by Nana Motta
On June 20 at 4 p.m., the Brazilian soccer team will kick off the first of six World Cup games at the Stanford Stadium. The selecao canarinho, as the squad is known, is as usual a favorite to win the cup, which it hasn't touched in 24 years. The team is known to travel with a full kitchen staff and ingredients for its meals. Unfortunately, its fans, expected to arrive in Palo Alto by the thousands, have no such luck, having their luggage size and weight limited by the airlines.
But most of the ingredients for Brazilian food are available locally, so even those who have never crossed the Amazon can sample it.
Immigrants from Europe--especially Portuguese, Germans and Italians--brought to Brazil a variety of foods that evolved as they incorporated local ingredients. The city of Sao Paulo is known as one of the best places to eat in the world, and the local pizza is indisputably better than any pizza I ever had in Italy.
From the native Indians we learned to eat the manioc (cassava) root and its derivatives, like farinha de mandioca, the manioc flour that, mixed with sauteed onions in oil and almost anything you want to put in it, becomes the very popular farofa.
We also owe to them the palmito, palm hearts. The palm heart is literally the heart of a palm tree. In order to get it the Indians cut down the tree, open an incision along its trunk and extract the tender white heart, which looks just like a baby tree within a bigger tree.
In a typical Brazilian meal I always like to serve the palm heart salad. The palm heart may be found in cans in most markets in this area and it is fairly good. It's imported either from Brazil or Costa Rica. Some of my American friends swear the palm hearts from Brazil are much more tender, but I can't tell the difference. It depends on the size, I guess. Sometimes thicker sticks may feel a little bit harder, as if you were chewing on Scotch tape.
If there is a national dish in Brazil it is the feijoada completa, the only dish, if one can call it a dish, that crosses state borders and social status.
In the state of Sao Paulo, feijoada is served in most restaurants every Wednesday and Saturday at lunchtime. Restaurants are becoming the only place you can eat it now that the increased numbers of working women lack the time and energy to prepare it. The last homemade feijoada I ate was cooked at my grandmother's house about 15 years ago for a family reunion.
The African heritage in Brazilian food goes beyond feijoada, but it is, without doubt, Africans' most significant contribution to the local cuisine. The landowners who feed the unwanted pork ears and tails to the slaves never imagined these would became the ingredients of the universally acknowledged national meal.
The feijoada is a succulent black bean stew, cooked with dry meat, pork ears and tails and Portuguese sausage. Of course, the quantity of these meats varies depending on the buying power of the household, and nowadays the rich avoid the less noble pork parts. It is served with rice, sauteed greens, pan-fried pork chops marinated in lime juice (when the pork chops became part of it remains unclear), marinated onions, farofa, and oranges preceded by a caipirinha, a drink made out of spirits distilled from sugar cane. That's why I hesitate to call it a dish. It's a whole menu in itself.
Some say it's a waste of time to present such a feast to a foreigner, because it requires a certain habit and a physical predisposition not to collapse after eating it. My kindred, as it was proven in that long-ago family reunion, must lack these qualities, since the meeting is now remembered as the "sleeping family reunion." In any case, it is irresistible even beyond Brazilian borders, so if you have time on your hands and are feeling adventurous, why don't you try it? (Recipe below.)
The availability of seafood, with the concentration of cities on the coast and around the numerous rivers in the country, certainly helped to transfer to Brazil the oral recipes of the colorful dishes cooked along Nigerian rivers.
The most popular of these dishes, originating in the predominantly black state of Bahia, is the moqueca. I have found moqueca on the menu of almost every Brazilian restaurant I have visited in Europe and the United States. It is therefore what I call the export Brazilian dish.
It is made with the seafood of your choice, simmered with onions, bell peppers, cilantro, coconut milk, palm oil and red pepper. Shrimp, crab and whitefish are my favorite choices for this meal, although I was surprised by the success of a salmon moqueca I cooked in a daring attempt. Some say you can make any kind of moqueca: chicken or even eggs. I dare a lot in the kitchen, but I still can't overcame my prejudice against a non-seafood moqueca. Whatever kind you make, serve it over white rice cooked as you wish. My favorite rice recipe is pretty simple and only takes 20 minutes to cook.
A good Brazilian desert normally involves fruit. All kinds of fruit: in salads, cooked in light or heavy sugar syrup, ice creams, etc. I particularly like the manjar de coco (coconut custard) with prunes. I think the prunes came into the manjar early this century, but the combination is successful. I remember myself as a child fighting for the prunes, a rare and expensive item in Brazil that thanks to the manjar became more accessible. The manjar is a delicious dessert, and you can play with the texture, making it more like a flan consistency using coconut milk instead of the coconut fruit itself. I tell you, if you have good teeth go for the fruit. It's more exotic and gives it a crunchy texture.
Bom apetite!
