Brazil's Time in the Sun - The New Decade

I'm not sure what we will eventually call the decade we're just embarking on - it's still not clear if we left "The Noughties" or "The Noughts" or something else last New Year's Eve at midnight. Will it be "The Teens"? I kind of hope not, as that has an unmistakable adolescent ring about it. Whatever the nickname turns out to be for the decade from 2010 to 2019 (or does the decade run from 2011 to 2020?) I'm convinced that it will be decade in which Brazil takes center place on the world stage. This rapidly growing country of 195 million people is already the Latin American economic powerhouse, and economists predict that by the end of the decade Brazil will have the world's fifth-largest economy.

Brazil has long been thought of, if it's been thought of at all, outside of Latin America as a beautiful, sexy but dangerous country full of beaches, gorgeous inhabitants and poverty. Although there is some basis to that stereotype, the reality of Brazil and it's position in the world has changed dramatically in the recent past, and it can no longer be reduced to a few postcard views and sensational newsclips in the eyes of the world.

With the end of the 2010 World Cup this weekend in Africa, Brazil is already looking ahead to the first of two big worldwide showcases for Brazil in this decade, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in 12 cities in Brazil from June 13 to July 13, 2014. Since Brazil's team has already been defeated at this year's edition, local coverage has already begun to emphasize the next World Cup here in Brazil. Of course there are already TV commercials from World Cup sponsors, and the TV networks are full of stories of the challenges facing the organizing committee. And yesterday in Johannesburg, in a splashy public ceremony Brazil officially started its World Cup celebrations with a concert by well-known Brazilian musical artists, a speech by Brazil's overwhelmingly popular president, Lula, and the unveiling of the official logo for the 2014 games, pictured at right. The logo is a stylized version of the World Cup itself, in Brazil's colors of yellow and green with the year 2014 written in red.

Of course, the 2014 World Cup is only the first of two huge international sporting events during the decade. In 2016 Rio de Janeiro will host the Summer Olympic Games, the first time they've been held in South America.

As the spotlight shines on Brazil in the lead-up to these events, I'm convinced there will be international appeal for all things Brazilian - music, film, fashion, sports and of course food. I hope that during the next while, Flavors of Brazil can do its own tiny bit to make the culture of this marvelous country more well known thoughout the world. I can't wait, it's going to be a great decade.

RECIPE - Rice with Kale (Arroz de Couve)

Recently, Flavors of Brazil has featured some traditional recipes from Brazil which are unlikely to every be tested or tasted by this blog's readers - one or more of the ingredients are not commercially available in North America or Europe, where the bulk of Flavors of Brazil's readers come from. As one of the purposes of this blog is to share what I've learned of Brazilian culinary traditions, I don't intend to stop posting such recipes - I, for one, enjoy reading recipes that I know I'll never, ever cook, but that I find unusual, different or unique. I hope that the blog's readers do to.

However, it is also good, from time to time, to post recipes that are traditional Brazilian but which can be cooked with relative ease almost anywhere in the world. Such recipes can be equally interesting, and provide the added bonus of being straightforward and easy to cook at home. I continually look for such recipes to post on this blog.

The recipe below is one such recipe. It's a traditional dish from the state of Maranhão, a state which has been featured in several recent posts. It's called Rice with Kale (Arroz de Couve in Portuguese) and it's an easy, delicious and healthy side dish perfect for serving with meat or fish main courses.

Kale is a green that is has a prominent position in the cuisines of many regions of Brazil, such as Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Minas Gerais. (Click here for kale cooked in the style of Minas Gerais.) It's available year round in supermarkets, and is one of the healthiest foods to be found. Give this recipe a try, I know it will end up being a favorite.
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RECIPE - Rice with Kale (Arroz de Couve)
Serves 4

2 cups kale, washed, trimmed and cut into thin strips
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups cooked long-grain white rice (freshly cooked or leftover)
salt to taste
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In a large heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the strips of kale and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, or until the strips slightly wilt and turn a brilliant green. Stir in the rice, and heat, continuing to stir, until the rice and kale are thoroughly mixed, and the rice is coated with oil and heated through. Remove from heat.

Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Bilimbi conserve (Conserva de Biri-Biri)

Bilimbi, an acidic cousin of the star fruit, is used in amny dishes of the cuisine of southern Bahia as a replacement for citrus fruit, and is also appreciated on its own as a jam, pickle or relish.

This recipe, from the beautiful small resort town of Porto Seguro in southern Bahia, is a simple way to preserve the bounty of the bilimbi harvest for use during other seasons of the year, when the bilimbi is not available fresh. Since almost every backyard in Porto Seguro has a bilimbi tree, the local inhabitants never have a problem with a shortage of bilimbi at harvest time, rather the reverse - what to do with the abundance of bilimbi ripening all over town. This is one solution.
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RECIPE - Bilimbi conserve (Conserva de Biri-Biri)

2 quarts (liters) cold water
sea salt to taste
12 bilimbis, thoroughly washed
fresh ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 thick slice yellow onion
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In a large pan, bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the bilimbis, then immediately cover the pan and let cool to room temperature.

