New Juice Combos for Brazilian Dog Days

We are aware that the majority of our readers live in the Northern Hemisphere, some of them in very cold locations, and for those readers thoughts of "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" are far from mind. But Flavors of Brazil comes from Brazil and here in the Southern Hemisphere, January and February are the hottest months of the year (Just three weeks ago, Rio de Janeiro suffered under its hottest day since 1915 - 44C or 111F). So while you might be searching the closet for woolen mittens, or wrapping a thick scarf around your neck before heading out, here in Brazil, everyone is trying to stay cool.

One of the most effective ways to cool the body down is with a cold drink, nutritionists tell us, and Brazilians have long used icy fruit drinks to reduce body temperature when the temperature rises. (They also drink a lot of cold beer too, though nutritionists advise that alcohol impedes the cooling effect of icy liquids. So, in the interests of body-temperature management, we'll restrict the discussion in this post to fruit drinks.)

Brazil is famous for the variety and quality of its fresh fruit drinks, and juice stands are commonplace fixtures on streets and in shopping malls all around the country. Brazil has such an abundance of delicious tropical fruits (oranges, pineapples, mangoes, limes, passion fruit, watermelon, etc.) that juice menus often have twenty or more choices.

Recently, people in Brazil have begun to discover that mixing fruits together, or adding additional non-fruit flavors to a drink can have spectacularly delicious results. As a result, each year, new combinations become popular. A few years ago, fresh pineapple juice blended with fresh mint leaves swept the country, and today it's rare to find a juice stand that doesn't offer that combination. But we all crave novelty, so barmen and women in juice stands, hotel bars, and seaside restaurants continue to offer new mixtures to satisfy demand.

A recent report in Rio de Janeiro's O Globo newspaper highlighted the most popular new juice combos for summer 2013 in that famously hot city. One very popular drink this summer is mango with mint, which employs the cooling sensation that mint gives to pump up the refreshment factor of the juice. It's long been known that citrus-based drinks cool very effectively because their acidity encourages production of saliva which cools the mouth, so new citrus combinations are very popular this year, particularly tangerine combined with carrot.

The addition of non-fruit ingredients to juices is new in Brazil, but popping vegetables into the juicer along with fruits is increasingly popular. Vegetable juices aid in retention of water in the body, which increases the body's ability to resist heat, so there's a valid nutritional reason for adding vegetables as well. Nutritionist Andréa Santa Rosa Garcia recommends a mixture of coconut water and lime juice, blended with parsley and kale, and adds that this combination can also help to alleviate stress.

If it's 10 below where you live, tag this article for reference when the dog days return next summer. If you're enjoying a Southern Hemisphere summer, whether here in Brazil, in South Africe or in Australia get out your blender, get adventurous when shopping for fruits and vegetables, and combine, combine, combine.

RECIPE - Tamarind Juice (Suco de Tamarindo)

photo from Come-se

One of the most refreshing tropical juices there is, a glass of chilled, acid-sweet tamarind juice over ice in a tall glass will revive flagging spirits in the hottest of climes. There's nothing that "hits the spot" when the heat becomes unsupportable like a glass of tamarind juice, and Brazilians by the millions use the juice to keep cool in this tropical country.

Here in Brazil making tamarind juice is a snap, because every supermarket carries small packets of frozen tamarind pulp. The pulp is pure fruit and is unsweetened and without preservatives. To make juice, you just need to pop one or two packets in the blender, add sugar to taste and the amount of water suggested on the packet - blend it for a minute or so and bingo! you've got chilled tamarind juice ready for the glass.

For those who don't have access to these frozen packets, it's still easy to make tamarind juice at home, although it does take a bit more time (including time to cool the juice). In Asian and Latin markets everywhere you can buy packages of partially dehydrated tamarind pulp, usually containing seeds as well. Here's a picture of a typical package:

The way to use this pulp is to put as much as you need in a mixing bowl, boil some water, and the pour just enough water over the pulp to cover it. Let the bowl stand for a minimum of thirty minutes. Using another bowl with a sieve over over it, pour the contents of the first bowl into the sieve. Let drain, then using a wooden spoon, press the pulp to extract as much juice as possible. Continue to press until you have only seeds left in the sieve.

