Cassava/tapioca in flaxseed masala

Cassava/tapioca is one of the many root vegetables I like because of its association with the years that I lived in Dar-es-Salaam as a kid. I mainly knew it in its roasted or fried form, although I also liked its boiled and salted avatar. I’d seen recipes for cassava from fresh, but never any for dried cassava.

I'd come into possession of dried cassava pieces a few weeks ago, when I had tagged along with Pete to York (or somewhere thereabouts) where he was to meet someone to collect some esoteric sound equipment. The ride was itself worth it for the scenery, but even better was the fact that the meeting point turned out to be right next to a reasonably big “Indian” store – well, it was actually an Iraqi store, but it contained enough Indian/Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern stuff to make me happy.

I wanted to explore the shop, but Pete said his contact would be there imminently and the whole exchange wouldn’t take 5 minutes, so I resigned myself to a quick trip into the store to get some whole urad dal which I’d run out of. I saw plenty of interesting things in there to make me wish I could browse for a bit, but I didn’t hang around as we had a 3-hour drive back to Shrewsbury (and I was working the next day, so it was in my best interests to get back home as soon as possible) - and I was on a promise to my husband, in any case.

I believe that keeping my virtuous promise to Pete (“I’ll only be a minute at the shop, honest” - which he didn’t really believe since he knew what I was like) was instantly rewarded in the form of a serendipitous call from Pete’s contact to say that he was running late by about 30-40 minutes. I must have lit up the street with my delighted smile, because my husband gave me a grin and said “Oh all right, go on with you, only don’t buy up the shop will ya?”

I didn’t buy up the shop, but I did have a thoroughly enjoyable time browsing every aisle and its contents, trying to figure out what the items were (made somewhat difficult because sometimes I didn’t know the script or the language), and finding things to buy that I didn’t know I wanted to try until I saw them. Among other, more mundane things, I bought two (to me) exotic items - a bag of dried cassava/tapioca pieces, and something called “mograbiyeh”, made of semolina (which Google revealed later was like couscous, except the grains were the size of peppercorns).

I reserved the mograbiyeh for later and decided to experiment with the dried cassava/tapioca first. To be honest, I didn’t have the first idea what to make with it, but I figured Step 1 would be to rehydrate them. So I turned out a third of the bag into a bowl of water and let it soak overnight. I still didn’t know what Step 2 ought to be, and Google didn’t really suggest any recipes specifically using dried cassava.

I decided to bake the rehydrated pieces (which, I assumed, had been originally cooked and then dried) in the oven, because I really do love cassava chips and I had my Dar-es-Salaam memories in mind. Sadly, they mostly turned into baked wood chips and had to be consigned to the bin, my teeth not being what they once were.

My second experiment was to soak and then deep-fry the pieces to see if that would make better chips. The experiment was a success in a way, because the end result was definitely better wood chips; but in terms of edibility, not so much. My teeth continued to be not what they once were.

Now there was only the final third of the bag left to play around with, and I decided that the only thing to do now was improvise a curry. So I did. And here it is in recipe form, in all its successful glory.

Recipe for: Cassava/tapioca in flaxseed masala



Ingredients:


1 cup dried cassava/tapioca pieces, soaked in water for 3-4 hours
1 tbsp flaxseeds
6-7 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 cloves garlic
4-5 dry red chillies (or to taste)
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
2 medium onions, sliced thin
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp garam masala (I used Kitchen King)
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. Break up the soaked cassava/tapioca pieces into more or less even bits. Boil them in water until they are cooked. They should be very soft (easily pierced with a knife tip) but not mushy.

Drain and reserve.

2. Grind the flaxseeds, peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garlic and red chillies to a fairly smooth paste, without adding water.


3. Heat the oil in a pan and fry and ground masala paste for 1 minute, stirring briskly.

4. Add the sliced onions and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to turn translucent.


5. Now add the tomatoes and stir them in.

Let them cook down with the onions until mushy.


