Portugal's Culinary Heritage - Cabidela

Yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil concerned the lingering influence of Portugal upon its far-flung former colonies; in particular, how traditional Portuguese ingredients, techniques and dishes have survived and flourished in corners of the world such as Brazil, Angola, Goa and Macau. In some cases, these dishes have hardly changed in the long time they've been cooked and eaten in their new homes in South America, Africa or Asia. In other cases, local indigenous characteristics and ingredients have been added or used as substitutes to create a new multi-cultural dish.

Both processes, the retention of characteristics from the original Portuguese recipe and the modifications required by different climates, different cultures and different ingredients can be seen by comparing recipes for a traditional Portuguese dish called galinha cabidela. This dish, or variations of it, can be found almost everywhere there were Portuguese colonies or where there are today Portuguese immigrant communities. The word cabidela itself is defined in a Portuguese dictionary as "the bodily extremities of poultry (wings, heads, necks and feet) as well as the liver and other organs of the same animal," and can be traced back to the 16th Century (the Golden Age of Portuguese navigation and exploration). In all Portuguese-speaking territories, however, the dish called galinha cabidela has come to mean a braised chicken (or other meat) cooked in a sauce made of its own blood.

Portuguese cabidela

A very typical recipe for galinha cabidela, probably very close to the original dish, comes from a Portuguese website called Sabor Intenso. (Click here for the recipe with accompanying video, in Portuguese) This recipe calls for a whole chicken, about a half-cup of chicken blood mixed with a small amount of vinegar to prevent clotting, onion, garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, bouillon cubes and water. I don't imagine that the original medieval recipe included bouillon cubes, rather homemade stock was probably used. There is also one chili pepper in the recipe, which of course couldn't have been made part of the recipe until after the European "discovery" of the New World.

Brazilian cabidela

The standard Brazilian recipe (click here) is quite similar to the Portuguese recipe above. One difference is the substitution of lard for olive oil, probably because during the colonial period olive oil wasn't exported from Portugal to the colonies due to preservation problems and olive trees cannot grow in Brazil's tropical heat. Another change is the deletion of bay leaves (a European herb) and the substitution of cilantro, which grows very well in Brazil and is used extensively in Brazilian cooking.

Galinha cabidela is also found in Angola, once one of Portugal's main African colonies. The Angolan recipe for this dish (click here) retains the olive oil of the Portuguese original but adds tomato and green bell pepper to the mix and includes a small glass of white wine as well. In a nod to African tradition, the dish is given a hit of spice by the inclusion of an African hot sauce called piri-piri.

Goan cabidela

Recipes for galinha cabidela can be found even halfway around the world from Portugal, though in these cases, naturally, the dishes have undergone more significant modification. The dish is traditional in the former Portuguese colony of Goa, located south of Mumbai in present-day India. There however, it's more commonly made with pork or rabbit than it is with chicken, though the recipe still calls for animal blood. The Goan recipe also adds typical Indian ingredients such as tamarind juice, ginger, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and clove to give the dish a more Asian flavor profile.

And finally, even farther afield - about 7000 miles from Portugal as the crow flies, lies the tiny formerly-Portuguese enclave of Macau, now part of China. The standard recipe there is called pato cabidela not galinha cabidela, as it substitutes duck (pato) for chicken (galinha). In addition to the duck, the dish includes diced pork. Saffron and caraway seeds are added to the list of spices, the white wine of the Angolan recipe is repeated, and there are diced potatoes added to the dish.

But even in all the diversity of these regional variations, the basic "theme" of the recipe remains unchanged by time or distance. Meat, of whatever type, is seasoned and cooked in a sauce made with its own blood. That's the ur-cabidela and it and its numerous offspring are still served, and still loved, anywhere that has a Portuguese cultural heritage.

RECIPE - Sarapatel

I promise this will be the last in the current series of Brazilian recipes featuring blood as an ingredient. I know that to concentrate on an ingredient that many people find distasteful if not disgusting runs the risk of sending readers of Flavors of Brazil flying, never to return. But I really can't finish this series of posts without including a recipe for sarapatel, the most famous Brazilian dish which includes blood. If this blog is to showcase the traditional foods of Brazil, it really can't exclude these dishes which have blood as an ingredient. For those of you who can't take any more, I hope to see you back tomorrow, when I promise I'll feature a dessert, and one that doesn't have a sanguinary ingredient in it.

For those of you who are curious enough to stick around for the rest of this post, here's a little bit of history about sarapatel before we dig into the recipe itself. In Brazil, sarapatel is associated with the state of the northeast. However, its origins are not Brazilian, but instead are European. Sarapatel is an ancient dish from the Alentejo region of Portugal, and was carried with Portuguese colonists and settlers to the New World. Interestingly, these same Portuguese carried the recipe for sarapatel when heading for colonies in the opposite direction from Brazil, and today sarapatel is considered a traditional dish in the parts of India that were formerly Portuguese - most famously Goa.

