SC - Just to introduce myself

[lorix]

I realize that I am still about a week behind, and trying to get
caught up in my digests, but I wanted to comment on this:
>>>>>>>>
 If it's the sweet manioc, which is more likely since the
grocery
stores there likely don't want kill off their customers, all
that really needs to be done is to peel the root and boil it,
for a potato-like starch, though I'd tend to want to boil it in
two waters, just to be sure. Once boiled, I'd imagine it could
be mashed, dried and seived or run through a food processor to
give a flour like consistancy.


Phlip

<<<<<<<<

I lived in Brasil for more than a year, and they do sell the
larger and poisonous mandioca in the grocery stores.  Many
people, (especially the country people) prefer processing their
own flour because apparently the flavor is better if it is
fresh, and knowing processing in Brasil, you can then be sure
that you have processed it correctly, and do not have residual
cynogenic compounds.

Farinha (pronounced far-een-ya)(an h in the middle of a word in
Porteguese has the same effect as a ~ does in Spanish) is a
common table condiment.  In Northwest Brasil, where I lived, the
country folk from the interior (in other words, the poor from
farms not on the coast) eat mandioca with their beans and rice. 
The mandioca is used to thicken the juice from the beans, so
that they can eat it more easily with their hands.  They take
small "packets" of beans and rice, squeeze them delicately in
their fist to make a sausage-like shape, and pop it in their
mouth.  Many country people do not use utensils at all.

When I returned home, and could not buy mandioca in the store, I
put some Cream of Wheat in a bowl on the table and used it as a
replacement.  The texture is somewhat the same, and it absorbed
the juice from the cooked beans nicely.

To process mandioca, I have seen them sitting on a bench with a
metal "grater".  The grater is also used on coconuts.  It is a
circular piece of metal with teeth around 3/4 of the circle,
with the other piece nailed to a long lath.  They straddle a
bench, sitting on the lath in front of them, and grate the
mandioca or coconut into a pan on the floor.  The mandioca (and
coconut for that matter) is then squeezed thoroughly to remove
the juice.  The juice of the mandioca is discarded, and the
juice of the coconut is used as coconut milk in a great number
of their recipes.  The process of removing the most coconut milk
is quite reminiscent of Almond milk in that after it is squeezed
(called thick milk) water is added and it is squeezed again
(thin milk) and the subsequent squeezings are all added
together.

But enough about Brasillian cooking.  I no longer have my
Brasillian cookbook, as it was borrowed from me, and never
returned.  I have looked at the books available for sale here in
the US, and have only found ones that Brasillians sell to
tourists.  (sigh)

Tyrca

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Lady Tyrca Ivarsdottir
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AoA, OPN, ASTA, oleander
Barony of Elfsea (Life is Good in Elfsea!)
(all sorts of places in and around Ft. Worth, TX)
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