A Thanksgiving dish that’s a delicious nod to Brazil
On Christmas Day in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the kitchen was the gathering place for Thailine Kolb, her cousins, her mother and her aunts. While the children ran around, the women, dressed in matching aprons, prepared a holiday dinner. Kolb remembers sprinkling salt on dishes and mashing pounds of yuca for one of her favorite holiday dishes: purê de mandioca, or yuca purée.
But now, about a decade since she moved to the United States, this purée has a deeper meaning on her Thanksgiving table, representing her culture amid the dishes of her husband’s family. Not only is it an easy substitute for mashed potatoes, it’s a natural way for her to incorporate her country’s flavors, like many other immigrants do, on the holiday.
“I like the taste better,” said Kolb, 33, of New Haven, Connecticut. When she started making the dish five years ago for Thanksgiving with her then-boyfriend’s family, she would call her mother, Liomar dos Santos Paula Araujo, in Brazil, who taught her how to boil, mash and make the yuca rich with butter and milk over the phone.
Yuca, the root of the cassava plant, can be found in many of the country’s dishes. Once its tough outer bark is peeled away, the starchy white flesh within can be boiled, mashed, fried like a french fry or even used as a flour.
The crop likely originated in Brazil and was a staple for Indigenous people living in the Amazon Basin and the foothills of the Andes Mountains, said Darna L. Dufour, a retired anthropology professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
In the 16th century, Indigenous Brazilians taught the Portuguese how to prepare the root safely, said Seth Garfield, a Brazilian history professor at the University of Texas at Austin. (Its bark contains cyanide and must be removed before cooking.)
“It’s very much a part of Brazilian national identity as a food,” Garfield said.
Food blogger Aline Shaw has incorporated dishes that were “emotionally important for everyone participating” in her American Thanksgivings with family and friends. For her, that dish is purê de mandioca, something she also learned to make with her mother in Brazil. She remembered watching her mother peel and cut the yuca, unintimidated by its preparation. She’d break open pieces of yuca with her hands and peel its outer bark with only a small paring knife.
For Shaw, 38, who lives in Dallas, that work was a labor of love. And as a culinary school graduate accustomed to cooking other people’s cuisines, she loves to share her culture at the table. She even wrote about her mother’s recipe around Thanksgiving on her blog, Brazilian Kitchen Abroad, so that people could try something new.
“I’m always eating other people’s foods, so I always make it a point to make something Brazilian,” she said, adding that Thanksgiving is “a great opportunity for people to venture out of the norm, especially in a country with so many cultures living together.”
PURÊ DE MANDIOCA (CREAMY YUCA PURÉE)
Recipe from Thailine Kolb and Liomar dos Santos Paula Araujo
Adapted by Christina Morales and Alexa Weibel
For some Brazilians in the United States, yuca purée takes the place of mashed potatoes on the Thanksgiving table. In Brazil, where yuca is indigenous and abundant, the root vegetable is often peeled, boiled and mashed. Milk and butter make the purée rich and creamy. This recipe was provided by Thailine Kolb, who learned the dish from her mother, Liomar dos Santos Paula Araujo. In Brazil, her mother serves the dish at Christmas, but Kolb, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, has embraced it as a Thanksgiving tradition. You can use fresh or frozen yuca, with similar results. If using fresh, be careful when cutting the firm vegetable and removing the outer bark. When using fresh or frozen yuca, be sure to remove and discard the starchy core before eating.
Yield: 6 servings (about 2 ½ cups)
Total time: 30 minutes
1 pound frozen peeled yuca pieces or 1 ½ pounds fresh whole, unpeeled yuca (see tip)
1 ½ chicken bouillon cubes (16 grams)
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
Chopped parsley or chives, grated sharp Cheddar cheese or black pepper, or a combination, for serving (optional)
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
2. If using frozen yuca, proceed to Step 3. If using fresh yuca, slice off the tips, then cut the yuca into 3-inch segments. Using a sharp knife, make a slit cutting through the skin lengthwise on each piece, then carefully and thoroughly peel off the outer bark and the white, waxy layer underneath using your fingers. Cut out any black spots, green veins or discoloration, all of which can be poisonous. Quarter the yuca lengthwise and cut out and discard the woody cores; rinse the yuca well.
3. Add the frozen or fresh yuca pieces and 1 bouillon cube to the boiling water. Boil for about 20 minutes, or until the yuca is fork-tender.
4. Drain the water and mash the yuca in the pot while it’s still hot. Make sure to pick out any remaining pieces of the starchy core. Add the milk, butter and the remaining ½ bouillon cube. Stir over medium heat until the mixture is creamy like mashed potatoes, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately, with optional garnishes, if desired.
TIP: Yuca can be found in many Latin American grocery stores. Fresh yuca is typically located near other fresh starches, like potatoes, and frozen yuca can be found grouped with other frozen Latin American products.