I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and looking forward to a brand-New Year.
My family celebrated the Latin tradition of Noche Buena – Christmas Eve. I cooked a typical Cuban Christmas Eve dinner with pork, white rice, black beans, tostones and cassava, or what we call yuca.
But yuca isn’t just for the holidays. It is available fresh or frozen at most local Latin stores here in Scenic City all-year-round. There are two ways I prepare yuca. The first is something that is a tradition in many Cuban and Latin kitchens and is quite easy to prepare – yuca with mojo.
I use frozen yuca because it’s already peeled and ready to go. If you use fresh yuca, you’ll need a sharp knife to peel or cut the outside skin off.
You’ll need:
- Fresh or frozen yuca (I used a 2-pound bag of frozen for this recipe)
- 1 stick of butter
- Bottled Mojo
- Olive Oil (I personally prefer Chattanooga Olive Oil Company’s infused oils and used basil infused, rosemary infused and cayenne pepper infused oils combinations for this recipe)
- ½ white onion diced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- Italian seasoning
Toss the frozen yuca in a large pot (if using fresh, you cut the yuca into 2-inch slices after peeling and then cut those 2-inch slices in half lengthwise). Cover with enough water and boil for about 30 minutes.
While the yuca is boiling, melt a stick of butter in a pan. Once the butter is melted, toss in the garlic and onions and let them start to sweat down. After 30 minutes check the yuca to see if it is fork tender. The fork should slide in and out easily. Drain the yuca and place them into a serving tray or bowl.
Be careful with the next step because the yuca is piping hot. Use a fork to remove the hard stem you’ll find on some of the slices. It’s not a necessary step as you can remove it during your meal, but some people prefer the stem to be already removed.
All you need to do next is to drizzle Mojo over all the yuca as well as drizzle some Olive oil over them (in my case the three I mentioned above. Use your favorite olive oil of choice) and finish them off by covering them with the butter onions and garlic. Sprinkle a little Italian seasoning over them and serve!
Yuca provides more fiber and Vitamin C than potatoes and is better for your digestion and gut health.
The next day I take the leftover yuca, cut them into fries and toss them in my deep fryer or a pot with hot oil, until golden, brown and delicious. It just takes a few minutes. I sprinkle them with salt and Italian seasoning and it’s good to go!
Yuca was part of this year’s Noche Buena dinner. I also made black beans using this short cut: How To Make Cuban Style Black Beans From Canned Beans.
I also made another side dish making tostones. Here is the recipe for those: A Beginner’s Guide To Plantains: Sweet, Savory And Delicious.
The one thing I did differently this Noche Buena is I cooked the pork butt in my slow cooker. It was easy peasy.
I had a 4.5-pound butt that I marinated in 2 cups of mojo, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, ½ sweet onion sliced, ½ green pepper sliced, ½ red pepper sliced, Adobo seasonings, cumin, salt and pepper and three slices of a Navel orange.
It sat in the marinade overnight in the fridge and then into the slow cooker everything went the next day at 7:30 a.m. I set it on high for the first 3 hours, then low until 3 p.m.
I checked on the pork and grabbed the bone with the tongs, and it slipped right out. I shred the pork in the cooker with the tongs and set the temperature to warm.
Dinner was served at 5 p.m. and it was the most moist, juicy and best tasting pork I’ve ever made!
Do you have a favorite holiday or any day meal? What’s your recipe? Email me at PattyL@brewermediagroup.com