FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Jambo

jambo rosa

It's been some time since Flavors of Brazil has added new material to our series of posts called FRUITS OF BRAZIL. That doesn't mean that we've exhausted the list of fruits that are cultivated and eaten in this country - not by a long shot. The list is enormous, and there are still many fruits that are quite common in Brazil, or at least in certain regions, that we haven't discussed. So it's time to get back to the tast at hand.

jambo branco

The fruit that Brazilian call the jambo (botanical name Syzygium jambos) has many names in English. Depending on the region, it is known as Malabar plum, plum rose, water apple, jambrosade, rose apple or Malay plum. The names Malabar plum and Malay plum indicate the fruit's original habitat - the tropical zones of South and Southeast Asia. The fruit was carried from Asia back to Portugal by early Portuguese navigators, and thence onward to Brazil, where it flourishes in the tropical regions of the country.

There are many varieties of jambo, but the three most commonly seen in Brazil are distinguished by their color - jambo vermelho (red jambo), which is a dark winy reddish-purple, jambo branco (white jambo) which is an icy, glossy white, and jambo rosa (pink jambo), which is light rosy pink in color.

jambo vermelho

The fruit of jambo is smallish, about the size of a child's fist, and slightly elongated - either pear-shaped or bell-shaped. The skin is waxy and thin, and the hollow core of the fruit contains one or two seeds. The flesh is white and is crispy and juicy like an apple. The fruit isn't highly flavored, though it is sweet. It is very aromatic, and the similarity of the fruit's aroma to roses accounts for such English names as plum rose or rose apple.

Jambo isn't highly commercialized, and is usually only seen in markets in areas where the fruit is cultivated. Most of the fruits consumed are eaten fresh, although jambo can be successfully preserved in syrup or made into a compote.

We'll publish a recips for jambo compote in our next post here at Flavors of Brazil.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Other Limes

During the past few days, Flavors of Brazil has been posting articles about those members of the large lemon/lime branch of the citrus fruit family that are present in Brazilian cooking and that can be found in Brazilian food stores.

To wrap up this line-up of limes (for in Portuguese, these are all limes - limão) here are a couple of less common members of the family. Although these fruits can generally be found in produce stores and sometimes in farmers markets, at least here in Fortaleza, Flavor of Brazil's home, they are considered exotic in Brazil, are generally more expensive and there are fewer recipes in Brazilian cookbooks that call for them. But their flavor, acidity and aroma characteristics makes them useful and can add a familiar-but-unkown note to dishes in which they're used. They're worth getting to know, whether you spot them in Brazil, or in some Asian or Latin American market elsewhere in the world.
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Rangpur or Mandarin Lime (limão cravo in Portuguese) - This sharply acidic hybrid cross between limes and mandarins was the subject of a post in this blog back in May of 2011. Click here to read about it.

Palestine Sweet Lime (lima-da-pérsia in Portuguese) - Looking a bit like an oversized, yellow lime, the Palestine sweet lime is the Clark Kent of the lime family - the mild-mannered, self-effacing lime that lacks the punch of most of its cousin limes. The primary difference between this fruit (Citrus × limettioides) and the other limes is its very low acidity, which can be as low as 0.1% citric acid. It can be found in specialty produce stores in Brazil and grows very well in most areas of the country. In other areas of the world, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, it's used to make a refreshing fruit drink, one that doesn't need a lot of added sugar to counteract the acidity. Even though it has less citric acid than most limes, it still has high levels of vitamin C. Because other limes are so assertive, the Palestine sweet lime is sometimes accused of being bland or insipid. It's really not so, it's just that in all sorts of ways it's more subtle than garden variety limes or lemons. It can be used to make a low-acid caipirinha for those who are bothered by high-acid drinks. It's thin skin can also be candied or preserved to make a delightful sweet.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Limes (Limões)

The citrus fruit that is most important in Brazilian cooking and gastronomy is, by far, that small, round, sharply-acidic green ball called a lime (limão in Portuguese, limões in the plural). Oranges might outweigh limes when it comes to export statistics, and there's no question that Brazilians drink a lot of orange juice, most of it unfortunately highly-sugared. But if you look in Brazilian cookbook indexes  recipes that call for limes vastly outnumber those that call for other citrus fruits.