6. Next, add the cooked cassava/tapioca pieces
and mix them with the tomato-onion masala.


7. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 1-1/2 cups water and pour it in. Stir well and add salt to taste.


8. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down the heat and let the curry simmer for 5 minutes while the gravy thickens.

Garnish with coriander leaves before serving hot with cooked millet or quinoa. Can also be eaten with chapaties/rotis.

RECIPE: CASSAVA/TAPIOCA IN FLAXSEED MASALA

Ingredients:

1 cup dried cassava pieces, soaked in water for 3-4 hours
1 tbsp flaxseeds
6-7 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 cloves garlic
4-5 dry red chillies (or to taste)
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
2 medium onions, sliced thin
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp garam masala (I used Kitchen King)
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. Break up the soaked cassava/tapioca pieces into more or less even bits. Boil them in water until they are cooked. They should be very soft (easily pierced with a knife tip) but not mushy. Drain and reserve.
2. Grind the flaxseeds, peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garlic and red chillies to a fairly smooth paste, without adding water.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and fry and ground masala paste for 1 minute, stirring briskly.
4. Add the sliced onions and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to turn translucent.
5. Now add the tomatoes and stir them in. Let them cook down with the onions until mushy.
6. Next, add the cooked cassava/tapioca pieces and mix them with the tomato-onion masala.
7. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 1-1/2 cups water and pour it in. Stir well and add salt to taste.
8. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down the heat and let the curry simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves before serving hot with cooked millet or quinoa. Can also be eaten with chapaties/rotis.

Oven-baked cassava

Cassava is a vegetable I remember from the years we were in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania - it was available as street food everywhere, roasted over coals or deep-fried. Personally the roasted cassava was my favourite... for about a shilling, you could get a large paper cone of roasted pieces, sprinkled with salt and red chilli powder. I can tell you it tasted divine, probably because of its very simplicity. The flavour and texture of cassava (or "mohogo", as it's known in Swahili) falls somewhere between potatoes and parsnips - firmer than potatoes when cooked, but not as sweet as parsnips.



Cassava was not something we ever cooked at home, so when I bought a fat, foot-long length of the tuber on impulse recently, I was at a slight loss about what to do with it. However, I decided to try baking it in the oven, treating it pretty much as I would a potato. Well, not exactly the same, obviously, as the cassava skin had to be peeled.

To my surprise it was easy enough to peel, but cutting it into chunks was a different matter. The tuber is VERY hard (if you find it at all spongy or soft, throw it away!) and I came close to disaster a couple of times when my knife slipped. (Ma, if you're reading this, dont worry, my fingers are safe and I still have all 10.) I also made sure to take out the stringy bit from the middle.

Anyway, once the cassava was cut into chunks, I put them in a saucepan with plenty of water and let it boil until the pieces were parboiled. Then they went into the oven (ofc with seasoning!) and about 20 minutes later, they were done. Yummy, they were almost as good as those I'd eaten in Dar. I say almost, because memories of good things (and good times) are sometimes stronger than reality.

One warning, though... you have to keep a sort of hawk eye on the cassava after 10 minutes in the oven - checking every so often to see that it's reasonably soft-crisp but not overdone. I baked some of the chips for too long and they not only looked and felt like chips of wood, they also tasted about the same. A trial for the teeth, certainly.

Recipe for: Oven-baked cassava



Ingredients:

4 cups cassava - peeled, cut into chunks and parboiled
3-4 tbsp oil (I used Lite Sunflower Oil spray)
Salt, pepper/red chili powder to taste

Method:

1. Toss the parboiled chunks of cassava with the oil and spread on a baking tray.



2. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 20 minutes (or till pale golden brown), turning over the chunks after 10 minutes for even baking. Check the cassava often to ensure it doesnt get dried out.



3. Serve hot, sprinkled with salt, red chili powder and any herbs/spices of preference.