Cooking with Cachaça - A Few Inventive Recipes

There's more to Brazil's national liquor cachaça than hard-core shots and tropical caipirinhas. At least according to some innovative restaurants in Rio de Janeiro there is. Rather than only offering cachaça as a cocktail or digestive, chefs in Brazil's capital of tourism are taking another look at it - wondering how it might be properly used in the creation of new recipes.

Cachaça-seasoned fresh ham at Bar Bracarense

A recent article in Rio's major newspaper, O Globo, highlighted some of the inventive ways chefs are putting cachaça to use. A restaurant called Bar Bracarense, located in the tony Leblon neighborhood, offers the most spectacular cachaça-infused dish in Rio. Bar Bracarence uses aged cachaça to season a whole fresh ham, adding the smoky flavors that result from barrel-aging cachaça to the huge joint of meat. The ham is only made to order as it weighs 8 kgs (almost 20 lbs) and serves 10-15 diners. But it has proved a hit with regular patrons of the restaurant, which charges R$300 (approx. USD $150) to prepare it.

A Quinta da Boa Vista, another long-established Rio restaurant, takes advantage of the way cachaça combines with tropical fruits in a dish called Camarão Dom Pedro, named in homage to Brazil's first emperor. The dish consists of cachaça-marinated shrimps, sauteed and served in a half pineapple, served with rice accented with raisins. An Italian restaurant in Rio, Spaghetteria, adds a cachaça twist to the Italian classic Spaghetti Arrabiata by topping the pasta with two or three sauteed fresh sardines that have been flamed in cachaça .

It's not just in main courses, though, where cachaça is being put to good use in Rio these days. At Aconchego Carioca, a typical boteco-style bar, diners can choose a cachaça flavored tapioca pudding to end their meal, and at Mangue Seco they flambee bananas in cachaça then serve them hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

As cachaça makes its move from behind the bar to kitchen shelves in restaurants not just in Rio de Janeiro but around Brazil, this list of recipes with cachaça will continue to grow. It's all part of the ongoing evolution of cachaça , just as is the current boom in aged, artisanally produced cachaça , which are rapidly becoming the drink of choice of sophisticated Brazilian connaisseurs.

Food Guide to Rio de Janeiro - Downloadable

In coordination with the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which is currently wrapping up in Rio de Janeiro, Slow Food Brasil published a guide for conference-goers to the food of the city. The guide, entitled 100 Dicas/100 Tips Rio de Janeiro was published in a bi-lingual format in English and Portuguese and provided free-of-charge to participants in the global event. It is also available on Slow Food Brasil's website for download as a .PDF.

Organized by neighborhood, which makes the guide extremely user-friendly, the 129-page book covers restaurants, cafes, bars and botecos, fresh juice bars, ice cream shops, food shops and live-music venues. Emphasis is on local cuisine and local foods which is naturally for a Slow Food publication.

This guide is something that any of Flavors of Brazil's readers who one day might find themselves in Rio de Janeiro will want to download now and carry with them on their laptop or tablet when they travel to Rio. It's very informative, well-written and from what we can judge from our own experiences in Rio quite accurate.

You can download 100 Dicas/100 Tips Rio de Janeiro HERE.

Iscas com Elas - Brazilian Diner Lingo

Adam and Eve on a raft

According to Wikipedia, diner lingo is a uniquely American verbal slang used by waitresses and cooks in hashouses and truck stops to communicate with each other. Wikipedia says diner lingo "is virtually unknown outside the US." Some wonderful examples of diner lingo can be found on the Wikipedia page devoted to the subject and on a website called dinerlingo.com - phrases like "looseners" for prunes, "English winter" for iced tea, "side of Joan of Arc" for french fried, and our personal favorite, "Adam and Eve on a raft" for two poached eggs on toast.

Though the USA might be the only English-speaking country to speak diner lingo, inventive names for restaurant dishes don't only exist there - Rio de Janeiro's restaurants are famous for their own version of diner lingo. You might call it " gíria da lanchonete." One of the most famous and most wide used examples in Brazil is a dish called "iscas com elas". It's difficult to translate into English, but the idea is something like "the bait and the girls."

Iscas com elas is basically liver and onions, a diner and luncheonette specialty both in Brazil and the USA. In this case, the liver is cut into thin strips before frying (the bait) and served with fried rings of onion (the girls). The dish, and its name, originated in Rio de Janeiro's 80-year-old À Lisboeta restaurant, where it's been on the menu since the day the restaurant opened. Located in Rio's central business district, À Lisboeta is packed every lunch hour with bankers, accountants, bureaucrats, blue-collar and office workers, all wanting a substantial, satisfying lunch - and many of those end up ordering iscas com elas. It's one of the most popular dishes on the menu, even after all these years.

Iscas com elas

À Lisboeta doesn't just serve plain old iscas com elas, though. For those who are really hungry, there's a  more substantial version called iscas com elas and elas or "the bait and the girls and the girls," which means that the plate not only includes the strips of liver (the bait) and the fried onion rings (the girls), but also boiled potatoes (the other girls).

Next post, we'll publish À Lisboeta's recipe for iscas com elas.

RECIPE - Fish and Shrimp Ceviche with Starfruit (Ceviche de Peixe e camarão com carambola)

In Friday's post on carambola, aka starfruit, we mentioned that relegating that beautiful and delicious fruit to being nothing more than a mere garnish on a plate or glass is a culinary crime of the first order. Brazilian chefs are using the fruit more and more these days not just tart up a dramatic plate, but as an integral part of the flavor profile for a dish.

This recipe, which is one of the more inventive results with the current Brazilian craze for Peruvian cuisine, is a variation on the traditional Andean technique of marinading raw fish or seafood in lime juice to "cook" it. Ceviche has taken off in a big way in Brazil in the past few years and now shows up on menus in bars, botecos and five-star restaurants. This recipe comes from Brazilian food and wine magazine, Gula, and was created by chef Carol Caldas of Rio de Janeiro's Santa Satisfação restaurant.

Starfruits are commonly available in North American and European supermarkets, year round, so this recipe is easy to make at home almost anywhere. It makes a delicious first course, or main course for a light lunch.
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RECIPE - Fish and Shrimp Ceviche with Starfruit (Ceviche de Peixe e camarão com carambola)
Serves 2-4 (main course or first course)

1/2 lb. firm white-fleshed fish fillet
1/4 lb. raw peeled small or medium shrimp
1/2 small red onion, minced
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded and cubed
juice of 2 large limes
salt and pepper to taste
2 firm small starfruits (carambolas), sliced
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro, leaves only
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Cut the fish into small cubes, and halve the shrimps if large. Combine them in a medium mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix in the lime juice. Let marinade, refrigerated, for half an hour. In a separate bowl, chill the sliced starfruit.

