Dear Diary:
Sunday, I walk to Chelsea Market for cassava to make pone. They have only yuca, another scaly, mortar-shaped root.
At home I see my recipe says cassava is also “manioc,†also “yuca.†Now I’m late: one of my guests has a photography show closing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I haven’t seen it.
I take a cab back to the market; the driver asks why. Cassava pone They eat it in Suriname, where he’s from. His wife adds plums. I buy yuca and go straight to the Met.
The guard says no food, not even to check!
“But it’s a mortarâ€"†No, don’t say it.
I go to the visitors’ desk. A Samaritan on duty says he’ll hold it if I confess what I’m making.
I’ve sent him the recipe; he says he’ll try it this weekend.
Cassava Pone
(Barely adapted from Molly O’Neill’s adaptation from The Complete Caribbean Cookbook, by Pamela Lalbachan.)
2 cups peeled and coarsely grated cassava or cassava meal*
1 cup grated coconut
â…" cup sugar (if coconut is unsweetened; less if sweetened)
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1 cup milk (skim O.K.)
About 10 crumbled pecans and 1 tablespoon rum (my additions, though liquid makes it a little denser)
Since cabby’s wife uses plums, I presume other fruit would work too, like bananas
Cinnamon ice cream or coconut sorbet
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the cassava, coconut, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, butter and, if you’re using them, the pecans, rum and fruit. Stir in the milk. Pour into a greased 8-inch baking dish. Bake until golden brown, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Serve with ice cream or sorbet.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
*Cassava ! is available at the produce store in Chelsea Market (there called yuca), on the bottom left bin of the root vegetable lineup in the back, or any market that caters to Latinos. Cassava meal is also sold as tapioca starch or flour, and is available in some Asian stores.
Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.