Interestingly, botanists tell us that limes (including lemons) are the closest living relatives to the wild fruit trees of sub-Himalayan and Southeast Asia and were the first citrus fruits domesticated and cultivated by mankind. Even such important citrus fruits as oranges, tangerines and grapefruits are either natural or cultivated hydrids of the original lime-like citrus and came into cultivation much later.

Citrus fruits made their first appearance in the West in the hands of Muslim traders sometime between the 7th and the 9th centuries. There is some evidence that Romans were aware of limes and used them medicinally, but there was never a commercial citrus crop in Europe during Roman times. In any case, citrus cultivation and consupmtion was firmly established in the Mediterranean basin by the beginning of the second millennium CE.

From Europe, citrus fruits made their way to American shores in the holds of ships carrying the first European explorers and colonists in the decades following Columbus and other early explorers. Limes took very well to Brazilian soil and climatic conditions - they can successfully be cultivated in most of Brazil. From its earliest days, Brazilian cuisine made use of the fruit - particularly the juice, which adds a fresh, acidic note to any dish containing it. Although they had no knowledge of why it worked, sailors discovered that drinking lime juice daily prevented the onset of scurvy and limes were carried on all long sea voyages. The British Navy mandated a daily drink of lime juice, thoughtfully mixed with rum, which is the origin of the nickname of British sailors - limeys.

On land as on well as at sea, cooks discovered the many ways in which limes could be employed in the kitchen. Lime juice is essential in many traditional Brazilian sweets and dessert, as well as in cold drinks. It's also used in conjunction with fish and seafood dishes. There's a particular affinity between limes and foods from the sea, although traditional cooks in Brazil seem not to have discovered the "cooking" effect that lime juice has on seafood - the effect which is the basis for Peruvian and Mexican ceviche.

Today in Brazil, there are two main varieties of limes sold commercially, and in most markets and supermarkets you'll always find both. In Brazilian Portuguese they are called limão Tahiti and limão Galego. Although they are similar in color, size and taste, one is very close to the original citrus fruit of prehistoric Asia and one is a hybrid of fairly recent origin.

Limão Galego (Citrus aurantifolia) is the oldster, the ur-lime. In English it's known as the Key lime, due to its association with the Florida Keys. Its color is a light green, often edging toward yellow. It is smaller, seedier, has a higher acidity, a stronger aroma, and a thinner peel than the limão Tahiti and is the lime of choice when making Brazil's famed caipirinha cocktail. It is very juicy. In Brazil is it grown commercially mostly in the northeast and center-west regions of the country and it bears fruit throughout the year, having no distinctive season. Up until recently, it was the most common lime in Brazil, though in recent years, it's given way to the limão Tahiti.

Left Limão Tahiti - Right Limão Galego

Limão Tahiti (Citrus latiifolia) is the upstart hybrid in the family of Brazilian limes. In English it's called the Persian lime and it's the garden-variety lime of supermarkets throughout North America and Europe. Its color is vivid strong green. It is less acidic than the limão Galego, has a thicker peel which can be nubbly, is slightly larger in most cases, and being a hybrid it is seedless, or virtually so. It is a very robust species. Today it is the most valuable member of the lime family in the export market, due to its seedlessness, its thicker peel which makes it less fragile, and its aroma which is considered exotic in northern climates. Like its ancestor, the limão Galego, it bears fruit all year.

In Brazil these two varieties alone are considered lime limes - that is, when a recipe calls for lime, unmodified, it means that either of these two may be used. If another member of the family is required, it will be indicated by a modifying name. These two are also what the English-speaking world thinks of as limes. There are other members of this family, though, and in upcoming posts, we'll discuss them as well as provide some Brazilian recipes which use this marvelous fruit.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Limes and Lemons (Limões)

The extended family of fruits called citrus (or cítrico in Portuguese) is tremendously important to Brazil in all kinds of ways. In the economic sphere their importance to the Brazilian export market in agricultural products is enormous - Brazil is the world's largest exporter of oranges and among the largest in the export of limes. Gastronomically, the sharp acidic tang is absolutely essential to a vast number of Brazilian dishes, which wouldn't be the same at all if another acidic substance, vinegar for instance, was substituted. Citrus juices, particularly fresh-squeezed ones, not only provide acidity to a dish, they add a sparkling fresh quality - a taste of a sun-soaked orchard - that cannot be duplicated. And then again, there's the whole business of cocktails. Brazil's increasingly-popular "national cocktail" the caipirinha relies on chunks of macerated whole limes and their juice to provide the non-alcoholic part of its punch, letting cachaça liquor provide the high-proof part.