Let the sieved pulp cool, then add as much water as desired to reach juice consistency. Sweeten to taste and chill well in the refrigerator.

World's Healthiest Drink? - Pineapple Juice with Kale

Pineapple is Brazil's secondmost consumed fruit, being outconsumed only by banana. Much of the county's enormous harvest is processed, either undustrially or at the time of consumption, into juice. One of the juices that you can be sure will be available year-round in just about any of Brazil's thousands of juice bars is pineapple.

A while back, Flavors of Brazil introduced its readers to a delicious mixed juice that's popular throughout Brazil - pineapple juice with fresh mint (suco de abacaxi com hortelã). Click here for that posting. Recently we've come across another intriguing juice which mixes pineapple with another ingredient - this time it's not mint but the rather-more-unlikely member of the cabbage family kale (couve).

We mentioned in our recent series of posts about the Portuguese-inspired soups called caldo verde that kale has good claim to being the world's most nutritious vegetable. Kale is low in calories, with no fat, and packed full of vitamins, calcium and chemicals with powerful antioxidant properties. And pineapple itself is no slouch when it comes to nutrition, being an excellent source of manganese and vitamin C.

All this nutritional value would be of little use if juice made from pineapple and kale tasted awful - but thankfully, it doesn't. The juice is pineapple-sweet but not cloying, and the dark green kale provides a vegetable note to the flavor that practically sings out "I'm good for you!"

The drink is easy to make at home and the necessary ingredients aren't hard to find. Try this juice some morning with your breakfast and just see if it doesn't make you feel top of the world.
_______________________________________________
Pineapple Juice with Kale (suco de abacaxi com hortelã)
makes 1 drink

1/4 medium-sized fresh ripe pineapple, peeled, cored and cubed
1 large leaf kale, washed thorough and coarsely shredded
4 cups fresh ice cubes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Combine all the ingredients in a large, sturdy blender and blend for two minutes at high speed, or until all the liquid is homogenous and the ice has all been crushed.

Pour through a sieve into a tall glass. Drink immediately.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Guava (Goiaba)

Brazil is the world's largest producer of guavas (goiaba in Portuguese), even though it is geographically very wide-spread and popular in tropical regions around the globe, from Mexico to South Africa and from India to Hawaii. The guava tree itself (Genus:Psidium) originated somewhere between Mexico and Northern South America, but it has been cultivated since pre-history and has spread so far that its origins are lost in time. Man has partially been responsible for the spread of the guava tree, carrying it from the New World to the Old, but the guava tree can also thank birds for helping it to extend its global reach. Guava seed are extremely hard, and remain viable for long periods of time. Undigested seeds in bird droppings can sprout thousands of miles from the mother tree and create new groves in locations far removed from historic habitats.

There are many varieties of guava, some with yellow skin, some with green and some with pink. Some with whitish flesh and some with shocking pink flesh. Some round like and apple and some pear-shaped. What all guavas share is their taste, and even more so, their aroma.

Guavas are strongly aromatic, sometimes alarmingly so. Like most aromas, the smell of ripe guavas is very difficult to describe - it's slightly sweet, very flowery, and heady - sometimes almost too much so. The smell of guavas can be overwhelming. However it's described, the characteristic smell of guavas is utterly unique - there's no other fruit that smells like it - and once known, the aroma will never be forgotten. It's one of the most evocative smells of the tropics.

To regular readers of Flavors of Brazil it must seem that every time there's a post on the blog about a Brazilian fruit it's called a "superfruit" somewhere in the post. So, this time we promise not to use that  word in discussing guavas. Nonetheless, the guava is an extremely healthy fruit and has a great number of valuable nutritious properties. One guava, for example, has five times the vitamin C of an orange of similar size. It also has high levels of calcium, something that isn't characteristic of fruits in general. It's a valuable source of vitamins A and B, phosphorus, potassium, iron, folates, and nicotinic acid. In addition, it's very high in fiber and low in calories (about 25 calories per whole fruit). To top it all off, it's said to be helpful in lowering cholesterol levels, in fighting cancers with its antioxidant properties and helps boost the immune system. Maybe this one should be called a "super-duperfruit."

In Brazil, guavas are available year round and are eaten raw in the hand, or peeled, sliced and added to salads and fruit salads. Most of the commercial harvest, though, goes into the preparation of guava juice, guava pulp or it is cooked down and strained to make guava pasta (goiabada).