Remove the marinaded fish from the refrigerator, mix in the starfruit and cilantro and serve immediately, very cold.

Four Hundred Caipirinhas Later....

So how do you think you'd feel after drinking four hundred caipirinhas? Actually, make that four hundred caipirinhas in thirteen days - an average of about thirty cocktails per day. You'd probably feel just like Robert Scott Utley, an American tourist in Rio de Janeiro, felt recently as he was being carted away in the paddy wagon after skipping out on his hotel bill. Nauseated, confused and embarrassed - and probably just a little bit relieved that the binge was finally over.

Robert Scott Utley

Mr. Utley, aged 63, who surely deserves a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for his prodigious caipirinha-drinking capacity, was arrested at Rio de Janeiro's Tom Jobim International Airport on May 10 when he was trying to catch a Delta Airlines flight to the United States. The manager of the hotel in Rio's Copacabana district where Mr. Utley had spent the previous 13 nights became suspicious when the tourist booked an airport car without settling his account. He called the police when Mr. Utley left the hotel without paying his room charges, and they obliged him by arresting Mr. Utley upon his arrival at the airport.

Utley didn't skip on just his bar tab, he left without paying any of his hotel bill, which totalled R$14,488, or about USD $7500. The charge for caipirinhas alone, which cost R$15 each at the hotel, was R$6000, or USD $3000.

According to an article in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, after being arrested, the tourist was taken before a magistrate who charged him, and then let him go free on bail, as there were no provisions under Brazilian law to detain him until trial. After signing a note promising to appear before a Brazilian court whenever summoned, he was released and taken to the city's American Consulate. His passport was not taken nor was he forbidden to leave Brazil, and the consulate refuses to say if he has left Brazil or not.

The newspaper article says that Mr. Utley's defense for skipping out was that his credit card had been counterfeited and cancelled, and he couldn't pay his bill. So he decided to return to the United States and send payment from there. But, according to Mr. Utley's statement, lack of funds wasn't the only reason for leaving the hotel on the QT. He told police that although he had reserved the hotel for fourteen days, he left on the thirteenth day because he was having heart problems due to his seven bypass grafts and wanted to get back quickly to the US for treatment.

Let's do a little calculating here. Four hundred caipirinhas in thirteen days with seven bypass grafts. That works out to just about four caipirinhas per graft per day. That's a serious thirst and an impressive feat. Too bad it all went south before he got on that plane to the USA. Besides, what was he thinking trying to catch a Delta flight to the US? Delta doesn't even serve caipirinhas as far as we know!

Rio de Janeiro's Dial-a-Popcorn Service

There's dial-a-ride, dial-a-cab, dial-a-pizza, dial-a-forecast, even dial-a-dietician. So why shouldn't there be dial-a-bag-of-popcorn service? Well, in Rio de Janeiro there is. Called Disk Pipoka, which means dial-popcorn in Portuguese, the service is run out of popcorn cart set up on one of the busiest corners in Rio's central business district. It's the brainchild of a certain Nelsinho Pipoka (don't think that was his surname a birth, though) who's been delivering popcorn to snack-starved popcorn aficionados in the office towers that surround his stand for more than 10 years now.

Nelsinho, like many of Rio's outdoor vendors (and cab drivers and waiters) comes from Brazil's northeast - in this case the state of Ceará. Historically the poorest part of Brazil, over the centuries the northeastern part of the country has provided a steady stream of emigrants traveling to other, richer, parts of Brazil is search of their fortune, or at least in search of enough money to get by.

Rush hour at Disk Pipoka

When he first got to Rio and set up his popcorn stand in the city's downtown, there were days when he almost didn't sell any popcorn at all, and he was in danger of losing his investment in his cart. According to Nelsinho, he was saved by a flash of inspiration - Rio already had delivery services for many other foods, why not try popcorn delivery. Why not, indeed! Nelsinho bravely hired a runner to deliver the popcorn, painted his cart with his cell phone number and hoped for the best. He hasn't looked back since. His cart is hopping from 3 to 10 pm M-F, and he claims it's his delivery service that has made the business the success that it is.

Nelsinho's local fame has grown to the extent that his cart, and his service has been featured on local TV. Being the astute businessman that he is, he's made sure that his TV interviews are available on YouTube, where he has his own channel. Here's a clip of one of his interviews in which his charm and his style shine through, even if you can't understand his Portuguese.

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Rio's Street Food (A Guide)

Thanks to a recent post on blogger TomLeMesurier's excellent blog Eat Rio, we learned about a Brazilian book published last year entitled Guia Carioca da Gastronomia de Rua, which means roughly - A Street Food Guide for Rio Dwellers. A title like that made it almost imperative that we buy a copy, which is exactly what we did a few days ago.

If any city lives on the street (and the beach) Rio de Janeiro does. The weather, which ranges from warm to hot during the entire year, the breathtaking natural setting, the spectacular beaches, and the year-long street festival that is the carioca lifestyle mean that a good portion of the population spends a great deal of their time out in public. Rio's weather isn't conducive to nestling at home - to quote Cole Porter. "It's too darn hot!" Who wants to curl up on the sofa when just a short ways down the hill there are miles of wide beaches, full of sunbathers - tourists and locals alike. Even at night, the tropical breezes beckon and there's bound to be a street festival, from a block party up to the citywide orgy of Carnaval, that you can't resist. And everywhere outside in Rio there's food for sale - which is the topic of Guia Carioca da Gastronomia de Rua.

The book is divided into very short chapters, only about two or three pages long. Each one highlights one of Rio's favorite street foods, focusing on one particular vendor. For example, a chapter called "Acarajé da Nega Teresa" doesn't just tell the story of acarajé, the Afro-Brazilian deep-fried black-eyed pea fritter, and how it made its way from Africa to the streets of Salvador, Brazil and on to the streets of Rio. It also tells Nega Teresa's story. A passionate devotee of Candomblé, Teresa is a daughter of the fierce goddess Iansã. When she retired from a career as a professional handball player, she followed in the footsteps of all those other daughters of Iansã who sell acarajé in Candomblé's Rome, Salvador. Teresa can be found selling her delicacies in Rio's bohemian Santa Teresa district every Thursday to Sunday, from 5 to 10 pm. If you want to be specific (and this book does) she sets up her stand on Rua Almirante Alexandrinho, in front of address 1458. You can reach her by phone at 2232-1310 or by email at negateresa@gmail.com.

