Cassava originated in America’s tropical rain forest and was first
introduced to Africa by the Portuguese since year 1558. Ever since then,
cassava was served as a staple food for many countries, including Nigeria,
America and most of Asia countries. Moving from frying to boiling, different
styles of cooking cassava were invented, attracting more consumption while
maintaining the cassava’s true flavor and taste. Stir-fry sauce was also been
created later on, adding more stimulation into the consumers’ taste buds. Well
then, without further delay, let us move on to another cooking style of
cassava’s which brings it to a whole new level.
On this wondrous day, I will be having an interview with
a household named Ms.Tan Pek Yen. She is currently 45 years old and has been a
cook for more than 18 years. In all these years, she has made a number of new
dishes in her kitchen including boiled cassava and stir-fry sauce. And now, Ms. Tan will present to us her own ways of making boiled cassava and stir-fry sauce.
As each person has their own ideas and preferences, her process might be a
little different than the online recipe found on the internet.
Here is a picture of me and Miss Tan.
Based on Ms. Tan’s recipe, the first step to make this
delectable dish is by preparing the required ingredients. The ingredients are
simple, which consist only of salt, turmeric, grated coconut and the main
ingredient, cassava. The ingredients are displayed on the picture below.
After making the necessary preparations, put short lengths of peeled
cassava into a pan with boiling water along with the salt and a teaspoon of turmeric.
Here are a few pictures the procedures mentioned.
Next, wait for around 20 minutes until the cassavas are cooked and test them by
piercing each piece with a chopstick. Referring to the photo below, lift up the ones that can be pierced easily after 15 minutes, and put them in a contender later on.
Each of the
cassavas might take different length of time to be fully cooked. However, we
can actually confirm it based on a split down their center in lengthways, which
Ms. Tan mentioned. They will naturally develop a split when they are done. In
addition, discard a tough, wiry, stringy core that can be found in the middle
of cassavas, the core might not be thick but it is strong enough to prevent
someone from crunching though. And lastly, along with some grated coconut on it,
the cassavas are finally ready to be served.
As for Miss Tan’s stir-fry sauce, it is actually much simpler,
made in Thai style, requiring 6 ingredients which are 2/3 cup of coconut milk,
a tablespoon of fish sauce, 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice and soy sauce, and
another half teaspoon of dried crushed chili and brown sugar. With all these
ingredients in place, combine them all in a large glass jar and mix them well.
Then, store the mixed ingredients in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. And there it
is! Stir-fry sauce is ready to be served. Just add a suitable amount of it into
the boiled cassava and a whole new taste of cassavas are born!
The picture above is an example of Ms.Tan's homemade stir-fry sauce.
On the other hand, the online recipe which I found in
making boiled cassava is a bit dissimilar to the ones Ms. Wong made. Instead of
turmeric and grated coconut, the online recipe requires pepper and lemon, while
other ingredients remain constant. Despite of these differences, the online
recipe takes longer time to cook due to the increment and essence of
ingredients. Some of them need more time and procedures to be used, which
applies to sauce as well. In overall, the ways in preparing a good dish is
extremely vital no matter what kind of food it is, mainly the time of every steps
taken.
By comparing both of the recipes mentioned above, there
are several differences that exist in terms of region, availability of
ingredients, budget, time constraints, especially skill levels. Both of these
recipes are actually made by a chef and a housewife respectively, which
explains why the online recipe brings out bolder flavors than Ms. Tan. The chef
will have to maintain the food’s standard in a higher level while attracting more
customers into ordering it, securing the chef’s position as well. Ms. Tan however
concerns about her family’s health and diet. Moreover, it seems that the online
recipe needs more ingredients than the ones above, proving that online recipe
has a lower availability of ingredients and would need a larger budget in
making it. By availability of ingredients, it means the hardship in finding all
of them. 5 ingredients are needed to achieve the same taste of a chef’s dish
but 4 ingredients are only needed for Ms. Tan’s.
In addition to that, the
process of making online recipe is more complicated and time-consuming. More ingredients
will need to be adjusted to the correct amount in order to bring out the unique
flavors of cassava and stir-fry sauce; the same concept is to be applied into
the duration of cooking a boiled cassava dish too. Last but not least, the styles
of preparing boiled cassava and stir-fry sauce. As time passes by, the cooking
of cassavas varies in different region especially in Malaysia. As different races
come with different preferences, a variety of cooking styles are used,
including steaming, boiling, frying and so on. For instance, Malays, who are in
deep interest of spices, tend to add more chili while making the sauce, Chinese
on the other hand will more likely to add in lemons or sugars.
In conclusion, throughout making these special recipes, I learnt that making any kinds of food requires a lot of energy and time. From this day onward, I owe my respect to those that managed to cook a fine dish, especially Miss Tan!
