Adapted and slightly modified from http://www.tasteslikehome.org/
One of my favorite bloggers and her pictures are amazing.
Recipe Index
2 lbs Yucca root peeled and chopped into 4 inch cubes.
1 lb of ground meat (could use chicken, beef, pork or turkey) I used chicken.
1 cup of plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup of shredded carrots
1/4 cup of finely diced chinese celery (substitue with regular celery)
1 whole white onion diced
2 cloves of garlic
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup of low sodium chicken broth
1 can of carnation milk
2 tsp salt and an additional 2 tsp for water.
2 tsp black pepper
1 cup of all purpose flour for dusting.
1 cup of canola oil for frying
1 egg
1 cup of panko bread crumbs
Directions
On the stove set a deep pot with water to boil. Once the water has come to a boil place the yucca in there until it is fork tender. Think of the yucca as a potato as they are both from the same family of starches. Season the water with 2 tsp of salt and half of the onion, reserving the other half for the ground meat.
While the yucca is boiling, heat a deep frying pan on the stove and add 1 tsp of oil. Add your oions, celery and carrots and fry until the onions are just cooked.
Add your garlic and scotch bonnet pepper. Fry until the garlic is fragrant. This will take about 1 minute.
Now add your ground meat, salt, black pepper and paprika. Let the meat brown, make sure you stir your mixture.
Checking on your yucca, when it is tender you will want to drain the water using a calendar. Set this aside to cool.
After you meat has browned add your cup of chicken broth to it, let this cook down. After the broth has cooked out of the meat, this is when you want to taste to make sure you have enough salt and pepper. Adjust accordinly. Add your chopped cilantro and turn off the stove at this point.
Now back to yucca…in a bowl we will add our boiled yucca, our can of carnation milk, bread crumbs, salt,black pepper. Now taking a potato masher, mash the yucca until it is a smooth consistency. If you think the mixture is too dry you can add more milk. But we do not want it sticky as this will make it twice as hard to roll into patties. Trust me I know!
If there are some lumps in it that you just cannot smash just remove it.
Now we are going to put the meat into the pattie, find a dry, clean surface and sprinkle with flour, you may also need to dust your hands as well before grabbing a piece of the yucca and rolling this in the palm of your hands into a ball. Flatten the yucca ball into a small disc, and fill with the meat filling, pinch the ends of the yucca together to cover the meat and roll into a ball again. Use flour where necessary if its sticky.
Set aside on a floured surface while you roll out the rest of the patties.
Now I got tired of rolling these out after a while…so I took a short cut…I just dumped the all the meat mixture into the yucca and mixed it up and then I formed it into balls then flattened it a little and walla! much easier than filling all those little balls…of course if you have patience go for it.
Now we are going to heat up our cup of oil in a frying pan. I set my temperature of my oil to 325 degrees. While the oil is heat up, in a bowl mix one egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Place your panko bread crumbs in a wide dish. Using a brush first brush the patties with the egg wash on both sides, then dip it in the panko. Keep doing this until all your patties are breaded.
I did 5 patties at a time depending on the size as my little monster was helping me roll these out…so of course we ended up with all shapes and sizes!
You are just going to fry it until it to a nice brown color as everything is cooked already so all we are attempting to do is brown our patty.
My patty I served it at my pig roast with a mayo, sour cream and lemon juice with a dash of cayanne pepper romalade.
It was a huge hit! I always encourage people to try different spices with their recipes. My recipes are only a guideline to what you can do with yours. Please leave a comment when you try yours out!
Enjoy!
