RECIPE - Bacuri Mousse (Mousse de Bacuri)

Although the preponderance of Brazil's annual crop of the tropical rain-forest fruit known as bacuri is eaten fresh and very close to where it has been cultivated or harvested, there is some culinary use made of processed, canned, bacuri pulp, principally in the manufacture of ice creams and pastries.

In the northern Brazilian state of Pará, located near the mouth of the gigantic Amazon river system, the fruit is also extensively used in home cooking. One specialty of Pará, and especially of the city of Belém, the state capital is variously called mousse de bacuri, or creme de bacuri, meaning either bacuri mousse or bacuri cream.

Turning fruit pulp of almost any sort into a rich, creamy mousse has long been a Brazilian tradition. Some of the most well-known are mousse de maracujá (passion-fruit mousse), mousse de limão (lime mousse) and mousse de abacaxi (pineapple mousse). In most of Brazil, mousse de bacuri isn't nearly so well known, but in Belém it's considered one of the best of the pack.

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RECIPE - Bacuri Mousse (Mousse de Bacuri)

1 cup sweetened condensed milk (leite condensado)
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (creme de leite)
1 cup canned bacuri pulp
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Put all the ingredients in a blender, and blend at high speed for a minimum of five minutes. Pour into a glass or ceramic baking pan and refrigerate at least four hours before serving, accompanied with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Bacuri

Although many Brazilian consider bacuri (Platonia insignis) to be one of the tastiest fruits native to the Amazonian rain forest, the bacuri will never win any botanical beauty contests. The fruit is so plain and non-assuming, if not downright ugly, that it's a wonder that the primitive Amerindians, the region's first inhabitants, even bothered to open one up and taste it - especially when the Amazon is so rich in fruits that are both beautiful and tasty. But the Amerindians must love it - even today, the native don't cultivate the fruit, which grows best on tall, ancients trees, but when they clear an area to create an open living space, they always leave any bacuri trees untouched so they may enjoy the bounty in their new homes.

The bacuri tree grows wild in a very large geographical region, from the Guianas, through the entire Amazon basin as far as Colombia in the northwest and Paraguay in the southwest. The tree bears fruit during the dry season, which is from August to the end of November in most of the Brazilian part of the Amazon basin.

The bacuri fruit itself has a thick yellow-brown, often mottled skin, making the fruit look a bit like a rounded papaya. When the thick skin is cut away, the fruit's sticky white pulp is exposed. The pulp surrounds anywhere from three to five seed, and is strongly aromatic (maybe that's why the ancient Amerindians decided to give the bacuri a try). The taste of the fruit itself is described as being both sweet and sour at the same time.

Most of Brazil's bacuri crop is eaten fresh, and is marketed only in the region in which it grows, or nearby. There is limited industrial processing of the fruit, mostly making ice creams, jams and jelllies. Up to now, the export market for bacuri hasn't been developed, and the fruit is very little known outside Brazil and neighboring countries.

Bacuri - painted in oils by Solange Bogea

Ugly as the fruit might be, bacuri is refreshing and has a very distinctive taste. For anyone who is visiting the Amazon, it's well worth one's time to search out bacuri in markets and supermarkets if the season is right. If not, look for bacuri ice cream - it's available year round and the taste is very much like that of the natural fruit.

On the Road - Maranhão (Pt. 6) Bacuri

If the vinagreira is the most strongly-linked vegetable to the food traditions of Maranhão, and the tarioba is the iconic shellfish of that state, the one fruit that is probably most associated with Maranhão is called bacuri in Portuguese and is known, if it's known at all, in English as either bakuri or platonia. The scientific name is Platonia insignis. It is a fruit that is not much eaten in other parts of Brazil, and outside of academia doesn't seem to be known at all in most other countries. In her book Fruits of Warm Climates (1987) Julia Morgan calls it "a relatively obscure member of the Guttiferae," and there isn't even consensus as to where the fruit fits into the standard taxonomic scheme:

It has been suggested that Platonia insignis is an illegitimate name, due to the earlier publication of Moronobea esculenta Arruda in H. Kost., Trav. Brazil 2: 490. 1816, which was transferred to Platonia as P. esculenta (Arruda) Rickett & Stafleu, Taxon 8: 313. 1959. However, we have not been able to verify if these names apply to the same taxon.  (in Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, Missouri Botanical Garden Research Projects)

From the pictures I've seen, bacuri wouldn't win any beauty contests. It's a rather non-prepossessing yellow/brown ball about 4 to 6 inches in diameter, with a thick mottled skin. The skin encloses a sticky white pulp which is wrapped around a few large avocado-like seeds. It is this pulp that is eaten, and it is reported to taste both sour and sweet.

It's been reported that the fruit is commonly pollinated by the way-too-cute white-bellied parrot, a bird that is common in Maranhão and throughout much of tropical South America.

Bacuri is very popular eaten raw, and is also used in cream desserts, ice creams, conserves and jellies.

As the fruit is a dry-season fruit, and currently Maranhão is in the middle of its dry season, Flavors of Brazil hopes to be able to sample bacuri during this weekend's excursion to São Luís. If I'm lucky, I'll give this blog's readers a taste critique of this unique and unheralded fruit.