Soft Boiled Cassava

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.“~ Confucius

Think Simple - There are so many simple pleasures that we don’t always take time to enjoy. Take some time to really focus on something simple - focus on your breathing, focus on drinking down a cold glass of water, focus on enjoying the simple things you do every day. We can find so much happiness in the small everyday things. They are there if we seek them, and when we seek, we shall find and i have great pleasure eating something as simple as a piece of cooked cassava. I eat them as is or with sugar and grated coconut or however as this soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and goes well with most 'sambals' or sauces.

Cassava can be cooked in various ways and there are endless recipes but a word of caution - it has to be cooked and not to be eaten raw because they contain two cyanogenic glucosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. These are decomposed by linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava, liberating hydrogen cyanide

Ingredients:

Raw Cassava

Salt

Water

Method:

Cut the woody ends of the cassava and then cut into 2 inches pieces. Remove the skin and soak the peeled roots in water for at least 1 hour.

Drain and put into saucepan with enough water to cover the roots.

Add salt and turn on the heat. Bring to the boil and stir to prevent roots sticking to the bottom of saucepan.

Check for doneness, roots should be fork tender.

Drain and place roots back to the warm saucepan to dry-out.

Cooked cassava is ready for consumption. Eat with whatever fancy your palate. The pictures above are with 'sambal shrimp' and 'xo sauce'.

Cassava Fritters is a spin-off from these boiled cassava.

Cassava Fritters/Ketuk Ubi

I love everything cassava/tapioca/yucca/ubi kayu and have not had these fritters for quite awhile. I have refrained from buying the fresh cassava as they have become moldy and shrivered and that is the sign of a dead root. In Malaysia, the root has to be consumed as soon as it has been harvested so, it is a strange sight for me, seeing them for sale in the asian store's shelf. I am enlightened by the fact that these roots are treated with wax to prevent them from getting moldy and save to eat. Thanks Chan, for letting me know and allowing me to enjoy and making all the goodies that can be dished out from them.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked cassava

1 cup grated coconut - white only

1/2 cup sugar

a pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Batter:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornflour/cornstarch

1 tbsp rice flour

1 tsp double action baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cooking oil

3/4 cup/6 fl oz/180 ml water

Method:

Prepare the batter by mixing all the batter ingredients and leave aside.

Heat oil until 350f. While oil is getting hot, prepare the cassava balls by mixing all the ingredients together and making into golf size balls.

When oil has reached 350f, dip balls into batter and put into hot oil to deep fry. Do not crowd the wok and crank up the heat and removing some hot oil from the wok, at the last stage of frying. Removing some oil will allow the temp. of oil to rise higher and faster and this way, the balls will be not be soggy. When balls are golden brown, remove and drain on an overturn cake rack which is sitting on kitchen towels - the excess oil will drip down and since the balls are not touching the kitchen towels, they will not soak back the oil while cooling.

Pour back the removed oil and finished frying the rest of the balls.

Note:

Noticed the long one? I have left some cooked cassava unmashed and dipped them in batter to fry. Try it this way, it is just as delicious.

Serves

Blueberry Muffin Tops

Muffin tops are, as everyone knows, truly the upper crust of those jumbo-sized, coffee-shop muffins. Why is the top so much better and how do we go about baking the tops without the bottom? Offer the bottoms to the Culinary God? That's effective but wastefull and the best solution so far has been muffin pans that are extremely shallow—only about 1/2 inch (1.25cm) deep. This recipe turned out some very delicious bottomless enjoyment, Renee ate 3 as soon as they were out of the oven. I had one and now i can understand why these kind of tops are beloved by 'Seinfeld'' partisans.

Ingredients:

For batter

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 whole large egg
1 large yolk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (12 oz)

For topping

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar

Special equipment:

2 muffin-top pans, each with 6 (4- by 1/2-inch)

Muffin-top cups (1/2-cup capacity);

or regular muffin pans

Method:

Make batter:

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 375°F.

Generously grease muffin pans.

Microwave butter in a big microwave-safe bowl on high for 1 minute.

Whisk in milk, then whisk in whole egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined well.

Sieve together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, then add milk mixture and stir until just combined.

Fold in blueberries gently but thoroughly and do not overmix.

Divide batter among 12 muffin cups, spreading evenly.

Rub topping ingredients together with your fingertips until crumbly, then sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick or skewer inserted diagonally into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool in pans on a rack 15 minutes, then run a knife around edge of each muffin top and carefully remove from cups.

Serve warm or at room temperature.


Serves