Cubans will make dessert out of anything. My grandmother used to make a tomato dessert, my mom was famous for making dessert with grapefruit rind, dulce de toronjas, what a chore that was! But what dazzles me the most is making dessert out of yuca and malanga. I adjusted this recipe from Three Guys in Miami to fit my available midwestern ingredients....you can click here
Ingredients
2 cups ground yuca (one large yuca root)
2 cups ground potatoes (2 large potatoes)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
2 cups flour sifted
1 tsp baking soda
vegetable oil for frying
Bring about five quarts of water to a boil. Peel the yuca and the potatoes and place in boiling water. Add lemon juice. Reduce heat to medium and cook until soft, but not mushy. Drain. Remove woody parts from the center of the yuca. In a food processor or food mill grind the cooked yuca and malanga until very fine a pasty. Remove any chunks.
Beat the egg yolks and blend in the salt, flour and baking soda. Add the ground yuca and potato. The dough should be thick enough to roll. Take about a tablespoon of the dough and roll on a l.ightly floured surface making a long strand. Twist it into a figure 8 or a small circle. See picture. (makes about 2 dozen, I refrigerated a batch for the next day)
Deep fry the dough pieces in hot oil until golden brown, light and fluffy.
Traditionally these are served with an anise syrup or they can be sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I sprinked some with powdered sugar, and the rest we ate straight out of the fryer.
These look fantastic! Living in Florida we can get ingredients used in Cuban cuisine very easy. I am trying to find out how to use a lot of it. I have discovered boniato (sweet potato) and Calabaza (Cuban squash). I have used yucca when I made some salmon patties before, and want to use it more. I am so glad to stumbled upon you blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lyndsey. I haven't found boniato or calabaza here, but I try to substitute with what I can get my hands on. More recipes to come soon, so check back periodically.
ReplyDeleteIvonne, those buñuelos look fabulous! Do you find white sweet potatoes where you are? They substitute nicely for the real boniatos. You can also substitute summer squash for calabaza. Ah, and besides the anise syrup, the other Cuban way to eat these fritters is drowning them in "melao" (molasses). I prefer the anise syrup, but some Cubans from the Eastern part of the Island wouldn't be caught dead eating buñuelos other than with "melao de caña". Hugs.
ReplyDeleteThanks. They turned out very tasty Pedro. We ate most of them with no syrup or sugar and they were great.
ReplyDeleteI have found that summer squash is similar to calabaza, and I will probably make a dish with it once the farmer's market starts up again, but I have not found any white sweet potatoes. No worries though I adapt. Hugs to you too.
Rather than a summer squash try a squash called a kabocha it looks a little like an acorn squash but bigger and slightly flatter. Often if there is an Asian community or a Mexican community you will find
ReplyDeleteit in a grocery store that caters to these communities. Kabocha is firmer/denser and thus much more flavorful than any pumpkin than I know.