Yucca/Yams

[Rachel]

Can anyone help me to cook yucca/yams properly and do something more interesting than boiling them and eating with a sauce? Coming to my house to show me would be wonderful, but I would settle for a message posted here. Unless anyone particularly wants to come to Scotland in the depths of winter

[Anneke]

At the restaurant we make long ultra-thin slices with them, wrap them around tall cylinders, and deep-fry them. We use these as containers for our prawn dish. Yucca is very versatile. Let your imagination roam!

[Suzanne]

Years ago at Patria, a Nuevo Latino restaurant in New York City, I had some unforgettable Yuca Fries with Lemon Sauce: cut the peeled yuca as for frites, deep fry, and serve with a sauce of slightly thickened lemon juice(NOT strained; you want all the pulp), garlic, and oregano.

Or make something on the order of Mofongo: boil and mash them, season well, then mix with bits of roast pork and lots, I mean LOTS of sauteed, chopped garlic. Form into balls and saute them (you could try baking, it might work??). Very Dominican, very good (as long as you love garlic).

[W.DeBord]

I don't know how you hold them on the ring Anneke, would you share that? Toothpick?


I'm a bit confused, isn't yucca different than yams?????????? I can't even think of what a yucca is other then the spikey plant in my backyard........Help?


I remember seeing a recipe where they layered the yams with reg. potatoes into a galete, baked until crisp outside tender inside. Also one just like that where they layered the two and did more of a custard or au gratin, that looked lovely.

You also could shape them into pommes and fry them.

Does that help or are you asking for exact recipes?

[Rachel]

WeBord,
I first 'met' yams in Spain and then Miami, so I've always known them as yucca (Scotland isn't exactly a world reknown centre for yams!). I have since discovered that there is one shop here that sells them along with plantains, palm oil etc, etc. There's only one shop in Glasgow due to a very small (well tiny) African/Afro-Caribbean community here, but I wanted to buy some and needed some inspiration.
Suzanne, I had completely forgotten about Mofongo, and I've only had it made or eaten it with plaintain. I must try it again! Thank you all, you've inspired me to get cooking. Although I am simply an amateur cook with an enjoyment of the kitchen, I now feel ready to surprise my family and friends! In fact, my African friends are gonna freak!

[Suzanne]

Wendy: in most of the rest of the world, yams are a starchy veg quite different from the sweet potatoes we call that here. Another name for yam is name, with a tilda over the n. Yuca is also called cassava or manioc.

Look for a copy of Elizabeth Schneider's Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables: A Commonsense Guide, which has a wealth of info about all sorts of, well, uncommon fruits & vegs. It's available in paperback.

[W.DeBord]

OH, so that explains everything, oops! Is it South American?

[glutz]

1. cubed and cooked in sugared water, a pleasant desert.

2. Boiled in skin, sliced and sprinkled with spices to be grilled.

3. Cooked , mashed and mixed with glutinous rice powder,
deep fried and sprinkled with castor sugar, a cookie/sweet

[Rachel]

Glutz, what kind of spices? Sorry to ask, but I'm not a professional and often lack imagination. I've only ever seen yuca boiled with sauces or garlic vinagrettes.

[mudbug]

This article comes from Christopher Kimball Editor, Cook's Illustrated
printed in the Charleston Daily Mail

New articles weekly appear at this link .

Kitchen Detective
November 14 2001

Great sweet spuds need attention Sweet potatoes best baked first; use hand masher

Sometimes the simplest recipe holds the most secrets. This is certainly true with regular mashed potatoes -- the difference between great mashed spuds and lousy ones hinges on keen attention to detail.

