This root vegetable goes by many names: cassava, yucca, manioc… in my region of Brazil, we call it mandioca; in other regions they call it aipim. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the word aipim may be one of its original, indigenous names.
Whatever you call it, it’s delicious and nutritious, as long as you soak and boil away the cyanide first. Like beans, raw manioc is poisonous.
Manioc is also what’s used to make tapioca starch, which is used to make pão de queijo.
I’ve been seeing manioc at the grocery store here for the last few years, but I’ve been too intimated to buy it, because I ate it as a kid, but had never cooked it myself.
Well, today was the day!
And it turned out great!
First, I peeled the manioc (I wish I’d taken a picture first!), then soaked it for a few hours. Then I rinsed it and returned it to the pot with fresh water. Then I cooked it until the water boiled, plus another 10 minutes.
Then I deep fried, it shook some salt on top, and here we are:
I think the closest thing would be “home fries”-- thick cut fries that are crunchy on the outside and very soft on the inside. But that describes more the texture than the flavour, I suppose… theres not much I’ve had that tastes exactly like it.
