Farmed Shrimp Gain "Green Seal" and Organic Certification

Organic farmed shrimp

Farming shrimp is big business in Flavor of Brazil's home state of Ceará, on Brazil's northeast coast, and the industry is growing by leaps and bounds as consumers' appetites for the tasty crustacean outpaces the ability of the sea to provide a sustainable shrimp fishery. The industry dates back only about fifteen to twenty years, but in each recent year its growth has been in double-digit figures.

Unfortunately not all shrimp cultivators consider the environmental impact of their shrimp farm operations, and the local industry has not always enjoyed a good reputation among environmentally-aware consumers. Although it's entirely possible to cultivate shrimp in an environmentally-friendly and sustainable way many local producers either don't know what's required to make their production sustainable, or don't want to spend the extra money to ensure that their facilities don't negatively impact the environment.

Up to now, consumers who want to support those producers who go to the effort and expense to spare the environment haven't had access to information to know which shrimps on display at markets and supermarkets come from sustainable operations. In order to provide this information and to promote the practice of sustainable shrimp cultivation, the Ceará state Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries recently announced a program to market sustainably-raised shrimp with a "Green Seal", a stamp of approval indicating to the consumer that shrimp with a seal meets the environmental criteria of sustainability. The Green Seal was chosen because of the previous success of a similar program involving crab harvesting, where sustainable crab fisheries gained a Green Seal for their product. The crab project was detailed last on Flavors of Brazil and this link will take you to the article.

Shrimp farms on the Costa Negra

The government launched the Green Seal program in November of this year at a presentation and luncheon in the city of Acaraú, located on the part of the Ceará coast called the Costa Negra (the Black Coast), where there are large shrimp-cultivation installations. Those producers who meet the standards set out in the establishing regulations will be entitled to market their shrimp with a Green Seal attached, indicating to consumers that they can buy the product without worrying about the environmental impact of the purchase.

In a further evolution of the consumer market for environmentally-friendly shrimp, one Ceará producer, Nutrimar, has gone one step further and has had their production certified as organic. Nutrimar's shrimps are feed exclusively on marine algae and receive no commercial fish feed, which can have significant levels of agritoxins. Their frozen organic shrimp are marketed both domestically and internationally, and have been recognized and approved by the German-based NGO Naturland, whose standards are among the strictest in the world.

RECIPE - Pastel de Belém

This recipe makes no claims to authenticity. It's not the recipe used at Lisbon's famed Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, where these sweet-egg custard tarts became famous. It couldn't be, since the recipe used there is a closely guarded secret, supposedly only known to three people in the world. (To read more about the history of this pastry, click here.) In fact, since it's not the authentic recipe, this one shouldn't even be called Pastel de Belém since that name is registered to the Confeitaria alone. The proper name should be the more generic Pastel de Nata (Cream tart). However, this recipe's source, a Brazilian cookbook called Cozinha Regional Brasileira - Rio de Janeiro names it Pastel de Belém, and most Brazilians would call it the same thing. So shall we.

Since this recipe is intended for amateur cooks and homemakers, it uses commercial ingredients, like frozen puff pastry and sweetened condensed milk, neither of which are in the original recipe whatever it is. However, these labor-saving ingredients increase greatly the chances that our readers might tackle these tarts at home. It's worth it, as they are delicious. And maybe, after making them at home, our readers who find themselves in Lisbon will make their way down to the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém to sample the real McCoy.
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RECIPE - Pastel de Belém 
Makes 10 tarts

1 package frozen puff pastry
3 cups whole milk
2 cups sweetened condensed milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
granulated white sugar for sprinkling
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Let the puff pastry thaw according to package directions. Preheat the oven to 400F (300C).

In a large pan, combine the milk, condensed milk, egg yolks, the sugar. Mix thoroughly. Put the corn starch in a small tea cup, then slowly add about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, stirring constantly to avoid lumps, until the corn starch dissolves. Pour the corn starch mixture into the pan and stir again.

Put the pan on the stove, turn on the heat to medium and heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and reserve.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut out 10 circles, just the size that can fit into the holes of a non-stick muffin tin. Drape each circle over a hole in the tin, and gently press it into place at the bottom of the hole. Spoon in enough cream just to fill the cups of puff pastry. Sprinkle each with a small amount of sugar and put the muffin tin in the oven.

Cook for approximately 15 minutes, or until the pastry is browned and fluffy and the custard is semi-solid. Use a toothpick to check for doneness - if a toothpic inserted into the custard comes out clean the custard is set.

Cool in the muffin tin on a wire rack, then remove the tarts.