Guavas are at their best when they are very ripe, which only takes a few days at home. Guavas are increasingly available in North American and European markets and supermarkets, so if you want to try one pick one that is umblemished and still hard. Let it sit at room temperature in the kitchen for a few days, or until the fruit yields to gentle pressure from your finders. You can wash it and eat it all (the peel is edible, like an apple or pear is, but some people find it bitter) or you can scoop out the pulp with a spoon and eat only that portion. Guava flesh has an appealing grainy texture, somewhat like a pear's, and the seeds, which are numerous, should be swallowed with the pulp, or strained out in a sieve. Don't try to crack a seed with your teeth - it's the teeth that will crack, not the seed!

As usual, we'll carry on with Flavors of Brazil's exploration of the guava in the coming days with some recipes which call for "super-duper" guava.

Making Graviola/Maracujá Juice (Soursop-Passion Fruit Juice)

Yesterday, a friend of mine stopped by with a gift from her back yard. She has a graviola (soursop in English) tree growing there, and we're currently in the middle of the harvest season for graviola here in Fortaleza. She's overwhelmed with graviola, and kindly brought a good-sized one over as a present.

The fruit was very ripe, and I knew I had to do something fairly quickly with it, even though I refrigerated it immediately. I am a total fan of graviola juice, and so decided I would make fresh juice with the aid of my blender. I snooped around the internet a bit before I started, and found a suggestion to add the juice of one maracujá (passion fruit) per jar of graviola juice, which I thought was a wonderful idea. First, because I love maracujá. Second, the highly-acidic juice of the maracujá might cut the sometimes-sticky, custardy flavors of the graviola and would provide just a bit of a bite, which seemed to me would be a good thing. Fortunately, I had a couple of maracujás in the house, so I didn't need to go shopping before beginning.

I started off with one medium-sized graviola, very ripe.

First, I cut the graviola in half, and with my hands pulled the pulp out from the halves, seeds included.

I placed the pulp in a blender, and blended until the pulp was pureed and smooth. I then strained the pulp through a small sieve to remove the seeds and seed bits, plus any woody remainders of the pulp.

Then I poured the strained graviola puree into a juice car.

Next up was the maracujá.

I cut it in half, blended it and strained it just as I had done with the graviola. I was left with a small amount of juice that was very concentrated and acidic.

I added this maracujá juice to the juice car, plus about 2 cups of cold water to thin down the graviola puree. Brazilian recipes invariably call for the addition of sugar, but after testing I found that the sweetness of the graviola, even with the added maracujá juice, as just right and didn't need additional sweetening.

The juice was creamy and rich, and absolutely delicious. Pure graviola juice can be overly aromatic and almost cloying in texture and taste, and I thought the maracujá juice was exactly what was needed to avoid both of those problems. The juice still tasted like graviola juice, not maracujá juice. But it was tamed by the presence of maracujá and certainly made more refreshing. From here on out, I'll not make graviola juice without adding that magic ingredient - maracujá.

FRUITS OF BRAZIL - Graviola (Soursop)

This large, green and spiny fruit belies its somewhat ungainly and unappetizing appearance with a highly perfumed creamy-textured, complexly-flavored flesh that is adored in tropical regions around the world. Although originally from Central America and the valleys of Peru the soursop (aka graviola in Portuguese, guanabana in Spanish, corossol in French, etc. etc. etc) was one of the first fruits to spread from its New World origins to the tropics of the Old World in the Columbian Exchange and today is eaten not only in Brazil and the rest of Latin America but also in Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Graviola (Annona muricata) is truly a fruit of the tropics, and temperatures of 5C (40F) can be sufficient to kill a tree. In the USA it is only in the Keys of Florida, in the Caribbean Islands and Hawaii where cultivation of the graviola is possible. In Brazil, the tropical northeastern region of the country is the center of graviola cultivation and commercialization.

In contrast to the forbidding appearance of its exterior, the white or cream-colored flesh of the graviola, with its embedded shiny dark seeds hints at its rich flavor profile with a silky or custard-like texture. The aroma of this fruit carries hints of pineapple, and the taste might best be described as reminiscent of musky tutti-frutti or bubblegum. The mouthfeel is luxurious and rich.