The Guia (Guide) has 18 more chapters featuring Rio's urban gastronomy and the marvelous people to make and sell it. There are chapters on snacks like pipoca (popcorn) and picolé (popsicles), heartier fare such as cachorro quente (hot dogs), churrasquinho (kebab) or sushi, and even a cocktail - the caipirinha, naturally. Each chapter introduces the reader to another fascinating character - Arnaldo, who brought his trade as a tapioca seller all the way from Ceará, in northeastern Brazil, or Val, who sells the best fruit salad on Ipanema beach.

What the book does best, besides introduce these marvelous characters and explain the street food they sell, is capture the outdoor soul of Rio - through text, gorgeous photos and even a DVD, included with the book. It's a paean to Rio's street food, and it has an entirely worthy subject. It's also a great guide for visitors to Rio, and the very last section is an excellent translation of the text into English. The book can be ordered online here and shipped anywhere in the world. If Rio's in your travel future, and you love street food, Flavors of Brazil highly recommends you buy the book before you go. You'll be introduced to some fantastic food, and wonderful people.

Maria Izabel's Artisanal Cachaça

The small city of Paraty (also spelled Parati) sits on the shore of a lovely bay in Rio de Janeiro state, 235 km from the capital,  and enjoys a reputation as one of the most beautiful, relaxing and hip towns on the entire Brazilian coast. Home to a number of well-preserved historic buildings, Paraty also has a collection of small boutique hotels and a burgeoning culinary scene that makes it a weekend destination of choice for tourists from around the world.

Among those visitors who come to Paraty in search of good food and drink, it's obligatory to experience the city's most famous artisanal beverage - Maria Izabel Gibrail Costa's home-made cachaça. In Paraty's most elegant pousada (traditional boutique-style inn), Casa Turchesa, guests find a bottle of Cachaça Maria Izabel awaiting them in their room when they arrive, and in sophisticated restaurants the waiters proudly proclaim that their caipirinhas are made with Cachaça Maria Izabel.

Maria Izabel's cachaça surely merits the name artisanal for the entire annual production of approximately 7500 liters is distilled on Maria Izabel's property and is made from sugar cane grown on the same land. In fact, the entire production process from the planting of sugar cane to the final bottling takes place on Maria Izabel's property, located on the seafront near town. Maria Izabel, born in Paraty 61 years ago, claims that the distinctive flavor of her cachaça is due to her property's seafront location, saying that the sea air increases the salinity of the sugar cane and thus affects the final taste of the drink.

Maria Izabel Costa

Maria Izabel comes by her cachaça-making prowess honestly. Municipal records show that her paternal great-great-grandfather, Francisco Lopes da Costa, produced cachaça in Paraty in 1800. Although her name is recognized everywhere in Paraty, Maria Izabel doesn't court fame. She prefers to stay at home, tending to her production. She usually spends the day barefoot, and still bathes daily in the sea.

With such a limited production and local demand, it's almost impossible to find Maria Izabel's cachaça anywhere besides Paraty. Even in the town, a bottle of her liquor costs about as much as a good bottle of Scotch, an impressive feat in a country where decent cachaças often sell for less than USD $5 a liter.

All of which is fine with Maria Izabel, who just wants to continue making cachaça. She calls herself "a última das moicanas" (the last of the Mohicans). There are few left who do the work Maria Izabel does, but one does hope that one of her children, or some other younger person who loves cachaça, will take over from Mariz Izabel when the time comes and ensure that she isn't, in fact, the last of the Mohicans.

With material from Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, written by Nana Tucci.

Rio's Cultural Heritage - Beach Vendors Join the List

There's nothing really new about placing buildings, natural settings or entire cities on a cultural heritage list. Most North American cities have a list of protected structures that have been enshrined as part of the city's architectural heritage and which cannot be demolished or modified without express approval of municipal authorities. The UNESCO World Heritage Site program has designated variously national parks, urban neighborhoods and entire cities are part of the world's cultural patrimony and as such worthy of legislative and regulatory protection.

Recently there has been a trend, particularly in Brazil, to denote certain cultural practices as well as part of society's heritage - a type of immaterial patrimony, since there is no structure or geographical feature to be protected. But in today's world of converging cultures, unique cultural practices are seen to be in danger, just as are monuments, palaces, historic villages and natural wonders.


Flavors of Brazil has previously posted articles about Brazil's recognition of the practice of selling acarajé on the streets of Salvador as an integral part of Bahian culture (click here to read more). This practice was recognized by Brazil's federal department of culture through the department's cultural patrimony agency, Iphan.

It's not only Brazil's federal government, however, that recognizes the importance of immaterial practices in defining a place's culture. The city of Rio de Janeiro also maintains a list of protected practices - things that play an important role in what makes Rio what it is. For the munical government, Rio de Janeiro is not just beaches and hills, the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, and the graphic sidewalks of Copacabana and Ipanema. It's also the rhythm of the samba, the dance called funk, and the annual orgy of pleasure called Carnaval.

Mayor Paes (in white shirt) with mate vendors

This week, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, proclaimed the latest addition to the city's heritage list - the ambulant vendors who sell icy cold yerba mate tea on the city's beaches. These vendors, invariably clad in bright orange, walk miles and miles barefoot along Rio's beaches with two large aluminum tanks, one under each arm, calling out their wares. One tank has iced yerba mate tea and the other has lemonade. It's up to each purchaser to decide what proportions of each they want in their cup - some want mostly mate, others like a lot of lemonade. Using the spigots on each tank, the vendor fills the customer's cup to order. There's absolutely nothing more refreshing on a scorchingly hot day at the beach, and there's nothing more iconically "Rio" than these vendors noisily walking up and down the sand shouting "Mate! Mate gelado!". (Incidentally, in Brazilian Portuguese, mate is pronounced something like MA-chee).

In his proclamation this week, Mayor Paes summed up the cultural importance of these vendors: "Rio is made up of its beautiful landscapes and of its people. The people of this city are the best thing about it. The mate vendor on the beach is the face of Rio, one of the most recognizable of the city's personages. These vendors are in Rio's memory. Of our city, we all have wonderful memories:an image, an aroma, a sound. And on our beaches, one of the most important sense memories is the cry of the mate vendor selling his wares."