Citrus fruits have moved far beyond their origins in Central or Southeast Asia and today are eaten all around the world. They are cultivated practically everywhere the climate allows, which means the world's tropical and sub-tropical reasons. You'll never find an orange grove in Canada or Finland no matter how hard you try, it's just too cold. Fortunately, though, citrus fruits travel well, and today fresh oranges, grapefruits or limes can be found in markets and supermarkets high above the Arctic circle as well as in the word's temperate zones, where most of North America and Europe lie.

Citrus fruits really are a family, and not just in the taxonomic sense. There is the sharp-tongued, lively bachelorette aunt, the lemon. There is the sensible, hard-working and slightly dull breadwinner - the navel orange. There's the mom who's always on weightwatchers, Ruby - she's a grapefruit. And there is the relative who only shows up at Christmas time - the mandarin orange. Each has its own personality and utility, just like in human families.

What's interesting though is that the Brazilian family of citrus fruits is quite different than the North American or European one. Some very common citrus fruits in the USA or Canada, like the grapefruit, are virtually unkown in Brazil. Others, like the exotic beauty Brazilians call  limão-cravo, are unobtainable north of the Equator. Some, of course, are common almost globally, but not all are.

In the next few posts on Flavors of Brazil, we'll look at Brazil's just one part of the citrus fruit family, the one that happens to be the most common in Brazilian cooking and gastronomy. Brazilians call them  limão, in English they're limes. We'll discuss which ones are common, which are found only regionally in Brazil, and which ones are just now making their way into the market. The market for citrus is changing rapidly in this country- in our newly globalized world, some citrus fruits that were unknown in Brazil as recently as three or four years ago are popping up with increasing regularity in fruit markets and supermarkets all over Brazil. We'll highlight the standard varieties of Brazilian limes and discuss the new entries - with recipes for all, new and old.

RECIPE - Creamed Napa Cabbage (Acelga com Creme)

This is a very Brazilian, and very un-Asian, vegetable dish starring acelga, or Napa cabbage, originally from Asia but now enthusiastically adopted as native in Brazil. A versatile member of the cabbage family, acelga is equally at home in salad and cooked-vegetable presentations, and Brazilians enjoy it both ways. In yesterday's post at Flavors of Brazil, we featured leafy acelga in a light salad, and here we're highlighting its use as a vegetable side dish - a perfect accompaniment to grilled or roasted meats and poultry.
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RECIPE - Creamed Napa Cabbage (Acelga com Creme)
Serves 4

1 whole egg, hard-boiled, at room temperature
4 (1 liter) water
1/2 large head Napa cabbage (acelga)
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp corn starch
2 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
paprika to taste
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Peel the egg and separate the yolk and the whites. Reserve.

Coarsely chop the Napa cabbage. Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. When the water comes to the boil, drop the chopped cabbage into the water for 10 seconds only, then immediately drain into a colander and refresh with cold water. Reserve.

Put 3/4 cup of the milk into a medium mixing bowl, and 1/4 cup into a small bowl. Stir the cornstarch into the milk in the small bowl, and when it has dissolved, add to the milk in the larger bowl and stir to mix completely. Reserve.

In a large frying pan or wok, heat the vegetable oil and when it's hot, add the drained cabbage. Stir fry for no more than 2 minutes, or just until the cabbage is heated and beginning to wilt. Add the milk, reduce heat slightly and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened. Stir in the grated Parmesan and 1 Tbsp of the parsley, then remove from heat.

