I've written before about my love of tropical nightshade-free starchy roots and tubers. If you can get your hands on malanga, taro, or yuca, you won't miss potatoes! I've got a recipe for how to make a mashed potato substitute out of any of these, which is great as a side dish or as a topping for shepherd's pie.
Today, I'd like to share a traditional Cuban preparation for yuca, simply called yuca con mojo, yuca with "sauce". Last week I posted a recipe for the delicious sour orange + garlic marinade/dressing known as mojo criollo, which is exactly what you use to bathe the boiled, tender, yuca for this delightful dish!
And just as an FYI: yuca, cassava, manioc, and tapioca are all the same thing. But not yucca -- that's a shrub related to agave :)
I've written about yuca and cyanide before, but this is important, so I'm going to restate it: you can get cyanide intoxication from improperly prepared yuca thanks to the hydrocyanic acid (HCN) which is present throughout the root. When working with whole yuca, it is very important that you not only remove the tough brown outer peel, but also the purplish layer immediately underneath (see photos). Most of the HCN is concentrated around the peel and in the purplish area. Boiling for 20-25 minutes will help degrade what remains throughout the remainder of the root. You can read more info on all of this here.
I rarely ever work with fresh yuca -- I always buy it frozen. I remember when my Puerto Rican mother-in-law told me never to buy fresh yuca, I brushed it off. I think most of us have a tendency to believe that fresh produce is always better than frozen, but that's not always the case, especially for yuca!
- The "fresh" yuca isn't actually very fresh and is coated with difficult-to-remove paraffin wax. Yuca begins to deteriorate very quickly after harvest. For the whole roots to make it to your grocery store without rotting during the journey, they must be coated in a thick layer of petroleum-derived paraffin wax. I don't care if it's "food-grade," I don't want to ingest any petroleum products!When you are peeling the skin with your knife, some of the wax will stick to your knife and cutting board and will contaminate your white yuca flesh. Blech! It's also a real pain to clean off of your knife and cutting board.
- Frozen yuca is actually fresher than "fresh" yuca. Since yuca is so fragile and doesn't hold up to travel all that well, it makes sense to freeze it immediately after harvesting. So, that's what exporters do: peel it and then flash-freeze it right away. Sometimes it will even come with the woody center removed, too. Not having to peel the roots will save you time and frustration. It also prevents any nasty paraffin wax from ever coming in contact with your yuca!
- You can use 100% of the frozen yuca that you buy. As we've established, yuca doesn't travel well or store well as a "fresh" root. Realistically, you should account for about a 25% waste of "fresh" yuca. It's super common to cut into a piece of yuca once you get it home only to find that a large portion of the root is spoiled and must be discarded. You need to cut a wide berth around any blemishes or dark patches running through yuca and also remove any soft or mushy portions. I almost neverfind a whole yuca root that is 100% usable. A bag of frozen yuca, on the other hand, only contains clean, white, usable pieces of yuca. There's absolutely no waste involved.
- Frozen yuca is more cost-effective than "fresh". Prepping fresh yuca takes time. Time is money. Cleaning up the wax from your knife and cutting board is also time-consuming and just downright unpleasant. And, since an average of about 25% of any fresh yuca purchase is actually wasted, buying frozen costs less money. Heck, I can find a 5 lb bag of frozen yuca for $3.99. "Fresh" roots usually cost about $0.99/lb. Even before accounting for the loss of weight due to peeling, frozen is a better deal!
Bottom line: seek out frozen yuca and avoid purchasing "fresh" roots if at all possible!
I can't speak for the whole US, but in South Florida you can find frozen yuca in any grocery store, large or small. When I lived in Georgia, I could find it at Latin American markets. You may also be able to find it at Asian markets, too. Also, if you have any sort of international supermarket near you, they should carry it frozen.
If you end up working with fresh yuca, just be sure to peel it well (as described above) and also be on the lookout for the inedible, tough, fibrous, stringy core that is easily removed after boiling. Here's what you are looking for:
