Carimañola

Medium·45 min active + 25 min resting

A torpedo-shaped fried yuca fritter — boiled and mashed cassava wrapped around a seasoned ground-meat (or cheese) filling, shaped into a spindle and deep-fried golden. A Panamanian and Colombian-coast breakfast staple.

Carimañolas are fried cassava fritters of Panama and Colombia's Caribbean coast, the mashed-yuca dough wrapped around picadillo or cheese. A classic fritanga and breakfast item.

Bite a carimañola and the crisp golden cassava shell gives way to a soft, dense yuca layer and a savory core of cumin-spiced beef. Bite: the outside is shatter-crisp, the yuca starchy and faintly sweet, the picadillo rich and well-seasoned. With a dab of fiery ají, it is the perfect handheld breakfast or fritanga snack — Panama's answer to the empanada.

Boiling and mashing the yuca while hot creates a pliable, sticky dough that holds a filling and fries into a crisp shell. Drying the picadillo keeps the center from making the dough soggy; deep-frying sets the cassava exterior crunchy while the inside stays soft.

Variations

With cheese filling instead of meat. With chicken picadillo. With a boiled-egg piece inside. Baked instead of fried. Spicier filling. Smaller as canapés.

On the Palate

Where Carimañola sits in the Panamanian flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Mash the yuca while it's still hot so it forms a smooth, sticky, pliable dough — cooled yuca goes gluey and stiff and won't wrap a filling or seal cleanly.

Techniques

Deep Frying Boiling

Ingredients

Serves 5

How it's made

8 steps · 45 min active + 25 min waiting

1
27 min
Boil 700 g peeled yuca until very soft, 25 min; drain well.
2
6 min
Mash the hot yuca to a smooth, firm dough; season with salt; cool slightly.
Watch out
The hot mash should come together into a firm, smooth dough that holds a shape without sticking to your hands too much.
3
12 min
Fry 300 g ground beef with onion, garlic, tomato, and cumin into a dry picadillo; cool.
4
3 min
Take a handful of yuca dough and flatten in your palm.
5
4 min
Place a spoon of picadillo in the center and seal the dough around it.
6
4 min
Shape into a torpedo/spindle with pointed ends.
Watch out
Shape into a spindle with pointed ends and a firmly closed seam — feel along it to make sure there's no gap.
7
5 min
Deep-fry in hot oil 4-5 min until golden and crisp.
Watch out
Fry until evenly deep golden and crisp; the shell should sound hollow-crisp when tapped.
8
2 min
Drain and serve hot with ají (chili sauce) or crema.