RECIPE - Crystalized Papaya (Mamão Cristalizado)

In previous posts on Flavors of Brazil, we've discussed how Brazilian servants, cooks and housewives dealt with the problem of overabundance of fruit in the days before electric refrigeration. In colonial Brazil electric refrigeration didn't exist and indeed up to the middle of the 20th century most Brazilian households didn't have a fridge or a freezer. So when one fruit or another was in season and there was a Biblical-scale abundance of fruit on the vine, in the tree or on the bush, the cook's problem was how to preserve the fruit so it could be enjoyed later in the year.

The most common ways to preserve fruits were either to boil and can them in a sugar syrup or to process them into jams and jellies. There was a third alternative, however. As with conserves and jams, this technique relied on the preservative properties of sugar to prevent the fruit from spoiling and allow it to be stored at room temperature. But in this case, in the process known as crystalization, the fruit was cooked in a sugar syrup, but then it was drained, partially dried and rolled in granulated sugar before it stored.

The crystalization process is not unique to Brazil. It's a traditional preserving technique that is used in many cultures, and was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese. The most common example of the technique in northern hemisphere cultures might be the production of crystalized ginger (sometimes called candied ginger).

In Brazil, the technique is applied to many varieties of fruits, such as pineapple, mango, fig and especially papaya. This recipe for crystalized papaya comes from the central state of Goiás, but similar recipes can be found in traditional kitchens almost everywhere in Brazil.
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RECIPE - Crystalized Papaya (Mamão Cristalizado)

2 lbs (1 kb) not-overly-ripe papaya, seeded, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
3 cups granulated white sugar
2 cups water
3 cups granulated white sugar
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In a large saucepan combine the pieces of papaya with water to cover and add the baking soda. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. When at a rolling boil, turn off the heat, remove the pan from the stove and let the papaya cool in the water for 24 hours. The next day, drain off the water, add fresh water to cover and bring to the boil again. Remove the papaya pieces to a sieve with a slotted spoon and let drain thoroughly. Reserve.

To make the syrup heat the 2 cups water and the 3 cups sugar in another saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup is simmering. Add the reserved papaya and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool, leaving the papaya in the syrup, for 24 hours. The next day, bring the papaya and syrup gently to a slow boil and cook until the syrup has thickened considerable. Remove the papaya into a sieve and let drain thoroughly.

While the papaya is draining, spread 3 cups sugar in a shallow serving platter. When the papaya is drained but still warm and moist, roll it in the sugar, making sure that each piece is completely covered with sugar. Let the papaya cool in the sugar, mixing gently from time to time, for 24 hours.

Remove the papaya from the sugar and store in airtight containers until ready to eat.

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

RECIPE - Sweet Potato Pudding (Pudim de Batata-Doce)

After two posts detailing the importance of sugar in the traditional regional cooking of the north-eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, could we do anything other than post a VERY sweet dessert recipe from that state? I don't think so...

So here's a fairly simple recipe for making a caramelized flan/pudding/custard with a sweet potato base. The only tricky part might be making caramel, which must be done correctly and carefully to avoid mishap and injury. It's not complicated to make, and you shouldn't be too nervous about making it. The only essential thing is to watch the process carefully, especially when the sugar begins to take on color. The caramelization process happens fast, and if it isn't controlled you will end up with burnt caramel at best and a nasty kitchen fire at worst. If you want a tutorial for this process, including good photos, click on this link.

As we've mentioned in previous posts here on Flavors of Brazil, there is a lot of confusion, even among vendors at markets and supermarkets, about what is a sweet potato and what is a yam. They are two different things, and this recipe calls for sweet potatoes, not yams. Click here for more information on sweet potato vs. yam.
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RECIPE - Sweet Potato Pudding (Pudim de Batata-Doce)
makes 10 portions

For the caramel:
1 cup granulated white sugar

For the pudding:
3/4 lb (300 gr) sweet potatoes, peel and cut into chunks
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups whole milk
6 Tbsp granulated white sugar
6 Tbsp water
grated unsweetened coconut to decorate (optional)
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Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).

Make the pudding: Boil the potatoes until very tender. Drain and let cool. Put the cooked potatoes into a blender or food processor along with all the other ingredients for the pudding. Blend at medium-high speek until completely mixed and smooth. Reserve.