Whereas the chicken dishes that were featured the past few days on Flavors of Brazil used liquid blood to flavor the sauce, and added vinegar to the blood to make sure it stayed liquid, in sarapatel the blood is cooked in boiling water to coagulate and solidify it, and then it is added to the sauce as a solid ingredient. When I lived in Vancouver, Canada, I'd often see solidified cubes of pork blood in the meat markets of Chinatown, and the blood used in sarapatel is essentially the same as this Chinese ingredient.

I must say, before I add the recipe, that I can't vouch for how this recipe tastes, as I'm unable to even think of eating a bowl of sarapatel. I am assured by some of my sarapatel-loving friends here in Fortaleza that this is a typical recipe, and that it sounds delicious (to them!)

Bom apetite!

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RECIPE - Sarapatel
Serves 6

1 set pork viscera as follows: lungs, liver, heart
2 cups solidified pork blood, cut into 1 inch cubes**
2 cups water
lime juice to taste
fresh limes
2 large red onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
4 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 serrano chiles
4 Tbsp. lard

** If the pork blood is liquid, pour it into a boilable Zip-Loc bag, and cook in simmering water for approximately 15 minutes. Let cool, and remove from bag, then cube.
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In a large pan or stockpot, combine the water, the pork innards, a good amount of lime juice, and some halved limes. Bring the water to a boil, drain the innards, and then repeat the process with fresh water and lime juice. Remove the innards from the water, let drain, then cool,. Chop the innards into bite sized pieces and return them to the water with all the other ingredients except the lard and the blood. Cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours.

The next day, remove all the solid ingredients from the pan or stockpot. Drain them well. Heat the lard in a heavy duty frying pan, and fry all the ingredients, in batches if necessary to avoid crowding. Once they are golden, place in a fresh pan, cover with fresh water and lime juice, and cook for 2 to 3 hours, or until the pork is tender. Carefully add the cubed blood, let simmer for a few minutes for the sauce to thicken, then serve.

Recipe translated and adapted from Mundo de Sabores.

RECIPE - Chicken Cabidela (Angolan style)

This is not actually a complete recipe, but it is something that I found interesting and instructive while I was doing online research on the Brazilian dish Chicken Cabidela (Galinha de Cabidela in Portuguese.)

Since the days of Portuguese colonialization, Brazil and the African nation of Angola have shared many cultural traits, as they were both colonized from Portugal, and as many of the slaves transported from Africa to Brazil embarked on their frightful journey in Angola. Brazil and Angola share a language, an official religion, a number of African-based religions, musical instruments, and food traditions among other things.

I came across an Angolan recipe for Chicken Cabidela, the dish whose recipe is in the previous post of Flavors of Brazil. What I found fascinating was how the instructions for the Angolan dish (which is remarkably similar to its Brazilian cousin) starts at the very beginning of the process of making the dish, and carries right on through to the end. Here's a translation of the start of the instruction part of the recipe: "Kill the chicken. Make sure to save all the blood, adding vinegar to it to prevent coagulation. Clean and pluck the chicken........"

The only recipes in the classical Western tradition that begin with killing the main ingredient,  as far as I know, are recipes for lobster. In Angola, on the other hand, the author, knowing his or her readership, felt that the process needed to start with an execution. In the West, we prefer to buy our main protein wrapped and sealed, for the most part, and tend to try to forget how the meat got to the supermarket or the butcher's shop in the first place. The Angolan recipe is a sharp and valuable reminder of where the food on our plate originates.

Blood as food - delicacy or taboo?

In many cultures, using blood as a culinary ingredient is a common characteristic of traditional cuisine, often in the form of sausages, or in soups or stews. Some cultures, notably the Maasai of Tanzania, drink fresh animal blood fresh, which the Maasai do mixed with milk. In other cultures, there is a very strong taboo about the eating of animal blood. Jewish and Muslim cultures are specific about this taboo, and the slaughtering of animals must be done in so as to avoid retention of blood in the meat - kosher, halal. Some people have a culturally-engendered repulsion to the consumption of blood, even in the absence of specific cultural prohibitions.

Brazilian food traditions, particularly in the northeastern regions of that country, include many dishes in which blood figures prominently. Blood-sausages are part of the culinary landscape of Portugal, and perhaps the influence of Portuguese colonizers introduced blood as a culinary ingredient to Brazil. Well-loved dishes from the Nordeste which have blood as a principal ingredient include sarapatel, which uses pork blood, and galinha de cabidela, with chicken. One of the most interesting, and surprising uses of blood is in the creation of a candy called chouriço, made from pork blood, manioc flour, rapadura sugar and flavorings. Friends of mine who grew up in the interior of Ceará remember loving chouriço as children, though most swear they wouldn't eat it now.

In the interest of gastronomic sociology, the next few posts will feature some of these "blood" foods. None of them will have been tested by me,however,  as I have to admit to being in that group of people mentioned in the first paragraph that have a cultural antipathy to eating blood. I just can't bring myself to do it, much as I try.