Graviola can be eaten as-is, though pulling apart the flesh, extracting the seeds and eating the flesh tends to be a very messy business. It is more often eaten after some sort of processing - as frozen fruit pulp, as a freshly-made fruit juice, or as a flavor for mousses, ice creams, or yogurt.

Because the fruit is heavy (it can weigh up to 15 lb - 7 kg) very quick-ripening and fragile there is little market for export of the fresh fruit to areas outside the tropics. The juice can be canned or concentrated and frozen and these products can often be found in Latin American or Asian grocery stores in Europe and North America.

Just as nothing compares to a ripe, juicy strawberry that has just been picked and is still warm from the sun, the true luxuriousness of graviola can only be experienced by opening a ripe fruit, using one's hands to pry apart the creamy sacs of flesh to remove the seeds then popping the flesh into one's mouth and rolling it around with one's tongue before swallowing. For that, you'll have to come to Brazil, or go somewhere else in the tropics. And during this season of bitter cold and heavy snows in the Northern Hemisphere is that a bad thing?

On the Road - Maranhão (Pt. 9) - Fresh Cupuaçu Juice Taste Test

Back in July, Flavors of Brazil discussed a fruit from the northern reaches of the Brazil called cupuaçu. You can read those posts by clicking here and here and here. Although I was familiar with this cousin-of-chocolate through a variety of processed foods made from cupuaçu, like ice cream and frozen fruit pulp, I had never had the opportunity to taste the fresh fruit itself. Until the blog's recent trip to São Luis, Maranhão, that is.

Brazilian cities and towns are full of fresh fruit-juice bars serving freshly blended fruit juice along with a variety of sandwiches and snacks. The selection of available fruits is always large, and sometimes overwhelmingly enormous. Some of the fruits are universally available throughout the country and all year round - for example, mango or papaya or pineapple. Others are restricted by availability either by season or region. Many of the Amazonian fruits are available in southern Brazil, if available at all, only in the form of frozen fruit pulp blended with water.

So it was a pleasure to find that almost all the fruit-juice bars in São Luis listed many Amazonian fruits on their juice menus, and a quick question to the bar-boys confirmed that fresh fruit was used rather than frozen pulp. During a mid-afternoon walk along the main pedestrian street in downtown São Luis, in the 90F (32C) sun, it seemed like a prudent and pleasant thing to sample a glass of fruit juice. Having eaten cupuaçu ice cream in Fortaleza, and having really liked it, I decided to have a glass to compare the flavor of frozen juice and the fresh-made variety. The cost for a 300 ml glass was R$2.50, about USD $1.40.

When the bar-boy poured the juice from the blender into a glass, the thick, creamy texture of the juice was evident. It looked and poured like a milk-shake. The color was almost white, just tinged with light green. The aroma was sweet, and there was a very faint hint of acetone (nail-polish remover). Drunk through a straw, the drink first offered up a rich and almost buttery mouth-feel. It was immediately clear that this juice had a significant amount of vegetable fat. The initial taste was clearly tutti-frutti, the taste we associate with bubble gum, but that was followed with the taste of white chocolate. Given the close botanical relationship between cupuaçu and cacau that made perfect sense.

The drink was delicious and refreshing. I enjoyed it immensely. However, because of the high fat content of cupuaçu, you really couldn't call the juice thirst-quenching. The sensation was similar to that of eating ice cream - it cools you off but it doesn't deal with your thirst. I asked for, and received, a glass of ice water which topped of my taste-test perfectly.

It's unfortunate that fresh cupuaçu is extremely perishable and thus one needs to travel to northen Brazil to sample it. Or, rather, considering its high caloric value, it's probably fortunate for me that it's not available here in Fortaleza. I'd definitely be going back for more if it were!

INGREDIENTS - Cashew Apple (Caju)

In a couple of recent posts here on Flavors of Brazil, the two-fold division of the fruit of the Brazilian cashew tree (cajueiro) has been discussed. Botanically speaking there is the fruit itself, which is what most non-Brazilians know as the cashew nut (castanha de caju) and then there is the pseudo-fruit, which is called "cashew apple" in English and simply caju in Portuguese.