Rio de Janeiro Celebrates 447 Years of Sun, Sand and Feijoada

On January 25th of this year, Flavors of Brazil saluted the city of São Paulo on its 458th birthday. Today it's Rio de Janeiro, Brazils second-largest city and most famous tourist destination, whose birthday is being celebrating. March 1st is Rio's birthday, as it was on this day in 1565 that the city was officially founded by Portuguese colonists who named their new city São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Fortunately that unwieldly name has since been reduced to Rio de Janeiro, meaning River of January.

Rio's beautiful natural setting, tucked into bays and beaches around Guanabara Bay at the foot of spectacular mountains, has been exalted since the first day Portuguese caravels sailed into the bay - on January 1, 1502. Not realizing that the large expanse of water they were entering was a bay rather than the mouth of a large river, they named the bay Rio de Janeiro in honor of the New Year's Day they were celebrating. The name stuck long after the Portuguese realized their geographical mistake.

In many ways, Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's face to the rest of the world. The imposing statue of Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) atop Corcovado mountain and the shockingly-steep granite dome of Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar) are among the most iconic tourist images in the world, and few world travelers haven't heard praise of the glories of Rio's major beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema.

So if you're feeling like offering a birthday toast to Rio de Janeiro, fix yourself a refreshing caipirinha, and toast a Cidade Maravilhosa (The Wonderful City) while watching this spectacular tilt-shift video called The City of Samba. It captures the city and one of its principal cultural manifestations, Carnaval, perfectly.

The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Feliz Aniversário, Rio de Janeiro

RECIPE - Aunt Surica's Feijoada (Feijoada da Tia Surica)

Tia Surica making feijoada

In yesterday's discussion of the role feijoada plays in Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnaval, Flavors of Brazil talked about the huge feijoada buffets that the city's many samba schools serve to their members and supporters during the build-up to Carnaval. On Saturdays in January and February, each samba school holds a rehearsal for its parade during Carnaval in Rio's Sambadrome. Rehearsals tend to to be long, hot work and they leave those who participate perilously close to exhaustion.

To refuel the body and rebuild energy for the party/dance that follows the rehearsal it's traditional to serve an feijoada buffet to the attendees. These buffets also serve as an important fund-raiser for the school.

Portela's 2012 poster

One of the most famous feijoadas among Rio's various samba schools is the one served at Portela. Portela is one of the city's oldest (founded in 1923) and most well-loved schools. Based in the lower-class neighborhood of Madureira, Portela, during its long history, has won the samba school championship 21 times, although admittedly the last time was in 1984.

Portela's feijoada is under the supervision of a long-time member of the school, known to all as Tia Surica (Aunt Surica). Now 71 years old, Tia Surica's career with Portela goes back to the first time she paraded with the school - when she was 4 years old, leashed to her mother's belt for safety. One of the members of the school's board of director, Tia Surica is in charge of the school's buffet and it is her recipe which the batallion of cooks use when preparing the feijoada.

Obviously, Tia Surica's recipe feeds a crowd - a large, hungry crowd. But should any of our readers wish to make feijoada for a large party, we're publishing her recipe courtesy of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, where it appeared this week. At Portela's feijoada buffets, this recipe is increased by several hundred percent, but with these quantities, it should feed up to 40 people.
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RECIPE - Aunt Surica's Feijoada (Feijoada da Tia Surica)

4.5 lb (2 kg) dried black beans
1/2 cup olive oil
2 fresh pork hocks, split
4.5 lb (2 kg) carne de sol - dried and salted beef
4.5 lb (2 kg) pork baby back ribs
6 large garlic sausages, kielbasa or similar
4.5 lb (2 kg) pork loin, salted if available, if not fresh will do
2.2 lb (1 kg) linguica or chorizo hot sausage
4.5 kg (2 kg) tripe
1 kg fresh beef brisket
8 bay leaves
6 onions, chopped
4 heads of garlic, cloves peeled and smashed
8 bunches kale, de-stemmed and cut into thin strips
1/2 lb bacon, cut into small cubes and fried until crisp
bacon fat from the cooked bacon
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onion
10 oranges
4.5 lb (2 kg) farinha (manioc flour)
4.5 lb (2 kg) white long-grain rice, cooked and kept warm
oregano, salt and black pepper to taste
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All the salted meats (carne de sol, salted pork etc) must be soaked in cold water for at least 48 hours before beginning to cook. During that time change the water at least six times.

Soak the black beans in plenty of water for at least 12 hours before beginning to cook.

Wash the pork hocks very well, and boil them separately in a large pot. When completely cooked, remove them from the pot, let them cool, then reserve them.

Cut all the meats and sausages into large bite-sized pieces. Do not include the tripe. Separate the ribs. Put all the meats in a large stockpot or kettle, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and let cook until very tender. Reserve.

Drain the beans, cover with lots of fresh water and cook over medium heat until tender, about 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the beans. Begin to sample for doneness after 45 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve in cooking water.

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is just beginning to brown. Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste then add the beans with some of their cooking liquid, just enough to keep them very moist. Stir to mix, then add the tripe. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about an hour, adding more liquid from the bean pot from time to time.

Add the reserved meats and sausages to the beans, stir to mix, and cook for about 30 minutes more. Add more liquid if needed - you want the beans and meat to have a thick broth, not a soup. The dish should not be allowed to go dry, however.

Meanwhile, in another large pan heat the bacon fat, add the bacon bits and onion and cook until the onion is transparent. Add the kale, and stir-fry, cooking only until the kale takes on a bright green color. Reserve.

Cut each orange into 8 wedges lengthwise. Chop the cilantro and green onions (green part only), mix them together and put into a bowl.

Mount the feijoada on a large buffet-style table. Serve the beans and meat in bean-pots or large deep dishes. Serve the white rice at the side of the beans. Next, place bowls or serving platters of stir-fried kale, then bowls of orange wedges and chopped cilantro and green onions for garnishing. Make sure to serve a good quality hot sauce for those who want. The obligatory drink to accompany a plate of feijoada is a caipirinha.


Recipe translated and adapted.

Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval Feijoada

Feijoada, the black beans and rise dish (or rather the meal) that has long been enshrined as Brazil's unofficial national dish, is eaten year round every where in Brazil, but normally only at mid-day or early afternoon, as it's just too heavy and filling to be eaten just before going to bed, and only on the the weekends, as even the thought of returning to work after a plate of feijoada is exhausting. (Click here to learn more about feijoada.)

Surprisingly, for such a rich and filling dish, in Rio de Janeiro feijoada is strongly associated with the Carnaval season and especially with the city's traditional samba "schools". During the build-up to Carnaval season, every samba school holds weekly rehearsals in the large hall that they call their home, normally on Saturday. The dancers, the chorus, and especially the approximately 200-strong percussion section expend hours and untold calories going over and over that particular year's samba until the rhythm, the lyrics, the samba steps and the melody are literally drummed into the brain and the body.

After the exhausting rehearsal it's party time at the samba school. Traditionally, in all the samba schools, the party starts with a massive feijoada buffet which feeds the revenous multitude, and continues late into the night with lots more samba music and plenty of free-flowing beer.

Feijoada - Othon Palace Hotel

 

But it's not only in the samba schools where one finds Carnaval feijoada. On the Saturday of Carnaval, which this year is tomorrow, February 18, restaurants all over the city serve a huge mid-day fejoada buffet to the city's Carnaval-crazed residents as well as to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who flock to Rio every year at Carnaval time. Local botecos will serve a simple feijoada for their regulars, more upmarket restaurants will offer a more luxurious version for their clientele, and the city's five-star hotels will present massive, and expensive, feijoada buffets featuring luxury ingredients and often a floor show of samba music. The price varies with the venue of course. In this Wednesday's Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, the journal listed some typical prices for feijoada during Carnaval 2012. The bohemian bar Mineiro, in artsy Santa Teresa district charges only R$30 (USD $17) for their all-you-can-eat buffet. A traditional restaurant in Rio's historic Lapa district, has two different prices. Men are charged R$120 (USD $68) and women R$80 ($42), again for all you can eat, which explains the price differential. The luxurious Rio Othon Palace hotel on Copacabana beach charges R$270 ($150), but their feijoada includes a floor show featuring the percussion section of the Salgueiro samba school. That's still not the most expensive Carnaval feijoada in Rio, however. At the tony and exclusive Jockey Club, local tycoon Ricardo Amaral hosts his annual Carnaval feijoada party/ball. There feijoada will set you back a cool R$500 (USD$300) per person - that is, if you can get in. The party is one of the most "desired" events of the year and is always sold out well in advance.

Feijoada - Bar Mineiro

So if you can't figure out how to get in to Amaral's ball, take the R$500 that you just saved, take a taxi to the Mineiro Bar and treat yourself and fifteen friends to feijoada. You'll be treated like a king or queen and will still have R$20 in your pocket for the cab ride home.

Slumming It - Dining in a Favela

Rocinha favela, Rio de Janeiro

The Portuguese word favela has come to mean, in English as well as Portuguese, the type of slum that prevails in poor neighborhoods in all major cities in Brazil. In a typical favela, city services are non-existant or are pirated, houses are simple homemade brick structures, commerce is rudimentary, and in Rio de Janeiro, up til recently, gangs of drug traffickers are de facto the only law.

Rio's favelas are the most well known in Brazil first because Rio is Brazil's primary tourist destination and second because they are so visible. Rio's unique geographical and topographical structure means that the richer neighborhoods carpet the flat land stretching back from the world-famous beaches, while the favelas are perched right behind them, precariously clinging to almost perpendicular mountainsides. Because of this, neighborhoods of million dollar homes have a view of the sea out of their front window and often a view of a nearby favela out the back window. And residents of the vertical favelas often have the best views in town.

In the past two years, in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, Rio's politicians and civic government have used Brazil's military police forces to "re-occupy" many of the city's favelas, which had ignored for decades and left to the drug gangs to run. In favela after favela an initial police invasion began the process, followed by the return of municipal servies such as garbage collection, establishment of governmental offices and restoration of municipal water and energy services. The term used for this process is pacification.

Up to today, the government has had some major successes in pacifying various favelas, although their ability to root out drug-related crime in the long run remains to be seen. Nonetheless, in those favelas which have undergone the process, pacification has meant a reduction in levels of intimidation and violence, an increase in property values, and a overall reduction in tension.

One ancillary effect of pacification has been that favelas, which were previously strictly "no-go"zones for non-residents, are now becoming accessible to non-favela inhabitants, residents of Rio and tourists alike. Several tour companies now offer favela tours, as do community-based non-profit organizations. Curiousity is part of the attraction, of course, but there are those who realize that the favelas, poor and crime-ridden as they were, have always been hotbeds of popular culture, whether in music, literature, cinema or art. Smart enterpreneurs in Rio's most well-known and accessible favelas, such as Rocinha and Vidigal have begun to take advantage of the new atmostphere to create new business opportunities.

In today's edition of the F. de São Paulo newspaper there's an article detailing the dining options in Rio's favelas. Such an article would have been unthinkable even a year or two ago. The article points out how favelas, and their bars and restaurants, are slowly but surely becoming part of Rio's tourist circuit.

The article does note that there are still significant obstacles and hurdles for potential restaurateurs in favelas. Because of irregularities or deficencies in the water and sewage systems in many favelas, it's difficult to get health permits to operate a restaurant. And restaurants who have become used to using only free pirated electricity and gas, and not paying employment taxes and benefits, find that it's impossible to keep the same cheap prices as before now that they must pay such costs. Also, public safety, or the public perception of the lack of such, still keeps numerous potential clients away.

For those who do want to try favela cuisine, which the article points out can be very good, often a mixture of northeastern and carioca styles, the paper offers a few pointers. First, it's best to arrive and depart by taxi, mini-bus or bus. Driving private cars on the steep streets of favelas is not recommended, nor is arriving by foot. Also, one should be prepared to pay cash for the meal, as most favela restaurants don't accept any form of plastic currency - debit or credit.

