CASABEEE! el pan de los pobres que llaman algunos, bien conocido a todo lo largo del Amazonas y muy popular en casi todos los estados de mi pais, Venezuela. Está originalmente hecho con Yuca amarga o Yuca venenosa, se utiliza por varias razones, aunque una de las mejores explicaciones que me dió un amigo productor es que al ser un producto venenoso, nadie se roba las siembras y al no poder utilizarse para otra cosa, siempre es mas barata que la dulce.
CASABEEE! the bread of the poor that some call it, well known throughout the Amazon and very popular in almost all the states of my country, Venezuela. It is originally made with bitter cassava or poisonous cassava, it is used for several reasons, although one of the best explanations that a producer friend gave me is that as it is a poisonous product, nobody steals the crops and since it cannot be used for anything else, it is always cheaper than sweet.
En nuestro caso vamos a utilizar Yuca dulce, es un mas facil de conseguir y mucho mas segura para trabajar. Empezamos pelandola y esto es algo que me gustaria mostrar, porque en TODOS los programas de television que he visto, la pelan como si fuese un vegetal mas y no. La Yuca se pela muy facil, hacesun corte inicial con el cuchillo y por ahi vas tirando y la piel sale completamente sola, si está un poco pegada significa que la Yuca fué cosechada a destiempo.
In our case we are going to use sweet Yuca, it is easier to get and much safer to work with. We started by peeling it and this is something that I would like to show, because in ALL the television programs I have seen, they peel it as if it were just another vegetable and not. The Yuca is very easy to peel, you make an initial cut with the knife and there you go pulling and the skin comes out completely by itself, if it is a little stuck it means that the Yuca was harvested at the wrong time.
Luego de haberla pelado y lavado, pasamos con el siguiente paso que seria rasparla. Tradicionalmente se dejaria fermentar 3 dias, pero el olor es bastante desagradable y es solo para facilitar el proceso de raspado, ya que el fermentarse se vuelve mucho mas blanda. Utilizaremos la parte no cortante de un rallador comun y corriente y vamos raspando nuestra Yuca en un envase.
After having peeled and washed it, we move on to the next step, which would be scraping it. Traditionally it would be left to ferment for 3 days, but the smell is quite unpleasant and it is only to facilitate the scraping process, since the fermentation becomes much softer. We will use the non-cutting part of a common and ordinary grater and we will scrape our Yuca in a container.
Luego, vendria el proceso de extraccion de veneno, en el caso de la Yuca dulce ese liquido no es venenoso en bajas cantidades, su contenido en cianuro es practicamente el de una manzana. De nuevo, tradicionalmente se utiliza un prensa hecha con bambu o tambien con hojas de palma, aunque al estar en casa, un paño de cocina funciona bastante bien.
Then, the poison extraction process would come, in the case of sweet cassava, this liquid is not poisonous in low quantities, its cyanide content is practically that of an apple. Again, traditionally a press made with bamboo or also palm leaves is used, although being at home, a kitchen towel works quite well.
Esto (mas lo que se me botó) fue lo que logré extraer de liquido, pensaba hacer una salsa kumachi, aunque habiendo visto que era poco liquido y que tenia que reducirlo al menos un 80% de su volumen, preferí ahorrarme el trabajo.
This (plus what was thrown at me) was what I managed to extract from the liquid, I was thinking of making a kumachi sauce, although having seen that it was not very liquid and that I had to reduce it by at least 80% of its volume, I preferred to save the work.
Luego de haber extraido el liquido de nuestra masa, pasamos a estirarla metiendola en plastico y luego la colocamos en un budare. En mi caso debo utilizar una hornilla electrica, entonces coloqué un budare porque retiene un poco mas el calor, dicho eso, un sarten tambien hubiera hecho el trabajo. Se coloca a fuego bajo hasta dorar.
After having extracted the liquid from our dough, we went on to stretch it by putting it in plastic and then placing it in a budare. In my case I have to use an electric stove, so I put a budare because it retains a little more heat, having said that, a frying pan would also have done the job. Place over low heat until golden.
Yo lo que hice fue irle dando vueltas constantemente, y asi evitar que se me quemara por un lado y poder tener un dorado parejo. Luego de hacer este proceso lo tradicional es colocar las tortas de casabe ya hechas en unas rejas directo al sol. Yo no tengo una reja o algo parecido, pero tengo un trozo de cartón de huevos por donde el aire podrá circular tranquilamente, coloqué papel aluminio en las puntas para que el casabe no estuviera en contacto con el cartón y luego lo dejé todo encima de la nevera todo el dia. La intension de esto es conseguir un secado uniforme y que el calor no se convierta en humedad en la parte de abajo que termine dañando todo el trabajo que hemos realizado.
What I did was go around constantly, and thus prevent it from burning on one side and be able to have an even golden color. After doing this process, the traditional thing is to place the cassava cakes already made on some bars directly in the sun. I do not have a grill or something similar, but I have a piece of egg carton where the air can circulate quietly, I placed aluminum foil on the ends so that the casabe was not in contact with the cardboard and then I left it all on top of the fridge all day. The intention of this is to achieve a uniform drying and that the heat does not turn into moisture at the bottom that ends up damaging all the work we have done.
Luego de haber pasado un dia secando, ya tendriamos nuestro casabe listo para comer, en la imagen de arriba tenemos un trozo de nuestro casabe hecho en casa y uno comprado en la tienda. La textura es un poco mas densa porque lo hemos aplastado en vez de pasarlo por un colador, dicho eso, el sabor es exactamente el mismo y sus propiedades son exactamente iguales. Espero puedan disfrutarlo y experimentarlo en casa.
After having spent a day drying, we would have our casabe ready to eat, in the image above we have a piece of our homemade casabe and one bought in the store. The texture is a bit more dense because we have crushed it instead of passing it through a sieve, that said, the flavor is exactly the same and its properties are exactly the same. I hope you can enjoy it and experience it at home.
I could extend much more talking about why it is my favorite food, but it would be redundant, the best and most summarized explanation that I can say, is that just as you in your country accompany all meals with a piece of bread, in Venezuela we eat casabe . All the salty Venezuelan recipes made for this contest are accompanied with cassava.