A Word on Manioche (Cassava)

In Peace Corps Cameroon, we do a lot of hating on cassava.  It is one of the staples of Cameroonian cuisine, we end up eating a lot of it, and admittedly it doesn’t have much flavor.  However, as the months have passed, I have come to peace with cassava.  Lately, I even find myself looking forward to my dinner of couscous de manioche with sauce.  (Peace Corps has confirmed the theory that I’ve heard: If you try something enough times, you will start to like it.  Some things just take longer than others.)

Given the central role couscous de manioche plays in diets here and the amount of time I’ve spent talking about it on my blog and phone calls home, I thought I ought to explain just what it is.  Luckily for me, my Cameroonian grandma and landlady (we call her “Da”) grows and prepares all of our manioche herself so the whole process takes place outside my house weekly.

Da and I:

The actual plant looks like this:

But the part that you eat that gets dug out of the ground looks like this:

The first step is soaking it to soften it up:

Next, cut off the skin (demonstrated by Da):

Chop them up:

And lay all of it out in the sun to dry:

Lastly, take it to the grinder to be made into flour.  The flour is then mixed with water over fire, turned with a huge stick, and made into clumps. 

The final product:

Bon Appetit!