Make the caramel: Have a tube cake pan or Bundt pan (preferably non-stick) ready at hand. In a heavy-duty saucepan heat the cup of granulated sugar until it melts over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and bring to a boil. Watch carefully once it begins to boil and let it continue to cook until it reaches a medium caramel color. Remove from heat and immediately pour into the cake pan, swirling the caramel around the interior quickly. The caramel will begin to harden very quickly, so do this step as rapidly as possible.

Pour the pudding mixture into the caramelized cake pan. Place the pan in a lasagne pan or other oven-proof rectangular roasting dish. Put it into the oven, and pour enough boiling water into the rectangular pan to reach nearly the top of the pan. Cook for about 25-30 minutes. Use a toothpick to check if it's done - a tootpick inserted completely into the pudding should come out clean.

Remove from oven, and place the tube or Bundt pan on a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely, then reverse the cake pan over a large deep cake dish. Sprinkle with some of the optional grated coconut if desired. Serve at room temperature.

The History of Sugar in Brazil - Part 2

(This is the second of two parts of an article on the history of sugar and pastry cooking in Brazil. The article was originally published in Brazilian food and wine magazine Prazeres da Mesa, and the first part of my (somewhat free) translation was posted two days ago on Flavors of Brazil. You can find the beginning of the article by clicking here.)


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Sugar From The Beginning - continued

by Bruno Albertim

Another triumph of  regional pastry cooking, the Souza Leão Cake (Bolo Souza Leão) is considered a milestone in the independence of Brazilian regional cooking. Created on the sugar-cane plantation belonging to the eponymous family, it was almost a culinary independence manifesto. For the first time native manioc substituted for white flour in a typically aristocratic European recipe. A deliberate gesture of brazilianization.

The other ingredients in a Souza Leão Cake demonstrate the colonial excesses in a region rich in sugar. "Between one recipe (for Souza Leão Cake) and another the quantity of the ingredients required varies drastically," says Pernambucan gastronomic critic Flávia de Gusmão .  In her opinion, every branch of the Souza Leão family recreated and reinvented the cake that was created by family matriarch Rita de Souza Leão. Whereas one recipe tells you to add a kilogram of butter another will say only 450 grams (one pound). If this one mentions 12 egg yolks, that one talks of 15. When the first one calls for the the milk of seven coconuts, the second calls for only four. These numbers become so confusing that you'd have to say that Souza Leão Cake is not a recipe, it is a family of recipes. "One thing, however, is unanimous. This hybrid sweet, a mixture of cake and pudding is one of the most treasured chapters in the history of Pernambucan cooking," says Flávia de Gusmão.

Even more recent traditions bear the weight of the past. Pernambuco is the only state in all of Brazil where a properly-celebrated wedding requires the presence of a dark cake. "Normally it's made with a dark batter laced with wine and including prunes, raisins and crystalized fruits, a British tradition that was carried to only a very few places in Brazil. It's covered with an almond paste and re-covered with white frosting, a rembrance of Victoria British cooking," points out culinary historian Maria Lectícia Monteiro Cavalcanti, author of História dos Sabores Pernambucanos. In the rest of Brazil, wedding cakes are very different. In the south, wedding cakes and white with a variety of fillings, a tradition that comes from Portugal.

The Pernambucan dark wedding fruit-cake became traditional only about the turn of the 20th century, when British engineers arrived in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, to install streetlights, tramways and other engineering wonders. In proper Pernambucan weddings today, there must also be marzipan-stuffed prunes, although these are not restricted to ceremonial occasions and can be found in delicatessen display cases and on restaurant menus.

Closely linked the the historic elite class, sugar became the "sponsor" of an entire spectrum of sweetmeats. Various desserts are named in honor of aristocratic families - the Souza Leãos are merely one of many. "As a result of so much wealth from sugar cultivation, an aristocratic class developed in Pernambuco, one that Tobias Barreto called a 'sugarocracy'", comments Maria Lectícia Monteiro Cavalcanti. Consequently, prestige recipes were developed, culinary symbols of a family's wealth and social standing. "In some cases, recipes were created to commemorate social movements - the 13th of May, Cabano,  or Guararapes - or to famous persons, such as Dr. Constâncio, Dona Dondon, Dr. Gerônimo, Luiz Felipe, Tia Sinhá. Or, even, families would create their own recipes to honor themselves - Assis Brasil, Cavalcanti," says Lectícia.

