page_title: Cassava-based dishes
section_title: Brazil
hierarchical_section_title: Cassava-based dishes / Regional dishes / South America / Brazil
caption_attribution_description: English: Cassava (Manihot esculenta) grater "orana" iny language. Population&#160;: Karajá people&#160;: Santa Isabel do Morro (Hawaló), Brasil Date of collection: June 2010 Materials: wood and rope Size&#160;: 44.5 x 17 x 5 cm Français&#160;: Râpe à manioc (Manihot esculenta) "orana" en langue iny. Population&#160;: Indiens karajá&#160;: Santa Isabel do Morro (Hawaló), Brésil Date de collecte&#160;: juin 2010 Matériaux&#160;: Bois et corde Taille&#160;: 44,5 x 17 x 5 cm Muséum de Toulouse &#160;&#160;Native nameMuséum de ToulouseLocationToulouse , FranceCoordinates43°&#160;35′&#160;38″&#160;N, 1°&#160;26′&#160;57″&#160;E &#160;Established1796&#58; &#32;established&#160;; 1865&#58; &#32;opened to publicWeb pagewww.museum.toulouse.frAuthority control : Q422 VIAF:&#8201;131004808 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0001 2158 3469 SUDOC:&#8201;028667107 BNF:&#8201;120455376 Museofile:&#8201;M7013 institution QS:P195,Q422 MHNT ETH.2010 24 101
context_page_description: A great variety of cassava-based dishes are consumed in the regions where cassava is cultivated, and they include many national or ethnic specialities.
  As a food ingredient, cassava root is somewhat similar to the potato, in that, like the potato, it is starchy, inedible when raw, and bland in flavor when cooked. Indeed, cassava can replace the potato in many dishes and can be prepared in similar ways – it can be boiled, mashed, fried or baked. Unlike the potato, however, cassava is mostly a tropical crop, and its peculiar characteristics have led to some unique recipes, such as sweet puddings, which have no common potato version. In some parts of the world, cassava leaves are also cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
  Raw cassava, especially the bitter varieties, contain cyanogenic glycosides and normally need to be prepared with some combination of boiling, fermenting, or sun drying to avoid the possibility of cyanide poisoning.
context_section_description: Cassava is heavily featured in the Brazilian cuisine. In the guise of farofa (lightly roasted flour), cassava is combined with rice and beans to make the basic meal of many Brazilians.  Farofa is also a frequent side dish to many Brazilian foods including the national dish feijoada, a salted-pork and black-beans stew. The dish vaca atolada ("mud-stranded cow") is a meat and cassava stew, cooked until the root has turned into a paste. Pirão is a thick gravy-like gruel prepared by thickening seasoned fish stock (made from fish heads and bones) with cassava flour. Boiled cassava is also made into a popular sweet pudding or "cassava cake". After boiling, cassava may also be deep-fried to form a snack or side dish.
  Brazilian dish tapioca is a crepe-like food made with granulated cassava starch ( also called tapioca ). In biju (or beiju), the tapioca is moistened, strained through a sieve to make a coarse flour, then sprinkled onto a hot griddle or pan, where the heat makes the starchy grains fuse into a tortilla, which is often sprinkled with coconut. Then it may be buttered and eaten as a toast (its most common use is as a breakfast dish), or it may be filled or topped with either doces (sweet) or salgados (salty) ingredients, which define the kind of meal the tapioca is used for: breakfast, afternoon tea or dessert. Choices range from butter, cheese, chocolate, bananas with condensed milk, chocolate with bananas, to various forms of meats.
  In Brazil and Portugal, a crunchy meal called farinha de mandioca (Portuguese pronunciation: [faˈɾĩ ȷ̃ɐ dʒi mɐ̃diˈɔkɐ], "manioc flour") of varying coarseness is produced for use as a condiment, a base for farofa, or a stand-alone side dish. Detoxified manioc roots are ground to a pulp called a massa and squeezed with a device called a tipiti to dry it out (the liquid produced by this may be collected and settled to produce cassava starch, also known as tapioca or locally known as polvilho). The dried massa is then dried over a large copper stove to produce the dried meal. This process varies regionally and by manioc species, and may include additional steps of re-soaking, re-drying and toasting the flour. Manioc agriculture and refinement to farinha is a major economic activity in the Western Amazon.
  Farinha de mandioca and tapioca are the most important caloric staples of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil who already practiced agriculture when Europeans colonized the country, so for Brazilians manioc would be included in its equivalent of the North American three sister crops or the Mesoamerican milpa.
  Fried cassava is a common snack food in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and several Central American countries including Panama. In Brazil, there is also a fried cassava dish called cassava fries, a typical substitute for French fries.
  Sagu is a dessert typical of southern Brazil. Tapioca pearls are cooked with cinnamon and cloves in red wine and served cold.
caption: Cassava grater from the Karajá people, MHNT
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