Serve, sprinkled with powdered cinnamon if desired.

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

Portugal's Culinary Heritage - Pastel de Nata (Pastel de Belém)

The original

How can a simple pastry be both enjoyed in all corners of the world where there's a significant Portuguese cultural heritage AND have a recipe that's known to only three people in the world?? This seemingly impossible-to-revolve dichotomy has been successfully been bridged by a small Portuguese egg-custard tart called either Pastel de Nata (cream tart) or Pastel de Belém (Belém tart).

The tart's origins are in the epicenter of the former Portguese empire - the city of Lisbon. More specifically, they lie behind the enclosing walls of the Jerónimos Monastery in the city's Belém district. During the imperial epoque, monasteries and convents throughout Portugal made cakes and sweets, which they sold to the public to raise funds. The bakers of the Jerónimos Monastery were famed for making a small tart with a puff-pastry crust and a sweet, rich eggy custard filling. These were the original pastéis de Belém and their recipe was a closely guarded secret.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, many of these monasteries closed or folded up their pastry operation, including that of the Jerónimos Monastery. An enterprising Brazilian baker named Domingo Rafael Alves who lived in Lisbon finagled the recipe out of one of the monastery's former bakers and in 1837 opened a pastry shop called Antiga Confeitaria de Belém. Today the shop is owned by descendents of Sr. Alves and still specializes in the tarts that made it famous almost two hundred years ago and that have made it prosperous up til today.

At the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém three master bakers (the only three who are privy to the recipe) make the dough and the filling in a locked, alarmed and guarded room, passing them to assistants outside who form the tarts, fill them and cook them. Every day thousands of customers, many of them tourists, but tens of thousands of these treats, and eat many of them in the bake shop itself, served with a demitasse of strong Portuguese coffee.

Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Lisbon

Long ago, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém registered the name Pastel de Belém and legally only those tarts made on site, from the original recipe are entitled to be called Pastel de Belém. Any other similar tart, from anywhere else, is a Pastel de Nata. At least in theory, that's the case, but the law isn't universally enforced and one can find tarts called Pastel de Belém in pastry shops from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, to Luanda, and on to Malacca and Macau. In Brazil they can be found in almost all pastry shops and are a favorite mid-afternoon treat or part of a dessert buffet at a gala party or a wedding reception.

Chinese egg tart

It's at the most-distant reaches of the former Portuguese empire that these tarts have been most enthusiastically adopted. Throughout southeast Asia and southern China (and around the world of the Chinese diaspora) bakeshop shelves groan under the weight of sweet egg-custard tarts. I've seen them in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vancouver, San Francisco and London. The crust is no longer puff pastry, it's more typically standard pie crust and the filling normally isn't carmelized and crispy as it is back in Lisbon but these Chinese bakeshop standards are still recognizably pastéis de Belém.

Obviously, the three people in the world who have the true recipe for Pastel de Belém  do not include us here at Flavors of Brazil, and so we won't be publishing the authentic recipe. However, in upcoming posts we will provide a very typical, hopefully almost-authentic recipe for a tart that might be called Pseudo-pastel de Belém, as well as one for the Asian version that's found in Chinatowns around the world.

Portugal's Culinary Heritage - Cabidela

Yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil concerned the lingering influence of Portugal upon its far-flung former colonies; in particular, how traditional Portuguese ingredients, techniques and dishes have survived and flourished in corners of the world such as Brazil, Angola, Goa and Macau. In some cases, these dishes have hardly changed in the long time they've been cooked and eaten in their new homes in South America, Africa or Asia. In other cases, local indigenous characteristics and ingredients have been added or used as substitutes to create a new multi-cultural dish.

Both processes, the retention of characteristics from the original Portuguese recipe and the modifications required by different climates, different cultures and different ingredients can be seen by comparing recipes for a traditional Portuguese dish called galinha cabidela. This dish, or variations of it, can be found almost everywhere there were Portuguese colonies or where there are today Portuguese immigrant communities. The word cabidela itself is defined in a Portuguese dictionary as "the bodily extremities of poultry (wings, heads, necks and feet) as well as the liver and other organs of the same animal," and can be traced back to the 16th Century (the Golden Age of Portuguese navigation and exploration). In all Portuguese-speaking territories, however, the dish called galinha cabidela has come to mean a braised chicken (or other meat) cooked in a sauce made of its own blood.

