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 - Virado à Paulista

In yesterday's post, which concerned the efforts of an informal group of young chefs to preserve the traditional cuisine of São Paulo, we mentioned that one of that city's councilmen has asked the municipal heritage committee to enshrine a dish called virado à paulista in the roll of São Paulo's intangible patrimony.

Should his efforts be successful, virado à paulista will join a number of traditional festivals, dances, and other foods considered worthy of preservation in the face of global homogenization. To be worthy of such august company you'd think that virado à paulista might be a complicated or extravagant dish. Nothing of the sort - virado à paulista is a common mid-day meal in thousands of downtown and suburban restaurants and lunch bars. It's often served as a restaurant's prato feito (blue-plate special). It's never expensive and sometimes it's downright cheap. But its supporters feel that it is worthy of preservation efforts due to its long history, and also to the emotional attachment that many paulistas have to this dish they've eaten since their childhood.

Basically, virado à paulista is a full-meal plate consisting of white rice, cooked beans, manioc flour, a slice or two of garlic sausage, a thin steak, sauteed kale, a fried plantain and sometimes a fried egg. Nouvelle cuisine this ain't. Satisfying and filling, a virado à paulista is fuel for the whole day - for the body and for the paulista soul.

Although there are innumerable variations on the basic virado à paulista theme, this recipe is a fairly typical rendition. Feel free to modify it as desired - everybody has their own favorite way to make virado à paulista.
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RECIPE - Virado à Paulista
1 portion

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 cup cooked dried beans, with their broth (click here for recipe for beans)
1/3 cup farinha (dried, toasted manioc flour)
4 oz. (100 gr) sliced garlic sausage (kielbasa, linguiça or similar)
8 oz. thin beefsteak (round steak or other)
salt to taste
7 leaves kale, destemmed and cut into thin strips
1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
cooked white rice
1 fried egg, sunny-side up (optional)
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In a medium saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, then saute the onion and garlic until transparent and softened but not browned. Add the beans and their broth and heat through. Mix in the manioc flour, adding a bit at a time and mixing each batch in completely before continuing. Reduce heat to very low and cook for about five minutes, or until the manioc flour is softened. Remove from heat and reserve, keeping warm.

In a small frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and fry  the sliced sausage until browned and crispy. Remove the sausage to a small plate and reserve, keeping warm. Season the steak with salt to taste, add the final Tbsp olive oil to the pan in which the sausage was fried and fry the steak to the desired degree of doneness. Reserve the steak, keeping warm. Still using the same frying pan, briefly stir-fry the kale - just until it takes on a brilliant emerald color. Seaon with salt and reserve. Finally, fry the plantain in the same frying pan.

Assemble the plate - put a scoop of white rice and a scoop of the beans on a large deep plate. Place the steak to one side, and top with the sausage slices. Add the kale and banana slices, and if desired, top it all with a fried sunny-side-up egg. Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Top-hat Rice with Curly Parma Ham (Arroz de Cartola com Pixaim de Parma)

To top off Flavors of Brazil's Rice Week, we thought we'd finish with this "Top Hat" recipe from noted Brazilian chef Madalena Albuquerque who works out of Recife's Just Madá restaurant. So far these week we've concentrated on traditional Brazilian recipes featuring rice, but it's not just in such recipes that one finds rice featured - contemporary re-imaginings and new creations coming from Brazilian chefs also highlight the importance of rice in Brazil's diet.

This recipe takes as its starting point a traditional Brazilian dessert called cartola (the word means top hat) whose main ingredients are plantain bananas, cheese and cinnamon. In this recipe these ingredients are mixed with rice. Thes rice is then plated with a cilantro confit and topped with crispy slivers of Parma cheese to create a startlingly non-dessert, decidedly savory, cartola.
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RECIPE - Top-hat Rice with Curly Parma Ham (Arroz de Cartola com Pixaim de Parma)
Serves 4

For the curly ham
1/2 lb (200 grams) thinly sliced Parma ham, cut into chiffonade

For the cilantro confit
1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only
1 small bunch green onion, green part only
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Extra-virgin olive oil
salt to taste


For the broth
2 cups (1 liter) water
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 stick cinnamon, about 1 in (2 cm) long
For the rice
1 cup (200 gr) white long-grain rice
6 oz mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, cut into small cubes
1/3 cup cachaça
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 plaintain, not overly ripe, cut into small cubes
powdered cinnamon to taste
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To prepare the ham:
Heat an oven to 350F (180C). Place the shredded ham on a cookie sheet, separating the shreds as much as possible and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the ham is browned, crispy and curly. Let cool on cookie sheet and reserve

To prepare the cilantro confit:
Mix all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl, using as much olive oil as desired to moisten the confit. Reserve.


