Yes Yu can

I’ve never been a ginormous fan of yuca. I’m not sure why, it just hasn’t come up that much. The only time I really ever see it on menus is as a side at Hispanic restaurants, but there’s usually a choice between that and either plantains or french fries, so I don’t think I’ve ever ordered it. No disrespect to the yuca, but that is some tough competition.

However, last time I was down in D.C. we all went to dinner at Mayorga Cafe, where there were no plantains or french fries at all, and the yuca fries were the only fried starchy goodness to be had. And let me tell you, they sure made me forget about french fries for the evening. Golden-crispy, not too oily, and with just a little more actual taste than spuds, I was hooked.

So even though I had NO idea how to cook with these, I grabbed one on a whim last time I was at the food co-op.

Since I didn’t even know where to begin, I went over to foodbuzz, which is a new site ES is excited to be partnering with (note the banner on top of our page). Basically, foodbuzz is going to be like google, but with a sole focus on the food world, letting you search thousands of quality food sites for that perfect recipe, minus all the spam-y mumbo jumbo.

I searched ‘yuca’ and only had to look at one recipe before I knew what I was doing. These fried yuca dumplings from Here and There, adapted from TV’s Daisy, are pretty amazing. They’re not too hard to make – you just boil the yuca, mash it up like taters, then make little balls out of it and fill with items of your choice (I followed H&T and went with basil and mozz, but I could def see a goat cheese version of this, and for a heartier meal, ground beef or turkey).

The full recipe, with handy visual instructions, is over at Here and There. And no, that’s not sour cream. I served them with Fage yogurt, a new discovery (thanks, Alex). This super-rich imported Greek yogurt makes dannon look like baby food.