Frituras de Malanga: Malanga Fritters

  
First let me start by thanking Pris for mailing us a box of five very large malangas. Yay Pris! Thank you.

Malanga is a root vegetable popular in the tropics and South America. There are actually two different malangas: Malanga blanca considered the true malanga, which grows on dry land. The other is malanga amarillo which grows in wet bog-like areas. Malanga are about the size and shape of a regular white potato; the outside skin of the malanga is brown and somewhat hairy. It generally weighs 1/2 to 2 pounds, but can be heavier. The interior has an extremely crisp texture and can vary in color from cream, yellow or pink. 

For Pris: Malanga Recipe #1: Malanga Fritters

These are the proportions
for about 3 cups of grated malanga
add
1 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg
2 tablespoons parsley, chopoped

Vegetable oil for frying
Lemon wedges

Peel malanga and place in cold water. The spots that arise are okay, just make sure you remove all the skin and rinse under cold water. Using a hand grater, shred coarse; there should be about 3 cups. My malanga was so big, I only used half of it. Add garlic, salt, egg and parsley. Blend together with a fork until eggs has coated the whole mixture. In a frying pan, bring your oil to medium high heat. Form malanga mixture into loosely packed balls in the palm of your hand, using about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture for each. Drop into the hot oil and brown well. Do not crowd fritters while cooking. If the fritters are browning too quickly lower the heat, as we want them to cook thoroughly. Keep in a warm oven as you fry all remaining. Serve with lemon wedges and parsley garnish. (I didn't have lemon, so I sprinkled with a little lime juice, some of you may want to sprinkle with hot sauce as well.)

Please note: One of our readers has left variations of his malanga fritters recipe that you can view here and a sweet dessert variation here.  Thanks Nathan.