Carne de sol at Barraca do Tino

For adventurous readers of Flavors of Brazil, here is the paper's list of recommended restaurants in Rio's favelas:

bars:
BAR DO DAVID
ladeira Ary Barroso, 66, Chapéu Mangueira tel. 21/8156-3145

BARRACA DO TINO
rua Alm. Alexandrino, 3.780, casa 7, morro dos Prazeres tel. /21/2225-5780

BAR DO ZEQUINHA
rua do Mengão, 14, Dona Marta; tel. /21/8229-9968

bar/restaurants:
ZÉ MINEIRO
avenida Presidente João Goulart, 759, Vidigal, tel. 21/3324-1767


PENSÃO BELA VISTA
rua Hortaliça, 12, morro do Pavão-Pavãozinho, tel. 21/2513-2288

TAPIOCA DA LENI
rua Armando de Almeida Lima, casa 6, Vidigal tel. 21/3322-0323

RESTAURANTE ALTAS HORAS
rua Euclides da Rocha, 13, Ladeira dos Tabajaras, tel. /21/3208-0017

RESTAURANTE CARDÁPIO
avenida Presidente João Goulard, 625, Vidigal

SUSHI YAKI
travessa Kátia, 31, Rocinha tel. 21/3324-3040

RECIPE - Shrimps Carlos Swann (Camarões a Carlos Swann)

Every now and then, Flavors of Brazil publishes a Brazilian recipe that is named in honor of someone - famous or otherwise. In the past, we've published recipes for a cake named after a noble family from the northeastern state of Pernambuco, a grilled steaked named after a famous Brazilian diplomat, and Brazil's favorite sweet, named for the rank of noted military officer Eduardo Gomes (his rank was brigadier, or brigadeiro in Portuguese).

This recipe for cream-cheese-stuffed shrimp, breaded and deep-fried, is named after a Rio de Janeiro newpaper columnist whose nom de plume was Carlos Swann. His real name is Carlos Leonam, but as he is known publically as Carlos Swann, it was under that name that he was honored by this recipe. For many years he penned a social and entertainment column for Rio's O Globo newspaper, and also has written for a number of other newspapers and magazines. His biography page on the Portuguese language Wikipedia site mentions the pseudonym Swann, but does not explain why it was chosen, or if there's a connection to Proust or not.

In the recipe, the breaded shrimp are served on top of white rice cooked with raisins. The recipe calls for Brazil's favorite brand of cream cheese, Catupiry. However, any other brand of cream cheese may be substituted.
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RECIPE - Shrimps Carlos Swann (Camarões a Carlos Swann)
Serves 2

For the shrimp:
6 jumbo shrimp, peeled with tails left on, deveined and cooked
3 whole eggs
salt to taste
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cream cheese
2 cups neutral vegetable oil (for frying)

For the rice with raisins:
2 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
1 cup seedless raisins
2 cups cooked white rice, cold
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Make a shallow cut lengthwise along the back of each of the shrimp, allowing the shrimp to open slightly. Do not cut all the way through the flesh. Reserve.

In one shallow soup plate beat the three eggs, and add salt to taste. In another, spread out the flour.

Using a table knife, stuff each shrimp with one Tbsp or more of cream cheese. Press the two half of the shrimp together to seal. Pass each shrimp first into the beaten eggs, then into the flour. Repeat the process with each shrimp - one more time in the eggs, then the flour. Reserve.

Heat the oil until very hot but not smoking. Deep-fry the shrimp, in two batches if necessary. Cook until the shrimps are cooked through and the breading is golden-brown. Reserve, keeping warm.

In a frying pan, heat the 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, then add the raisins. Cook for a minute or so, then add the rice. Stir-fry the rice until it's hot and the grains are all lightly coated with oil. Add salt to taste.

Spread the rice on a decorative serving platter, top with the shrimps. Garnish with rings of red pepper and serve with wedges or slices of lemon or lime.

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.

RECIPE- Manioc Fritters (Bolinho de Aipim)

This recipe comes from Rio de Janeiro where they call manioc aipim. In most others regions of Brazil this staple food is called mandioca or macaxeira, but in the very colorful laugauge of the cariocas (residents of Rio de Janeiro) it's aipim.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, bolinhos are typical Brazilian bar snacks, and are probably nowhere more popular than they are in Rio. We don't know of any statistical study of bolinho-recipe popularity, but we'd venture a guess that the most popular of all bolinhos in Rio is the classic bolinho de bacalhau, made from salt-cod. Bolinho de aipim must run a close second, however.

As we mentioned yesterday, the typical bolinho recipe includes some form of protein plus some type of carbohydrate. In this recipe, the protein is mozzarella cheese (the chewy, rubbery pizza type, not fresh or soft mozzarella) and the carbohydrate is the manioc.

Properly made, bolinho de aipim is light and fluffy and is best served piping hot, right out of the deep fryer. Best accompaniments are a wedge of fresh lime and a good hot sauce. And, it goes without saying, a cold, cold beer to wash it down.

Fresh manioc root can be found in many Latin American and African food stores.  It's variously called manioc, cassava, yuca, aipim or macaxeira depending on the ethnic community the store caters too.
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RECIPE- Manioc Fritters (Bolinho de Aipim)
makes 20 bolinhos

2 lbs (1 kg) precooked manioc, mashed and cooled
2 whole eggs
1 Tbsp butter
salt to taste
6 oz. (200 gr.) pizza-style mozzarella, cut into small cubes
dry bread crumbs
fresh vegetable oil for deep frying
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In a large mixing bowl, combine the mashed manioc, one egg lightly beaten, the butter and salt to taste. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Using wet hands shape the mixture into small balls. Place each ball in the center of the palm of your hand, press in the center to make an indentation, then place one cube of cheese in the indentation. With your hands reform the ball around the cheese cube, sealing it in well. Reserve the balls on a smooth counter surface or cookie sheet.

In one deep soup plate lightly beat the remaining egg and in a second one add about 1 inch of dried bread crumbs. Pass each ball through the beaten egg first, then roll them in the bread crumbs. Return them to the counter or cookie sheet and reserve.

Heat the deep-fryer to recommended temperature for doughnuts. When hot add a few balls at a time to the hot oil - do not crowd them. When they are golden on all sides, remove from the oil and drain on several layers of paper towel. Continue with the remaining balls, frying in batches.

As soon as all the balls are cooked serve them immediately.

A Culinary Shrine to Antonio Carlos Jobim

Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim

Antonio Carlos Jobim, or Tom Jobim as he's more commonly referred to in Brazil, is Brazil's most well-known composer internationally (sorry, Heitor Villa-Lobos!) Along with João Gilberto he is credited with creating the musical style known as Bossa nova, which took Brazil and much of the rest of the world by storm in the 1960s. A pianist and vocalist as well as a composer, he is remembered for such immortal tunes as "The Girl from Ipanema", "Desafinado", "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), "Águas de Março" (Waters of March), and "Wave".