Portuguese cabidela

A very typical recipe for galinha cabidela, probably very close to the original dish, comes from a Portuguese website called Sabor Intenso. (Click here for the recipe with accompanying video, in Portuguese) This recipe calls for a whole chicken, about a half-cup of chicken blood mixed with a small amount of vinegar to prevent clotting, onion, garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, bouillon cubes and water. I don't imagine that the original medieval recipe included bouillon cubes, rather homemade stock was probably used. There is also one chili pepper in the recipe, which of course couldn't have been made part of the recipe until after the European "discovery" of the New World.

Brazilian cabidela

The standard Brazilian recipe (click here) is quite similar to the Portuguese recipe above. One difference is the substitution of lard for olive oil, probably because during the colonial period olive oil wasn't exported from Portugal to the colonies due to preservation problems and olive trees cannot grow in Brazil's tropical heat. Another change is the deletion of bay leaves (a European herb) and the substitution of cilantro, which grows very well in Brazil and is used extensively in Brazilian cooking.

Galinha cabidela is also found in Angola, once one of Portugal's main African colonies. The Angolan recipe for this dish (click here) retains the olive oil of the Portuguese original but adds tomato and green bell pepper to the mix and includes a small glass of white wine as well. In a nod to African tradition, the dish is given a hit of spice by the inclusion of an African hot sauce called piri-piri.

Goan cabidela

Recipes for galinha cabidela can be found even halfway around the world from Portugal, though in these cases, naturally, the dishes have undergone more significant modification. The dish is traditional in the former Portuguese colony of Goa, located south of Mumbai in present-day India. There however, it's more commonly made with pork or rabbit than it is with chicken, though the recipe still calls for animal blood. The Goan recipe also adds typical Indian ingredients such as tamarind juice, ginger, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and clove to give the dish a more Asian flavor profile.

And finally, even farther afield - about 7000 miles from Portugal as the crow flies, lies the tiny formerly-Portuguese enclave of Macau, now part of China. The standard recipe there is called pato cabidela not galinha cabidela, as it substitutes duck (pato) for chicken (galinha). In addition to the duck, the dish includes diced pork. Saffron and caraway seeds are added to the list of spices, the white wine of the Angolan recipe is repeated, and there are diced potatoes added to the dish.

But even in all the diversity of these regional variations, the basic "theme" of the recipe remains unchanged by time or distance. Meat, of whatever type, is seasoned and cooked in a sauce made with its own blood. That's the ur-cabidela and it and its numerous offspring are still served, and still loved, anywhere that has a Portuguese cultural heritage.

The Long Reach - Portugal's Culinary Heritage

One of the wonders of the history of the second millennium CE (from the year 1000 to 2000) is how a miniscule nation tucked into a tiny corner of the Iberian peninsula could have conquered and governed colonies all across the world, some of them thousands of times larger than the mother country.

No historian has been able to prove what it was about Portugal (for that's the miniscule nation we're talking about here) in the years beginning in the middle of the 15th century and carrying on almost until the end of the millennium that allowed it to gain such a massive colonial empire and allowed it to maintain that empire much longer than most other European colonizing countries. At the time of the original expansion of Portugal's empire, about the year 1500, Portugal's total population was approximately 1.7 million. That's just a bit more than the current population of Estonia or Gabon and 111 times smaller than the 2010 population of Brazil, Portugal's largest former colony.

Whatever it was in the Portuguese spirit, economy, politics or trade history that gave Portugal its colonial empire, one 21st century result of the empire is the fact that from South America to Africa to Asia people who have no native culture, no race or no native language in common share a common Portuguese heritage and common cultural traits.

The most obvious of these cultural traits, of course, is language. Counting language populations is not an exact science, but according to one source, Portuguese is today the fifth or sixth-largest language in world, with about 200 million native speakers. It's the second-largest Romance language, after Spanish, and there are approximately 50% more Portuguese speakers in the world today than French speakers. Since Brazil has 51% of the total population of South America that continent has more Portuguese speakers than Spanish speakers. Today Portuguese is an official language in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste. Portuguese-speaking communities remain in former colonies such as Goa and Macau and the language is spoken in Portuguese-immigrant communities in Canada and the USA, in Europe (Luxembourg, Germany) and Australia.

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries

But it's not just language that the Portuguese left behind in their former colonies. Other reminders of a shared Portuguese-colonial past are the Roman Catholic Church, a shared artistic patrimony - baroque architecture and hand-painted ceramics, and of course many culinary traditions. It's these culinary traditions, of course, which are of major interest to this blog. Many ingredients, techniques and recipes traveled with explorers, conquers, traders and settlers from Portugal to all corners of the world, and today similar recipes can be found from Lisbon, to Rio de Janeiro, to Luanda, to Goa and on to Malacca and Macau.