Pour the creamed cabbage into a deep serving bowl. Using a small sieve held over the dish, push the egg yolk through the sieve to sprinkle the center of the dish. Rinse the sieve and then push the white through the sieve around the edges of the dish. Sprinkle the surface with the second Tbsp Italian parsley and paprika to taste. Serve hot.

RECIPE - Napa Cabbage Salad (Salada de Acelga)

This light and healthy Brazilian salad, which features the Asian green known in English as Napa cabbage or Chinese cabbage and which is called acelga in Brazil, can successfully be served as a side salad or in larger portions as a main course for a light lunch, particularly on hot days (which are the norm in Brazil).

The dressing is made with plain unflavored yogurt, and although the recipe calls for natural, full-fat yogurt, if you want to make a less caloric version you can successfully substitute non-fat yogurt.
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RECIPE - Napa Cabbage Salad (Salada de Acelga)
Serves 5 as side salad, 2-3 as main course

1 medium head Napa cabbage (acelga)
1 large carrot, coarsely grated on a box grater or julienned with a mandoline
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1 small tub natural yogurt
1 Tbsp fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste
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Tear off the outer leaves of the head of cabbage. Starting at the end away from the stem, thinly slice the cabbage, only going down about 2/3 of the way to the stem end.

Place the cabbage in a large salad bowl, and toss the leaves to separate them. Sprinkle the grated or julienned carrot and the olives on top. Reserve, preferably in the refrigerator.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, lime juice and honey and mix well with a fork. Add the mint and mix again. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the salad with the dressing on the side so that diners can add to taste.

Recipe translated and adapted from Gastronomia & Negócios, a UOL website.

VEGETABLES 0F BRAZIL - Acelga (Napa Cabbage)

Although Asian greens, such as bok choy and gai lan, are not commonly eaten in Brazil outside the Asian communities of São Paulo's Liberdade district, one Asian form of cabbage has become a supermarket standard in Brazil, available all year round in most supermarkets in all regions of the country. Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis, known variously in English as Chinese cabbage, Napa cabbage and Chinese Leaf, is called acelga in Brazil, and under that name has made its way into many Brazilian vegetable and salad recipes. (Incidentally, the English name Napa has nothing to do with the California wine-growing district. Napa comes from colloquial Japanese nappa (菜っ葉), which means any edible leaf.)

Napa cabbage is a staple in most East Asian cuisines, and in one of its most well-loved incarnations is the prime ingredient in Korean kim-chee, the spicy fermented cabbage pickle without which Korean cuisine wouldn't exist. We've not found any source that explains how this Asian vegetable made its way to Brazil, but it would be logical that it arrived with the wave of Japanese immigrants to came to Brazil in the early 20th century to work in Brazil's coffee plantations.

Brazilian dictionaries and the Portuguese-language version of Wikipedia define acelga as chard, not Napa cabbage, but we've never seen true chard, which is a member of the beet family not a cabbage, in a Brazilian supermarket or farmers market under any name. Perhaps in Portugal acelga refers to the plant called chard in English, but in Brazil the word is restricted to Napa cabbage.

Brazilians really don't use the Asian cooking technique called stir-frying, and woks don't exist in this country - again, outside Asian communities. Acelga is more often a feature of Brazilian salad recipes, and the thin, light leaves of the plant are very suited to eating raw, unlike some other Asian greens which need to be cooked before eating.

We'll feature some Brazilian recipes for acelga in the next few posts. Under it's various English monikers, this green is easy to find in North American and European supermarkets in larger metropolitan areas, and in Asian groceries in cities that have Asian immigrant communities. Salads made with this green are light, refreshing and nutritious and serving a salad with Napa cabbage can elevate the day-to-day salad to something new and exotic.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Jackfruit (Jaca)

The world's largest edible fruit, the jackfruit (jaca in Portuguese), although not native to Brazil, is one of Brazil's most characteristic fruits, and is cultivated throughout the tropical regions of the country. This gigantic fruit has been known to reach a length of up to 3 feet (90 cm) weighing 80 lbs (36 kgs) or more. There are some vegetables which grow larger, notably members of the pumpkin family, but no other fruit reaches these dimensions.

