With Latin American Cuisine, we explore the wide world of food in South and Central America. Check back each week for recipes from Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua, Peru, and beyond.
The crispier, creamier cousin to french fried potatoes, yuca frita is a side dish and snack food found all over Latin America. In Cuba, it’s served with a garlicky mojo sauce (or if you’re at a Cuban restaurant in New York, more likely a cilantro sauce, originating from Victor’s Cafe). In Colombia, you’ll find them with a loose guacamole-like ají de aguacate, or in the snack aisle next to the potato chips. Head over to Peru, and it’s a creamy cheese and chili sauce.
You can take the cheat-y route and make fried yuca (also known as cassava) out of a frozen bag, but unlike french fries, frozen yuca fries are invariably terrible, with a dry, stringy texture. There’s also no point, considering how simple it is to make fried yuca out of fresh yuca—heck, it’s even easier than making french fries.
The first step is par-boiling. Just like with potatoes, par-cooking yuca accomplishes two goals. First, is washes off excess starch which can burn, turning the yuca chips an unappealing dark brown and giving them a bitter flavor. Secondly—and more importantly!—it begins to break down the tough cell structure of the root, which is even stronger than that of a potato. Without par-cooking, a yuca root would be burnt before the interior ever softened.
Par-cooking also causes the surfaces and edges of the yuca to fray, increasing surface area and maximizing crunch factor.
