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El Salvador, Americas

Yuca Frita

El Salvador's favourite street snack: salt-boiled cassava fried until crackly, topped with tangy curtido slaw and a light tomato salsa.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time1 h
DifficultyMedium
About servingsNever eat yuca (cassava) raw. Remove the bark and the pink inner layer completely and always boil it until fully tender before frying.

Method

  1. Start with the curtido. Shred the cabbage as finely as you can, coarsely grate or julienne the carrot and slice the onion thinly. Pour boiling water over the cabbage, leave it 1 minute, drain, let it cool and squeeze out the water with your hands. Toss all the vegetables with the oregano, salt and vinegar and refrigerate for at least .

    Add in this stepGreen cabbage 200 gCarrot 50 gOnion (for the curtido) 40 gWhite vinegar 80 mlDried oregano 1 tspSalt (for the curtido) ½ tsp

  2. Cut the yuca into 6–8 cm sections, stand each one on end and slice away the brown bark and the pinkish layer underneath until only white flesh remains. Halve them lengthwise and rinse in cold water. Frozen yuca is already peeled and goes straight into the pot.

    Add in this stepYuca (cassava), fresh or frozen 500 g

  3. Put the yuca in a 20 cm pot, cover with cold water by 3 cm and add the salt. Bring to the boil on high heat, then lower to medium heat and simmer for , until a fork slides in easily and a few pieces start to crack open on the surface. Don't overcook it or it will fall apart.

    Add in this stepSalt (for the cooking water) 2 tsp

    high heat→medium heat

  4. Drain and leave it in the colander for so the steam escapes and it cools a little. Pull out the tough, stringy core from the centre and cut the yuca into thick fingers about 2 cm wide. Pat them dry with kitchen paper; wet yuca makes the oil spit.

  5. Salsa: blend the tomatoes, onion, bell pepper and garlic until smooth (add 2 tbsp water if the blender struggles). Heat the oil in a 14 cm saucepan on medium heat, pour in the purée (it will splutter) and simmer for , stirring, until slightly thickened and no longer tasting raw. Season with salt.

    Add in this stepRipe tomatoes 2Onion (for the salsa) ½Green bell pepper ¼Garlic cloves 1Vegetable oil (for the salsa) 1 tspSalt (to season the salsa) to taste

    medium heat

  6. Pour the oil into a deep, heavy pot to a depth of 4–5 cm (never more than half full) and heat on medium-high heat to 180 °C; without a thermometer, a wooden chopstick should be surrounded by steady small bubbles straight away. Lower the yuca in gently and fry in 2 batches, per batch, until deep golden and crisp. If the oil smokes, turn off the heat, and never leave the pot unattended. Lift out onto a rack or kitchen paper to drain.

    Add in this stepVegetable oil for frying 700 ml

    medium-high heat

  7. Serve hot: spoon the salsa over or alongside and pile the curtido on top. In El Salvador it often comes with crispy pork chicharrón or little fried fish called pepesca.

Cook's tip

Undercooked yuca stays hard in the middle, overcooked yuca crumbles in the oil, so stop boiling the moment a fork meets no resistance. When buying fresh yuca, pick roots whose cut ends are snow-white with no dark streaks or spots. Frozen yuca saves all the peeling.

Cooking it at camp

Boil the yuca at home and you only need to fry it at camp. Instead of a deep pot of oil, shallow-fry it in 1 cm of oil in a cast-iron pan over a medium flame, turning once; it still gets crisp. The curtido tastes even better made the day before and kept in the cooler.