On the Road - Salvador - Pt. 5 - Dona Mariquita's Moqueca do índio

Among the numerous "endangered" dishes to be found on the menu at Restaurante Dona Mariquita in Salvador, Bahia, is an intriguing appetizer called Moqueca do índio (Indian Moqueca). (Click here to read more about endangered dishes) The dish is described on the menu as "Pititinga roasted in banana leaf with toasted manioc crisps", but there's much more to the story of the dish than that.

pititinga

Pititingas are very small silver fish found throughout northeastern Brazil - small enough that they fit in the palm of your hand. In this dish they are combined with spices and hot chili peppers, lots of them, wrapped in fresh banana leaves, roasted over coals in a tin-can oven and served with small crispy manioc crackers as an appetizer. The dish is very spicy, smoky and with a pronounced but not overwhelming fishy flavor that is balanced by the blandness of the manioc crackers. At Dona Mariquita, the moqueca is served with the fish still in its banana leaf, surrounded by crisps. Diners simply place a couple of fish on a crisp and pop the whole thing in their mouth.

According to the restaurant's website, moqueca do índio was once common in Salvador where it was one of the traditional staple dishes of the baianas who have sold acarajé on the streets of the city since time immemorial. Today the dish has completely disappeared from Salvador, except at Dona Mariquita. In the rural districts of Bahia that surround the Bay of All Saints, from which Bahia gets its name, traditional foodways have survived longer than they have in the capital,however, and it was in those districts that Dona Mariquita's owners rescued the recipe and returned it to Salvador, where it once had been so popular.

According to the bible of Brazilian historic gastronomy, História da Alimentação no Brasil, by Luís da Câmara Cascudo, moquecas (roasted or stewed fish and seafood) were eaten by indigenous tribes in Brazil long before the arrival of Europeans in the middle of the second millennium, and can lay claim to be among the most ancient dishes of Brazilian gastronomy. Thanks to the effort of Dona Mariquita you can still eat this most primitive, and most delicious, dish at her eponymous restaurant. It behooves the diner to consider the immense age of this recipe and to hope that although Moqueca do índio may be endangered, it will not become extinct.

RECIPE - São Paulo-style Moqueca (Moqueca Paulista)

Although moquecas are associated with the Afro-Brazilian cuisine of Bahia in the minds of most people, there are numerous regional variations on the moqueca theme in traditional Brazilian cuisine. For example,  the state that is immediately south of Bahia, Espírito Santo, has its own way to make a moqueca - the liquid for the stew is made from tomatoes rather than from coconut milk and dendê oil as is done in Bahia.

The one thing that most moquecas do have in common is that they are cooked and served in a deep bowl of some sort, often clay, as they are normally rather liquid, soupy stews. However, there is one regional style of moqueca that dispenses with the deep bowl. In fact it dispenses with a serving dish of any type. Traditional paulista (from São Paulo) moquecas are served wrapped up in banana leaves, creating individual packages to be opened by diners at the table.

In the recipe archives of Fazenda Capoava, 100 km. from the city of São Paulo, there is a hand-written 19th century recipe for just such a moqueca. As part of her project of recreating recipes from the ranch's archives for use in the current-day restaurant at Fazenda Capoava, chef Heloísa Bacellar updated the old recipe for modern kitchens and modern cooks. The result - the recipe below - now has a place on the Fazenda Capoava menu.

Note: The recipe calls for the moqueca to be wrapped in banana-leaf parcels for cooking and serving. French or frozen banana leaves can often be found in Latin American and Asian food markets in metropolitan areas in North America or Europe. If you can't source banana leaves, the packages can be formed from aluminum foil, though some of their tropical charm will necessarily be lost. The same stores are good sources for farinha, also known as manioc flour, or cassava flour. This is essential to the dish and shouldn't be substituted with other types of flour.
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RECIPE - São Paulo-style Moqueca (Moqueca Paulista)
Serves 6

1 free-range chicken (about 2-3 lbs), in serving pieces, with giblets, or the same quantity of chicken pieces
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
4 cups water
2 Tbsp butter
4 very ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup green olives, pitted and chopped
1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley
12 sprigs Italian parsley
2 cups manioc flour (farinha)
4 hard-cooked eggs, peeled
salt and pepper to taste
2 full-sized banana leaves, thawed if purchased frozen (can substitute aluminum foil)
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In  a large sauce pan, combine the chicken pieces, half of the onion and garlic, the bay leaf, salt to taste and the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the chicken meat is falling off the bone. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve. Bring the cooking liquid back to the boil and cook at high heat until the liquid is reduced to about 1 cup. Reserve.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and shred it by hand. Reserve.

In a large saucepan melt the butter and when it's hot but not smoking, add the remaining onion and garlic and saute them until they are lightly golden. Then add the tomato, the olives and parsley and the reserved chicken and cooking liquid. Correct for salt and add black pepper to taste. Slowly add the manioc flour, stirring constantly, and cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens into a thick paste that begins to pull away from the sides of the pan when you stir. Remove from the heat and let cool until no more than warm.

Preheat the oven to 375F (200C). Cut the eggs into three thick slices each. Have a large baking dish ready.