The History of Sugar in Brazil - Part 1

Brazilian sugar plantation - 1816

Anyone with a smattering of knowledge about the history of Brazil is aware that in the first centuries of Portuguese colonization in Brazil, the impetus for the settlement of Brazil and the economic engine of the colony, and indeed of Portugal itself, was cane sugar. Particularly in the region of Brazil now known as the Northeast, enormous sugar plantations with their graceful and elegant "big houses" (casas grandes) and their multitudes of African slaves living in hovels (senzalas) produced thousands of tons of sugar and sugar products, for which there was a seemingly endless appetite for in Europe.

In the September 2001 issue of Brazilian food magazine Prazeres da Mesa, there is an article on the history of sugar in Brazil and on the importance of sugar in traditional Brazilian cooking. It was written by Bruno Albertim, from Recife, Pernambuco, which is located right in the middle of the traditional sugar-cane growing region of Brazil. Because it details the history so well, and explains how sugar is locked into local culinary traditions, Flavors of Brazil has (freely) translated it for readers of the blog and will post it in two parts - today and Monday.

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Sugar From The Beginning

by Bruno Albertim

"Without sugar," explains noted Brazilian anthropoligist Gilberto Freyre, "one cannot understand the man of the Northeast." This ouro branco (white gold) was the incentive and catalyst for the Portuguese conquests of the region, and also the key factor in the development of a Brazilian gastronomy of sweets. Enabler of Portuguese colonization on these shores of the Atlantic, sugar is evident everywhere in Brazilian cuisine. It was the element that enabled Brazil as we have come to know it to exist and, consequently, the keystone in the development of a cooking tradition that has evolved from its Portuguese roots. In Pernambuco, sugar is still paving innovations and traditions to this day.

With sugar cane growing literally in the backyards of the old plantations, sugar was commonly combined with the fruits of the earth in plantation kitchens. In colonial times, the Portuguese colonists believed that consuming fresh fruit could be harmful. Fresh fruit required sugar to "tame" it. A repertoire of traditional sweets and jams was developed at that time, and the same repertoire, trimmed of the original excesses, still holds prominent place in the palate of Pernambuco. "It is still very common to keep traditional  Pernambuco-style compote or pastry at home," says professor of gastronomy Cleonice Ferraz, who discussed this habit recently in Recife. At a recent trade show she demonstrated the process of turning tradition to innovation by using a jelly made from a fruit called umbu to make an acidic citrus ganache for filling chocolate straws. She was inspired by a traditional country recipe called umbuzada, a kind of soup made ​​from fresh umbu fruit, and turned it into something new. 

Celebrated throughout Brazil, Pernambuco pastry cooking comprises both local tradition and inspiration from the old country. The famous Pernambuco bolo de rolo (jelly roll cake) is a perfect example. It has been declared part of the state's cultural patrimony, but it really is nothing more than an adaptation of the Portuguese cake called rocambole or "bride's mattress".  What has changed in the adaptation of the Portuguese recipe is the substitute of Brazilian guava paste for the original marzipan and the culinary skill and techniques required. "A bolo de rolo must have layers of cake and guava filling that are as thin and fine as possible, and so it is no longer really a rocambole," says professor Ferraz.


(to be continued Monday)

Caldo de Cana - Brazil's Liquid-Sugar Drink

It's no secret that Brazilians, on the whole, have a VERY sweet tooth. Fruit juices, even those from sweet fruits, are normally highly sugared, desserts can be achingly sweet, coffee is invariably drunk very sweet, and I've even seen kids plopping a tablespoonful or two of sugar into a glass of milk before drinking it. Considering Brazil's long and complicated history of producing sugar from sugar cane, it's really no surprise.

When a Brazilian wants a real sugar rush, however, he or she doesn't have to drink a fruit juice, or eat a pastry or cake - it's easy to get the real thing, unfiltered and unflavored. If you peel sugar cane itself, then run the cane through a pressing machine it yields a greenish-yellow juice called caldo de cana (cane broth) or garapa. This same pressing process, on an industrial scale, is the starting point for refining every type of sugar cane product, from molasses, through rum and cachaça, to brown sugar and on to the highly refined white sugars. On a much more artisanal scale thousands of small hand-cranked or electric presses can be found on streets and beaches in markets and fairs all over Brazil grinding out the juice which satisfies the national addiction for sugar.

