Tania Fritters

After a little research, I discovered that the root I knew growing up as Tania is actually only called that in Trinidad and possibly Grenada. What I had been calling Tania, was actually more commonly recognized by its latin genus, Xanthosoma, and is quite closely related to the other root staples of Trinidad, dasheen and eddoes. Its going to be a bit of a task to try to get my friends excited about having Xanthosoma Fritters for dinner though. 

So good.

My mother used to cook these for us, and this is not an exaggeration, they were literally my favorite food. They make a great side to anything, a great hor'dourve, or just a great snack. And they are super easy to make. The only tricky thing I would imagine, would be actually finding the tannia.

Xanthosoma in all its glory!

Ingredients


3-4 tania roots
Half a cup of chopped chives
Black pepper
Salt
Vegetable oil to fry


Step 1. Wash and peel the tania. This is arguably the most grueling part of the whole process. The root has a strange milkiness to it, which makes it incredibly slippery to hold when peeling. Perseverance is key. 

Peeled tania

Step 2. Grate the tania. It is really one of the most glorious things to grate, it has a strange sort of indescribable slippery grip to it, strangely satisfying. It oxidizes extremely fast however, so if you do not intend to use it right away you must put it straight into an airtight container if you do not want sickly looking brown tania.

Grated tania. Can you see the brown where it has begun to oxidize already?

Step 3. Season generously. Throw in the chives and liberal amounts of salt and coarse pepper, and mix it up.

Liberal black pepper.

Step 4. Fry. Heat the oil on a medium-high flame in a shallow frying pan, until it is a medium-high heat. Make sure it is hot by dropping a little bit of tania in. Once it is hot, spoon large teaspoons of the tania mixture into the oil, and flatten with the back of the spoon. Let them cook on each side for three minutes, or until they are a golden crispy brown. You will know when they are ready.

Ohhh yeah.

Step 5. Remove from oil and enjoy. Once they are cooked, take them out of the oil and let them drain and cool on a few paper towels. And then, seriously, enjoy. Makes probably about 15-20.

They really are glorious.

 They have such a unique flavour. Its really indescribable, but if I had to, its like a somewhat nutty, woody delicate potato. Oh man these are good.

The thing is, I am pretty sure this recipe can be used for all of those mysterious tubers the Caribbean has. Why hasn't it been done? I have noticed an upsurgea of cassava fries recently, and we are all familiar with sweet potato fries, but what about the others? Dasheen, eddoes, even yam! Oh, and not even to mention the other starches like breadfruit or green fig! Oh my, experiments waiting to happen.