Cut the banana leaves into 12 portions, each one about 8 by 8 inches (20 x 20 cm). If using aluminum foil, cut squares of the same size. On each square, put about one 12th of the moqueca mixture in the middle, place one round of egg and a sprig of parsley on top, then close and seal the package (if using banana leave, cut ties from the banana leaves and use them like gift-wrapping ribbons to seal the packages.

Put the packages in the baking dish and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the banana leaves are nicely browned. Place two packages on each plate, serve, and let the diners open their own packages at the table.

Based on material written by Camila Bianchi for Prazeres da Mesa magazine.

RECIPE - Plantain Moqueca (Moqueca de Banana)

Although the situation is slowly changing, it has to be said that Brazil is not a vegetarian's paradise. At least, not yet. Brazilians, by and large, are carnivorous creatures, and although most large cities in Brazil do have health food stores and shops that sell organic produce, when it comes to restaurants the vegetarian variety is thin on the ground. Vegetarian tourists, especially in small locations or in places where there isn't a large tourist population, can find it hard to get a complete meal that doesn't include meat.

Almost every restaurant can dish up a plate of rice and a salad, but even the beans that are served along side the rice are likely to have been made with some sort of meat in the cooking liquid to increase the flavor. Reliable options tend to be pizza, pasta dishes with tomato sauce and some types of sushi.

For a vegetarian who is also interested in traditional Brazilian cooking, the situation is even more difficult, as most traditional main dishes rely heavily on meat or seafood to provide substance and flavor. Clearly the Brazilian meat orgy known as churrasco is out of the question, and other traditional foods like carne de sol, galinha caipira and peixada don't fit the vegetarian bill either.

One of the most interesting families of dishes in traditional regional cooking in Brazil is the moqueca from the small coastal state of Espírito Santo. Even for Brazilians the word moqueca is more commonly associated with the Afro-Brazilian cuisine of Bahia state, made with fish or seafood stewed in a coconut milk and dendê oil. Yet the capixaba (meaning "from Espírito Santo") moquecas have neither coconut milk, nor dendê. They are seafood stews, like in Bahia, but the stewing liquid is made from tomatoes, onions, garlic and cilantro, accented in color and flavor by annatto.

The recipe below, from a restaurant called Gaeta in the Espírito Santo coastal resort town of Guarapari, is one that lets vegetarians set up to the moqueca table. The centerpiece of the dish is not fish, shrimp or lobster. It is the non-sweet vegetable banana called banana-da-terra in Brazil and plantain in the English speaking world. Unlike their sweet cousins, plantains must be cooked. They share some of the flavor profile of sweet bananas, without the sugar content.

The recipe is easy to make, and plantains are increasingly available in North America and Europe, especially in cities that have a significant Latin American population. If you're a vegetarian, or wish to serve a meal for vegetarian friends that carries the flavors of Brazil, this is an excellent option. It should be served with plain white rice.

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RECIPE - Plantain Moqueca (Moqueca de Banana)
Serves 4

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp annatto oil or powder (can substitute sweet paprika)
3 cloves garlic, smashed
6 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup minced cilantro
2 lbs (1 kg) very ripe plantains, peeled and cut into thick slices on the diagonal
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In a large saucepan or flameproof clay casserole heat the olive oil. Mix in the annatto or paprika, then add the chopped garlic and fry for a few minutes. Do not let the garlic brown or burn. Add the chopped tomatoes, the onion, the cilantro and salt to taste. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, or until the tomato breaks down and a sauce forms. Add the banana slices, mix well, then reduce heat, cover the pan and let cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the banana slices are tender.

Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Dona Flor's Moqueca de Siri-Mole

Dona Flor is one of the most beloved heroines in all of Brazilian literature, and came to life through the pen of Jorge Amado in his 1966 novel, Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands). Amado is probably the best-known contemporary Brazilian author of fiction, and his novels are read around the world. Dona Flor has been translated into over forty languages, and many non-readers know her through the brilliant film of the same name, directed by Bruno Barreto and released in 1976. The beautiful Brazilian actress Sonia Braga became a world-wide star by her sensitive and extremely sensual portrayal of Dona Flor.

In the novel, which is set in Salvador, Bahia in the 1940s, Dona Flor is the owner of a cooking school, called Flavor and Art Culinary School. Though the product of a strict, Catholic middle-class upbringing, she has scandalized her family and friends by marrying a local reprobate gambler and womanizer, Vadinho, with whom she is passionately in love. The novel begins with Vadinho's death, early one drunken morning of Carnaval, which leaves Dona Flor a heartbroken widow in her mid-twenties. Forced to support herself, and to pay off her beloved Vadinho's gambling debts she throws herself into her work at the cooking school.

In the novel, each section is opened by a recipe written by Dona Flor, or by a lesson from one of her cooking classes. The recipe that follows is for Moqueca de Siri-Mole and it combines a very usable recipe for this traditional soft-shelled crab dish from Bahia with Flor's pain-ridden memories of cooking this dish for Vadinho. I have translated the text from Amado's original Portuguese.

To read the recipe, just click on "read more" below.