RECIPE - Backlands-style Paçoca (Paçoca Sertaneja)

This recipe is a very typical one for northeastern-style paçoca. It comes from the semi-arid interior of the state of Alagoas though similar recipes can be found throughout the region known as the sertão which extends for thousands of mile in a number of northeastern states. An area that is castigated periodically by harsh droughts, it's a region of cattle ranching, subsistence farming and little more.

Historically, the cowherds who wrangled the hers of cattle in the sertão were often out on the land for weeks or months at a time. They needed a food that was nutritious, filling and which didn't spoil in the intense heat of the stony plains. Paçoca fit the bill perfectly - it was nutrious, combining as it did dried and shredded beef and manioc flour; it was filling, with it's large carbohydrate component; and it didn't spoil, as the beef was salted and sun-dried prior to being shredded. All that a cowboy needed to do do reconstitute paçoca was add some hot water to the dry mix to moisten the ingredients and eat it. Perfect cowboy food.

What was once eaten as a necessity by long-ago cowherds has become a favorite food of northeastern Brazilians, in the large coastal metropolises as well as on the cattle ranches that still dot the sertão . To make paçoca outside Brazil can be a challenge, as the recipe requires carne de sol (sun-dried beef) and farinha (manioc flour.). Making acceptable carne de sol is quite easy as long as you have access to a freezer (click here to read how to make carne de sol at home), but you'll need to source farinha somewhere. Other flours, like wheat or ground corn, are not acceptable substitutes. Farinha can be found at Brazilian and Latin American markets in cities that have a Brazilian immigrant community.
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RECIPE - Backlands-style Paçoca (Paçoca Sertaneja)
Serves 8

2 lb (1 kg) carne de sol, desalted
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 Tbsp butter
1 lb (1/ kg) fine manioc flour (farinha)
finely chopped green onion and cilantro to garnish (optional)
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Cut the carne de sol into small cubes. Put the cubes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cook at a slow boil for 15 minutes. Taste one cube for salt. If the meat seems overly-salty, drain the cubes, cover again with fresh water and repeat the process. Reserve.

In a large frying pan, heat the butter, then add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is tender and transparent. Do not let them brown. Add the cubes of meat and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is nicely browned on all sides. Remove the cubes, reserving the butter they were cooked in.

Put the cubes of meat in a blender or food processor and pulse until the meat is shredded (do not over-process. You want shreds of meat, not ground meat). Alternatively, and more traditionally, you can shred the meat by pounding with a mortar and pestle.

Return the shredded meat to the frying pan with the reserved butter. Reheat the meat then add the manioc flour in handfuls, mixing each in completely. Stop when the mixture is still slightly moist - it should not be completely dry.

Put into a decorative serving bowl. Garnish with chopped green onion and cilantro if desired. Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Drayman's/Maria-Isabel's Rice (Arroz de Carreteiro/Maria-Isabel)

We'll leave it up to the cook how he or she wants to baptize this dish when presenting it at the dinner table or on the buffet. As mentioned in yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil, in the south of Brazil the dish has one name and in the northeast an entirely different one. The choice is yours. Either name, though, will yield the same delicious result.

More than a traditional side dish (because of the presence of the dried/salted meat) and less than a main course, arroz de carreteiro/arroz Maria-Isabel is nonetheless considered to be a side dish in Brazil, where meals tend to be large and dependent on abundant quantities of protein. If you want to serve it Brazilian style but don't want overkill, it pairs well with a small, thin grilled steak of any kind and a green salad.

The dish requires carne de sol, which is Brazil's traditional salt-preserved beef. It's available in butcher shops and supermarkets everywhere in Brazil, but normally not outside the country. Click here for an earlier article on Flavors of Brazil on how to make a good version of carne de sol in your freezer.

This recipe is for a very traditional, basic dish - very similar to how it might have originally been served. Some modern versions add sausage, other meats and additional seasonings, but this recipe is the stripped-down original.
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RECIPE - Drayman's/Maria-Isabel's Rice (Arroz de Carreteiro/Maria-Isabel)
Serves 6

2 lbs (1 kg) carne de sol (or charque)
4 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves, garlic
2 cups long-grain white rice
boiling water
3 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

24 hours befor cooking, cut the meat into small cubes, place in a bowl or ban, cover with cold water at soak in the refrigerator, changing the water at least 3 or 4 times, to desalt the meat. When ready to cook, drain and reserve.

