Tag: Latin American
Cassava Cheese Balls
Cassava Cheese Balls
More people need to eat yucca, especially in this form. I boiled some frozen yucca until tender, then mashed with butter and cilantro. The mashed yucca gets rolled into balls, stuffed with a cube of mozzarella, dusted in flour, and fried. The cheese in the center is melted and gooey while the outside is crispy. Serve the cassava cheese balls with salsa rosada.
Equipment
- potato masher
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups frozen cassava
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 4 oz mozzarella cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup flour
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Boil the yucca in salted water for 15 minutes until tender. Drain and remove any fibers.
- Mash the yucca with the melted butter, salt, and pepper.
- Mash in the cilantro.
- Roll the dough into balls.
- Stuff a cube of mozzarella into the ball. Seal and roll back into a ball.
- Roll the balls in flour.
- Heat up 2” of vegetable oil in a pot over medium high heat. Cook the cassava balls in batches, making sure to not overcrowd the pot.
- Fry for 6 minutes, occasionally turning. Drain grease on a wire rack.
Cachapas Llanera
Cachapas Llanera
Cachapas can be made savory as a main course. The corn pancakes are made a little larger than the ones you’d eat for breakfast. Instead of filling them with cheese, these cachapas are filled with sautéed skirt steak, peppers, onions, panela cheese, tomatoes, and avocado. It’s then topped with crumbled cheese. Your stomach will thank you once you eat this baby.
Servings: 3 cachapas
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
Cachapas
- 2 cups corn
- 1/4 cup masa flour
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter
Filling
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 12 oz skirt steak cut into strips
- 1/2 small onion sliced
- 1 green bell sliced
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
- panela cheese
- 1 small tomato sliced
- avocado sliced
- crumbled queso
Instructions
- Add all of the cachapas ingredients to a food processor.
- Process until smooth. Let sit for 10 minutes before cooking.
- Season the skirt steak with Worcestershire, salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil on a griddle over medium high heat. Add the skirt steak, peppers, and onions.
- Stir fry for 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Melt the butter on a nonstick pan over medium heat. Ladle 1 cup of the batter into the pan.
- Cook for 6 minutes, then flip.
- Place a couple slices of panela and tomato on the bottom half of the cachapas. Top with 1/3 of the skirt steak stir fry. Cook for 5 minutes.
Guasacaca
Guasacaca
Guasacaca is the Venezuelan version of guacamole. While guacamole is typically used as a dip or a taco topping, guasacaca is so much more. It is used more as a sauce, topped upon sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, arepas, and so much more. The flavor is very different from guacamole. While containing some of the same ingredients as guacamole, the creamy purée contains bell peppers, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar instead of lime juice, and olive oil. The sauce also has a longer shelf life then 1 day with guacamole.
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 3 avocados ripened; pitted
- 1 small white onion chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper ficed
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1/3 cup vinegar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients in a food processor.
- Purée until smooth.