To prepare the rice:
First, in a saucepan or stockpot combine the ingredients for the broth, bring quickly to the boil, reduce heat and reserve, keeping at the simmering point. In another saucepan, heat the oil, then add the chopped onion and garlic and saute briefly or until the onion is transparent but not browned. Stir in the rice and continue to saute until the rice becomes mostly transparent. Add the cachaça and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the cachaça evaporates. Add half of the broth, stir to mix completely and bring to the boil. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat, until all the broth is absorbed, then add more broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, making sure that the broth is absorbed before adding more. When most of the broth has been added, check for doneness of the rice - add more broth only if necessary. Stir in the cubes of cheese and plaintain and the cinnamon stick. Remove from heat, cover the pan and let stand for about 5 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and reserve.

To plate:
In each of four deep soup plates, spread one quarter of the confit on the bottom, then mound a quarter of the rice in the centre of the plate. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon if desired, then top with the crispy ham. Serve immediately.

Recipe translated and adapted from Prazeres da Mesa magazine.

RECIPE - Risotto with Taioba and Plantains (Risoto de Taioba com Banana-da-terra)

One of the most highly-regarded chefs of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is Cantídio Lanna. A descendant of Italian immigrants, Cantídio learned to cook from his mother Pichita Lanna, and in her honor named his restaurant after her - Pichita Lanna.

Lanna's food combines styles and dishes that derive from his Italian background with fresh ingredients typical of Minas Gerais. In this dish, a classic risotto, he uses taioba, a tropical green from his regions (for more information on taioba, read the preceding post) and plantains. Since taioba is unlikely to be available to you unless you live in an area with a large Puerto Rican or Central American population, this dish is just as good made with arugula, although the flavor balance will tip away from Brazil a tiny bit and tip towards Italy. Plantains are increasingly available in supermarkets in North America and Europe.
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RECIPE - Risotto with Taioba and Plantains (Risoto de Taioba com Banana-da-terra)
Serves 5

4 ripe plaintains
1 qt. (1 lt.) light chicken or vegetable broth
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 bunches taioba, coarsely chopped (can substitute arugula)
1 lb. (500 gr.) arborio rice
1/2 bottle (375 ml.) dry white wine
salt to taste
1/2 cup salted butter
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
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Peel the plantains and cut them into rounds about 1/2 inch thick. Reserve.

Bring the broth to the simmering point and reserve.

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil over medium high heat and saute the onions until golden then add the rice and 1/3 of the taioba and continue to fry, stirring continuously, until the rice is transparent and the greens are softened. Add the wine and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the wine is fully absorbed and the rice is beginning to dry. Then add the hot broth and another 1/3 of the taioba. Add the banana slices and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the broth is absorbed and the rice is "al dente." Add in the balance of the taioba and remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter and grated cheese, mix all together, cover the pan and let rest for 2 minutes. Serve immediately, decorated if desired with some sauteed plantain slices.

Recipe adapted and translated from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.

RECIPE - Fish a Delicia (Peixe Delícia)

This traditional recipe from the state of Ceará, on Brazil's northeast coast, combines local fish fillets with plantains (banana-da-terra) in a cheesy white sauce to provide a delicious (hence the name "Delícia") and rich main course, served traditionally with white rice.

The fish that's used most commonly locally is black grouper (sirigado), but this dish works equally with with any with other white-fleshed fish such as snapper, halibut or sablefish. Plantains are increasingly available in supermarkets in North American metropolitan areas, and can also be found in Latin and Asian markets in larger cities.

As they say here in Brasil: "é uma delícia!" (It's delicious!)
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RECIPE - Fish a Delicia (Peixe Delícia)
Serves 2

1 pound (500 gr.) black grouper (sirigado) or other firm-fleshed fish fillets
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium plantains, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp. butter
2 cups bechamel sauce (click here for instructions)
1/4 lb. (100 gr.) thinly sliced mozzarella cheese (pizza-style, not fresh)
2 Tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese
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Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy frying pan over medium heat, then saute the fillets until cooked and tender. Do not let them overcook, or they will flake and fall apart. Reserve. In another  medium frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat, add the plantain slices and fry until the plantain is cooked and the slices are nicely browned.

In a ceramic or glass baking/serving dish, cover the bottom with plantain slices. Use 1 cup of bechamel to cover the plantain. Add the fish fillets in one layer, then cover with the remaining cup bechamel. Finish with a layer of mozzarella slices sprinkled with parmesan. Place in preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Serve immediately, accompanied by white rice.

Recipe adapted and translated from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.