Sterilize a one-quart canning jar, using standard techniques and safety measures. Pack half full with bilimbis, then add the bay leave and onion slice, and the remaining bilimbis. Pour the cooking liquid over the fruits to fill the jar. Seal the jar and process using the boiling water method, or alternatively, seal the jar and place in the refrigerator. Let stand for at least 2 weeks, then serve as an accompaniment to meat dishes or with cocktails and aperitifs.

Recipe translated and adapted from Viagem Gastronômica através do Brasil by Caloca Fernandes (Editora Senac)

INGREDIENTS - Biri-Biri aka Bilimbi

Originating in tropical Asia (Phillipines or Molucca Islands) the fruit of the bilimbi tree (Averrhoa bilimbi )is an important food source in Asia, Africa and in one small region of Brazil, the southern coast of the state of Bahia. It is virtually unknown elsewhere in Brazil, but plays an important role in the cuisine of southern Bahia, where it is known as most commonly as biri-biri but also as bilimbi, or caramboleira amarela.

Bilimbi is a close relative of the carambola or star fruit and shares a high level of acidity with that plant. It is used in Asia to provide acidity to curries and sauces, and it the major ingredient in many jams, relishes, pickles and chutneys. It also has medicinal uses, and with its high acidity is used in cleaning and bleaching solutions. In Malaysia is is even used to clean the traditional dagger, the kris.

In Porto Seguro and other towns of southern Bahia many residents have a bilimbi tree in the backyard. The tree was probably brought to the region by Portuguese colonists who found it in Asia, and brought it to their tropical colonies in the Americas. No one is sure why the bilimbi is so extensively cultivated in southern Bahia and almost nowhere else in Brazil, though some food historians speculate that it might be due to the fact that the region is not suited for cultivation of citrus fruits, and consequently the bilimbi is cultivated to provide a culinary replacement for citrus fruits and juices in dishes where acidity is required or desired.

The fruits of the bilimbi tree are about the size and shape of a small zucchini and are a bright green. They can be eaten raw, but are extremely sour due to their acidity and are usually cooked to reduce  acidity. In Bahia they are used to make both savory and sweet conserves, and the presence of these on a table is a distinctive trait of the traditional regional cuisine.

Bilimbi can be successfully grown in the USA, though only in tropical regions or Florida and Hawaii. Seeds are available online at Tropilab, Inc.

In the next few posts on Flavors of Brazil, I'll provide recipes for a savory conserve of bilimbi as well as a sweet bilimbi jelly.

RECIPE - Piranha Soup (Caldo de Piranha)

The famously ferocious piranha is an important food fish in the Pantanal - the world's largest wetland, located in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. During the half of the year that the Pantanal is flooded, its rivers, lakes and ponds abound with fresh-water fish, including the needle-toothed carnivorous piranha. The piranha is generally caught with nets, though their teeth wreak havoc on the nets and they must be extracted with extreme care if one wishes to avoid a nasty bite. But residents of the Pantanal prize the flavor and taste of the piranha so much that they are willing to take the risks involved in fishing for them.

It's extremely unlikely that most readers of Flavors of Brazil will ever have the opportunity to make the following recipe at home. Availability of piranhas at local markets is a definite problem, and fishing for them entails risks. The geographical range of this fish has traditionally been restricted to South America, although, according to Wikipedia, aquarium piranhas have been introduced into parts of the USA with specimens occasionally found in the Potomac River and Lake of Ozarks. So readers from those regions just might be able to impress friends and family with a nice bowl of piranha soup. In any case, here is how it's made.

(Although I haven't tried to do so, I think this soup could be made successfully with many different small fresh-water fish, such as perch, walleye, pike, etc.)
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RECIPE - Piranha Soup (Caldo de Piranha)

4 lbs (2 kg) piranhas - approximately 10 fish
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 Tbsp. white wine or cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 large green bell pepper, cut into julienne strips
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. green onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
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Clean and descale the fish, then cut them into large chunks. Place the chunks of fish in a large bowl and season with the garlic, lime juice, vinegar and salt and pepper to taste, then let marinate in the refrigerator for approximately 2 hours.

In a large saucepan, heat the 1/2 cup of oil over medium high heat. Add the chunks of piranha and stir-fry for a few minutes. Lower the heat, then add boiling water to cover the fish, bring to a boil, then cover and cook for 10 minutes, or until the fish is tender. Remove from heat, then using a strainer remove the fish from the broth, reserving both.

Let the fish cool. Once cool enough to handle, carefully remove all bones from the pieces of fish. Place the fish pieces and the reserved broth in a blender or food processor and blend until you have a smooth mixture. Reserve.

