SC - Cravings, for cookbooks lovers

[Alderton, Philippa]

Here's what I found, Ana. It appears to be an American food, rather than an
African food.


Cassava - Manihot esculenta, a low-protein, starchy staple.

In regions where cereal grains cannot be grown, people often rely upon
starchy
vegetables (roots, tubers, or rhizomes) to supply most of their calories.
Such foods
are called starchy staples.  While such crops often have high yields, their
primary
disadvantage is their very low protein content (<1%).

Cassava, also known has manioc, is a tropical, starchy staple of South
American
origin.  Potatoes and yams are other starchy staples.  Cassava has another
disadvantage; the fleshy roots contain poisonous compounds (cyanogenic
glycosides
- - compounds that liberate cyanide) that must be removed.  Shredding the
roots and
squeezing out the juice removes much of the toxic compounds.  Heat used to
dry
the resulting flour removes the remaining compounds.  The resulting flour,
called
farofa, is very bland, rather like corn meal and flour.  The flour can be
mixed with
water and the dough cooked on a large griddle to make large cassava
flat-breads.
In many areas, cassava breads and farofa are the staple, sometimes only
food,
consumed for considerable periods of time.  The resulting diet results in
chronic
protein deficiences.

The purified starch can be used as a thickening agent.  You know gelatinized
pellets
of cassava starch as tapioca.  There would be little taste if sugar and
vanilla
flavoring were not added.
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                                 BRAZIL
                   SPECIAL REPORT: Manioc (Cassava)


    When the Portuguese arrived in the early 1500s, the main staple
    of the natives was manioc, a carbohydrate-rich food that is easy
    to propagate but difficult to process, at least for the bitter
    variety, which is poisonous when raw.

    It is astonishing that the Indians determined these tubers were
    edible at all. To be detoxified, tubers had to be peeled and
    grated and the pulp put into long, supple cylinders, called tipitis,
    made of woven plant fibers. Each tube was then hung with a
    heavy weight at the bottom, which compressed the pulp and
    expressed the poisonous juice.

    The pulp could then be removed, washed and roasted, rendering
    it safe to eat. The product was a coarse meal or flour known as farinha
de mandioca (manioc
    meal), which is as basic to the diet of Brazilians today as it was to
the early Indians. It is a
    ubiquitous tabletop condiment.

    Starch settling out from the extracted juice was heated on a flat
surface, causing individual
    starch grains to pop open and clump together into small, round granules
called tapioca. The
    extracted juice, boiled down to remove the poison, was used as the basis
of the sauce known
    as tucupi.

    The non-poisonous tubers of sweet manioc, which are somewhat fibrous but
considerably
    easier to prepare; are pared, boiled for several hours to soften them
and eaten like potatoes.
    Strips of manioc are also deep-fried and eaten like French fries.


Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

The World's Need

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.

- - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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