While the cashew nut is widely known and enjoyed in many parts of the world, it is primarily in Brazil where the virtues of the cashew apple are appreciated. Even in other countries, such as Vietnam, India, Nigeria and Mozambique, where there is widespread cultivation of the cashew tree for production of cashew nuts, the cashew apple is not widely consumed and usually left to rot. A situation which, to most Brazilians, would be a crime, and which from a nutritional standpoint certainly is. Cashew juice contains 200-220 mg of Vitamin C per 100 ml, plus a variety of other valuable micro-nutrients.

Brazilians indulge in the cashew apple in many forms, but by far the predominant use of this fruit is to make juice. Cashew apple juice (suco de caju) is one of the most popular and prevalent juices throughout Brazil. It is available in supermarkets everywhere, bottled or in Tetra-Paks, in the form of frozen pulp, or in the northeast of the country, freshly squeezed. The taste of cashew juice is like no other (in my experience and in the experience of many friends and acquaintances) and once tasted it becomes an iconic and uniquely Brazilian flavor. As with most unique tastes, describing the flavor of cashew juice isn't easy. However, there is one characteristic of the juice which immediately identifies it to the palate - the presence of a significant quantity of tannins - the astringent plant polyphenols which are responsible for the "woody" or "puckery" feel of black teas, red wines, and many unripe fruits. For me the presence of tannins, especially in excess, makes it feel like a have a mouthful of wooden teeth. However any individual perceives the presence of tannins, that person is likely to be able to identify their presence easily. Some people are averse to any hint of tannin, and for those people cashew juice is not a recommended waker-upper in the morning. Those who enjoy it are likely to appreciate the juice. Other than its tannic qualities, cashew juice is moderately sweet, and the taste carries a faint hint of cashew nut flavor. The texture is like a non-juicy apple.

Because the skin of the cashew apple is very thin, the fruit is not suitable for ong-distance transportation to markets outside its cultivation area. Consequently, even in Brazil, it's only in those regions where the cashew is grown that one is likely to see fresh cashew apples for sale.

Cashew apples are used to make conserves, preserves and sweets as well as juice, and the juice can be fermented and then distilled to make spirits. The largest cachaça distiller in Ceará, Ypioca, makes a distilled cashew apple spirit called Acayú.

Because of the fragility of the fruit, if you are desirous to know what a fresh cashew apple tastes like, you will probably have to come to northeast Brazil to try it. You may or may not like it when first sampling it - cashew apples and cashew apple juice are often an acquired taste - but whether you do or not, you'll definitely love this part of Brazil, so the whole trip will not be for naught.

RECIPE - Ponche da Copa (World Cup Punch)

World Cup time is party time in Brazil. When the national team is playing, the country shuts down and everyone, literally everyone, heads for a TV at home, at a party in a friend's house, in a bar or restaurant, or on the beach, where the government sets up enormous screens to show all matches. Most offices close during the time Brazil plays, and even the government-owned Banco do Brasil closes all its branches before game time. The country is awash in green and yellow, the national colors, and for a time, football (soccer for Americans) replaces weather and political scandals as everyone's favorite topic of conversation.

Up to this point, Brazil has been doing quite well in the current World Cup in South Africa, and are already assured to move on to the next round, even though they must complete this round on Friday, June 25, with a game against their old colonial masters, the Portuguese.

I'll be having a group of friends over to watch the game on Friday, and no house party in Brazil, either at World Cup time or any other time, is complete without food and drink. I've already started the preparations for a feijoada - football is Brazil's national sport, so why not serve Brazil's national dish? There will be lots of beer and soda, of course, but Brazilians love to drink fruit juices too at parties, so I'll be making a non-alcoholic fruit punch to serve during the game. It's easy to make, delicious and very thirst-quenching. After screaming one's lungs out for an entire game, it also serves to soothe a scratchy throat.
_________________________________________________
RECIPE - Ponche da Copa (World Cup Punch)

2 cups unclarified apple juice
2 cups orange juice, preferably with pulp
2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 large ice cubes
club soda
orange slices
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Place the juices, the condensed milk and the ice in a large blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a large serving jug and top with a small amount of club soda. Stir very gently to mix.

Pour into tall glasses, adding additional ice cubes if desired. Decorate each glass with an orange slice (plus a small, paper Brazilian flag if possible)