La Cassava è un arbusto legnoso originario del Sud America. Milioni di persone in Africa, Asia e America Latina dipendono dalla cassava come alimento di base. È la terza fonte di carboidrati alimentari ai tropici, dopo il riso e il mais.

In Brasile, la radice tuberosa e amidacea della cassava è usata in una varietà di cibi, tra cui:

Pane al formaggio brasiliano (Pão de queijo) - deliziosi panini al formaggio serviti caldi a colazione e come snack.

Farofa - farina di manioca tostata spruzzata liberamente su una varietà di piatti tra cui carni alla brace, feijoada, e riso e fagioli, o mangiata da sola. Ha un sapore affumicato. When asked what food from home they most miss, Brazilians living abroad often mention farofa.

Biscoitos de polvilho - biscuits made from cassava flour, a traditional recipe from the state of Minas Gerais, not much flavor and a little ‘cardboardy’ in my opinion. A flatbread called beiju, and cakes, can also be made from cassava.

Tapioca crepes - filled with sweet (eg., bananas and chocolate) or salty (eg., cheese and tomatoes) ingredients. The tapioca itself has little by way of flavor. Watch this youtube video to see tapioca crepes being prepared (video is narrated in Portuguese).

Cassava is also served fried (as shown above). Salted, fried cassava is tasty, it reminds you of french fries, although the flavor is slightly different. Fried cassava is always served in large chunks, someone should try slicing finely, the way french fries are sometimes sliced. Boiled, cassava is kind of mushy in texture. I’m not a big fan, but many people like it. Cassava may also be used as an ingredient in stews like Vaca Atolada.

In Portuguese, cassava is known as mandioca, aipim or macaxeira, among other names. It is naturally gluten free.

Photos:

• Cassava root by Amada44
• Pão de queijo by Samory Santos
• Farofa by User Carioca
• Biscoitos de polvilho by Alex Braha Stoll
• Tapioca by Una Smith
• Fried cassava by Bdieu

Cassava (manioc) is one of the top five dietary-starch sources globally. _Manihot_esculenta_ is a tropical plant with an edible root that contains cyanogenic glycosides (cyanogens), including hydrocyanic acid. Cassava has to be prepared adequately to remove most of the cyanogens before consumption, otherwise dangerous levels of hydrocyanic acid will form in the gut. Exposure to hydrocyanic acid can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, coma, and death.
Different amounts of cyanogens are present in the roots, but both sweet and bitter cassava varieties are prepared in various ways that involve shredding, pounding, or grating the root, and soaking in several changes of water.
Outbreaks still occur where elevated levels of cyanogens remain in the food even after cooking. In 2008, a survey of ready-to-eat (RTE) cassava-based snack foods was undertaken by the New South Wales Food Authority, who took 374 samples of ready to eat (RTE) cassava chips available in the Australian marketplace. Di questi, 317 campioni sono risultati positivi ai cianogeni, con livelli che vanno da 13 a 165 mg di HCN equivalenti per kg (valore medio, 64,2 mg di HCN eq/kg per i campioni positivi).
La Food and Drug Agency delle Filippine ha indagato su diversi casi di morte soprattutto tra i bambini che hanno mangiato snack contenenti cianogeni, e le nazioni del Pacifico occidentale hanno rafforzato il loro controllo dei livelli di cianogeni negli alimenti a base di cassava. Un emendamento all'Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code prescrive ora un livello massimo per l'acido cianidrico nelle chips di manioca RTE di 10 mg di HCN eq/kg, (che si allinea con lo standard internazionale della Codex Alimentarius Commission per la farina di manioca commestibile).