Yuquitas

Cassava Root Fritters with Serrano-Lime Dipping Sauce

All over Peru, yuca, or cassava root, is cut into thick strips, fried, and served like steak fries alongside secos (stews), sandwiches, or on their own. When I’m hungry for a quick snack, yucas fritas do the job, but in my opinion, the starchy root vegetable is so much better when mixed with flour to make yuquitas, light cassava root fritters that are the equivalent of beignets. They always remind me of when I was little and my friends and I would go through two dozen yuquitas along with our sopa rachi, a thick Cantonese-style chicken soup (see sidebar, page 62). I think that’s why I like to stuff the fritters with buttery Spanish Manchego cheese today. Not only are the fritters great on their own, but when you break one open, you get this long, fantastically gooey string of cheese, the sort of thing kids (and this adult) love.

I make my yuquitas pretty big, but the smaller version here is good for a party and doubles or triples easily for a crowd. The batter is very forgiving, so you can make it ahead and let it rise slowly overnight in the refrigerator. The fritters also keep well in the oven for half an hour or so after you fry them. Look for frozen cassava (often labeled yuca—see page 266) at well-stocked grocery stores or Latin markets. Use young Manchego or a similar nutty, full-flavored cheese that melts well, not the hard aged Manchego viejo that is more like Parmesan.

1 Place the frozen yuca in a medium saucepan and cover it with about 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a low boil over medium-high heat and cook until the yuca is almost fall-apart tender, about 25 minutes. Scoop out about 1 cup of the cooking water and set it aside in a medium bowl. Drain the yuca and put it in a separate medium bowl. While still warm, mash the yuca with a potato masher or a large fork, discarding any large, fibrous strands as you work. Use your fingers to smash any larger pieces of the vegetable that remain. Mashing requires some muscle; add a tablespoon or two of the reserved cooking water to help, if needed. You should have about 1 cup mashed yuca.

2 Stir the yeast and the sugar into ¾ cup of the reserved cooking water (it should be lukewarm, not hot). Allow the yeast to hydrate for a minute or two, then mix in the flour and the salt. Using a large spoon or your hands, fold in the mashed yuca and the olive oil until well combined. The batter should be very moist, almost like a very thick pancake batter. If not, add another 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water. Transfer the batter to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at warm room temperature until more than doubled, 1 hour or longer, or refrigerate the dough overnight.

3 Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line a baking sheet with a few layers of paper towels. In a medium, deep saucepan, heat 2½ to 3 inches of oil over medium-high heat until it registers 350°F on a deep-fry thermometer, or fill a deep-fryer with the recommended amount of oil and set the temperature to 350°F. Test the oil’s temperature: Drop a small nub of the batter into the hot oil. It should bubble fairly vigorously and rise to the top after a few seconds. If the oil smokes, reduce the heat. After about 2 minutes, the batter should turn light golden brown, the color of beer-battered fish, not dark hushpuppies (if the fritter turns dark brown, reduce the heat slightly; if it’s too light, increase the heat as needed).

4 When the oil is the right temperature, quickly shape the fritters one by one. Put a small bowl of cold water near your work surface, dip your hands in the water, and shake off the excess. Use your non-dominant hand as your flat work surface, holding your fingers side by side and your palm facing up. Scoop a generous 1 tablespoon of the batter with your other hand and plop the batter down on your outstretched fingers. Stretch out the batter into a 2-inch pancake and place a cube of the cheese in the middle. Roughly pinch and smooth the batter over the cheese to form a ball (it doesn’t need to be perfect).

5 Drop the fritter into the oil, dip your hands in the bowl of water again, and quickly repeat the shaping process to make 3 or 4 more fritters. Do not to overcrowd the oil. Cook the fritters until very light golden brown, 2½ to 3 minutes. Use tongs to flip each fritter once or twice (they should be bobbing at the top of the oil, like apples) and evenly brown them on all sides. Use tongs, a spider, or the fry basket to transfer the fritters to the lined baking sheet to drain excess oil. If not serving immediately, put the fritters on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a wire rack and place them in the oven to keep warm for up to 30 minutes. Fry the remaining fritters the same way. When ready to serve, pile the fritters onto a big platter or on individual plates and serve the serrano-lime dipping sauce on the side.

Serrano-Lime Dipping Sauce

Makes about ¾ cup

This may be my new favorite sauce. It’s so good on grilled or baked white fish (add the sauce after cooking), and lately, I’ve been stirring it together with equal parts mayonnaise to make a sandwich spread or salad dressing for summer tomatoes and cucumbers. If you don’t have a professional-style blender, be paciente. It may take a little while for the cilantro and peppers to puree, but they will get there. You can always help them along by stirring the mixture once or twice.

Stem, seed, devein, rinse, and roughly chop the peppers. Place them in a blender and add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Puree until smooth. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Taste, and add another squeeze of lime juice or a pinch of salt if needed. The sauce should be tangy and noticeably salty on the back end. Use the serrano-lime dipping sauce right away, or refrigerate it in a covered container for up to 3 days; just before serving, add another squeeze of lime juice to brighten up the flavors.

Sopa Rachi & Yucas Fritas

When I was in elementary school, my dad had the best bribe for getting not only me, but several of my friends, out of bed. Our church was near Lima’s Chinatown, a stretch of streets known as Calle Capón. The standing deal was that if we went to 6:00 a.m. mass, our reward would be breakfast at Restaurante Arakaki. The restaurant is very famous and has been around since 1940s. It’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall place with plastic linoleum floors and usually only locals inside. They come for the best sopa rachi (pork belly soup), which is what we call Cantonese-style congee.

Congee is prepared differently all over Asia. The Peruvian version has become a very famous dish at Peruvian-Chinese restaurants. There, the rice is usually cooked down into a steaming, thick, milky porridge filled with shredded cooked chicken or giblets (intestine at Restaurante Arakaki) and topped with bean sprouts and scallions at the last minute, so they stay crunchy. At the table, you drizzle just enough soy sauce on top so you can see the color of the soup lightly change as you stir it in with a little lime juice, then you top everything with a spicy green chile salsa.

The soup always comes with a big platter of what the restaurant calls yucas fritas (cassava root fries) but are really yuquitas, the soft, beignetlike yuca fritters. You eat a little soup, break open a fritter, and eat it like bread, on the side, or use the fritter to sop up more of the soup. If you ever eat there, you will understand why on Sundays, I always woke up before even the sun wanted to get up.