In a heavy deep pan, heat the oil, and then fry the onion and garlic until the onion just begins to brown. Add the meat and continue to cook, stirring very frequently, until the meat is nicely browned.

Add the rice and continue to cook, stirring regularly, until all the rice is coated with the oil and is turning transparent. Pour in boiling water to cover the rice and to reach two fingers' height above the top of the rice. Reduce heat, tightly cover the pan and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all the water and is tender. This dish shouldn't be too dry, so if it seems to be so, add a small amount of water at the end of the cooking process, just enough to moisten the grains. Remove from the heat and let stand for ten minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

One Dish, Two Names - Drayman's or Maria-Isabel's Rice

Gauchos with drayman's cart

From the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, bordering Uruguay and Argentina, all the way to Brazil's semi-arid northeast is a distance of around 2000 miles (3200 km) as the crow flies and significantly farther by road. So it's not entirely unreasonable that there are large differences between the two regions - economic, racial, meteorological and cultural differences among others.

But there are also similarities shared by these regions at opposite ends of the country. They are united by language, by religion, by politics and by the media. Although they are miles apart, Rio Grande do Sul and the northeast are in many ways more similar than Rio Grande do Sul and either of its next-door neighbors, Uruguay or Argentina.

The proof of this is in the pudding. Or at least, if not in the pudding itself, somewhere in the kitchen. Many dishes, foodstuffs and techniques can be found both in Brazil's south and in its north, yet are absent just across the border in neighboring countries. Sometimes this is evident - a dish is known and loved across Brazil but totally unknown in neighbouring countries - but sometimes it's not. Although Brazilians in different regions might be sitting down to identical dishes at the family dinner table, they might not be aware of that, as they each call the dish something different.

arroz carreteiro

An prime example of this is a very traditional Brazilian dish of rice cooked with salted-dried meat. In southern Brazil it's known as Drayman's Rice (arroz de carreteiro) but in the northeast it's called Maria-Isabel's Rice (arroz Maria-Isabel). Same dish, different names. In fact, even the regional name for the salted-dried meat that is essential to this dish varies - in the south it's called charque (a Portuguese word related to English jerky) and in the north carne de sol (meat of the sun).

History makes it easy to see how southern Brazilians came to call the dish Drayman's Rice or Carter's Rice. This region was originally settled by ranchers who raised vast herds of cattle on the open plains of the region. The cowherds who tended the cattle often spent months out on the plains, far from the nearest ranch. A network of draymen, using ox-driven carts, serviced these remote locations, carrying anything that the cowherds needed that wasn't available locally. These draymen spent months on the trail following the herds, and they needed to be self-sufficient in everything, including food. Charque doesn't require refrigeration, nor does rice. All that's needed to prepare these ingredients is water and heat. Combining the two ingredients into one dish made sense, and once the practice of cooking rice and charque together became established, the dish was baptized Drayman's Rice.

In colonial times, the dry interior or northeast Brazil was also an area of cattle ranching, with the same settlement patterns as in the south. Here, presumably, draymen also travelled the trails of the backland bringing goods to the cowboys and ranchers, and presumably they ate the same dish of rice and dried meat. But for some unkown reason, in this region they chose to honor a certain, unknown Maria-Isabel when it came to naming the dish, ignoring drayman entirely. Who Maria-Isabel was, or what her association with the dish was, is lost to history and likely will never be known. But her name lingers on in the kitchens of northeastern Brazil.

Call it Drayman's Rice or Maria-Isabel's, Brazilians love the dish and it's a standard of traditional Brazilian gastronomy. Not fancy, but filling, nutritionally balanced, and comforting, it's an essential dish in the Brazilian culinary pantheon.

Next post, we'll provide a recipe for the dish.

