RECIPE - Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

In my previous post about guerrilla dining in São Paulo, I discussed the multicultural qualities of Brazil's largest city. São Paulo is home to the world's largest Japanese population outside Japan itself, and the city has large and vibrant Italian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Syrian, Yugoslavian and Spanish communities. Since the last years of the 19th Century, Brazil has welcomed more than 6 million immigrants, and with succeeding generations these ethnic groups have grown and flourish, no where more so than in São Paulo. During the peak years of immigration, from just after the abolition of slavery in 1886 until the beginning of the First World War, most immigrants to São Paulo state came to work on coffee plantations, which had lost their previous source of labor with the end of slavery. Other immigrants came to work in textile factories, other industrial plants and in shops and restaurants.

Just as in the USA or Canada, most of this immigrant population has now been thoroughly assimilated. But also just as in North America, traditions that came to Brazil with immigrants more than a century ago are still alive - particularly culinary traditions. In São Paulo you can find sushi, pita bread, pizza, paella and all other sorts of immigrant dishes (this is also true of most large cities in Brazil, but particularly true of São Paulo).

Here's a recipe from São Paulo for a very Italian dish, Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Almôndegas ao Molho de Tomate). I'm sure you can find similar recipes in Italy, or even more so in Toronto or Boston. Brazilian food encompasses the world even as it remains uniquely Brazilian.
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RECIPE - Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Serves 6

(For the meatballs)
4 slices good-quality white bread
1/2 cup whole milk
2 lbs. (1 kg.) lean ground beef
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups neutral vegetable oil (for frying)

(For the sauce)
3 Tbsp. butter
12 med. tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
salt to taste
1 cup water
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Make the meatballs: Shred the slices of bread and soak them in the milk for 10 minutes. Mix together in large bowl the meat, the onion and garlic, salt and pepper, the soaked bread and the eggs. Continue mixing with your hands until a consistent mixture has formed. Using your hands, make uniform-sized meatballs of approximately 1 inch (2 cm.) diameter. Put the flour in a large paper or plastic bag, and dust the meatballs, a few at a time, in the flour. Reserve the meatballs.

Heat the oil in a deep, heavy saucepan..Fry the meatballs in small batches until well-browned. Remove meatballs from pan, and drain them on paper towels to remove excess oil.

Make the sauce: In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic, and parsley and season to taste. Add the water, cover the pan, and continue cooking over medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, until the tomato has softened into a thick sauce. If necessary, add a small additional quantity of water.

Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and cook for 5 minutes.

Serve immediately with white rice or pasta.


Translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora 

Guerrilla Dining Comes to Brazil - São Paulo's Patuá

As Brazil becomes more connected to global culture, and foreign influences are increasingly imported into Brazil, the gateway for importation of these influences is more often than not São Paulo. This enormous, sprawling metropolis that is home to more than 20 million people has always been the most multi-cultural of Brazil's cities, and the most influenced by immigrant cultures. In today's sophisticated and worldly São Paulo, trends from other world style, fashion and culture metropolises show up very quickly.

In the past few years, in the USA, Canada, UK, and Continental Europe, a new type of restaurant has developed, usually called "underground" or "guerrilla." In a private home or other private space, such restaurants avoid many of the bureaucratic hassles of a street-front restaurant, and being unpublicized in traditional media, they can better control the quantity and quality of their patrons. Besides, being "clandestine" adds to the cachet.

It was probably inevitable that this trend would reach São Paulo, and according to an article in today's Folha de S. Paulo, it has. Interestingly, the restaurant discussed in the article is not avant-garde, or modish; rather it is a traditional Bahian restaurant, serving traditional food. The restaurant is called Patuá, and although the address is not given in the article, the newspaper locates it in a district called Bexiga, a central-city district known for art, culture and cuisine. The owner, cook, waitress and hostess of Patuá is Helia Bispo, known to all her patrons as Bá. Migrating from Bahia state to São Paulo  in 1989, Bá made her living selling acarajé in the evening on Av. 13 de Maio. In 2001, city regulations prevented her from continuing to sell her product on the street, and she began a catering business from her home. As the business grew, and the customer list too, Bá decided to do full dinners in her house for a selected group of clients, and thus Patuá was born. At Patuá, she of course offers acarajé as well as other traditional dishes of Bahian cuisine, such as  bobó de camarão.