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) originated in South or Southeast Asia, and archeological evidence shows that it has been cultivated in India for more than 3000 years.  It is still widely cultivated in Asia, and is closely associated with the cuisines of India, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. From Asia it was introduced by the Portuguese to Africa (it's grown extensively in Uganda and Mauritius) and to the New World (Brazil and the Caribbean).

Although the jackfruit tree was deliberately introduced to Brazil, its introduction has had negative effects environmentally and outside of jackfruit plantations it is considered an invasive species. In forest reserves and in native rain forests it has been subject to culling to minimize the damage it can cause to native species. In Rio de Janeiro's urban Tijuca rain forest, where its spread has been aided by marmoset monkeys, more than 55,000 seedlings have been uprooted in an attempt to stop its spread.

A jaca tree is an impressive sight, even more so when it is bearing its massive fruits. The tree can grow up to 80 feet (25m) high with a canopy spread of 22 feet (7m). The wood of the jackfruit tree is a beautiful orange-brown in color and is used in the manufacture of wood furniture. The fruits either hang from the branches of the tree, or startlingly sprout directly from the trunk of the tree. The fruits look like large rounded, spiky sacs and are usually a yellowish-green in color.

The fruits can be eaten when immature or when they have matured. Immature jackfruit is savory in flavor rather than sweet, and in India and Sri Lanka it often substitutes for meat in curry dishes. Brazilians normally only eat mature, or sweet, jackfruit. In Brazil, three varieties are widely cultivated. Jaca-dura (hard jackfruit) has firm flesh and is the variety that reaches the largest size. Jaca-mole (soft jackfruit) is a smaller variety and it is noticeably sweeter as well as softer. Midway between these two in terms of sweetness and consistency is the third variety, jaca-manteiga (butter jackfruit). The fruit is sweet, starchy and good source of dietary fiber. The flesh of an opened jackfruit can be pulled apart into bright creamy-yellow segments, each of which contains a seed. The fruit is highly aromatic, almost flowery, and the taste has been described as a cross between a tart banana and bubble-gum.

Buying a whole jackfruit is something that only the largest family might consider, as the fruit ripens and spoils rapidly in Brazil's hot climate. For this reason, in Brazilian markets and road-side fruit stands it's common to see a jaca already cut open. Customers can specify whatever weight they want, and the vendor will cut off a chunk with a machete.

Most of the jackfruit consumed by Brazilians is eaten fresh and natural as a snack or dessert. There are some desserts and conserves made from jackfruit, and in the next posts, we'll feature some. In North America fresh jackfruit can often be found in Asian (particularly Philippine) markets, and most Asian markets will sell canned jackfruit - be careful as both immature and mature jackfruits are canned, so make sure to buy the one you want. Also be careful not to buy a jackfruit based on looks - the very similar looking but unrelated durian has some characteristics (e.g. smell) that might just have an unwanted effect on your family!

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Nêspera

Almost every time we visit Fortaleza's central public market, known as Mercado São Sebastião, we spot someone selling a fruit that we've never seen before. And being in the business of blogging Brazilian food, we are forced, naturally, to ask the vendor what's in his display case, or what's in her cardboard box on the floor.

This week, we came across one of the regular vendors (those who have a designated stand and who are there year-round) selling a small roundish yellow fruit that looked like-an-apricot-but-not-an-apricot. It was about the same size and color, but the skin was a bit glossier and the shape wasn't identical. It didn't have the line which splits an apricot into two natural halves. It looked familiar, but we couldn't identify it. We were sure we'd seen it somewhere before but weren't able to recall when or where.

The vendor was happy to tell us that he was selling a fruit called nêspera, but the name meant nothing and wasn't much of a clue. He kindly cut one open which settled once and for all that this wasn't some variety of apricot. Instead of a single stone, there was a cluster of glossy brown seed in the middle of the fruit. We bought some and headed home for a tasting and to find out what we had bought.

Nêspera, according the the dictionary is also known in Brazil as ameixa-amarela, which means yellow plum. However, the fruit is no more related to the plum than it is to the apricot. Finding the scientific name, Eriobotrya japonica, gave us a clue as to the geographical origins of the plant and a key to finding the English name. We know it as loquat (if we know it at all).

