RECIPE - Rice Vermicelli Salad (Salada de Bifum)

The thin, elongated rice noodle known as rice vermicelli in English and as bifum in Portuguese, has been taken to enthusiastically by Brazilian cooks in recent years, and has established a place in the Brazilian pantry.

This is partly due to historical and demographic reasons (click here to read more about Japanese immigration to Brazil) and also due to the fact that in the tropical heat of Brazil a type of pasta that doesn't need to be cooked and which is perfect for making light salads is just what contemporary chefs, professional or domestic, are looking for. A salad made with bifum isn't highly caloric, as it can be very lightly dressed with little oil. The noodles themselves, being made with rice, do not contain gluten, which is an added bonus.

Many Brazilian recipes for bifum are distinctly Asian in style and in ingredient choices. This salad, for bigum salad perked up with bell peppers, hearts of palm and pork tenderloin exhibits both Asian and Brazilian character, and is perfect for a lunchtime main course when the day is just too hot to eat something warm.
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RECIPE - Rice Vermicelli Salad (Salada de Bifum)
 serves 2

6 oz. (150 grams) pork tenderloin
1 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
6 oz. (150 grams) dry packaged rice vermicelli (bifum)
1/2 small red onion, cut into thin slices
1/2 small red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 small green bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 small Japanese cucumber, cut into julienne strips
1 stalk, heart of palm, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup chopped cilantro and green onions mixed
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1 tsp finely minced fresh ginger
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Preheat a deep frying pan, preferably cast-iron over medium heat. Add the oil and when it's very hot but not smoking add the tenderloin and cook quickly, turning the loin to sear the outside completely. Cook for abour 5 minutes, then remove from heat, let cool, cut into julienne strips, and reserve.

Put the dry rice vermicelli in a large glass or metal mixing bowl. Pour very hot (not boiling) water over to cover and let stand for about 10 minutes, or until the noodles have softened and are pliable. Taste one or two to make sure they are completely softened, but still al dente. Drain thoroughly and reserve.

In a small jar with a tight lid, combine the soy sauce, vinegar and ginger. Shake will and let stand for a few minutes for flavors to blend.

Put the reserved noodles in a large decorative salad bowl. Top with the pork strips, the onion, bell peppers, cucumber, heart of palm and cilantro. Toss gently to distribute the dressing, then serve immediately.

INGREDIENTS - Bifum (Rice Vermicelli)

Although the thin, long noodles made from rice and known in English as rice vermicelli originated in south-eastern China, this pasta is an integral part of many Asian cuisines and can be found from India, through Southeast Asia, and on to China and Japan. It is probably most commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, however, and its name in Cantonese, mifen, has made its way to Brazil, where the noodle is most commonly known as bifum. It is also occasionally marketed under this same name in English-speaking countries, though the package will likely also refer to the contents as rice vermicelli.

As Brazil doesn't have a tradition of Chinese immigration, bifum came to this country by way of Japan. In the early 20th century large numbers of emigrants left Japan to find their fortune in the coffee and orange plantations of São Paulo state, and today the city of São Paulo has the largest ethnically Japanese community in the world outside Japan.

Brazilians have taken enthusiastically to Japanese food, and even many small towns in Brazil have a sushi restaurant, probably the only non-Brazilian restaurant in town. Bifum noodles have found a place in Brazilian domestic kitchens as well,something that sushi hasn't accomplished - as elsewhere sushi is considered restaurant food in Brazil.

Bifum can be found in most Brazilian supermarkets, in the pasta aisle, right alongside the spaghetti, lasagne, and macaroni. Brazilian home cooks make use of bifum in stir-fries and in salads, as it can be served hot or cold.

Preparing bifum for cooking is simplicity itself. The noodles do not have to be cooked. They only need to be soaked in hot water for about 10 minutes, and then they are ready to be stir-fried or tossed with a dressing and some chopped meats or vegetables in a salad.

One note of caution: there is another type of Asian noodle that is similar in size, shape and packaging that is made with mung bean flour, not with rice. In English, it is called bean-thread or cellophane noodles. This noodle is also known in Brazil, though really only in areas with a Japanese population. It is similar to bifum, but not close enough that it can be substituted for bifum in recipes.