Most of the clientele at Patuá  are regulars, and often reluctant to pass on contact information, but if you'd like to make a reservation, call  +55.11.3115-0513 and speak to Bá. If she likes the sound of your voice, she'll divulge Patuá's address and invite you for a meal.

Cajuína - Northeastern Brazil's Own Soft Drink

In a world dominated by soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi (and here in Brazil by Guaraná Antartica) it's "refreshing" to discover a soft drink that is delicious, regional, artesanally produced and actually not all that bad for you. I've found such a drink here in Fortaleza, and it's called Cajuína.

Cajuína is a lightly-carbonated soft drink made from the juice of the caju fruit (the fruit that gives us the cashew nut). Because it has been filtered and treated, it really cannot be considered juice, rather a juice product, or soft drink. To make cajuína juice is extracted from caju fruits and then filtered. Gelatin is added to eliminate the substance in caju juice that causes tightening of the throat. Then the tannins are removed from the cajuína, in order to rid  it of that "woody" taste they cause. Finally it is clarified into the clear amber-yellow final product, and then bottled. Most production of cajuína comes from small artesanal producers and a few larger regional ones.

Cajuína is is strongly associated with Brazil's Northeast (Nordeste) and is little known outside the region. It is particularly associated with the state of Piauí, one of Brazil's least populated, and poorest states. There is an annual cajuína festival in the state's capital, Teresina, and the cajuína has been declared the official beverage of Piauí.

Because cajuína is derived from pure fruit juice, with no added sugars, it is a healthier alternative to more commercial soft drinks. A 12 oz. (350 ml.) bottle contains approximately 100 calories. Cajuína also has strong anti-oxidant properties, and a large quantity of vitamin C and minerals.

Should you ever come to Brazil's Nordeste, it is worth your while to search out cajuína. It's something you aren't likely to find anywhere else in the world, and in today's global marketplace, that alone makes it special. The fact that it is naturally delicious and very refreshing should be the only additional incentives you need to give it a try.

Açaí makes the New York Times

In it's February 23rd edition, the New York Times published an interesting article on açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-EE), a fruit of the Amazonian rain forest that has recently become, in the words of the article's author, Seth Kugel, a "Global Super Fruit." (Click here for a link to the article.) Due to its claimed health benefits, açaí is now an ingredient in everything from ice cream to face creams, from pizza crust to Snapple red tea.

In his article, Kugel discusses the rapid and explosive growth in the export market for açaí in the last ten years. In 2000, virtually no açaí was exported from Brazil (380 metric tons only), but by 2009 that figure had grown to 9,400 metric tons. Almost all of that quantity comes from the Amazonian state of Pará, and is exported through its capital, Belém.

Açaí has long been popular throughout Brazil, but it is only in the rain forest regions of Brazil's north that it has been a staple food. In other regions of Brazil it is normally eaten as a health food meal or snack. According to Kugel, it is in the rain forest where the international growth of the açaí market has become a double-edged sword.Açaí producers are finally able to realize a decent profit from the production of the fruit, but at the same time, increased prices make açaí more expensive for local inhabitants, who are often very poor.

When I first ate açaí in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, quite a few years ago, I fell in love with its earthy taste. I considered it one of those Brazilian gastronomic treasures that were hidden from the world outside Brazil, and thought it would stay that way. Today's article in the NYT shows me just how wrong I was. Açaí seemed poised to join Gisele Bundchen, Ronaldinho, the samba and flip-flops as one of Brazil's most popular exports.

RECIPE - Make your own "carne de sol"

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of carne de sol to traditional Brazilian cuisine, and how it differed from other salted meat products. I even gave a quick lesson in how to make carne de sol the traditional way. However, unless you happen to live in a place that has eternal sunshine, daily temperatures reaching into the high 90s F (35C), and a steady 25 mph (40 kmh) wind, you are unlikely to be very successful. Outside Brazil, you are even more unlikely to find it at your local market.

