Cassava Egg Ball and Mango Sour

My sister Shoney is currently in Guyana, so on my way into work the other day, I called her to chat and share the latest. (Thank God for Magic Jack because without it, we could not afford to call each other to chit-chat at our leisure. If you have family abroad, spend the $39.99 and invest in this device, you will never buy a calling card again!)

Anyhow, so as I was talking to my sis, her 5 year old (Sasha) had just returned from the shop and was eating an egg ball. My sister kept asking my niece for a piece of her egg ball, however Sasha was reluctant to share. Shoney complained to me that Sasha only gave her a small bite that could not satisfy an ant and she kept on begging the child. The image was as clear as day in my head, I could see my niece 'going down' pon that egg ball and my sister sitting there with her mouth watering for a piece. I responded, 'I'm sorry Shoney, if I only had one egg ball, I don't think I could share it either!' We laughed and laughed so sweet about this, but once I got to work, I could not get the image of Sasha and the egg ball out of my mind. I too now yearned for an egg ball. This went on for 2 or 3 days, all I kept seeing was images of egg balls. I called mom and told her the story and we laughed again. I told her, 'I'm going to the farmers market to get my cassava and I'm making egg ball this weekend!'. 'Sounds like a plan' she replied.

Well, come Saturday, I was feeling rather lazy and after a long work week , I just felt like lying around the house. Around 1pm, my phone rang and it was mom on the other end. 'Guess what Sheddy' she uttered, 'I'm at auntie Claudia and I looked in her fridge and she had some frozen cassava, so we're going to make egg balls'. I jumped up off my couch and said 'oh no you didn't mama!'. She called back about 45mins later and said 'hey, check facebook, we uploaded pictures of our lovely golden egg balls.'

I couldn't believe that they taken my idea and ran with it. The most hurtful part is that they were now eating the egg balls that I had so desired. Determined not to feel defeated, I jumped in the shower, got dressed and set off to the farmers market and gathered my ingredients. I hope you will try this dish and savour the taste. It's a classic Guyanese treat. I ate mine with mango sour and a hot pepper sauce.

Ingredients
2 lb Cassava (Yucca)
9 Eggs
3 Tbsp Butter
1/2 Tbsp green seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste
Flour to coat
Oil for frying
Preparation

• Peel, wash and boil cassava and 8 eggs in well salted water for about 30 minutes or until tender.
• Drain and set aside eggs to cool. While hot(don't wait until it cools, the consistency changes), mash the cassava with a wooden spoon or a potato masher until smooth. Add butter, green seasoning, salt and pepper and 1 raw egg. Mix thoroughly.
• Shell Eggs and coat with cassava mixture to form a ball. Roll in flour and fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with Mango Chutney or Mango Sour (Recipe below)

Mango Sour2 med. green mango
2 1/2 cups water
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
3 wiri wiri peppers or 1 tsp of pepper sauce (add more to suit your taste)
a pinch of geera(cumin) (optional)
2 tsp of white vinegar (optional)

Preparation

• Wash, peel and thinly slice the mangoes. Put all ingredients into a pot and boil over med-high heat.
• Continue to boil until everything is soft (add additional water and boil longer if needed)
• Remove from fire and place in heat proof bowl. Mash with a fork to combine further and add salt to taste.

Note: You can use ripe or half ripe mangoes for this recipe as well. The riper mango will give you a sweeter result. Adding the vinegar with give you the tartness needed for the sour.
Also, if you use a food processer to chop your mango, make sure you use short pulses or your will have mangosauce which resembles applesauce. Enjoy!