Brazilians were (and still are) crazy for Jobim, both for his musical talent and for his endearing and charming personality. Rio de Janeiro's international airport has been named for him - Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport - putting him in the company of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Charles de Gaulle and Pierre Trudeau, all of whom have airports named after them.

It's fitting that Rio is the city that decided to honor him thus, as he was born in that city, and it was there that he and his colleagues created Bossa nova. He is particularly associated with Rio's upper-class beachfront neighborhoods of Ipanema and Leblon, where he grew up. It was in Ipanema's Veloso Bar where Jobim and his co-composer Vinicius de Moraes first saw the girl from Ipanema walk by "on her way to the sea" and were inspired to write their classic ode to her youthful beauty and style.

For years, Jobim dined several times a week in Leblon restaurant Plataforma. There Jobim's favorite dish was a flattened and grilled, deboned chicken. This is a classic Brazilian grill recipe and is served in restaurants throughout the country - a small chicken is deboned, spread open at the backbone, weighted down to flatten it, then simply grilled and served with fries and a salad. Jobim always jokingly ordered this dish as "frango atropelado", meaning "run-over chicken", because the flattened chicken looked like it was the one chicken that did not successfully cross the road. The name stuck, and to this day, the dish is called "Frango atropelado de Tom Jobim" on Plataforma's menu.  A fitting tribute to a true musical genius and bon vivant.

RECIPE - Leão Veloso Soup (Sopa Leão Veloso)

Rio de Janeiro's venerable downtown restaurant Rio Minho is home to one of Brazil's most famous "homage" recipes, Seafood Stew Antônio Houaiss, named in honor of of Brazil's most important lexicographer. (The recipe can be found here). But that dish isn't the only one served at Rio Minho which honors a famous Brazilian of the past. Rio Minho is also home to a Brazilian take on the French classic bouillabaisse, created by and named in honor of Leão Veloso.

Pedro Leão Veloso was a Brazilian politician and diplomat who served his country as Minister of Exterior Relations during the period 1944-1946. (Interestingly, his predecessor in that post, Osvaldo Aranha also has given his name to a famous Brazilian dish - details can be found here). In addition to having the soup bear his name, Sr. Veloso was also the creator of the dish. He had developed a passion for bouillabaisse when visiting its birthplace Marseille, France, and decided to create a Brazilian version of it upon his return to Brazil. His soup contained locally-available fish and seafood and substitutes annatto paste or oil (urucum) for bouillabaisse's traditional saffron. According to Rio Minho's chef Ramon Isaac Tielas Domingues, who has been in the restaurant's kitchen for thirty years, over time the restaurant has chosen to add sweet paprika to color and flavor the soup rather than annatto, but other than that, the recipe served to today is entirely Sr. Veloso's.

The recipe calls for a large quantity of a variety of fish and shellfish (just like bouillabaisse). It does make enough soup for a large crowd however, 10 persons, and is filling enough to serve as a main-course dish. Serve with plenty of crusty French bread and a leafy green salad.

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RECIPE - Leão Veloso Soup (Sopa Leão Veloso)
Serves 10

1 lb (500 gr) medium shrimp, unpeeled
2 lbs (1 kb) clams or mussels
1 large white fish, whole, including head (grouper, snapper) - about 3 lbs (1.g kg)
4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 Tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
1 Tbsp sweet paprika
salt to taste
2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 whole chili pepper (malagueta, jalapeno, serrano)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb (500 gr) crab meat, picked over
1 lb (500 gr) lobster meat, coarsely chopped
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Wash the shrimp and scrub the clams well to remove all sand. If using mussels, debeard them. Separate the fish head from the body - cut the body into steaks and chop the head into several large pieces. Reserve.

Place the pieces of fish head in a large stockpot, then add 2 quarts (2 liters) cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skimming off foam and scum. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for one hour. Strain the liquid through a cheesecloth-lined sieve, pressing hard on the fish to increase the flavor of the stock.

Return the stock to a clean stockpot, bring to a slow boil, then add the shrimp. Cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp takes on a pink color. Remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon, let cool, then peel and reserve them. Reserve the stock in the pot.

Next add the clams or mussels to the stockpot and cook for a few minutes, or until they open. Remove the shellfish with a slotted spoon, discarding any unopened ones. Remove the meat from the shells and reserve.

In a large heavy-duty frying pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil then fry the fish steaks, in batches if necessary. Cook until the fish just begins to flake. Drain the fish on paper towels, allow to cool slightly then flake the meat, discarding bones and skin. Reserve.

In the same frying pan, combine the chopped tomatoes, the garlic, the cilantro, the onion and the parsley and cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat, or until the onion and garlic have softened and the tomato becomes a pulp. Add salt to taste and the paprika and cook for one more minute.

Heat the stock in the pot, then add the tomato/garlic mixture. Cook over very low heat, at a slow simmer for 40 minutes. Add the reserved shrimps, shellfish and flaked fish, then the crab meat and lobster. Cook for 10 minutes then serve immediately in deep soup plates.

RECIPE - Seafood Stew Antonio Houaiss (Peixada à Antônio Houaiss)

Antônio Houaiss, member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, was a twentieth-century lexicographer, author and publisher in Rio de Janeiro. His most enduring monument is the Portuguese-language dictionary that he edited from 1985 to 1999 and published posthumously in 2001 entitled Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa, usually just referred to in Brazil as the Houaiss.

But the dictionary is not Sr. Houaiss' only memorial. As discussed in yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil noted persons in Brazil and elsewhere are often memorialized by dishes created in their honor, and in Brazil a rich and luxurious seafood stew has been given Sr. Houaiss' name.

Along with many other intellectuals and literary figures in Rio in the second half of the twentieth century, Antônio Houaiss often chose to dine at midday in a downtown restaurant called Rio Minho. There, his favorite dish was apparently a saffron-scented seafood stew containing fish, shrimps, the strange lobster-like crustacean called cavaquinha, and boiled potatoes. Eventually, he became so associated with the dish that the restaurant decided to add his name to the dish to honor his many literary achievements (and his gastronomic good taste).

Rio Minho restaurant, one of Rio's oldest restaurants, having opened in 1884, is still packed at lunchtime with authors, editors and literary agents, and it's still serving many of them Antônio Houaiss' favorite dish.

