RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)

In the last post on Flavors of Brazil, I mentioned that the most famous dish on the menu at Fortaleza's Docentes & Decentes restaurant was a creamy dish of fresh black-eyed peas (feijão verde). It has been chosen a number of times and by a number of critics as the best version of this traditional dish to be found in the city's restaurants. The restaurant's logo even includes the phrase "o melhor feijão verde da cidade", which means "the city's best black-eyed peas."

Although the exact recipe used by Docentes & Decentes is a closely-guarded secret, the following recipe, translated and adapted from the Brazilian website Tudo Gostoso, is a very close approximation. The recipe calls for fresh black-eyed peas, but if you cannot find them, you can use a equal quantity of dried black-eyed peas that have been soaked in cold water for 24 hours to rehydrate them. The quantity of black-eyed peas should be measured from their reconstituted weight in this case, not from their dry weight.
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RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)
Serves 10

2 lbs (1 kg) fresh or rehydrated black-eyed peas
3 small sausages - linguica or chorizo-style, sliced thin
fried bacon to taste
2 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 small chili pepper - serrano or japaleno
2 cloves garlic,minced
1 sprig Italian parsley, minced
4 oz. (200 gr) cubed mozzarella cheese
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 cup Philadelphia-style cream cheese
salt to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 green onion, green portion only, minced
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In a large heavy saucepan, place the peas and add cold water to cover by 2" (4 cm). Add one or two strips of bacon to the pot, then bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and cook over low heat until the peas are tender (about 30-60 minutes, depending on whether fresh peas are used, or the age of rehydrated peas). Remove from heat, remove the bacon,drain the peans and reserve.

In a small frying pan, fry the sausage slices until cooked through and browned.

In another heavy saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, then add the chopped tomato, onion, garlic, chili pepper and parsley . (For a milder dish, leave the chili whole - for a spicier dish, seed the pepper, then chop before adding to the pot.) Saute this mixture until the onions and garlic are transparent but not browned and all the other ingredients are softened. Add the drained peas and sausage slices.

Stir in the sour cream and mozzarella and mix completely. Taste for salt and add if necessary. Remove from heat and let cool.

Put the pea and cheese mixture into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the mixture is hot, bubbling, and beginning to brown on top. Remove from over, sprinkle grated parmesan and chopped green onion on top, then serve immediately in baking dish.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Docentes & Decentes (Fortaleza, Brazil)

One of the most popular styles of restaurant in Brazil is a combination bar-restaurant where people can go after work, with a group of friends on the weekend or with the extended family to celebrate a happy event in a large, animated, and often noisy atmosphere. These restaurants serve a variety of drinks, although beer (cerveja) is by far the largest seller, and casual food ranging from finger-food snacks to full course meals of local favorites. In my Brazilian hometown, Fortaleza, these bar-restaurants are all open-air, as the year-round tropical climate allows outdoor dining almost every night of the year. In cooler regions of Brazil, they often have both indoor and outdoor spaces. Such restaurants are often enormous establishments, and some of them seat several hundred customers at a time.

One of the best Fortaleza restaurants of this type is called Docentes & Decentes (which somewhat enigmatically translates in English as "Academicians & Decent Folks). It has been around for 23 years, and has two branches, one on a major commercial avenue, and the other in neighborhood Varjota, which is Fortaleza's "restaurant mecca".

I've only visited the Varjota branch, but I'm told that the menu and ambiance is the same in both branches. Docentes & Decentes is open all day and late into the night - from 10 a.m. until the final client decides to call it a night - and it's busy at almost all times. Evenings there is live acoustic music, usually a group playing Brazilian pop standards. The place has indoor and outdoor dining spaces, though the interior space is usually reserved for family, school or work celebrations. Outside there is space for about 250 people, and there is a large number of tables that seat groups for 6-10 persons. Most of the outdoor space is a large patio space, open to the air, though there is one section that has a roof - perfect for those few nights of the year when it rains.