I wanted to include some carne de sol recipes on Flavors of Brazil, but I considered that it would be fruitless to do so, as readers outside Brazil would not have access to carne de sol itself. Then I luckily came across a source that gave instructions for imitating carne de sol anywhere in the world. I tried out this technique, and although the resulting product isn't exactly like carne de sol, it's similar enough that it can be substituted for carne de sol in any recipe on this blog. Let's call it "faux carne de sol".

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RECIPE - Carne de sol

1 piece top sirloin, 2 lbs. (1 kg.), sliced horizontally into 2 pieces, 1 inch (2 cm.) thick
2 Tbsp. kosher table salt

Bring meat to room temperature before working. Rub salt into all surfaces of the meat. Let rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cover each piece tightly with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 12 hours. Remove from freezer and immediately grill, over medium heat, for 15 minutes. Then serve, or cool and reserve for use in another recipe.

Translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora

Carne de Sol - Brazil's "Meat of the Sun"

One of the most iconic foods of Brazil bears the poetic name of "meat of the sun" (carne de sol in Portuguese.) In actuality, the name is more poetic than truthful, but we'll come to that later. Like many other beloved traditional foods, carne de sol originated as a practical solution to a difficult problem, and only later became valued for its gastronomic qualities. In this case, the problem was how to preserve fresh meat in a hot, dry environment without access to refrigeration. The solution was carne de sol. Created as a necessity, it became a favorite food.

Carne de sol is a product of the hot, semi-arid interior of Northeastern Brazil (Nordeste), where the sun is constant and fierce and the wind is strong for most of the year. It is normally made from beef, but can also be made with goat meat. The fresh meat is cut into thin steaks, lightly salted and left outdoors in a covered and well-ventilated place for 2 to 4 days. (Because it is normally left in a covered place, it is not exposed to direct sunlight. This is why it really isn't "carne de sol." The photo on the right shows carne de sol in sunlight, but this is the exception.) Exposed to the dry heat and wind for this short period of time, the meat undergoes a rapid drying process that gives it a hard, salty surface which protects and preserves the moist and tender interior of the meat. Once cured, it can be kept unrefrigerated for long periods of time without spoiling.

Since prehistory, people have used salt and/or dehydration to preserve foods from spoilage. In Brazil, these techniques seem not to have been known to the indigenous population prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, but became widespread shortly after. Portugal had long used salting and dehydrating to preserve fish, notably the salt-cod known in Portuguese as bacalhau. The early ranchers and cowboys of Northeastern Brazil merely adapted the techniques of bacalhau to local livestock, and carne de sol was born.

Carne de sol is not the only salted meat that is traditionally part of Brazilian cuisine. Other similar products are carne-seca, charqui, and frescal. In later posts, I'll discuss these meats, and how they differ from carne de sol, in production and geographical distribution. But carne de sol is the most common, and most well-loved of Brazil's dried, salted meats.

Carne de sol can be grilled whole, cubed and added to stews, or shredded and used in a large variety of dishes. In the next few posts, I'll provide some of the most typical recipes for carne de sol.

RECIPE - Pitanga Jam

As I mentioned in my previous post on the Brazilian fruit called pitanga, most of the crop in Brazil is eaten fresh or the fruit is turned into juice. One other common use, however, is in the production of jams and jellies, where the pitanga can be put to very good use with spectacular results. Pitanga jam is not highly commercialized, even here in Brazil, but I have bought small jars in roadside fruit stands, or in shops which carry artesanal foods.

I was unable to find a good recipe for pitanga jam in any of my regular Brazilian recipe sources. I did want to add one to Flavors of Brazil, and by searching on the internet under one of the English names of this fruit, Surinam Cherry, I found an interesting recipe from Africa in a blog called African Kitchen. I am publishing the recipe here adapted from that blog. I have not made nor tested this recipe, but I will do so in the near future. It sounds wonderful.
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RECIPE - Pitanga Jam

6 cups fresh pitangas, washed, halved and seeded
2-3 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (or lime juice)

Combine all ingredients and cook slowly over low heat until the mixture is soft and thickened. Mash with potato masher to break up the fruit. Cool, then refrigerate. Alternatively, the jam can be processed for longer storage, using conventional canning techniques.