@recname:Moqueca @quan: 2 pounds of seafood (shrimp, crab, fish or a combination) 1 big onion 4 large tomatoes 2 large bell peppers (green or any other color) 1 13 1/2-oz. can coconut milk (freeze the can for a little while before opening to separate the milk from the water, and use only the milk) 1/4 cup olive oil 2 T. dende (palm oil, optional) red chili pepper to taste (optional) 3 limes (if you decide on fish, marinate it in the lime juice at least for two hours before cooking) 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed 1 tsp. coriander fresh cilantro salt to taste @direc:Coarsely slice onion, bell peppers and tomatoes. Over medium-high heat, saute the large slices of onion in the olive oil and half of the dende oil. Add garlic, bell peppers, salt, chili pepper and tomatoes and saute over medium-high heat 1-2 minutes. Add the coconut milk. Stir and turn the heat to the medium and cook for about 5-8 minutes. Arrange the seafood over the sauce and sprinkle the coriander on it. Cover the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes. Take off the cover, add the rest of the dende and the fresh cilantro and cook another minute on high heat. Serve with rice and palm heart salad (recipes below).
@recname:Salada de Palmitos (Palm Heart Salad) @quan: 1 head of butter lettuce 1 can palm hearts 1 small red onion, thinly sliced 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced Spanish black olives Dressing: 4 T. olive oil 1 1/2 T. lime juice salt ground pepper @direc:Arrange the lettuce leaves on a plate. Add the tomatoes and onion. On top of all arrange the palm hearts, whole or sliced, and the olives. Whisk the dressing ingredients until well-blended.
@recname:Arroz (Rice) @quan: 2 cups long-grain rice 4 cups water salt 4 T. diced onions or 1 clove garlic or both 2 T. olive oil @direc:Wash the rice, changing the water 2-4 times, then drain well. Stir-fry quickly the onions and garlic in the oil until light brown. Don't let them burn because they will taste bitter. Then add the rice and stir for a few moments. Salt as desired and add the water. Cook uncovered on high heat for 5-10 minutes. Immediately after the water level goes below the rice level, turn the heat to medium-low and cook covered for another 10 minutes. If you notice it is drying out too fast, turn it to very low heat until all the water has evaporated. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 3 minutes. To keep the individuality of each rice grain, do not stir while cooking.
@recname:Feijoada @quan: 3 cups dried black beans 1/2 pound Portuguese sausage 1 pound sun-cured salted beef 1/2 pound chuck beef cut in three pieces 1/2 pound salted pork ears, feet, tail (optional) 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 small onion 2 teaspoon vegetable oil Salt and pepper to taste @direc:Cover the beans with water and stir with your hands. Discard any beans that float. Drain well and re-cover with water. Soak overnight in separate bowls the dried beef and the pork parts. The next day, drain the beans and cook in six cups of water. When the water boils, add the sun-cured salted beef, cut into small two-inch pieces. Drain the pork parts and parboil them with the sausage in fresh water, then add both to the beans, cut in bite-size pieces. Add the chuck beef. Season with pepper and salt if needed. You may have to add water to the beans as they dry out during the cooking time (40-60 minutes). When the beans are soft, brown the finely chopped onion and garlic in the vegetable oil. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of beans and mash well, returning the mixture to the main pot of beans. Check the seasonings. Serve with the traditional side dishes. Makes 6 servings.
@recname:Pork Chops @quan: 6 thin pork chops Juice of two limes 1 T. oil 1 T. water 1 clove garlic 1 bay leaf salt and pepper @direc:Press the garlic and mix it with the lime juice, oil, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Marinate the chops in this sauce for at least two hours before cooking. Pan-fry chops on medium-low until golden brown and cooked through.
@recname:Sauteed Greens @quan: 1 1/2 pounds of collard greens, well washed, drained and finely shredded 2 T. shortening 2 T. finely chopped onion 1/2 clove garlic, pressed salt @direc:Saute the onion in the shortening until transparent. Add the garlic. When light brown add the collard and salt. Mix well and cook over low heat, stirring frequently until tender.
@recname:Marinated onions @quan: 2 medium onions 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. hot pepper 3 T. olive oil 2 T. red wine vinegar @direc:Cut the onions in thin slices and parboil them. Drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well. Add the remaining ingredients and let stand at room temperature for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
@recname:Farofa @quan: 1 cup manioc flour 2 T. olive oil 2 T. of finely chopped onion salt and pepper to taste @direc:Brown onion in oil. Add the flour, salt and pepper.
@recname:Manjar de Coco @quan: 1 fresh grated coconut, or 1 7-oz. bag of grated or flaked coconut, or 1 13 1/2-oz. can of coconut milk 3 cups milk 1 1/2 cups sugar 10 pitted prunes 3 or more T. cornstarch water @direc:Melt the sugar over low heat and when brown add some water and cook until you have a nice caramel sauce. Add the prunes and cook for two minutes. Pour into an aluminum ring pan. In a separate pan mix the milk and the coconut and bring to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in an equal amount of water. Add to the mixture as needed to thicken it. Keep stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon. When you see the bottom of the pan when you move your spoon the mixture is cooked. Carefully pour it over the caramel sauce. Cool it for at least four hours. Unmold it on a serving plate. To help it to come out of the pan you may run a warm knife between the manjar and the wall of the pan or run some hot water on the outside of the pan.
Nana Motta, a native of Brazil, is a free-lance writer and a former professional cook.
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