In the next posts on Flavors of Brazil, we'll take a look at this common culinary heritage, using cookbooks and recipes from Portugal and from its former colonies to see how Portuguese cooking traditions have changed, or have not changed, as they've been carried across the oceans and across time.

RECIPE - Palm-Heart Moqueca (Moqueca de Palmito)

We mentioned in our last post that an authoritative Brazilian dictionary tells us that a moqueca can be made from fish, seafood, meat or eggs, plus other ingredients. In traditional Brazilian cooking that's probably true, but in today's culinary environment in Brazil traditional cooking styles and ancient dishes are being reinvented on a daily basis.

Although Brazilians are generally a carnivorous bunch, there are an increasing number of vegetarians in this country, and inventive chefs and clever restaurant managers are beginning to cater to them. When adapting traditional dishes like moquecas the trick is to find a central or identifying ingredient to substitute for the fish or meat that is found in the traditional dish. One excellent substitution for these animal proteins is palm hearts (aka hearts-of-palm). They have the advantage of still being distinctly Brazilian and their solid consistency gives them the substantiality and consistency of the missing meat or fish. This recipe comes from a Brazilian website of Seventh-Day Adventist recipes.

In Brazil, as elsewhere, most palm hearts are preserved in a light brine solution and canned or bottled. This recipe calls for these palm hearts - you do not have to search out fresh ones. The cans or jars can easily be found in most North American and European supermarkets, or certainly in gourmet grocery stores.
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RECIPE - Palm-Heart Moqueca (Moqueca de Palmito)
Serves 4

1 lb (500 gr) drained palm hearts
2 medium onions
2 cups (500 ml) coconut milk
1/2 cup (125 ml) dendê oil
1 small green bell pepper
1 small red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, leaves and small stems only, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, peeled and seeded
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Cut the palm hearts into thick slices, about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick. Slice the onions, the bell peppers and the peeled tomatoes.

In a saucepan or large frying pan layer alternatively the palm hearts, onions, peppers and tomatoes. Drizzle a bit of dendê oil over each layer as you work. Sprinkle the top layer with salt, the chopped garlic and the chopped cilantro. Pour the coconut milk evenly over all.

Put the pan on a large stove-top heating element and gently bring it to a simmer. Do not let it boil vigorously. Cook until all the vegetables are softened and the sauce has thickened slightly.

RECIPE - Fish Moqueca (Moqueca de Peixe)

The bright orange palm oil dendê, featured in yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil, is closely connected in most Brazilians' minds to the cooking styles of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, where African cultural traditions have survived the longest and are the most vibrant of any place in Brazil.

One of the most characteristic cooking techniques in Bahia is called moqueca, and there are hundreds if not thousands of moquecas to be found in Bahia. One of Brazil's most authoritative dictionaries, Houaiss, defines a moqueca as:

a stew of fish, seafood, meat or eggs, made with coconut milk and  dendê oil plus seasonings (cilantro, onion, bell peppers, dried shrimps and chili peppers), cooked preferably in a clay casserole and served in the same dish. [Originally from northeastern Brazil, especially Bahia, but now considered characteristic of Brazilian cuisine in general, being found in various states of Brazil.]

Since the etymology of the word moqueca traces it back to an African word mu'keka meaning "fish chowder" or "fish stew" it's probably true that the first moquecas used fish as their principal ingredient and that other variations followed. So to begin with the beginning, here's a recipe for fish moqueca that comes from Bahia.
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RECIPE - Fish Moqueca (Moqueca de Peixe)
Serves 4

2 lb (1 kg) snook, grouper, or other firm, non-flaking white fish, cut into steaks or large chunks
juice of 1 lemon
salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium tomatoes
1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium red bell pepper
1/4 cup firmly-packed chopped cilantro
3 Tbsp dendê oil (click here to read about purchasing and about substitutes)
2 cups coconut milk
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Season the fish with the lime juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Reserve, marinading, for 30 minutes.

In a blender or food processor, blend the tomatoes, the onion, peppers and the cilantro until you have a homogenous but still slightly chunky liquid.

In a large frying pan, head the dendê oil, then add the mixture from the blender and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce is hot and bubbling. Add the fish, covering the pieces with the tomato mixture and cook for one or two minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, bring to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes, or until the fish is completely cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Serve in a decorative bowl, preferably of unglazed earthenware, garnished with cilantro leaves, a few rings of onions and bell peppers if desired. Accompany with white rice and a good, preferably homestyle hot sauce.

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