Since few of us even use a recipe for mashing sweet potatoes, I wondered if technique also matters here as well, whether one could make a Thanksgiving favorite into something extraordinary. I would have to start my investigations with the potatoes themselves.
The first rule of buying sweet potatoes is to realize that virtually everything labeled as a "yam" is, in fact, a sweet potato. A yam is a large, tubular, white-fleshed root vegetable that comes from Asia. They aren't orange- or yellow-colored and do not have a potato shape. As for sweet potatoes, the sweetest, most flavorful, and most common are the dark orange-brown varieties with bright orange flesh. Other varieties, such as "garnet yams" are drier and not quite as sweet.

My first cooking test was whether to bake or boil the potatoes before mashing. I tasted sweet potatoes that were baked with skin on as well as those that were boiled with the skin on and also with the skin removed. The differences were remarkable. The boiled potatoes were wet and mushy compared to the baked sweet potato, which produced flesh that was also moist and intensely flavored. (Skin- on boiled potatoes are more flavorful than those without the skin but baked was clearly superior.) It occurred to me that perhaps boiled potatoes absorb water as they cook. To test this theory, I boiled and baked potatoes with the skin on and weighed them before and after cooking. The boiled potato weighed 8 ounces before it was cooked and 8 ounces after it was cooked. The baked potato weighed 8.5 ounces before it was cooked and 7.5 ounces after. The mystery of the texture was solved -- baking removes moisture and intensifies flavor.

I also tested baking potatoes that had been already peeled and cubed and found that both the texture and flavor suffered. So the winning technique was to bake sweet potatoes in a 400-degree oven for about 40 minutes. Once allowed to cool for about 5 minutes, the baked potatoes can be held with a double layer of paper towels and the peel can be removed with a paring knife. (An air pocket between the potato and the skin facilitates peeling.) In terms of mashing technique, I prefer to use a potato masher rather than any electric appliance such as a food processor or mixer. Machines quickly turn potatoes into gelatinous muck. Once mashed any woody fibers should be removed.

Sweet potatoes are moister and more flavorful than white potatoes and don't need as much butter and cream. For three pounds of potatoes I needed only 6 tablespoons of butter and 1/2-cup half-and-half to achieve the flavor and texture I wanted. I tried using milk and light or heavy cream and preferred half and half. At the Cook's Illustrated test kitchen, we found that melted butter was best since it coated the starch granules in the potato with fat, producing a fluffier product. I also found this be true with sweet potatoes and melting the butter, rather than having to wait until it warms to room temperature, is certainly more convenient.

I also experimented with a mixture of white and sweet potatoes and found the combination less successful than either variety on their own. Other pairings included carrots (too similar to sweet potatoes) and parsnips (too fibrous and hard to mash). I also tested grated ginger (too overbearing), grated cheese (neither cheddar, Gruyere, nor Parmesan married well to sweet potatoes), and toasted pecans (just plain weird -- who wants crunch in their potatoes?). To punch up the flavor, I tested and liked maple syrup as well as brown sugar --
Finally, I wanted to see if the potatoes would reheat well. With all holiday cooks I know timing can be an issue, especially if you have just one oven available.

I found these potatoes reheat extremely well over low heat in a saucepan (or a skillet for extra fast results), but they do require frequent stirring. Unlike white potatoes that require more butter and cream if reheated, sweet potatoes require no additives.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
6 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 cup half and half, hot
3/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. maple syrup or
1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Cook’s note: The best sweet potatoes for mashing have dark brown skin and bright orange flesh. They may be labeled "yams" but virtually all yams in the supermarket are, in fact, sweet potatoes. Real yams are large, white, and tubular.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees and adjust rack to center position. Place potatoes in a baking pan and cook until tender, about 40 minutes, testing them for doneness with a toothpick or skewer.

2. Using a paring knife remove the skin from the potatoes and place in large bowl. (If the potatoes are too hot to handle, fold a double layer of paper towels into quarters and use to hold potato.) Add melted butter and mash thoroughly with a potato masher. Remove any woody fibers. Add remaining ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula. Adjust seasoning with salt if necessary. Serve immediately or reheat over low heat stirring frequently until heated through.
Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish