Kitchen Secrets with Our Cuban Chef – Frituras de Malanga

Malanga fritters start with a corm most people outside the Caribbean walk straight past. It is brown, hairy, about the size of a fist, and it looks dug up rather than sold. Grate it fine, bind it with egg and garlic, drop spoonfuls into hot oil, and it turns into a plate that empties faster than you can fry the next batch.

The finished fritter is rough and gold, with shreds sticking out at the edges that go glassy and shatter when you bite. Inside it stays soft, almost creamy, carrying the mineral, slightly nutty taste malanga has and yuca does not. The whole job is about twenty-five minutes of work and about four minutes per batch in the oil.

We keep malanga on the menu as a side, which is how most people eat it here. Fritters are the home version, the one that gets made when there is more malanga in the kitchen than anyone knows what to do with.

Where malanga comes from, and how it ended up in the fryer

Malanga is the corm of Xanthosoma sagittifolium, a plant native to tropical America. It gets confused with taro constantly, and the confusion is fair: taro came from Asia, the leaves look alike, and the two often sit in the same bin at the market. They cook differently. Malanga is drier and more mineral. Taro is sweeter and turns gluey.

The plant was grown across the Caribbean and northern South America long before Europeans arrived, alongside yuca and boniato. It picked up a different name nearly everywhere it travelled – yautía in Puerto Rico, cocoyam or tannia elsewhere – and in Cuba it settled in as one of the standard viandas, the group of starchy roots and plantains that anchor a plate.

In Cuban households malanga carries a second reputation, as the gentlest starch in the kitchen. Puré de malanga is what gets fed to babies starting on solid food and to anyone coming off a stomach illness. Frituras sit at the other end of the same ingredient: seasoned hard, fried, eaten standing at the stove. Cuban cooking has a whole family of them – frituras de bacalao, frituras de maíz tierno, frituras de malanga – and they all work the same way. Bind something grated or mashed with egg, season it past the point that feels like enough, fry it in spoonfuls.

Ingredients

• 2 lb (900 g) malanga, about 3 medium corms
• 2 large eggs
• 4 garlic cloves, minced to a paste
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp fine salt, plus more for finishing
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 to 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, only if the mixture is loose
• Neutral oil for frying, about 1.5 litres (6 cups)
• Lime wedges, to serve

How to make frituras de malanga

1. Peel the malanga with a paring knife rather than a peeler. The skin is thick, hairy and uneven, and a peeler tears at it instead of cutting. Trim away any grey or soft patches, rinse the peeled corms, and dry them well – wet malanga makes a loose batter.
2. Grate the malanga on the fine side of a box grater, or pulse it in a food processor in ten to fifteen one-second bursts. You want a damp paste with visible shreds running through it, not a smooth puree. It should hold its shape on a spoon.
3. If liquid pools in the bottom of the bowl, tip it off. Do not squeeze the mixture in a cloth; the starch leaves with the water and the fritters lose their bind.
4. Beat the eggs in a small bowl, then stir in the garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and lime juice. Fold this through the grated malanga for about thirty seconds, until the colour is even. Add flour only if the mixture slumps off the spoon, and never more than two tablespoons.
5. Pour oil into a heavy pan at least 24 cm (10 in) across to a depth of about 4 cm (1.5 in) and heat it to 175C (350F). Set a wire rack over a tray beside the stove.
6. Fry one test fritter. Drop a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into the oil, cook it for three minutes, drain it and taste it. Adjust the salt in the bowl now, because this is the only chance you get.
7. Drop heaped tablespoons into the oil, five or six at a time, leaving space between them. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once at the halfway point, until they are deep gold and the loose shreds at the edges have gone dark and brittle.
8. Lift them onto the rack rather than onto paper – paper traps steam and softens the base. Salt them lightly while they are still glistening. Let the oil climb back to 175C (350F) before the next batch, which takes about a minute.
9. Serve within five minutes, with lime wedges alongside. They are at their best straight out of the pan and they do not reheat; a hot oven dries them rather than crisping them.

Chef’s notes

• Do not let the grated malanga stand. Within half an hour it turns grey-pink and starts weeping water, and the batter goes slack. Grate, season, fry, in that order and without pauses. If you are cooking for a crowd, grate in batches rather than doing it all up front.
• Watch the oil, not the clock. Below about 165C (330F) the fritters drink oil and come out heavy. Above 190C (375F) the crust sets dark before the middle cooks and you get a chalky, raw centre. Keep a thermometer in the pan and fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash.
• Grate finer than feels right. The large holes of a box grater give long shreds that stay stringy inside the fritter. The fine side, or short pulses in a processor, gives a paste that binds itself. Malanga is starchy enough to need almost no flour, and every extra spoonful makes the fritter more bready.
• Season past raw taste. Corms vary, and a mixture that tastes right raw will taste flat once fried, because the oil dulls salt. Use the test fritter to judge, and finish each batch with a pinch of salt while it is still hot enough for it to stick.

What to put them next to

Eat them hot with lime. That is the whole serving suggestion in most Cuban houses and it is hard to improve on – the acid cuts the oil, the salt sits on top. If you want a sauce, make a thin garlic mojo, the same one that goes over yuca: garlic mashed with salt, hot oil poured over it, sour orange juice stirred in off the heat. Keep it loose enough to dip into.

As a side, they belong beside something with fat and juices to lend. Roast pork is the obvious partner – the fritters take up the pan juices without collapsing straight away. They also work handed round before the main plate, while the rice finishes, with cold beer or a malta. The one thing they will not do is wait. Fry them last and carry them to the table.

Malanga at Kiki’s

If you would rather not heat a pan of oil at home, come and eat with us instead. We are at 5555 S 78th St in Tampa, open from 5am on weekdays, and the whole menu is online for pickup and catering. Order malanga as a side with roast pork or a plate of rice and beans, and save the fritters for a Saturday at home, when the corms are cheap and you have an hour with nothing else to do.