Mar 7, 2009

Fried Yucca with Garlic Sauce


I had never tried Caribbean cooking before, but when I came across this recipe, I thought it was easy to try and sounded great in taste too. Now that I made it, I can say, it tastes fantastic! The picture doesn't convey much, but believe me its an awesome dish!

This recipe is from 'Cooking the Cuban Way' by Alison Behnke and Victor Manuel Valens. The description of the dish goes like this : Fried Yucca, smothered in a zesty garlic sauce, makes a perfect side dish for roast pork. I did not serve it with roast pork, but thought this made an excellent side dish even with our Indian simple Rasam and Rice or great as a snack, just by itself. The three of us just ate most of it as a snack before the rest of the lunch was ready..

The flavours of this dish are just great with the orange juice, garlic, onions and the starchiness of the yucca. I altered only some of the quantities of the ingredients, but followed the rest as it is. Simple and delish!

Ingredients

For the Garlic Sauce:
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp. salt or lesser
1/2 cup sour orange juice
1 big white onion, very thinly sliced

For Fried Yucca:
1 lb. yucca
Salt to taste
3 tsp. olive oil.

Method

- To make the mojo, with a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves and salt into a thick paste. In a mixing bowl, combine garlic paste, orange juice and onion slices. Mix well and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
- While mojo sits, peel the yucca and cut into 2 inch sticks. Place in a saucepan with salt and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and cook till yucca is tender. Remove the pan from heat and drain any remaining water.
- In another saucepan, combine the mojo and oil. Cook over medium high heat until bubbling. Add the yucca pieces into this and toss lightly and saute over medium heat until barely browned.
- Serve hot.

Note : The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup oil, but I used less. Also, I would love to make this more browner the next time.





This post is my contribution to Monthly Mingle- Caribbean Cooking hosted by the wonderful Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey.


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15 Comments:

Manju said...

sounds very yummy...especially loved the addition of orange juice!

FH said...

Beautiful!! Look at that photo, bright and delicious. Good one. I am yet to try Yacca, garlic sauce sounds good Maya! :)

Varsha Vipins said...

Wow..this is totally awesome..Love nything with garlic..:)

Unknown said...

NIce.. looks yummy & delicious..

Suparna said...

Hi Maya,

The dish looks very tasty! I hadn't heard abt yacca,haven't tasted it yet. Garlic sauce with a twist sounds interesting :) Great pics.
Happy Womens Day!
TC

Meera said...

Wow!! That's really nice. Did you get yucca at Indian stores? You know, I saw yucca chips (salted) at whole foods. Even saw cashew juice there - cashew fruit not the nut - not that I like cashew fruit but thought it was exotic.

I really loved this post. I can imagine it must be tasting soooo good.

Purnima said...

Yucca is new to me! Wiki mein photo nahi mila! Orange juice, garlic sauce..oh yum sounding n lovely eye popping pic!

Meeta K. Wolff said...

ummm! now this does sound quite exciting and love the garlic flavors here! perfect entry and thanks for joining the mingle!

Cham said...

Never cooked yucca, the curry looks beautiful and bright!

Cynthia said...

I've been thinking about what to cook tomorrow and I think I know now :) I have some cassava in the freezer.

Looks delicious my friend.

Finla said...

Me too have never had caribbean food untill the MM event.
This looks yummy delicious.

Ashwini said...

Lovely Picture Maya..It looks so light and bright.. and love the garlic flavor in it. Yummo. Looks very tempting..Book marked..

KonkaniBlogger said...

Thank you all. It was the first time for us too and we enjoyed it. Please do try and I hope you will all like it too.

Meera, I got the Yucca from Kroger to be exact, but I have seen it in Fiesta also(Mexican store). Cashew fruit u saw, wow, ages since I saw tht. We used to all try and be very clever in eating it and avoid the deekh from getting onto our lips :)..

Anonymous said...

Hi Maya,
That fried yucca is a wonderful dish. My DH is from Tanzania and I'm pretty hooked on the plain fried yucca with a sprinkling of red chilli pwdr. This is an elegant twist on it and I will try to use it for a dinner party next time! BTW, is 'mojo' the cuban word for yucca? In swahili it's called 'mohogo'. sounds kinda similar.

KonkaniBlogger said...

Hi Nasreen, thanks for ur comment. In the book it mentioned that Mojo means the sauce, so I just went by that. Do try and let me know if you do.