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Cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta; also yuca in Spanish, and mandioca, aipim, or macaxera in Portuguese) is a woody perennial shrub of the spurge family, that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop for its edible starchy root. It was originally observed in what are now called Brazil and Paraguay, and today is widely diffused in tropical and subtropical regions. All known species and varieties are cultigenCultigen is the name for organisms, especially cultivated plants like the edible banana, not known to have a wild or uncultivated counterpart in nature. It is a species that was domesticated (grown and selected by humankind) from so far back in antiquity,s.
1 Description
The root is long and tapered, with a firm homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside. Commercial varieties can be 5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, and 50 to 80 cm long. A woody cordon runs along the root's axis. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish; it breaks like a carrot's, and darkens quicky upon exposure to the air. (For this reason, the skinned root must be kept under water until it is ready to be cooked.) Even under refrigeration, the root's flavor spoils in a day or so, and therefore it is not very popular with supermarkets.
The root contains free and bound cyanogenic glucosideA glucoside is a glycoside that is derived from glucose. Glucosides are common in plants, but rare in animals. The hydrolysis of a glucoside produces glucose.s which are converted to HCN in the presence of linamarase , a naturally occurring enzymeAn enzyme is a protein, or protein complex, that catalyzes a chemical reaction. Like any catalyst, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy of a reaction, thus allowing the reaction to proceed to its steady state or completion much faster than it ot in cassava. In the past, cassava was categorized as either sweet or bitter, signifying the absence or presence of toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides. The so-called "sweet" (actually "not bitter") cultivars can produce as little as 20 mg of HCN per kg of fresh roots, while "bitter" ones may produce more than 50 times as much. Bitter varieties must be processed so as to remove the cyanogenic gluosides.
2 Uses
The root cannot be eaten raw, but can be cooked into a great variety of dishes. The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in many uses: as an accompainment for meat dishes, or deep-fried, made into purée s, dumplingA dumpling may be any of a wide variety of dishes, both sweet and savoury, in several different cuisines. They are either made from balls of dough or are small parcels of food encased in pastry, dough, batter or leaves. United States The baked dumpling iss and gnocchiGnocchi is a type of pasta made of potato or flour. Although the dish is Italian, the word comes from a Germanic word for a knot (as in wood), possibly because of its shape. Gnocchi are extremely easy to make and can be a very satisfying meal. For example, soupThis article is about the food. For the album by Blind Melon, see Soup (album); for the book by Robert Newton Peck, see Soup (book). Soup is a food which is largely liquid, often containing or cooked from solid components such as vegetables and meat.s, stews, gravies, etc. Cassava flour can also replace wheat flour, and is so-used by some people with allergies to other grain crops. Tapioca and foufou are made from the starchy flour from cassava root.
Cassava is heavily featured in Brazilian cuisine. The dish vaca atolada ("mud-stranded cow") is a meat and cassava stew, cooked until the root has turned into a paste; and pirão is a thick gravy-like gruel prepared by cooking fish bits (such as heads and bones) with cassava flour. In the guise of farofa (lightly roasted flour), cassava combines with rice and beans to make the basic meal of low-class Brazilians. Farofa is also a standard side dish for feijoada, the meat-and-beans stew that has become Brazilian "national dish". Boiled cassava is also made into a popular sweet pudding.
Cassava was, and still is, a major staple food for many native tribes of tropical South America, since pre-Colombian times. It was grated into flour and made into pancakes; bitter varieties were detoxified by washing the flour. Fermentation of cassava gruel produced cauim, a mild alcoholic beverage consumed in vast quantities by natives at parties and ceremonies.
