RECIPE - Leg of Lamb, Paraíba-style (Pernil de Cordeiro)

After yesterday's recipe for a shrimp cocktail first course, our three-recipe homage to Chico César continues with this substantial main course from the semi-arid interior of the state of Paraíba.

In the harsh scrub-and-cactus landscape called the sertão, only men, plants and animals that can adapt themselves to hot, dusty and dry conditions can survive. The people of this region are known for their toughness of character and for their stoicism in the face of conditions that would drive more sensitive souls to flee to more benign conditions along the coast. And the animals have to share the same conditions as their owners, so they too share their masters' characteristics.

One domestic animal that is perfectly at home in the sertão is the goat, and the original of this recipe probably was for a goat. However, as goat is not always easy to come by, and because some people don't like the strong gamy taste of goat, here the recipe is adapted for a leg of lamb.

Tomorrow we'll wrap up our three-recipe collection with a dessert from Paraíba.
_____________________________________________________
RECIPE - Leg of Lamb, Paraíba-style (Pernil de Cordeiro)
Serves 6

1 bone-in leg of lamb, about 3 lbs (1.5 kg)
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
3 bay leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic,, crushed
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp canned tomato pulp
1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp honey
8 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup unsalted butter,melted
chopped Italian parsley (for garnish)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season the lamb with salt and pepper to taste. In a small bowl, combine the wine, bay leaves, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato pulp and mustard and mix well. Spread this paste over the entire surface of the lamb, then marinade the lamb, refrigerated, for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven tp 350F (180C). Remove the lamb from the refrigerator 30 minutes before beginning cooking. Put the lamb in a large roasting pan, and cover loosely with a tent of aluminum foil. Cook the lamb for 60 minutes, then remove from the oven, and baste with melted butter. Return to the oven, uncovered and let brown for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with honey. Return to the oven, then again after 10 minutes, remove from oven and brush a final time with honey. Cover the roast with tin foil and let rest for at least 20 minutes.

Put the potatoes in rapidly boiling water and cook while the roast rests until they are just tender. Remove from the heat, drain thoroughly and reserve keeping warm.

Remove the lamb from the roaster and place on a large serving platter. Put the potatoes in the roasting pan and toss them in the roast's juices and sauce. Place them around the lamb on the platte,r, then pour the remaining sauce over all. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately, carving at the table.

Hometown Crab - Caranguejo-Uçá

For thousands of local residents Thursday night in Fortaleza, Ceará, Flavors of Brazil's hometown, means only one thing - crab. On Thursday nights, beachside and downtown bars restaurants alike serve up thousands of crabs to hungry diners. On Tuesday almost no one orders crab, nor on Wednesday or Saturday, but on Thursday the first question a waiter will ask you is likely to be "How many?" rather than "What would you like?". You give him a number and off he goes. He sets the table with small wooden chopping boards and wooden hammers, lots of paper napkins, a plastic bowl for empty shells and hot sauce. Then he brings the feast - small crabs steamed/cooked in a rich broth of coconut milk seasoned with onion, tomatoes and cilantro. A crab goes on the chopping board, you rip the legs off, use the hammer to open them, and the feast begins. And to accompany the crabs? Plenty of icy cold beer, or soft drinks. That's all.

Late last year, when we introduced some friends visiting from Canada to the Thursday night crab ritual, they exclaimed in shock when the bowl of crabs arrived at the table - "Yech! Their legs are hairy!!" And true it was. But once we explained that the hair doesn't come off and that in fact if you dip one of the legs into the delicious broth the hair helps to bring the broth to your mouth they began to relax and to enjoy the meal. But it was a definite culture-shock moment, that first sight of the hirsute crustaceans.

Mangrove swamp

The overwhelming majority of crabs served on these Thursday night blowouts is a species called (in Portuguese) caranguejo-uçá. Caranguejo is the Portuguese word for crab - any crab - and  uçá is a Portuguese adaptation of the species' taxonomic name (Ucides cordatus). Uçá crabs are small, about the same size as an adult human hand. The species is one of two known as mangrove crabs, as their unique habitat are muddy mangrove swamps. The animals live on and in the mud, burrowing in when the tide is high and scuttling about when the tide is low. They are very important to the ecology of mangrove swamps, which are plentiful along the northeast and north coasts of Brazil.

crabs on a string

Most of the supply of crabs for Fortaleza's restaurants and bars comes from the area around delta of the Parnaíba river, about 250 kms. away, in the neighboring state of Piauí. In the city of Parnaíba, located near the mouth of the river and within close distance to miles of coastal mangrove swamps, the harvest and merchandising of crabs are the prime local economic activity. Crabs are commonly sold by the string - each string containing four crabs. Each week during crabbing season about 65,000 strings of crabs are sold in Parnaíba. A crab fisher received 25 centavos (R$0.25) for a string, a price which by the time it reaches a restaurant or bar in Fortaleza sells for R$10. In most beach bars and casual restaurants in Fortaleza, each crab sells for about R$4. Ask a crab fisher how easy it is to catch crabs in their muddy habitat and whether he thinks he's being fairly compensated - the answer is like to be a firm NO. And he'd have a point. The retail price in Fortaleza, which is still only about USD$2 per crab, is 60 times what the fisher receives.

For tourists coming to our city it's essential to try the Thursday night crab feast at least once - it's an important part of local gastronomy. Leaving Fortaleza without eating Caranguejo-Uçá is as heinous a gastronomic crime as leaving New Orleans without eating a Po' Boy sandwich, Naples without sampling pizza in the land of its birth or Vancouver not having indulged in wild Pacific sockeye salmon. Don't do it!