Caldo de cana is not a highly flavored drink, and the overwhelming impression when drinking it is one of pure sweetness, pure sugar. Considering that it is normally between 40 and 50% sucrose by dry weight, it's no wonder that one's taste buds busily scream out "sweet, sweet, sweet!" when one drinks caldo de cana. The juice, otherwise, has little aroma or taste.

Although Brazilians love to gulp down a glass of iced caldo de cana on a hot day, I find that its high sugar content prevents it from being a thirst quencher. And for me, at least, the lack of a specific flavor diminishes its appeal. I'd much rather have a fruit juice with a lower sugar quotient and a bit of a citric/acidic punch when I'm thirsty. But I'm in the minority in this country - at least judging by the length of the lines in front of caldo de cana stands everywhere in Brazil. Lines of folks just waiting for their sugar fix to be freshly pressed and poured into a glass. Bottom's up!

RECIPE- Guavas in Syrup (Goiaba em Calda)

In yesterday's post about traditional food preparation techniques, I mentioned that I would be posting some Brazilian recipes which highlight the way the culinary traditions of Brazil were shaped by the necessity to preserve foods in the tropical heat of this country.

One of the economic foundations of the early Portuguese colonies which eventually became Brazil was the sugar cane plantation. Particularly in Brazil's northeastern regions, the cultivation of sugar cane was the economic incentive for the formation of colonies, and the profits from world-wide trade in Brazilian sugar sustained not only the colonies themselves, but the mother country of Portugal. Sugar was an important trade item not only because humans are genetically coded to appreciate sweet foods, but because of sugar's preservative qualities. In an age before electric refrigeration, preserving food, particularly fruits, in sugar allowed it to remain edible for an extended period of time.

One of the easiest techniques for preserving fruits is to cover them with a sugar syrup. The sugar syrup retards spoilage, and allows the taste of fresh fruit to be enjoyed months after the harvest season. Because of the abundance of sugar on sugar cane plantations, preserving fruits this was was a common practice, and the Brazilian palate developed a taste for fruits in sugar syrup (calda in Portuguese).

Although freezing, dehydrating, and other preservation techniques are available today in Brazil, Brazilians still love fruits in syrup, and there are numerous recipes for every possible type of fruit. Here is a recipe for guava in syrup that comes from the northeastern state of Pernambuco.
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RECIPE- Guavas in Syrup
Serves 10

15 ripe, firm guavas
5 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 quart (1 litre) water
12 cloves
2 inch (5 cm.) piece, cinnamon stick
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Peel the guavas. Halve them, then remove the seedy core of the fruit. Reserve.

In a large saucepan or stockpot, combine the sugar, water, cloves and cinnamon stick, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a slow boil over medium high heat, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the syrup thickens to the point it coats a spoon. (Do not let over-thicken).

Add the guava halves to the syrup, and continue cooking until the guava is tender and easily pierced with the point of a small knife. Do not overcook.

Let guava cool in syrup. Left in syrup, the guavas can remain up to three weeks in the refrigerator. Alternatively, they can be processed and canned in glass jars, using standard canning techniques to ensure sterilization.

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

Rapadura - Sugar At Its Most Basic

At one end of the spectrum is white table sugar, which has been cleaned, refined and standardized as far as possible. At the other end of that same spectrum is rapadura, a traditional ingredient in Brazil's northeast, which is as close to sugar cane, the origin of Brazilian sugar, as possible. It's everything white table sugar is not - dark colored, dense, sticky and strongly flavored. It's nibbled whole as a simple pick-me-up or dessert, it's grated to sprinkle on fancy puddings and tortes, and it's melted to add sweetness and complexity to sauces sweet and savory. (For a delicious chicken recipe with a sauce containing rapadura and cachaça, click here)

Rapadura is basically nothing more than unrefined sugar cane juice which has been boiled and evaporated into a solid state. It is almost pure sucrose or fructose. It is an ancient product, and is usually artesanally made, even today. Similar primitive solid sugar products are well-loved in many parts of the world - panela in Colombia, piloncillo in Mexico and jaggery in India. Because these sugars are important in a number of national and regional cuisines, they are not difficult to obtain in ethnic food markets in North America - ask for them by regional name. I have found piloncillo in Latin American markets in a number of North American cities, and jaggery in Indian markets.