RECIPE - Tomato and Sun-dried Beef Pasta Sauce (Molho de Tomate com Carne de Sol)

This recipe, an Italo-Brazilian hybrid, comes to Flavors of Brazil from the website of year-old Brazilian TV food network, Chef TV. Just over one year old, the channel has amassed an impressive collection of recipes, Brazilian and international, on its website, where it's also possible to stream the channel's programming. (Click here to read more about Chef TV).

The recipe was created by Chef Fernando Gualtieri, one of Chef TV's program hosts. His show, called Risoto, Pasta & Sugo is devoted to Italian cuisine and its considerable influence on Brazilian cooking. In this recipe he makes a classic Italian meat-based tomato ragù using Brazil's carne de sol, a salted and partially dehydrated beef, in place of the fresh beef used in the classic ragù bolognese.

Carne de sol is uniquely Brazilian and gives this pasta sauce an unusual and wonderfully delicious flavor. Carne de sol is not easy to source outside Brazil, but an acceptable home-made carne de sol can be made anywhere, as long as one has a freezer. Instructions for making carne de sol at home can be found in this post from Flavors of Brazil, from February 2010.
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RECIPE - Tomato and Sun-dried Beef Pasta Sauce (Molho de Tomate com Carne de Sol)
Serves 4

1/2 lb (200 gr) carne de sol
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
14 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 medium fresh tomato, peeled, seeded and cubed
1 cup light beef stock
1 green onion, green part only, chopped
fresh-grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
salt to taste
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Starting a day before cooking, soak the carne de sol in cold water in the refrigerator, changing the water at least three times during the 24 hours. When ready to proceed, drain thorough and pat dry. Cut the beef into small cubes, then coarsely chop - do not grind or over-chop, the meat should have some substance.
Reserve.

Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan, then cook the garlic until it just begins to brown - do not let it burn. Add the chopped meat and brown thoroughly, adding a bit more oil if necessary. Add the canned and fresh tomatoes and the beef stock, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the sauce until the beef is very tender and the sauce is thickened.

Add the chopped green onion to the sauce, and immediately remove the sauce from the heat. Let stand a minute or two, then serve over pasta of choice, topping with grated Parmesan if desired.

CUTS OF BEEF - Coxão Mole

From time to time Flavors of Brazil has dug into the arcane world of butchering in an attempt to clarify the differences between cuts of beef as they are found in Brazil and the cuts that result from a North American or European style butchering. Every culture has its own way of cutting up a beef carcass, and although some of the cuts might be made identically from one culture to another, but more often they are not.

The Three Graces
 by Peter Paul Rubens

The cut of beef that is the topic of this post, charmingly called coxão mole in Portuguese, is one of the most versatile and useful cuts of beef to know in Brazil. We say it is charmingly named because the  best English translation of coxão mole would be something like "big, soft thigh". (Makes one think of those voluptuous nudes who frolic around the edges of Rubens' painting).

This cut, which comes from the upper posterior part of the animal, also exists in English-style butchering where it is variously known as topside or silverside and in American-style butchering where it is referred to as top round. The cut isn't considered a first-class cut, like filet mignon or the prime steak cuts, but when properly cooked it can be one of the most delicious cuts from the entire animal.

Because coxão mole is very lean it is best suited to either roasting or to braising or stewing. If it is cooked quickly without liquid it can be very dry because of the absence of far. But a long cooking at low temperature, whether in a dry oven or in a brasing liquid, brings out the best in this cut.

In Brazil coxão mole is used in many traditional braised dishes where its qualities and flavor might shine. But it also has another very important role in traditional Brazilian cooking. Coxão mole is one of the most-preferred cuts to use when making carne de sol, Brazil's salted and dried beef. Because beef fat doesn't dry well, the leanness of coxão mole makes it perfect for undergoing the salting and drying process that creates carne de sol.

In Brazilian butcher shops it's also common to find lean ground beef that is made from coxão mole but it's in hearty Brazilian stews and braised dishes or disguised as carne de sol that coxão mole makes its true contribution to Brazilian cuisine.