The all-male waitstaff is very fast and efficient and is kept hopping by the Brazilian habit of ordering additional drinks and dishes throughout the meal. Beer is served in 600 ml (20 oz) bottles, which arrive in thermal covers to keep the beer icy-cold and which are shared by everyone at the table. Docentes & Decentes' customers seem to be of two minds as far as dining goes. There are those who look at the menu, order a complete meal, and leave it at that. They are far outnumbered by those who keep a menu handy at the table, ordering dish by dish as the mood strikes, always to be shared by all the diners at the table. It could be french-fries, pastels, bolinhos and other snack food, or it might be something more hardy, like crabs, a kilo or two of shrimp with garlic, carne de sol, or the house's signature dish - fresh black-eyed peas (feijão verde).

No one would consider Docentes & Decentes a temple of gastronomy - the whole point of the place is to meet friends and family, share drink, food and chat, hear some good music, and have a fun night out. However, the restaurant does put more thought and care into their food than many of its competitors, and there is rarely a dish that disappoints.  In many visits, I've never received cold fries, less-than-fresh shrimp, or warm beer - things which can ruin the experience at some other similar restaurants in Fortaleza. The service is friendly and professional. And the prices are fair - it's easy for a group of four or five to spend an evening at Docentes & Decentes, have several dishes of good food, and more than several beers, and end up paying about R$25 (USD $15) per person.

Docentes & Decentes, being situated away from the beachfront and major hotels, is not a tourist-oriented restaurant. It's a local's hangout. This means that the menu will be only in Portuguese, and the waiter is likely to speak that language only. However, for an authentic Brazilian night out, I'd highly recommend visitors to Fortaleza to try it out. Anyone at a neighboring table will help you out with ordering, even if there is a language barrier, and you'll soon end up a new set of Brazilian friends. Taxis in Fortaleza are safe and not expensive - from the beachfront hotel district to Docentes & Decentes, you can expect to pay R$10-15 (USD $6-10). If you go, remember to do yourself a favor, and order feijão verde - I can guarantee you'll love it.

In the next Flavors of Brazil post, I'll include a recipe for feijão verde Docentes & Decentes style.

Docentes & Decentes
Avenida Santos Dumont 6180
Bairro Papicu
Fortaleza, Brazil

Docentes & Decentes
Rua Ana Bilhar 1445
Bairro Varjota
Fortaleza, Brazil

RECIPE - Pirarucu a Casaca (Pirarucu in a Tail-coat)

One of the most popular ways to serve pirarucu all throughout the Amazon basin, pirarucu a casaca is a traditional dish at holidays, celebrations and parties. I'm not sure why it's called "pirarucu in a tail-coat" but perhaps it's so-called because it's often served at important functions.

Pirarucu, the giant Amazonian freshwater fish, has been eaten since long before electrical refrigeration reached the Amazon, and in earlier times it was often salted and dried to preserve it from the heat of the tropics, using techniques similar to those employed to make salt-cod (bacalhau). This dish is made of rehydrated salt-pirarucu combined with fried bananas, manioc flour and sauteed shoestring potatoes. In areas where it is impossible to obtain manioc flour, the dish can successfully be made with out it, and salt-cod can be substituted for salt-pirarucu.
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RECIPE - Pirarucu a Casaca (Pirarucu in a Tail-coat)

1 lb (500 gr) dried, salted pirarucu (salt-cod may be substituted)
2 cups (500 ml) canned unsweetened coconut milk
5 ripe bananas, peeled
1 lb (500 gr) boiling potatoes, peeled
1/2 lb (250 gr) fresh or frozen green peas, cooked
4 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup (200 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb (250 gr) tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 oz (50 gr) pitted green olives
4 oz (50 gr) pitted black olives
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 green onion, chopped
2 cups (500 ml) neutral vegetable oil
1 lb package (500 gr) commercial shoestring potatoes
1/3 lb (200 gr) farinha (manioc flour)
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The day before, cut the salt fish into fish-stick-sized pieces. Cover with cold water, and soak for 24 hours in the refrigerator, changing the water at least four times.

Remove the de-salted fish from the water, let dry, then fry in the olive oil until tender and just starting to flake. Remove from heat, let cool. Remove skin if present. Reserve.

Cut the peeled bananas into thick rounds. Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy saucepan, and when hot but not smoking, deep-fry the banana rounds. Remove from oil, drain on paper towel, then reserve.

Cut the peeled potatoes into 1 inch (2 cm) cubes. Cover with cold water in a heavy saucepan, bring to a boil, and when just tender, remove from heat. Immediately plunge into cold water to stop cooking, then drain and reserve.