In another saucepan heat the 2 Tbsp. oil over medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes, the green pepper strips and the copped onion and cook until the onions are transparent and all ingredients are softened. Add the piranha broth from the blender or food processor to the pan, then the chopped green onion and cilantro. Heat thoroughly.

Remove from heat, pour into a serving tureen and serve immediately, accompanied by hot-pepper sauce.

Recipe translated and adapted from Viagem Gastronômica através do Brasil by Caloca Fernandes (Editora Senac)

Eating Carnivorous Fish - The Piranha

The family of small fresh-water fish known zoologically as Characidae and known commonly as Piranhas has a reputation for ferocity and voraciousness that is more legend than reality. That's not to say that piranhas are vegetarians, or that they are dainty eaters, it's more that everything most people know about piranhas is exaggerated at the minimum and untrue at the maximum. The myth that a school of piranhas can reduce a human or cow to an instant skeleton appears to have been started by American President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to Brazil in the early 20th Century. At that time local Amazonian fisherman, in a successful attempt to impress the President blocked off a tributary of the Amazon with nets and filled it with starving piranhas. They then chopped up a slaughtered cow and threw the pieces into the stream, thereby setting off a "feeding frenzy" which quickly reduced the carcass to bones and provided the inspiration for hundreds of bad horror films, including at least 6 films entitled Piranha, according to IMDb.

There are about 40 species of piranhas in the rain forests, marshes and rivers of South America, ranging from Venezuela to Argentina, although the majority of piranha species live in Brazil - either in the rivers of the Amazonian Basin, or in the wetlands in west-central Brazil known as the Pantanal. What all piranhas have in common is a mouthful of particularly sparp and efficient teeth which makes them very good predators, their small size notwithstanding. All species of piranhas have a single row of sharp teeth in both jaws; the teeth are tightly packed and interlocking and are employed for rapid puncture and shearing.

Although the name piranha is well-known outside South America, it's not very well known that humans eat many more piranhas every year than the other way around. In the Amazonian region of Brazil, as well as in the Pantanal in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, piranhas are a commercial food fish and are eaten in a number of ways - grilled, roasted, and in soups and broths. As the piranha is a small and relatively bony fish, it takes of number of them to serve a tableful of eaters - but as the rivers and streams of the region abound in them, they can be eaten in good conscious. And with a bit of a sense of revenge.

RECIPE - Rice with Cuxá (Arroz de Cuxá)

Here is another recipe from the Brazilian state of Maranhão. It features the characteristic flavor of the acidic green vinagreira, in rice dish that approaches the complexity of a risotto.

Rice is one of the most important components of the cuisine of Maranhão and was brought there by Portuguese colonists who had first learned of the grain in Asia. Rice was cultivated in Maranhão as far back as 1745 and it was primarily rice from Maranhão that fed those colonies that became Brazil. In colonial times Maranhão rice was also exported to Europe. The predominance of rice cultivation in Maranhão led to the creation there of a number of dishes based on rice, combining the grain with bacon, carne de sol, crab, shrimp or vinagreira. Rice combined with vinagreira eventually came to be called rice with cuxá (arroz de cuxá in Portuguese.)

Rice with cuxá is typically served as a side dish to accompany seafood main courses such as crab or shrimp pie, or fried fish or shrimp. Local cooks say that it takes a long time to learn how to properly prepare rice with cuxá because when the proportion of rice to vinagreira is correct, the dish becomes inedible. If too much vinagreira is added the dish becomes bitter and overly acidic. If not enough, the dish remains bland and flavorless. Only someone who has been making rice with cuxá all their life knows exactly how much to throw in the pot.
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RECIPE - Rice with Cuxá (Arroz de Cuxá)
Serves 4

1 lb (500 gr) dried shrimp (available in Asian markets)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted white sesame seeds
1 1/2 cup cooked vinagreira leaves, chopped
4 cups water
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup manioc flour
3 cups cooked long-grain white rice
salt to taste
Chopped green onion to garnish
1 red chile pepper to garnish
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Wash the shrimp in a sieve under cold running water. Reserve. Combine the onion and sesame seeds in a food processor and process until a homogenous paste is formed. Reserve. Bring the 4 cups water to a boil and add several handfuls of vinagreira leaves. Boil only until the leaves become limp and lose their bright color. Drain and immediately refresh the leaves in cold water. Drain again. Coarsely chop the leaves, and measure 1 1/2 cups.

Heat the oil in a large heavy frying pan and add the garlic and the onion/sesame paste. Cook until the mixture is lightly browned, then add the 1 1/2 cup water and the manioc flour. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 8 minutes. Add the shrimp and the chopped vinagreira and stir to combine. Finally add in the cooked rice, season to taste with salt, and continue to stir and cook until the rice is heated through.

Remove from heat, put onto a serving platter or in a bowl, garnish with the green onion and chile pepper then serve immediately.

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