Discovering the English name, we remembered where we'd seen it. In Asian markets, in Vancouver. We'd seen it in fruit and vegetable stores in Chinatown and Japantown, and it seemed to be quite popular with members of Vancouver's various Asian communities.

It turns out that the fruit did originate in Asia, probably in southwest China although it has been cultivated in Japan since early times. In Asia the fruit is eaten fresh, poached in a light syrup or processed into confectionary and jellies. Its syrup is also used medicinally in Asia, particularly to soothe sore throats. If loquats are eaten in quantity, they have a noticeable sedative effect which can last up to 24 hours.

Loquats came to Brazil along with the thousands of Japanese immigrants who arrived in the early 20th century. (The persimmon arrived in the same manner). The first loquat plantations were in Brazil's southeast, where Japanese settlers worked on coffee plantations, but now loquats are grown in many regions of Brazil.

Today Brazil is the world's third largest producer of this fruit, trailing only Japan and Israel. As in Asia, most of the annual nêspera crop is eaten fresh, though we understand that some jellies and jams are commercially produced.

A New Look at the Columbian Exchange

Christopher Columbus

The Columbian Exchange, a term coined in 1972 by Alfred W. Crosby in a book of the same name, was the dramatic exchange of food plants and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the years after the European "discovery" of the New World in 1492. In the Age of Exploration that followed Columbus' initial voyage across the Atlantic, foodstuffs from the New World, whether animal or vegetable in origin, made their way eastward to the Old World, and an equal number moved in the opposite direction, arriving on American shores with Pilgrims, conquistadores, bandeirantes, and countless other immigrant groups.

Today it's hard to imagine what people ate and how they cooked prior to the Columbian Exchange. Try to imagine Italian cooking and Italian food culture without tomatoes. Or Thai or Indian cooking without chili peppers. Or Brazilian food without limes or coconuts or mangoes. Impossible. Yet, until sometime after 1492 cooks in these cultures did not have these ingredients available, though today these ingredients are essential to the food culture of these countries. For an interesting chart of all the foods that were part of the Columbian Exchange, click on this link to a Wikipedia article - incidentally, the chart also shows the diseases that were part of this same exchange.

Recently a Portuguese scholar and historian, José Eduardo Mendes Ferrão, published a book on the Columbian Exchange, with particular emphasis on the role that Portuguese navigators and explorers played in this process. The book is entitled A Aventura das Plantas e Os Descobrimentos Portugueses (The Adventure of Plants a The Portuguese Discoveries) and was published by the Portuguese institute IICF - Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical or Institute of Scientific Tropical Research. Sr. Ferrão's thesis is that because of the patterns and the history of Portuguese exploration and colonization in the 16th and 17th centuries, Portugal played a major role in the Columbian Exchange, a role that was far larger than might be expected. And because Brazil was Portuguese territory during those times, it played a large part in the Exchange as well.

Unlike Spanish colonization during those centuries which was centered on the New World, Portugal explored and colonized not only the Americas, but also Africa and Asia. According to Sr. Ferrão is it the geographically widespread nature of Portuguese exploration that makes Portugal such a major player in the Columbian Exchange. Another factor, as he points out, was that Portugal possessed islands in the Atlantic, such as Madeira, Porto Santo and the Cabo Verde archipelago. These semi-tropical islands allowed Portuguese planters to acclimatize new species to the cooler European climate prior to bringing them to mainland Portugal. They survived, whereas plants carried directly from the tropics to the Iberian peninsula might not have. In effect, these off-shore territories became botanical laboratories for the Europeanization of Asian, African and American foods.

A good example of the role Portugal played in the Columbian exchange is the dissemination of corn (maize) - milho in Portuguese. Although this plant did not originate in Brazil but came from Central America, it was already widespread in the indigenous cultures of Brazil prior to the arrival of Europeans in 1500. The Portuguese carried corn back to Europe with them, and from there, carried it to their colonies in Africa. From these colonies it spread throughout the continent, and today corn is the most widely-eaten staple food on the African continent. In the other direction, the Portuguese brought the coconut palm from Asia (either South Asia or Southeast Asia) to Africa and thence to Brazil. Brazilian food, particularly the African-based cuisine of Bahia, is unimaginable without the presence of coconut and coconut milk.

