Wendy Ra­hamut

Cas­sa­va, or yu­ca, as it's called in the Span­ish Caribbean, is not on­ly ver­sa­tile and de­li­cious; it's nu­tri­tious as well be­ing high in fi­bre. Its al­ways good when paired with seafood, ad­dic­tive when cooked up with onions, pep­pers and salt­fish and sim­ply ir­re­sistible when used in any of the fol­low­ing recipes.

When buy­ing it, al­ways buy fresh­ly har­vest­ed cas­sa­va. When cut through, it should be lily white. Take it home, peel it, mak­ing sure to re­move all traces of the tox­ic laven­der in­ner skin, and freeze it right away if you're not go­ing to cook it the same day.

GRILLED CAS­SA­VA WITH LIME GAR­LIC SAUCE

2 lbs cas­sa­va, boiled and drained

1 tbs chopped gar­lic

1/3 cup olive oil or veg­etable oil

2 tbs lime juice

2 tbs chopped chadon beni

Salt and pep­per to taste

�2 Re­move in­ner vein from cas­sa­va, cut in­to two-inch lengths and place in a shal­low bak­ing dish.

�2 Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add gar­lic and lime, add salt and pep­per. n Saut� for a few min­utes more; do not brown gar­lic.

�2 Add chadon beni, stir and pour mix­ture on­to cas­sa­va, cov­er­ing all the cas­sa­va with the pieces.

�2 Pre­heat broil­er and place cas­sa­va un­der broil­er.

�2 Broil un­til hot and edges are browned.

�2 Serves four to six.

CAS­SA­VA FRIT­TERS

1 lb un­cooked cas­sa­va, peeled, de­veined and cut in­to small pieces

3 cloves gar­lic

3 tbs chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/2 hot pep­per

1 tbs corn­starch

1/2 tsp bak­ing pow­der

1 egg

Salt and fresh­ly ground black pep­per to taste

�2 Com­bine all in­gre­di­ents in a food proces­sor and process to a fine paste.

�2 Sea­son with salt and black pep­per to taste.

�2 Drop by tea­spoon­fuls in­to hot oil and fry un­til puffed and gold­en.

�2 Makes about 15 frit­ters.

Chili Pineap­ple Dip

1 cup low fat may­on­naise

2 tbs fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh pineap­ple

1 tsp chili pow­der

2 cloves gar­lic minced

Salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped cilantro or chadon beni.

Com­bine all in­gre­di­ents, sprin­kle with shad­ow beni or cilantro and serve with frit­ters.

CREAMED CAS­SA­VA WITH LEMON PARS­LEY GRE­MO­LA­TA

2�lbs cas­sa­va

1/2 cup milk

2 tbs but­ter

Salt

For the Gre­mo­la­ta

1 tsp lemon zest, fine­ly grat­ed

2 cloves gar­lic, minced

1/4 cup fine­ly chopped pars­ley

�2 Boil cas­sa­va in lots of wa­ter for about 20 to 30 min­utes, un­til very soft, drain and re­move in­ner core.

�2 Heat milk with but­ter. Add to drained cas­sa­va and crush cas­sa­va un­til creamy.

�2 Add gre­mo­la­ta and stir.

�2 Serves four to six.

�2 More de­li­cious recipes can be found in Wendy's cook­books: Caribbean Fla­vors and Mod­ern Caribbean Cui­sine