HOW TO COOK CASSAVA

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Manihot esculenta
FAMILY: Euphorbiaceae

There are three types of cassava according to the DPI: Yellow, white and variegated. Yellow and white refer to the root colour, variegated to the leaf.

Cohesive skin very easy to peel off. Should be crisp white or yellow root inside. Black streaks are mould. This comes within a day of picking the root. Some people will quite happily eat it when mouldy, but I won't. It doesn't keep at all well, so only dig up as much as you are prepared to deal with within a few hours.

PROCESSING:
Peel, wash and put any you won't be using within 12 hours in the freezer.

Yellow

  1. Cut to suitable sizes and steam for a potato substitute.
  2. Dice and add to stews, casseroles and the like as you would potato or other starchy root. Cooking time is about the same as potato.
  3. Dice, steam and mash with another starchy vegetable.
  4. Don't try to roast in oven. Will come out tough.
  5. Grate and dry in oven at lowest heat until a nice lightly toasted colour and crisply dry, for cereal. This is the only way I know of keeping it, apart from freezing. It seems to keep for months in a sealed container. Add water (cold) and within 10 minutes it will have puffed up. The Africans use it as we do rice. I often use it as a breakfast cereal. If you put anything other than water with it the osmotic process is slowed considerably, so keep this in mind if wanting to rehydrate with fruit juice or milk. Milk you would probably need to add the night before.
  6. Freezing. This does change the characteristics, though to our benefit.
  7. Grate, freeze, defrost, cook in milk, goes pleasantly mealy.
  8. Grate, steam, knead until springy (don't overdo or you won't be able to flatten it out again) and roll out into any desired shape. Use either water or oil to prevent the cooked cassava from adhering to everything it touches. (With the yellow cassava it is best to freeze it at this stage, to break down the cellulose, if it wasn't previously frozen.) Frozen pancake shapes, the same: saute gently in butter or a nice oil, fill with whatever - curry, stew, casserole, or treat like a flat bread and roll around sandwich fillings.
  9. Can be cooked until thoroughly dry, when it becomes similar to a taco. Must have been frozen at some stage for this or it will be too tough.
  10. Grate, then freeze. I often make croquettes from this, little rounded shapes which I take straight from the freezer and fry gently in butter till a nice golden colour. Nice to dip in soups or accompany most savoury dishes. In small containers it defrosts quickly for use as a thickener, or a chewy pancake or flatbread. The white cassava is better for this last method.
  11. Chips; can be deep-fried if eaten immediately, but go tough quite quickly. Best steamed first.

White:

Doesn't need to be frozen to soften it up for processed products. A bit gelatinous for a potato substitute. So I often use fresh. This means just taking a root of the size you want rather than digging up the whole plant.

  1. Grate and throw straight into frying pan with a little bit of nuttilex or butter, sprinkle lightly with salt and flatten with egg slice to make a pancake. Fill with whatever takes your imagination.
  2. Salt lightly, wrap around some morsel of tasty food to make a nugget, then deep fry. If your food is precooked make sure oil is hot, and it should take less than a minute. If the contents need cooking, lower the temperature of the oil to the time of cooking required.
  3. Deep fry in shapes to hold foods.
  4. Grated cassava fabulous for thickening gravy. To shorten cooking time, whizz in a processor with some liquid to make finer before adding to whatever you want to thicken.
  5. Use as a glue. I made a paper lampshade from it. Better than flour glue.
  6. Chips. Slice finely, salt, leave for a minute or two, then deep fry, or, after slicing, brush lightly with a tasty oil, margarine or butter and toast until crisp in the oven. They don't keep well unless totally dry, but if they go tough, soggy or chewy they can be rejuvenated with a short stint in the oven.
  7. Guinea pig food.
  8. Ferments if left in ground. My experiments to date have gone no further than watching the chooks make a beeline for the root on being let out, then playing fighter pilots down the driveway, wings outspread, shrieking their heads off, and weaving wildly.
  9. For sweets: grate, salt very lightly, drizzle with honey and wrap around banana or similar. Should be fabulous with soft jak fruit.
  10. Coconut cake. A local woman cooks up some for ATSIC week, but it has always sold out before I get there. She extracts the starch from large roots by pounding or grating, then squeezing.
  11. Prawn Chips.

Some don'ts
Do not bake unless immersed totally in water.

Do not try mixing with other root vegetables to make pancakes.

Sue Wilkie

DATE: February 2000

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