between the two in the first place. You'll
find it in the produce section of almost any food store that serves a
Latino community. It can also be bought in bags of frozen chunks.

[snipping yuca puff recipe]

Thank you for this. As it happens, I've been trying to duplicate a
dish we had at Ola restaurant in New York, a yuca cake that was cakey
rather than frittery or croquetty in texture. This is the first recipe
I've seen that has baking powder in it, so I'm going to try it.


--
Harlan Messinger
Remove the first dot from my e-mail address.
Veuillez ôter le premier point de mon adresse de courriel.