In a large frying pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil, then saute the onion and garlic until transparent, but not covered. Add the potatoes, then the chopped tomatoes, plus half of the parsley and green onion. Cook, stirring constantly until the tomatoes soften and the potatoes are heated through.

Combine the manioc flour, a few tablespoons of olive oil, the coconut milk, the hard-boiled eggs and the remaining parsley and green onion. Heat in a large saucepan until the flour absorbs all the liquid and is heated through.

Cover a large platter with the manioc flour mixture. Place the fish decoratively on top, the add banana slices and the the sauteed potatoes. Cover all with sprinkled shoestring potatoes. Serve immediately.

Pirarucu - An Endangered Giant

The world's largest river system, the Amazon, has the world's largest number of freshwater fish species, and most likely the world's largest freshwater fish population. The fish that are found in the lakes, lagoons, streams, creeks and in the large river itself have always been the most important source of animal protein for inhabitants of the region. From tiny minnow-like species to large predatory fish, these animals have been eaten fresh, been smoked or salted, or simply air-dried for countless millennia and continue to be consumed today through the Amazonian basis. Unfortunately, with the large increase in human population, and with modern-day fishing techniques, for many species the 20th and 21st centuries have brought them extreme pressure, and extinction is a distinct possibility for many types of Amazonian fish.

One fish of the Amazonian basis, the pirarucu (known as the arapaima in English), which has become endangered due to its desirability as a food fish, has been adopted by Slow Food Brazil as part of the Brazilian Ark of Taste - a "repository" of at-risk food species and cooking or preserving techniques worthy of protection. Its inclusion on this list is the first step in the development of preservation projects designed to ensure a sustainable fishery for this fish.

The piracuru is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. It has anecdotally been reported to reach up to reach up to 14 feet (4.5m) in length, with a maximum confirmed weight of almost 450 lb (220 kg). It is a living fossil, having existed essentially unchanged since the Jurassic era. It has successfully adapted itself to life in the slow-moving waters of the Amazon's lakes and lagoons through the development of a rudimentary type of lung, which allows it to breathe air directly when the surrounding water is oxygen-deprived.

The piracuru is an important part of the nutrition of the riverside human population of the Amazon. The flesh has very few bones, and piracuru is eaten fresh, smoked, or salted and dried somewhat like salt cod (bacalhau). Besides the meat, other parts of the fish are used by locals - the piracuru's bony tongue is used to grate guaraná, and the skin, once dried, is used like leather in the fabrication of clothes and artisanal arts and crafts.

In the next post on Flavors of Brazil, there will be a recipe for one of the most well-known local dishes made from piracuru - piracuru de casaca.

Ranking chilis - The Scoville Scale

A while ago, I posted an article on Flavors of Brazil detailing the antics and activities of a group of hot chili fans from São Paulo, the Jolokianos. They are united in their love (and tolerance) for the world's hottest pepper, the Bhut Jolokia. The status that this chili enjoys as the top dog of the the world's hot peppers isn't merely an impression, it's a proven fact. In 1912, an American chemist, Wilbur Scoville developed a scale for determining the relative hotness/pungency of any species of chili pepper, and he called it the Scoville Organoleptic Test.

The Scoville Organoleptic Test is not infallible, as it based on the taste perceptions of five human tasters, but it does provide a reliable guide to the relative strength of the capsaicin oil content of a species or hybrid of chili pepper.

Although the Bhut Jolokia is the "hottest" chile in the world, with a Scoville rating of 1 million, it is not common in Brazil, nor is its use traditional. Certain regional cuisines of Brazil do make extensive use of chilis, and chili "heat" is an important part of their flavor profiles. It's interesting to see where the chilis commonly used in Brazilian cuisine fit on the Scoville scale, in comparison to other Brazilian chilis, and to other chiles used elsewhere in the world.

Here is a basic rundown of the relative "heat" of a number of Brazilian and non-Brazilian chilis, starting with the Bhut Jolokia, the world's hottest, with following chilis becoming progressively milder. The chilis are broken into three group: hot, medium, and mild.

HOT CHILIS: 
Bhut Jolokia (Scoville 1,000,000)
The hottest in the world, colored red and brown. Don't try to eat uncooked.