RECIPE - Sun-dried Beef Fritters (Bolinho de Carne de Sol)

Last week, when we began this short series of posts about the Brazilian snack food called bolinhos, one of our readers asked for a recipe for bolinhos with carne de sol. Carne de sol is Brazil's salted and semi-dried beef, known throughout the country and whose roots can be traced back to the early European settlers and their need to preserve meat in a hot climate in the absence of refrigeration. (Click here for more about carne de sol.)

This recipe, like the one posted last Saturday, uses manioc for the carbohydrate portion of the bolinho. In the earlier recipe the balls were stuffed with cubes of mozzarella cheese. In this recipe, in response to our reader's request, the filling is made from carne de sol.

Carne de sol is a product that is uniquely Brazilian and there really isn't much of an export market for it. However, it's easy to make a pretty-good imitation of carne de sol at home. Click here for a link to an earlier article on Flavors of Brazil that will tell you how.

You'll need fresh manioc root for this recipe. It 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 - Sun-dried Meat Fritters (Bolinho de Carne de Sol)
Makes 30 bolinhos

2.2 lbs (1 kg) carne de sol, cooked
2.2 lbs (1 kg) fresh manioc roots, peeled, mashed and cooled
2.5 cups (300 gr) all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, large stems removed
2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
neutral vegetable oil for frying
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Prepare the carne de sol by desalting it if commercially bought. If homemode, desalting is not required. Grill, fry or simmer the meat until it is cooked through, then cool. Once cool, shred the meat using two forks, or roughly chop with a knife. Reserve.

In a heavy-duty frying pan heat the olive oil, then fry the onion and garlic until the onion is transparent but not browned. Add the shredded carne de sol and heat through. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. There is salt in the carne de sol so be careful not to over-salt. Remove from heat, mix in the fresh cilantro and reserve.

Put the mashed manioc in a large bowl. Add the two eggs then the flour by handfuls, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Finally mix in the reserved carne de sol mixture and combine completely.

Using your hands or two spoon form the mixture into approximately 30 small balls, placing completed balls on a cool working surface or cookie sheets.

Heat the cooking oil in a deep-fryer, according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the oil is hot but not smoking add the balls, a few at a time to avoid overcrowding, and cook until they are browned and crispy on the outside. Drain on paper towels while cooking the rest of the balls in batches.

Serve immediately, accompanied by a dipping sauce if desired.

RECIPE - Tapioca with Sun-dried Beef (Tapioca com Carne de Sol)

Yesterday Flavors of Brazil featured a recipe from northeastern Brazil for tapioca filled with a sweet guava paste mixture. (The recipe is here). Although tapioca is made from manioc starch and not wheat flour, its culinary use in Brazil is not restricted to sweet presentations and recipes. Like the crepes of France, tapioca is just as likely to have a savory filling as it is a sweet one. In fact, people here are so crazy for tapioca in all its forms that they might just buy one tapioca, a savory one, at a tapioca cart, eat it as their main course, and then order a second, sweet one, for dessert.

This recipe is for one of the most loved tapiocas - filled with carne de sol, which is the sun-dried beef of northeastern Brazil, and with Catupiry cheese, Brazil's favorite cream cheese. Since readers of this blog who live outside Brazil aren't likely to find carne de sol at the market, here's a link to a post from last year showing how to make your own carne de sol at home. And any good quality cream cheese can be substituted for Catupiry.

The method used for making the actual tapioca (the crepe) doesn't differ depending on whether it will be savory or sweet, we haven't repeated instructions for making the crepe. They can be found here. This recipe will require two crepes, so you'll need to double all the quantities in yesterday's recipe.
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RECIPE - Tapioca with Sun-dried Beef (Tapioca com Carne de Sol)
Makes 2

2 freshly made tapioca crepes (see above)
1/4 lb (100 gr) carne de sol (defrosted if frozen)
1/3 cup good quality cream cheese, deli-style if possible
1 small onion, finely chopped
softened butter
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Cut the carne de sol into small cubes, about 1/2 inch (1 cm) on a side. In a medium saucepan, bring about 1 quart (1 liter) of water to a boil. Add the meat, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 10 minutes to draw out excess salt. Drain the meat and let it cool slightly. Reserve.

