Yucca

I've recently been on a Yucca kick after eating in at a few Cuban places. Can anyone tell me if it is considered a vegetable or starch and what is the healthiness factor?

It is about as starchy as vegetables get. You can buy it fresh around town, but it comes fairly conveniently packaged frozen from Costa Rica. La Unica has tons. Cooking yuca (one "c" by the way, it is not the spiny decorative plant) is not so easy as one might guess. Two words: pressure cooker. Some like it fresh and soft with mojo. I really don't like boiled yuca at all unless it has been fried in lard (or olive oil if you must) until crispy outside and covered with mojo and wilted onions.

Jeff B wrote:Two words: pressure cooker. Some like it fresh and soft with mojo. I really don't like boiled yuca at all unless it has been fried in lard (or olive oil if you must) until crispy outside and covered with mojo and wilted onions.

Jeff,

For pressure cooking yuca, how many pounds of pressure and for how long?

I really did not have a high regard for yuca until I had it at Papa's Pollo Chon, which serves it soft with sauteed onions and mojo. Everywhere else it was almost potato-ish though fibrous.

Frying it as you describe sounds like Chinese turnip cake and the addition of onions and mojo sounds divine.

Papa

Irazu fries it with serious amounts of garlic. I agree, it's a little like eating styrofoam under any circumstances, but deep fried with onions or garlic is as good as it's going to get.

Mike G wrote:Irazu fries it with serious amounts of garlic. I agree, it's a little like eating styrofoam under any circumstances, but deep fried with onions or garlic is as good as it's going to get.

I actually really like yuca fries. Fogo de Chao does a very good version, as does Texas de Brazil, a churrascaria in brazil and texas, surprise surprise. At fogo and Texas de Brazil, the fries are topped with grated parmigiano reggiano, which is sublime.


Brasa Roja's are also decent, especially with their chimichurri.

-ed

Actually, for dinner tonight, I sliced Yuca into 1/4 inch stripes, drizzled them with olive oil and pepper, and put them on the grill for about 10 minutes. Came out tasting fantastic.

Cafe 28 on 1800 Irving Park Road (Cubian cuisine) was my inspiration.

HI,

At Cassava's, a Brazilian restaurant which was briefly open before commencing an eternal winter of rehabbing, they served fried yuca with parmesan on top. They were cut into 1/3 or 1/2 inch square logs and fried to light brown, then the freshly grated cheese melted on to them.

If and when Cassava's opens again, I'll advise.

When I was talking about boiled yuca, I was talking about something alltogether different from yuca frita. Yuca fried like french fried potatoes are a lot like french fries, though generally not as good. So why bother, I say. As suggested, frying raw yuca isn't too tough.

But to get yuca to turn out the way it is served at Papa's Pollo Chon/Cache Sabroso is a trick. The fresh stuff is sometimes trashed, and it's hard to know until you open it. There is a Cuban/Spanish word, which I will remember and get back to you, that specifically describes vegetables such as yuca or avocados, for example, that appear to be ripe and otherwise just fine, but turn out to be chalky, papery, etc. once you get inside. This could come from too early picking, cold storage, who knows, but generally results in the produce going from green to rotten without ever being any good. Yuca seems to have this problem more often than not.

So we almost always go with the frozen. I would not vary from your pressure cooker's instructions. I'd probably place an equal volume of yuca and water in the cooker and let it go for maybe 10 min full blast to soften it up. This should eliminate the chalky core that gives yuca a bad name. Take out the stringy bits, and slow cook in mojo and lots of manteca (lard), stirring every so often, maybe 45 min. If you can do this ahead of time and refrigerate overnight, all the better. Take the yuca, which by now should have most of the fight beaten out of it, and fry in olive oil, lard, butter or whatever you like, with lots of onions and finish with mojo. This is not unlike the next-day frying of pierogi, polenta, risotto, etc. One of the best cooks among my in-laws adds the step of browning finely chopped garlic, shallots and onion in lard and olive oil, and adding the quite hot oil on top of the yuca just before serving. This, I guess, ensures that the onions and garlic will be perfect. Be careful.