Bhut Jolokia

Red Savina (up to Scoville 580,000)
Hybridized in California, with undulating shape. Makes good sauces and preserves.

Red Savina

Habanero (Scoville 500,000)
When ripe very hot. Various colors. Used in making salsas, moles and chutneys.

Habanero

Scotch Bonnet (Scoville 250,000)
Flattened and irregular. Fruity aroma. Used in Caribbean sauces, like jerk.

Scotch Bonnet

Malagueta (Scoville 100,000)
Hottest Brazilian chili on this list. Iconic chili of Bahia. Goes well with fish and meat dishes.

Malagueta

MEDIUM CHILIS:
Murupi (Scoville 60,000)
Aromatic. Abundant in the north of Brazil, where it is preserved in whey.

Murupi

Fidalga (Scoville 50,000)
Common in the states of Mato Grosso and São Paulo. Makes good sauces and preserves, and accompanies salads.

Fidalga

Pimenta-de-bode (Scoville 50,000)
In the state of Goiás it is used to flavor almost all of traditional daily dishes.

Pimenta-de-bode

Cayenne (up to Scoville 50,000)
Eaten dried and ground in Africa and India. Indispensable in Cajun cooking.

Cayenne

Tabasco (up to Scoville 50,000)
Elongated, colored red or yellow. Highly flavored, used primarily in sauces, including Tabasco Sauce.

Tabasco

Cumari (up to Scoville 50,000)
Brazilian green chili, with small egg-shaped fruit. Can be eaten fresh or cooked in sauces.

Cumari

MILD CHILIS:
Pimenta-de-cheiro (Scoville 20,000)
Color varies from light green to bright yellow. Common in the north and southeast of Brazil. Aromatic.

Pimenta-de-cheiro

Dedo-de-Moça (Scoville 15,000)
Green and elongated. When dried and ground it is known in the south of Brazil as pimenta-calabresa.

Dedo-de-Moça

Jalapeño  (Scoville 5,000)
Along with the tabasco chili, it is the most consumed in the USA. Makes excellent sauces.

Jalapeño

Biquinho (Scoville 1,000)
Very mild. Small and sweet, it is used in sauces, pickled or eaten raw.

Biquinho

The chilis in this list that are used most in Brazilian cuisine represent a good sampling of Brazil's chili harvest, but certainly not the totality. There are literally thousands of varieties of chili peppers that are used daily by chefs and cooks in the creation of Brazilian cuisine, both traditional and contemporary. From the relative ranking, you can see that Brazilian gastronomy is not afraid of hot chilis; on the other hand, with the exception of the Bahian regional cuisine, is it among the world's "spiciest" cuisines. The contribution of chilis to the flavors of Brazil is most often in the form of a hot chili sauce, and thus the amount of heat desired is very much a personal one. One person at the table might want to add 500,000 Scoville units to his or her meal, another 5,000 and another none at all. By keeping the "heat" in a tabletop sauce, all these options are open to the Brazilian diner.

RECIPE - (Baião for Two) Baião-de-Dois

Continuing Flavor of Brazil's exploration of the humble black-eyed pea (feijão-fradinho in Portuguese) this recipe comes from the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará, and differs from most black-eyed pea recipes in that it uses freshly-picked beans, rather than dried ones.

Luiz Gonzaga

The dish is called baião-de-dois, which might be translated into English as "baião for two" or "baião of two."  The baião is a typical folk dance of Ceará, and has a rhythm that is still part of the music culture of that state. In the middle years of the 20th century, two well-known and well-loved musicians (Humberto Teixeira and Luís Gonzaga) wrote and popularized a song called Baião-de-Dois, and somehow the name attached itself to a simple but delectable dish of fresh black-eyed peas and rice cooked together. Presumably, someone thought that the two ingredients went together like a couple smoothly dancing the baião, and the name stuck. If you'd like to hear the song, I've embedded a YouTube video below of an amateur version. It's very sweet and nostalgic:




There are innumerable variations and countless recipes for baião-de-dois. Some are very basic - just a combination of beans and rice with flavoring elements - and some are more complex. Many versions of the dish add carne de sol, the dried beef typical of northeastern Brazil. Others add pork. And everyone in Ceará thinks that their mother's or grandmother's recipe is the only true recipe for baião-de-dois. The following recipe is my own, combining elements from many recipes in an attempt to recreate the Ur-baião-de-dois. 
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RECIPE - (Baião for Two) Baião-de-Dois
Serves 6

