Don't say yuck to yuca...give it a try
I live in unincorporated Seminole County in Central Florida, just a few hundred yards north of the city of Lake Mary.
Lake Mary is a beautiful, upscale community these days, but 100 years ago, it was an agricultural community that was based mostly on oranges (the navel orange, native to the Mediterranean region, was adapted to the Florida climate by General Henry Sanford who founded the city of Sanford just to my north). In the communities of Bent's Station and Belle Fontaine, which later became Lake Mary, there was another crop: cassava, which is also known as yuca or manioc.
Not far from where my house is, in the 19th Century, there was supposedly a factory which produced starches, farina and tapioca from the cassava plant. Two killer freezes in the mid-1890s, nearly killed Florida's citrus industry, but this area survived because of the cassava crop.
These days, most Americans have never heard of cassava or yucca, though it is the one of the most common sources of carbohydrates around the world.
In Cuba, it's a staple dish. This recipe came from a friend of a friend of mine who is from Cuba.
Lime-Garlic Yucca
1 1/2 pounds yuca, peeled, halved and cut into chunks (Frozen yuca is available at groceries in Latin markets) 1 teaspoon salt
Juice of one lime
6 cloves garlic, mashed into 1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
Put the yuca into a saucepan. Add water until yuca is just covered.
Add salt and lime juice and bring it to a boil.
Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the root is tender, for about 30 minutes and drain. (If there are any "woody" parts in the center of the yuca, pull them out.)
Mash the garlic cloves into the salt with a mortar and pestle.
Add the garlic, the lemon juice and the onions to the olive oil in a separate saucepan and heat until it's bubbling rapidly.
Pour over the yuca.
Toss the yuca and everything else while continuing to sauté them over medium heat until they're barely brown.
Vegan.
