No. 23 - Bermuda Whyangle – Why So Much Yucca?

Thanks for the title Gretta. It’s inspired. But any yucca, is too much yucca.

If you hadn’t already gathered, the main ingredient for this Bermudian dinner was the unfortunately named and not so aesthetically pleasing yucca. Yucca and I didn’t hit it off so well to begin with. First of all, it was expensive, annoyingly heavy to carry home and then nearly impossible, with my physical attributes at least, to get a knife through it – a chainsaw would have been more effective. Once inside the almost impervious bark, there’s nothing you can do to a yucca that you can’t do to a potato. The difference of course being that yucca is fibrous and lumpy, and potatoes are fluffy and simply delicious. Yucca pretends to, wants to be a potato. It’s a potato impersonator. An imposter. A phony. A fake. But we’re Irish, come on now. We can’t be fooled. We’re a bit more spud savvy. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Yucca Pie

This recipe is really a form of baked spud bol or in this case yuc bol (apt or what?), but that’s an argument that’s already been had. Yuc bol is just one of the many sacrifices, we make so that you guys can laugh about how hilarious it is that we have to eat weird stuff for dinner. On the plus side, the filling is bolognese with the added bonus of sausages. There is nothing can’t be improved by adding pig in some form or another.

If I was doing this recipe again I would half the quantity of yucca/potato and double the quantity of meat, but that’s just me. And for the record, yucca is not that bad so don’t be put off. But it has squat on potato, so just use potato instead and you’ll be laughing. Best of yuc!

By the way, still no camera charger.

Serves 4 – 6

1 kg of yucca

a large knob of butter

a handful of grated cheddar

a generous splash of milk

2 eggs

more grated cheese for sprinkling

For the filling:

3 sausages, sliced into rounds

250g minced beef

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until soft. Add the mince, sausage and brown for a few minutes. Add the tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper and simmer for around 30 minutes.

Peel and dice the yucca/potato, cook in salted water until tender (between 10 and 20 minutes) and drain. Return to the pan, add the milk, butter, cheese, eggs and mash.

In a baking dish, layer half the mash mixture, top with the bolognese, and then the last of the mash. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in a preheated oven at around 180 degrees, for half an hour or until the top is golden and crispy. Dig in but be careful not to burn yourself, as underneath the yucca lid lies molten bolognese.