RECIPE - Jackfruit Conserve (Doce de Jaca)

Here at Flavors of Brazil, we're well aware that our loyal readers in Europe, North America, and other corners of the globe don't have access to fresh jackfruit. For obvious reasons - the fruit is gigantic and heavy, so transport costs would be astronomical, once ripe the fruit is only good for a few days and then begins to rot, there's no local cultural tradition of eating jackfruit. However, there are readers of this blog, many of them, who live in Brazil and probably in other tropical regions of the world. So this recipe, for a conserve of fresh jackfruit, is for them.

For the rest of you, come to Brazil and we'll serve you a dish. It's utterly delicious.
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RECIPE - Jackfruit Conserve (Doce de Jaca)
serves 4

1 cup cold water
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 cups fresh jackfruit segments, separated and with pits removed
1/4 tsp ground cloves
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Put the water and sugar in a heavy saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, and then add the jackfruit segments and the ground cloves. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook the fruit for 45 minutes. Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and reserve in a mixing bowl. Bring the remaining water back to a boil and reduce by one-third. The syrup should be slightly thickened, but don't let it become overly thick. Pour the syrup over the fruit and let cool completely.

Once cool, place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill for at least four hours. Serve chilled.

The cooked fruit can be stored for up to one week in the refrigerator.

RECIPE - Preserved Biquinho Peppers (Conserva de Pimenta Biquinho)

This recipe, which comes from the website of a Brazilian nursery and online horticultural supply store called Agrotopical, is a typical Brazilian recipe for preserving whole chili peppers. The pepper in question in this recipe is the biquinho pepper, a pepper that has all the flavor of a chili with none of the bite (click here for more information on biquinho peppers). Any other small chili pepper, mild, medium, hot or scorching, and satisfactorially be substituted for biquinho.

In the recipe, the peppers are preserved in a mixture of white vinegar and cachaça. However, if you can't find cachaça in your local liquor store, you can substitute tequila or vodka. You can even use white rum, but if you do so, we'd suggest that you cut back on the amount of sugar called for, or the result will be overpoweringly sweet.
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RECIPE - Preserved Biquinho Peppers (Conserva de Pimenta Biquinho)
Makes one pint (500 ml)

1 cup (250 ml) white vinegar
1 cup (250 ml) cachaça
1 Tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tsp salt
ripe biquinho peppers (or other variety)
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Make the preserving liquid by combining the vinegar, cachaça , sugar and salt in a medium sauce pan, bringing the liquid to a boil and boiling for two minutes. Reserve, keeping simmering.

Prepare a large mixing bowl by filling it halfway with cold water, then adding 6-8 ice cubes. In another saucepan bring at least 4 cups (1 liter) of water to the boil. Put the peppers in the boiling water and let boil for 20 seconds only. Remove from the heat, drain immediately in a sieve or colander, then plunge the peppers into the ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain again. Reserve.

Using a properly sterilized Mason jar or other canning jar, pack the jar loosely with peppers. Bring the preserving liquid back to the boil, then fill the jar completely with the liquid. Tap the jar on a table or countertop a few times to make sure there are no air bubbles in the jar. Seal the jar and process in boiling water. (For directions on how to hot-water process, click here).

When processing is complete, let the jar cool completely on a wire rack. Let the jar stand in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before consuming, and keep uneaten portions in the refrigerator once the jar is opened.

PEPPERS OF BRAZIL - Little-Beak Peppers (Pimenta Biquinho)

If you love the flavor of hot chili peppers, but have problems with their spicy "heat," then a variety of chili pepper from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais might just be the solution to your problems. Besides being hot, chili peppers have a fresh, fruity flavor that improves the flavor profile of any dish they're used in - but the flavor can be masked by the heat of the pepper. Sometimes for any number of reasons you might not want a spicy dish and so the normal solution is to eliminate the chilis entirely. With the Little-Beak pepper (pimenta biquinho in Portuguese) you can still get the flavor your want - it's just the spiciness that will be missing from whatever you're preparing.

Surprisingly, the biquinho pepper is a cultivar of the Capsicum chinense pepper, which makes it the same species as the fiery habanero pepper, one of the hottest in the world. As the heat in this species is a natural defense mechanism, botanists think that the biquinho is the result of selective cultivation - choosing only the seeds from the least-spicy plant to cultivate the following season. Over time the naturally-occurring heat of this chile has been eliminated in the piquinho cultivar.

Biquinho peppers are small, round and either a brilliant scarlet-red or sunshine-yellow, with a small beak-shaped protuberance hanging from the end. The plant makes a beautiful ornamental plant, and many biquinho plants grace Brazilian gardens and yards - not to be harvested for eating, but for the beauty of the plant and its fruit.

The most common way that piquinho peppers are eaten in Brazil is when they've been conserved in a vinegar solution and served as a garnish or as an appetizer with drinks. However, there are other ways to use biquinho peppers - they make a marvelous pepper jam or jelly, with none of the heat of most red-pepper jellies. We've seem them used to garnish cocktails such as a tangerine caipirinha. Or fresh biqiunho peppers can be used to perk up almost any soup, stew or braised dish.

In our next post, we'll publish a very Brazilian recipe for conserving biquinho peppers - one that can be adapted to almost any variety of chili pepper.

RECIPE - Bilimbi conserve (Conserva de Biri-Biri)

Bilimbi, an acidic cousin of the star fruit, is used in amny dishes of the cuisine of southern Bahia as a replacement for citrus fruit, and is also appreciated on its own as a jam, pickle or relish.

This recipe, from the beautiful small resort town of Porto Seguro in southern Bahia, is a simple way to preserve the bounty of the bilimbi harvest for use during other seasons of the year, when the bilimbi is not available fresh. Since almost every backyard in Porto Seguro has a bilimbi tree, the local inhabitants never have a problem with a shortage of bilimbi at harvest time, rather the reverse - what to do with the abundance of bilimbi ripening all over town. This is one solution.
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RECIPE - Bilimbi conserve (Conserva de Biri-Biri)

2 quarts (liters) cold water
sea salt to taste
12 bilimbis, thoroughly washed
fresh ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 thick slice yellow onion
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In a large pan, bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the bilimbis, then immediately cover the pan and let cool to room temperature.

Sterilize a one-quart canning jar, using standard techniques and safety measures. Pack half full with bilimbis, then add the bay leave and onion slice, and the remaining bilimbis. Pour the cooking liquid over the fruits to fill the jar. Seal the jar and process using the boiling water method, or alternatively, seal the jar and place in the refrigerator. Let stand for at least 2 weeks, then serve as an accompaniment to meat dishes or with cocktails and aperitifs.

Recipe translated and adapted from Viagem Gastronômica através do Brasil by Caloca Fernandes (Editora Senac)