As far as I've been able to determine, Sr. Ferrão's book has not yet been translated into English. As the field of historic gastronomy grows and becomes a more prominent academic subject, I hope that this situation will be remedied. The Columbian Exchange is one of the fundamental shifts in the history of world gastronomy, and the Portuguese contribution to it should be made better known.

Canja - Brazil's Cure-all Chicken Soup

What culture doesn't prescribe curative properties to hot chicken soup (preferably prepared lovingly by mother - jewish or not)? My guess is most likely only those cultures that have no culinary contact with poultry at all - like traditional Inuit. Otherwise, it seems to be a universal truism that when one is run-down, suffering from a cold or the flu, or even just a bit downhearted, a bowl of chicken soup is just the ticket for a quick recovery.

Brazil is not exception to this rule, and when a Brazilian child needs a restorative broth to get him or her out of bed and back to school and play Mamãe (Mommy) will make a homemade chicken soup with rice called canja. Made from a whole chicken, some vegetables and white rice, canja is enjoyed by practically everyone in Brazil, sick or not, and if there is soup on the menu, one of the choices is almost always canja.

The recipe for canja, and its name, came to Brazil from Portugal, where canja is also a universal remedy. But neither the basic idea or the name originated in Portugal - they arrived there from Asian shores during the early days of Portuguese exploration of the Far East. In fact, the name canja probably comes from the Malay word kenge or kenji, meaning hot and salty broth. The Malay word travelled back to Portugal on board Portuguese caravels returning from Malacca, and also travelled in the other direction to China where it became congee.

Although scientists have yet to firmly establish the specific restorative properties of chicken soup, at the very minimum it is a strong example of the placebo effect, and there is some anecdotal evidence that it actually does promote healing. Interestingly, in Portuguese and Brazilian folk culture, canja is prescribed as a treatment for both constipation and diarrhea. And also for coughs, colds and influenza, just like everywhere else.

The next post on Flavors of Brazil will include a typical recipe for Brazilian canja.

INGREDIENTS - Biri-Biri aka Bilimbi

Originating in tropical Asia (Phillipines or Molucca Islands) the fruit of the bilimbi tree (Averrhoa bilimbi )is an important food source in Asia, Africa and in one small region of Brazil, the southern coast of the state of Bahia. It is virtually unknown elsewhere in Brazil, but plays an important role in the cuisine of southern Bahia, where it is known as most commonly as biri-biri but also as bilimbi, or caramboleira amarela.

Bilimbi is a close relative of the carambola or star fruit and shares a high level of acidity with that plant. It is used in Asia to provide acidity to curries and sauces, and it the major ingredient in many jams, relishes, pickles and chutneys. It also has medicinal uses, and with its high acidity is used in cleaning and bleaching solutions. In Malaysia is is even used to clean the traditional dagger, the kris.

In Porto Seguro and other towns of southern Bahia many residents have a bilimbi tree in the backyard. The tree was probably brought to the region by Portuguese colonists who found it in Asia, and brought it to their tropical colonies in the Americas. No one is sure why the bilimbi is so extensively cultivated in southern Bahia and almost nowhere else in Brazil, though some food historians speculate that it might be due to the fact that the region is not suited for cultivation of citrus fruits, and consequently the bilimbi is cultivated to provide a culinary replacement for citrus fruits and juices in dishes where acidity is required or desired.

The fruits of the bilimbi tree are about the size and shape of a small zucchini and are a bright green. They can be eaten raw, but are extremely sour due to their acidity and are usually cooked to reduce  acidity. In Bahia they are used to make both savory and sweet conserves, and the presence of these on a table is a distinctive trait of the traditional regional cuisine.

Bilimbi can be successfully grown in the USA, though only in tropical regions or Florida and Hawaii. Seeds are available online at Tropilab, Inc.

In the next few posts on Flavors of Brazil, I'll provide recipes for a savory conserve of bilimbi as well as a sweet bilimbi jelly.