RECIPE - Red Rice with Eggpland and Miso (Arroz Vermelho ao Miso de Beringela)

A few months ago, the Brazilian food magazine Prazeres da Mesa held a gastronomic tradeshow and exhibition in Recife, Brazil. (See this post for a report on the Fortaleza edition of the tradeshow). In this month's print and online versions of the magazine, the Recife show is covered in detail, with stories and recipes provided by the many chefs who presented there.

One of the chefs featured during the event was chef Joca Pontes, of Recife's well-known Ponte Nova restaurant. A fierce advocate of local and sustainable food, Pontes was one of the first new-generation chefs in Brazil to work with red rice, and is an important part in the story of its renaissance.

At the Recife show, chef Pontes demonstrated the following dish, which in best 21st century tradition combines local ingredients and foreign inspiration, in this case Japan.

(As previously mentioned, Brazilian red rice is currently not exported from Brazil, but this dish works well with Wehani rice , available in North America and Europe.)

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RECIPE - Red Rice with Eggpland and Miso (Arroz Vermelho ao Miso de Beringela)
Serves 8

For the rice:
2 cups (400 gr) red rice
6 cups (1.5l) vegetable stock
3 Tbsp. (40 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
2 bay leaves
1 pinch ground cumin
1 pinch annatto powder (sweet paprika may be substituted)

For the eggplant:

1/4 cup (50 gr) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (50 gr) white miso
1/4 cup (50 ml) sake
1/4 cup ginger liqueur
1/4 cup (50 ml) light soya sauce
1 Tbsp. (20 ml) light sesame oil
1 Tbsp. (20 ml) neutral vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. green onion, chopped
8 medium-sized okra pods, cut into rounds
1 Japanese long eggplant, cubed
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into julienne strips
1 small red or green chili pepper, seeded and cut in half
1 small red onion, sliced

For the ginger vinaigrette:
1/3 cup (100 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup (100 ml) neutral vegetable oil
1/4 cup (50 ml) light soya sauce
1/4 cup (50 ml) fresh-squeezed lime juice
4 tsp. (20 gr) granulated white sugar
1.5 Tbsp. ginger, freshly grated
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
mixed baby greens
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Rice:
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, add the garlic and saute, but do not let brown. Add the red rice, plus the salt, bay leaves, cumin and annatto powder, stirring well to combine. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover the pan and let cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, then allow the rice to rest in the pan for an additionaly 10 minutes. Remove the rice to a serving platter, fluffing it with a fork, and reserve, keeping warm.

Eggplant:
Im a small saucepan, add together the sake, the ginger liqueur, the soy sauce and the sugar. Bring quickly to a boil, then turn off heat and stir in the miso to dissolve. Reserve. In a non-stick frying pan, combine the sesame and vegetable oils, and briefly fry the chili pepper. Add the okra, eggplant and green pepper and stir-fry until vegetables begin to brown. Reduce heat, then add the miso mixture, stir well to combine and cook for 2 minutes. Reserve, keeping warm.


Vinaigrette:
In a blender, combine the soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, grated ginger and mustard. Combine the two oils in a measuring cup with a spout. Blend with lowest speed, adding oils in a slow stream to create an emulsion.

Assembly:
In a mixing bowl, combine the baby greens with the vinaigrette, tossing to coat all the leaves. In a large non-stick frying pan, reheat the rice with a small amount of olive oil. Add the eggplant mixture, and correct the seasoning, adding salt if required. Using 8 salad plates, divide the rice, then cover each plate with the dressed greens. Serve immediately.

Recipe translated and adapted from Prazeres da Mesa

Is That Catupiry in My Sushi? or What's a Hot Filadelfia??

Brazil is crazy for sushi. And when I say crazy, I mean it literally. Due to the presence of a large population of Japanese-Brazilians, descendants of immigrants from Japan in the early 20th century, even smaller cities in Brazil are likely to have a Japanese restaurant or snack-bar selling sushi. Supermarkets have fresh take-out sushi counters, and most self-service buffet restaurants will have a large selection of sushi. And this is in a country that is not accustomed to eating much "ethnic" food - apart from Italian and Japanese cuisine, most Brazilians are unfamiliar with the cooking of other cultures.