Since cavaquinha isn't easily found in fish markets outside Brazil, you can very successfully substitute lobster tail in this elegant (and quite expensive) dish.
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RECIPE - Seafood Stew Antonio Houaiss (Peixada à Antônio Houaiss)
Serves 2

6 small boiling potatoes (or 3 medium-large, halved), peeled
2 extra-large prawns, peeled but with tails left on
1 cavaquinha (or lobster tail)
1/4 cup neutral vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine (original recipe calls for Chardonnay)
1 Tbsp saffron
1 grouper or halibut steak
2 Tbsp Italian parsley, finely chopped
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Bring one quart (1 liter) salted water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the peeled potatoes and cook until just tender. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon, refresh them in cold water and reserve. In the same water cook the shrimps and cavaquina or lobster for 5 minutes. Reserve the seafood.

In a small frying pan heat half of the vegetable oil, then add the minced garlic and saute for a minute or so. Do not let the garlic brown. Add the wine and the saffron. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for two or three minutes, then remove from heat and reserve.

In a large frying pan, heat the remaining oil, then fry the fish steak until it is tender and just beginning to flake. Remove from the pan, drain on paper towel and reserve.

Place the fried fish in a small oven-proof gratin dish or deep serving dish. Place the lobster tail on top of the fish and one shrimp at each end of the lobster. Surround with the boiled potatoes, then pour the wine/saffron mixture over all. Place the dish under a pre-heated broiler for a few minutes, or until all the seafood is hot and the liquid is bubbling. Remove from the heat, sprinkle the potatoes with the parsley and serve immediate in the gratin or serving dish.

American TV Discovers Rio de Janeiro's Food Scene

This week popular American TV show Bizarre Foods, starring Andrew Zimmern, cast its eye on Brazil's number-one tourist destination, Rio de Janeiro. The episode aired in the USA on June 14, and information about it and video clips from the show can be found here. The complete episode can easily be found on various download and torrent sites around the Internet, which is how Flavors of Brazil came across its own copy, since this series is not aired in Brazil.

For those not familiar with  Bizarre Foods, the premise of the show is that the host travels the world looking for unusual, unfamiliar foods and food cultures, with an emphasis on the outrageous and the disgusting. Zimmern happily chomps down on live animals, a variety of insects and worms, inner organs of all descriptions as well as toxic fruits and vegetables.

Pork face and ears for feijoada

In the Rio episode, Zimmern does manage to find some "bizarre" foods in a number of neighborhoods of the cidade maravilhosa - pork faces and tails in the feijoada served at the Imperio Serrano samba school, chicken in a sauce of its own blook (frango ao molho pardo) in a boteco, a gigantic hermit crab caught just off famed Copacana beach, and strawberry calves' foot jelly at the São Cristóvão market.

In spite of the show's focus on the exotic and bizarre, the episode does manage to show some of the city's many faces, including some that aren't highlighted in tourist board publicity or airline commercial. He visits two of the city's infamous favelas, vertical slums that climb the sides of local mountains and which are often under the control of drug gangs. A look at the culture of Rio's samba schools includes the gritty reality that exists behind the glitter and lithe bodies of Carnaval's samba parades. Yet he doesn't exclude the other end of the economic scale, A segment on churrascaria restaurants provides a good how-to guide to eating in these establishments, and a chat with a upmarket celebrity chef opens up the world of fruits and vegetables from the Amazonian rain forest.

Frango ao molho pardo

Flavors of Brazil started watching the episode with trepidation, as it's all too easy to turn foreign cultures, especially foreign food cultures, into nothing more than show-off moments of the host's culinary machismo. Zimmern avoids that trap, and though clearly the show is tilted to serve its audience a portion of the outrageous, Zimmern allows his affection for the city, its food and especially its people to come through. Worth tracking down for an insight into Carioca food culture.

RECIPE - Tuna and Watermelon Ceviche (Ceviche de Atum e Melancia)

Although the family of recipes known as ceviche is not of Brazilian origin - it seems to have developed all along the Pacific Coast of Central and South America - ceviche is by no means unknown here in Brazil. Contemporary Brazilian chefs have begun to combine ceviche preparation techniques with Brazilian ingredients to create new variations on a traditional theme.

Ceviche is typically made from raw seafood of some sort marinated in lime juice and then flavored with onions, cilantro, and chile peppers. The lime juice "cooks" the fish or seafood rendering it opaque and firm. The dish, served cool or at room temperature, is refreshing and light, and can be presented as a first course, or a light main course.

This recipe, which which has been adapted from a recipe by Chef Felipe Bronze of Rio de Janeiro's Oro Restaurante, combines equal-sized cubes of raw tuna and watermelon to create a checkboard-pattern ceviche. It varies from traditional ceviche in using rice vinegar rather than lime juice to provide the acid that makes ceviche ceviche. This acid is poured over the ceviche at the last minute which allows only the surface of the tuna to "cook", leaving the interior raw - in fact, a take on seared tuna.

Because the fish is served raw, be sure to buy sushi/sashimi-grade tuna. You won't need a lot, so it's best to make sure you have the freshest tuna available. Depending on your preference you can use regular watermelon (which is visually more interesting with its glossy black seeds) or seedless (which is easier to eat).
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RECIPE - Tuna and Watermelon Ceviche (Ceviche de Atum e Melancia)
Serves 4


Vinaigrette
2/3 cup (180 ml) rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup (75 ml) water
1/3 cup (80 gr) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp peel, coarsely chopped fresh ginger

Ceviche
6 oz (160 gr) sushi-grade tuna - ahi or albacore
6 oz (160 gr) watermelon

vinaigrette
small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 tsp ancho chile powder (available in Mexican and Latin American markets)
fleur du sel
nigella seeds (optional - available in Indian markets)
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Prepare the vinaigrette. In a small saucepan combine the rice wine vinegar, the water, the sugar and ginger. Bring to a boil rapidly over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Reserve.

Prepare the ceviche. Cut the tuna and the watermelon into equal-sized cubes about 3/4 inch (2 cm) on a side. On each of four plates, place 8 pieces of tuna and 8 pieces of watermelon alternatively to create a checkerboard pattern (see photo). Put two or three thin slices of red onion on top, then sprinkle on fleur to sel to taste, the ancho chile powder and scatter a few nigella seeds over. Carefully spoon equal amounts of vinaigrette over each plate, taking care not to disturb the onion rings. Let stand for 15 minutes to marinate and to allow the flavors to blend. Serve immediately.