1 lb (500 gr) fresh, shucked black-eyed peas
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large yellow onion, grated
1 Tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. neutral vegetable cooking oil
2 1/2 cups long-grain rice, washed and drained
6 cups (1.5 litres) light chicken, beef or vegetable stock
salt to taste
5 oz. (150 gr) home-style cream cheese or ricotta salata
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In a large heavy pan, cook the black-eyed peas until just tender (about 15-25 minutes, depending on the freshness and age of the beans). Drain, and refresh under cold water to stop the cooking process.

In another large heavy pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat, then saute the garlic and onions briefly until transparent but not browned. Add the rice and chopped cilantro and continue to cook until the rice becomes transparent. Stir in the beans, add the stock and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover pan, and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until all the stock is absorbed. Remove from heat, season to taste with salt, and let stand for five minutes.

Meanwhile, crumble the cheese, or form into small balls, depending on the consistency of the cheese. Briefly uncover the pan, stir in the cheese, then recover it. Let the dish stand for another five minutes to melt the cheese.

Stir the dish once more to distribute the melted cheese, then turn it into a serving dish and serve immediately.

RECIPE - Abará

The Afro-Brazilian dish from the state of Bahia called abará is based on a dough or paste made from mashed black-eyed peas. This same dough is also the starting point for the most famous of Bahian dishes acarajé. In the case of acarajé the dough is formed into a ball and deep-fried in a fragrant palm oil known as dendê, while acarajé is made by wrapping the dough into packets inside banana leaves, then steaming them.

While making the dough from dried black-eyed peas may seem like a simple task, and certainly reads like one in a recipe, it's far from fast-n-easy. I once decided to treat some Canadian friends to homemade acarajé at a dinner party, a decision which I regretted almost immediately, and which I'll never repeat. To make either acarajé or abará a pound of dried beans must be soaked for twenty-four hours, and then the skins must be taken off them - bean by bean! I have no idea how many beans make up a pound, but taking off those skins takes hours and hours of labor. Some slide off easily and some do not. I seriously do not know how the women who sell acarajé at streetside stands do it every day - they must have armies of bean-skinners at home removing those little black-eyed skins. So, if you do decide to try the following recipe for abará, don't say you haven't been warned. You'll be de-skinning for hours and it'll be weeks before your fingertips lose their "prunes." If you do decide to go ahead, you're in for a absolutely delicious plate of food, with all the soul of Afro-Brazilian tradition. Making abará is a lose-win situation. Go ahead, give it a try.

abará dough

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RECIPE - Abará

1 lb (500 gr) dried black-eyed peas
1  large yellow onion, coarsely grated
1 cup small dried shrimp (available in Asian and Latin American markets)
2 small red Thai chilis (1 serrano chili can be substituted), seeded and chopped
1/2 cup dendê oil (available in Latin American and African markets, often labelled "palm oil")
banana leaves to wrap (available in Asian and Latin American markets)
kitchen twine
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The evening before serving place the black-eyed peas in cold water to cover, with 3 inches of water above the top of the beans. Let soak overnight. In the morning, they will be soft and swollen.

De-skin the black-eyed peas, bean by bean, removing the papery skin and the "black eye". Put the peas through a meat grinder, using the finest grind, or process briefly, in batches, in a food processor. Do not overprocess, or the dough will become sticky and pasty.

Put the dough in a large mixing bowl, and beat with a large wooden spoon until it become light and airy. Add the dried shrimp, the chili and the dendê oil. Beat again to thoroughly mix.

Cut the banana leaves with scissors into squares of approximately 8 inches (20 cm) on a side. Place a wooden-spoonful of dough in the center of a square, fold over each side to make a square package, and then tie with kitchen twine. Continue until you have wrapped all the dough in banana leaves.

Steam the packages in a large covered stockpot or other steaming device, cooking them for about 25-30 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool completely.

Serve the abará at room temperature, still in their banana-leaf packages, accompanied by some sort of fresh made hot chili sauce.

Recipe translated and adapted from Receitas tradicionais da cozinha baiana by Ligia Junqueira.