Colours Carnival Home Lime recipes: Egg ball and cassava puffs

Come leh we talk street food! We going in fuh di cassava experience.

Cassava is a root vegetable eaten throughout the West Indies, and in Guyana, it is used to make this popular street food. A hard boiled egg is wrapped in pounded and seasoned cassava, given an egg wash and deep fried - a bit like a scotch egg, but way tastier (don't watch we, it's true!). The puffs are seasoned cassava, fried without the egg in the middle, and are just as tasty!

We eat our cassava balls and puffs with various condiments, such as mango sour and tamarind sour, and we can't forget the homemade pepper sauce that no West Indian home can do without!

Go on, tek a bite, and be reminded of Soca and Reggae blaring from passing traffic, that hot, tropical sun, the refreshing south east Trade Winds and the blessed, beautiful West Indies! 

Ingredients:

Mango Sour ingredients:

- 1 large unripe mango, peeled and chopped into chunks

- 1 peeled garlic clove

- 2 tsp distilled PR white wine vinegar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 scotch bonnet or hot sauce to taste

- 1 tbsp chopped coriander

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

Egg Ball & Cassava Puff ingredients:

- 500g cassava, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

- 4 hardboiled eggs

- 1 garlic clove, crushed

- 2 spring onions, thinly sliced

- Scotch bonnet, finely chopped, or hot sauce to taste

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 50g flour

- Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Add all the mango sour ingredients, except the sugar, to a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil for about 20 minutes or until tender. Mash with a potato masher and add the sugar. You may need to add a bit more sugar depending on how unripe the mango is.

2. Boil the cassava in salted water for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain, remove the middle stem and mash until smooth; discard of any hard lumps.

3. Season the mashed cassava with the crushed garlic, chilli or hot sauce, and spring onions. Add halve the beaten eggs and mix well.

4. Once cooled, collect a handful of the mashed and seasoned cassava in one hand, and use the other hand to flatten the cassava to about 1cm thickness. 

5. Take one hardboiled egg, place in the middle of the flattened cassava, and wrap the cassava around the egg. Ensure complete coverage of the egg. You may need to add more cassava, or remove some from around the egg. Repeat this process for the remaining hardboiled eggs.

6. Use the remaining mashed and seasoned cassava to make balls/puffs that are 3cm - 4cm in diameter.

7. Heat about 6cm of oil in a deep pan or pot. Make some work space for 2 wide bowls containing the remaining beaten egg and the flour.

8. First, give one egg ball or puff an egg wash, then dust with flour, before deep frying for about 4 minutes until golden brown. Turn the egg ball after 2 minutes for even cooking coverage. Repeat this process until all the egg balls and cassava puffs are fried to golden perfection. 

9. Serve with the mango sour and hot sauce. Enjoy! 

Top tip:

At Pepperpot Marinades headquarters, we like to season the flour with a few cracks of black pepper and ¼ tsp of paprika. It gives the egg balls and cassava puffs a subtle, but interesting, flavour twist and an extra bright, carnival colour once deep fried!

By Nirvana Ramtirat at Pepperpot Marinades (@pepperpot_kitchen)