The reason I used the word crazy when describing how Brazilians are about sushi is that they have taken the traditional Japanese style of food called sushi and made it something entirely their own. There are kinds of sushi eaten in Brazil that would shock most Japanese and probably cause the most discriminating Japanese sushi purists to have an apoplexy.

In the most recent posts of Flavors of Brazil, I've been discussing Brazilian cream cheeses, and in particular one called Catupiry. You wouldn't think this would segue naturally into a discussion of sushi, but it does when you're talking about Brazil. For one of the most popular things to put into sushi is cream cheese, either the generic product which goes under the name of requeijão, or the more distinctive Catupiry. Some of the most popular sushis, rolls in particular, showcase cream cheese along with expected sushi ingredients like salmon, shrimp and tuna, and less expected ones, like strawberries and mangoes. Since the entire idea of dairy products is unfamiliar in Japanese cuisine, these sushis are oddities indeed.

The Brazilian sushi which strays the farthest from its roots in Japan is something called the "hot filadelfia" ("hot" here being pronounced ah-chee). Since we're talking cream cheese in this posting, maybe you've been able to figure out the "filadelfia" part of the name - it's the Portuguese spelling of Philadelphia, as in cream cheese! As for the "hot" they are talking temperature, not spice, as these sushi rolls are deep fried to a crispy brown prior to being served. (Deep frying gives them a nice crunch, and melts the cream cheese inside).

If you think about it, Chicago Deep Dish pizza is as far away from the original Neopolitan pizza as "hot filadelfia" is from it's Japanese roots, so there's nothing to sneer at when faced with a plate of "hot filadelfia". Try one if you're ever offered one - perhaps, like me, you'll be surprised how delicious they are, and will grow to like them. Millions of Brazilians do - websites and blogs by and for the Brazilian diaspora are full of plaints about missing the taste of a nice, piping hot, "hot filadelfia" like you can find back home in Brazil.

Caqui - Japan's Culinary Gift to Brazil

Just one hundred years ago Brazil began to receive immigrants from Japan, mostly farm laborers who arrived to work in the coffee plantations of São Paulo state in south-central Brazil. Today, Brazil is home to more than 1.4 million descendants of those early immigrants, which gives Brazil the world's largest ethnically Japanese population outside Japan, slightly larger than the Japanese population of the United States.

The Japanese brought few material things with them, as they were predominantly a relatively poor, working-class population, but the gastronomy of Brazil owes a large debt to the Japanese - I would venture a guess that sushi bars are the most popular non-Brazilian restaurants in the country, perhaps only equaled by pizza establishments. There is also one fruit, very popular everywhere in Brazil, and just coming into season now, whose cultivation in Brazil is due to the early Japanese-Brazilians, the caqui (known in English as the Japanese Persimmon). Botanically, it is known as Diospyros kaki, and is not the same fruit as the American Persimmon.

Although its cultivation in Brazil is therefore very recent, the caqui is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world, dated back at least 2000 years in China. In China and Japan it is highly valued, and is a symbol for the autumn season in which it ripens.Most of the commercial crop of caquis in Brazil comes from the states of São Paulo and Paraná, where Brazil's Japanese population is concentrated to this date.

Caqui has very high levels of tannin, particularly when unripe, and thus has a highly astringent effect when eaten too early - it causes that sensation that one's teeth have turned to wood, and the flesh inside one's cheeks has just wrinkled like the skin of a dried prune. As the fruit matures, the quantity of tannin lessens, and the flavor grows, so it's best to eat caqui when it's already begun to soften.

Brazilians mostly eat caqui fresh, alone or as part of a fruit plate. The fruit can be peeled before eating, but this is not necessary, as the peel is edible. The soft pulp of a very ripe caqui can make a marvelous mousse - click here for a recipe for passion fruit mousse (mousse de maracujá), which can be successfully adapted for caqui, substituting an equal quantity of caqui pulp for that of maracujá.

Caquis can be found in Asian markets throughout North America during the autumn. If you buy some, chose relatively firm ones, and then let them ripen in the kitchen at room temperature for a few days. Eaten fresh or used in a mousse, you can enjoy a flavor that's enjoyed from Japan to Brazil, and one for which Brazil owes a dept of gratitude to its Japanese population.