In a medium frying pan, melt a few tablespoons of butter. Add the onions and saute for a few minutes, or until transparent. Add the reserved carne de sol and continue to cook for about five minutes, or until the meat is cooked through. Remove from heat.

In a blender or food processor combine the cream cheese and the reserved meat-and-onions mixture. Blend until the mixture is homogenous.

Using the method described h , make one tapioca crepe. Remove it from the pan and when it is still hot spread about one tablespoon of softened butter over it. Then spread half of the meat/cream cheese mixture  over it and roll or fold it in half.

Serve immediately, while still hot.

RECIPE - A 19th Century Brazilian Dinner

In yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil, I let a 19th Century English author, Henry Koster, describe the dinner he was served in the great house of a sugar plantation in northeastern Brazil sometime in the early part of that century. I commented that the dinner was not that different from what one often finds on the plate in today's Brazil - carne de sol and pirão.

For a lark, I googled recipes looking for exactly this meal, and on one of Brazil's most contemporary websites - Mais Você - I located a recipe for the dinner that Koster was served. The website belongs to a very popular TV show in Brazil - a morning show about cooking, celebrity interviews, heartwarming stories of ordinary Brazilians, sort of a combination of Oprah and Martha Stewart. It's been on the air forever, and its host, Ana Maria Braga, is one of the most recognizable media celebrities in the country. If something's featured on Mais Você then it matters to Brazilians, particularly Brazilian women.

So here is Mais Você 's 21st Century version of that dinner that was served nearly 200 years ago in the great house of a sugar plantation to Henry Koster.
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Carne de Sol com Pirao de Leite
Serves 8

2 lbs (1 kg) carne de sol (click here for instructions on how to make your own)
4 cups (1 litre) whole milk
1 cup clarified butter
1 large onion, sliced
2 cups (500 ml) manioc flour (farinha)
salt to taste
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Desalt the meat in the refrigerator, in several changes of cold water, for at least 6 hours. In a large heavy saucepan with a lid, bring the milk slowly to the boil, then add the meat, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the meat is tender, about one hour. Remove the meat from the milk, reserving both.

In a medium saucepan, heat the clarified butter, then add the sliced onions. Fry until the onions until they are lightly golden, the remove them, reserve. Add the reserved meat to the butter and fry until the meat develops a nice crust. Remove the meat, reserving the meat and the butter.

Off heat, mix together the butter used for frying and the reserved milk. Bring them to the boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, then add the manioc flour in small quantities, stirring and mixing each addition before adding another. When it reaches the stage of a loose, moist paste, stop adding flour. Season for salt.

Pour the manioc flour mixture into a large serving bowl, cut the meat into serving-size pieces and put it on a platter, then cover with the reserved onions. Pass both for family-style serving.

Recipe translated and adapted from Mais Você Culinária.

RECIPE - Make your own "carne de sol"

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of carne de sol to traditional Brazilian cuisine, and how it differed from other salted meat products. I even gave a quick lesson in how to make carne de sol the traditional way. However, unless you happen to live in a place that has eternal sunshine, daily temperatures reaching into the high 90s F (35C), and a steady 25 mph (40 kmh) wind, you are unlikely to be very successful. Outside Brazil, you are even more unlikely to find it at your local market.

I wanted to include some carne de sol recipes on Flavors of Brazil, but I considered that it would be fruitless to do so, as readers outside Brazil would not have access to carne de sol itself. Then I luckily came across a source that gave instructions for imitating carne de sol anywhere in the world. I tried out this technique, and although the resulting product isn't exactly like carne de sol, it's similar enough that it can be substituted for carne de sol in any recipe on this blog. Let's call it "faux carne de sol".

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RECIPE - Carne de sol

1 piece top sirloin, 2 lbs. (1 kg.), sliced horizontally into 2 pieces, 1 inch (2 cm.) thick
2 Tbsp. kosher table salt

Bring meat to room temperature before working. Rub salt into all surfaces of the meat. Let rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cover each piece tightly with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 12 hours. Remove from freezer and immediately grill, over medium heat, for 15 minutes. Then serve, or cool and reserve for use in another recipe.

Translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora