Have you ever seen it? - Very long post!

While shopping at your best supermarket, have you ever seen this thing sitting there at the Produce area? Here in the US, it is usually covered by a layer of paraffin, and they are not too big. More or less 12 inches long, and two inches thick. Have you seen it?

Here in the US, they call it Yuka root.

I think - but am not sure - that this name comes from some South American Spanish speaking country. And I found out that, because of this name, many people around here have the wrong idea that this root comes from the desert plant Yucca.

WRONG!!!

Mandioca (manioc) is how this root is called in Brazil, and it does NOT come from that weird plant from the cactus family. Well, the plant is not that weird, the poor thing. But it does NOT produce the mandioca.

Anyway, the mandioca lesson will now begin.

It is a root that, in Brazil, can grow to be as thick as a strong man's arms. Yummy... For both! The strong man's arms and the mandioca, I say.

It grows from a silly looking plant that, actually, resembles the marijuana plant, but has nothing to do with it.

When the dirt is this good, red and rich, it produces the best mandiocas. My uncle had a lot of them at the farm and I have seen many of these plants.

Back in the country, the mandioca is sold at the markets without any paraffin. And they are usually broken or cut, leaving the ends open so we can check its quality. The whiter the better. And if it is kind of leaking a milky white water... oh, then, they are superb!

I can imagine some "hygienic" people going... "Ewww..." because of the dirt that is still visible, and because of the fact that it is broken/cut open.

Well people... Cut the crap! It is open, it is dirty but it will be rinsed, the ends will be cut off, and it will be COOKED before eaten. Worse than that are the imported tomatoes on which the packers may piss or spit, before boxing and sending them to your tables, you hear?

You buy it, take it home, rinse it and the fun starts.

I have watched cooking shows on TV, with fancy Chefs preparing the mandioca. Oh, what a miserable thing to watch! They try to peel it as if it was a potato. It does not work like that. "Them fancy Chefs ain't got a clue!" I say, on my best Arkansas English.

I found a few pictures on the net that will show you exactly how to do it.

After rinsing, you chop them in pieces.

They are hard but a good knife will do the job.

Then, you "whack" your knife on the side of each piece, just enough to go through the skin.

Then, you PULL the skin off. It is kind of thick, but it will just smoothly come off.

And you pull, and pull, until it is clean white.

The pieces of the mandioca will now cook in water and salt.

NEVER - please - NEVER try to eat it without first cooking it in water as you cook your potatoes! FORGET the crazy naturalists and inventionists that will come up with a recipe where you could fry this thing without cooking it first! This is asinine!!! Imbeciles, they are. It is like taking a broom handle and trying to make "broom chips" with it!

Cook the freaking thing. Plenty of water and a pinch of salt. Cook it until it is soft. If it is a good quality one, it will even brake/split open as it gets cooked!

After cooking, drain it real good. You can taste it right there, while it is hot. Put a little butter on a piece and a pinch more salt and try it... you will like it. The butter melts, the mandioca soaks it. It is good.

Or you can deep fry it. Cut or brake them into smaller pieces and deep fry them in oil, until they are golden in color.

Cooked and cut into smaller pieces

Deep fried, sprinkled with a little salt.

One can mash the cooked mandiocas. Mix an egg or two, grated cheese of your choice, a little flour, a pinch of baking powder, and spices of your taste. Spoon it into hot oil.

One can make a beef stew and add pieces of (cooked) mandioca, instead of potatoes.

The cooked mandioca can be chopped in cubes, and pan fried in lots of butter, with chopped onions, salt and pepper.

The Brazilian Indians (gorgeous people!) eat lots of it. They make the flour out of it, in a very interesting process.  They cultivate the root and it is part of their normal diet.

Please, don't forget to invite me, in case you decide to prepare the mandioc - yuka - cassava - cassaba - mandioca.