Brazilian Challenge Day 80: Mandioca Frita

So today, for Day 80 of my challenge, I decided to take on another Brazilian culinary adventure. One that involved the mandioca root.

While the process is something I watched our old housekeeper do, and seemed pretty simple, I still elected to do some research. So I followed the instructions of Bewitching Kitchen.

Part one is to slice up mandioca root. Full disclosure, I did not buy the root with its skin on, but instead purchased a skinned package at the grocery store. Beware, the root is rather tough, so you’ve got to press hard on the knife. Hard enough to lop off a finger if one got in the way, which I did not do, but take caution.

Part two is boiling the root. This is easily done by filling a pan with salted water and dropping in the mandioca. But as mentioned by Bewitching Kitchen, the trick is that each piece is ready at a different time. Unfortunately, much of my bottom mandioca got a bit over cooked.

mandioca mush

I think it might have been because I piled in too many mandioca pieces. Oh well. There were still plenty to fry up.

Hard to tell when this stage is done as well. I just waited until the pieces were golden (and delicious with lots of salt).