Can we say cassava? Now that's one big cassava! - Belize
My next country is Belize. Knowing that Belize is a Caribbean country, I expected to have a more exotic country as I left Western Europe and traveled to the warmer Caribbean climate. I wasn't disappointed. The main ingredient for the Belizean pancake is cassava. Other common names for the cassava here in the U.S.A. are yuca and tapioca. Finding a recipe for the Belizean pancake was not difficult; however, finding the cassava was. Armed with the knowledge of the various names for this root vegetable, I began my hunt for the elusive root. First I searched the web. I went to various grocery store websites to see if they might have them, but I didn't have much luck finding it. I decided I should start calling some, so starting with Ralphs, the grocery store closest to me (yes, I was feeling lazy and didn't want to drive any further than I had to). First phone call, no luck. Next I tried Trader Joe's, again, no luck. On to Vons, they didn't have it either. The next one on my list was Sprouts. II was hopeful they might have it, but when I called, they said they didn't (I later found out on another shopping trip that they do carry it, they must have just been out that day). I was beginning to think I was going to have to skip Belize and make their pancakes on another day. The last grocery store on my list was Whole Foods. Luck at last! Of course, now I had to drive to the other side of town to buy it since I live on the far northwest side of town and Whole Foods is the southwest side of town. I guess I should just be happy that it wasn't on the southeast side of town. So off I went to Whole Foods to buy me some cassava root. This is what it looked like:
A whopping 17 inches long. Now they did offer to cut it down for me so I wouldn't have to buy so much, but I decided to just buy the whole thing.
So in Belize, they call their pancake a bammy (yes, I know they are called bammies in Jamaica too). The ingredients and recipe for making the bammies are quite simple once you have your cassava root. Here is what you'll need:
1 lb cassava grated
salt to taste
coconut milk (do not use light coconut milk, use the full fat type)
Easy ingredient, easy to make, right? Well, the rest of the recipe is pretty easy, it just takes some time to prepare the ingredients. First you have to cut all of the hard outer edge off of the cassava root. We found it easiest to cut the cassava root in half, and then use a chef's knife to cut the outer part off.
You can throw out the hard outer part, and when you're done peeling the root, you'll have something that looks like this:
After peeling the root, you'll need to shred it. I finely shredded it with a box shredder.
The cassava root is VERY moist, so be careful while shredding it. After you're finished shredding, it will look something like this:
You can see the water draining out from the root. Well, I needed to get all of that excess water out before frying up my bammies. The best way to do this would be to tie it up in a cheese cloth and let all of the excess water drain out for about 5-10 minutes. However, I couldn't find my cheesecloth, so I repeatedly pressed it between dry paper towels until it looked like this:
Now it's time to add the salt and mix it in well. (Sorry, no picture of this, but I'm sure you'll be able to manage without it. ) Set the mixture aside for a few moments and prepare your coconut milk. Here's Sam's product placement photo for the week:
I found that the water had separated from the milk so I had to mix it all up again in a large container (yes I shook the can before opening it, but that didn't help much). You can see how much it separated. If you use a whisk, you should have a homogenous mixture in no time.
Now it's time to fry up the bammies! Take a large heaping tablespoon of the shredded cassava root and press it flat. Then place the flattened cake into a preheated pan of oil. As usual, I used olive oil, but use whatever you'd like or have on hand.
Fry 3-4 at a time until golden brown.
After they are fried golden brown, soak them in the coconut milk for 5-10 minutes (while the next batch fries). After 5-10 minutes have passed, remove them from the coconut oil and return them to the heated oil and fry once more until they are light brown.
Once they've all been double fried, your bammies are ready to eat. I went a little bit nontraditional and ate them with some fried eggs.
There is no need to add anything to these on top, as they have a nice salty finish from the salt that was added, and the cassava root is naturally quite sweet. These were really tasty little pancakes that reminded me of a sweeter version of a latke.
A whopping 17 inches long. Now they did offer to cut it down for me so I wouldn't have to buy so much, but I decided to just buy the whole thing.
So in Belize, they call their pancake a bammy (yes, I know they are called bammies in Jamaica too). The ingredients and recipe for making the bammies are quite simple once you have your cassava root. Here is what you'll need:
1 lb cassava grated
salt to taste
coconut milk (do not use light coconut milk, use the full fat type)
Easy ingredient, easy to make, right? Well, the rest of the recipe is pretty easy, it just takes some time to prepare the ingredients. First you have to cut all of the hard outer edge off of the cassava root. We found it easiest to cut the cassava root in half, and then use a chef's knife to cut the outer part off.
You can throw out the hard outer part, and when you're done peeling the root, you'll have something that looks like this:
After peeling the root, you'll need to shred it. I finely shredded it with a box shredder.
The cassava root is VERY moist, so be careful while shredding it. After you're finished shredding, it will look something like this:
You can see the water draining out from the root. Well, I needed to get all of that excess water out before frying up my bammies. The best way to do this would be to tie it up in a cheese cloth and let all of the excess water drain out for about 5-10 minutes. However, I couldn't find my cheesecloth, so I repeatedly pressed it between dry paper towels until it looked like this:
Now it's time to add the salt and mix it in well. (Sorry, no picture of this, but I'm sure you'll be able to manage without it. ) Set the mixture aside for a few moments and prepare your coconut milk. Here's Sam's product placement photo for the week:
I found that the water had separated from the milk so I had to mix it all up again in a large container (yes I shook the can before opening it, but that didn't help much). You can see how much it separated. If you use a whisk, you should have a homogenous mixture in no time.
Now it's time to fry up the bammies! Take a large heaping tablespoon of the shredded cassava root and press it flat. Then place the flattened cake into a preheated pan of oil. As usual, I used olive oil, but use whatever you'd like or have on hand.
Fry 3-4 at a time until golden brown.
After they are fried golden brown, soak them in the coconut milk for 5-10 minutes (while the next batch fries). After 5-10 minutes have passed, remove them from the coconut oil and return them to the heated oil and fry once more until they are light brown.
Once they've all been double fried, your bammies are ready to eat. I went a little bit nontraditional and ate them with some fried eggs.
There is no need to add anything to these on top, as they have a nice salty finish from the salt that was added, and the cassava root is naturally quite sweet. These were really tasty little pancakes that reminded me of a sweeter version of a latke.
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