Surviving Carnaval

It can be done. Surviving the four-day onslaught of music, dancing, drinking and eating that is Brazil's Carnaval is possible. In fact, Flavors of Brazil has just done so, successfully, for the seventh time - twice in Salvador (home to Brazil's largest Carnaval), twice in Rio de Janeiro (famous for it's epically spectacular samba parades), and now three times in Recife/Olinda (known as the country's most traditional celebration). It's all a matter of judiciously expending the body's caloric and energetic resources. Go all out by all means, but don't go all out all the time - it just can't be done. Carnaval goes on non-stop for at least 96 hours, and no one, no matter how much Red Bull they drink, can do the same.

For a very short look at what Carnaval looks like at street level and at full intensity, watch this video that we made last Sunday in Olinda. The video shows one of the city's many blocos (Carnaval bands) passing by, with a singer atop a make-do sound truck pulled through the streets by the band's strongest members, and with the group's multitude of fan following along behind, singing and dancing in time to the Carnaval music.
We'll return to our normal, more culinarily  focused, posts starting on Monday, Feb. 18.

The Carnaval Battery is Almost Charged

Today's the day before the official start of Brazil's four-day orgy of drinking, dancing and, well, just plain orgy-ing, called Carnaval. Always held on the four days before the beginning of Lent, Carnaval 2013 begins on Saturday this week and will culminate next Tuesday, February 12. The Monday and Tuesday of Carnaval are national holidays in Brazil (as is the morning of Ash Wednesday, the day of Brazil's massive national hangover), but many Brazilians begin celebrating as early as a week before Carnaval and some activities continue for the first few days after the official end of the celebration.

Probably every place in Brazil, large and small, has at least some sort of Carnaval celebration, but the huge city-wide parties that go on for days which has made Brazilian Carnaval known around the world, really only happens in three large cities - Rio de Janeiro, with its all-night samba parades showcasing competing schools of samba, Salvador, whose Carnaval is known as the world's largest street celebration and where millions of people throng the streets to see Brazil's most famous singers and musicians whip the crowd into a frenzy, and Recife, where Carnaval takes place in two locations - the city center and in the nearby historic small town of Olinda.

What fuels all that Brazilian Carnaval energy? How to Carnaval-goers sustain themselves for four days and nights of music, dancing and celebrating? What do Brazilians eat and drink during Carnaval? The answer to the drinking question is easy - beer. Brazilians overwhelmingly keep themselves hydrated with beer, though sodas, waters, juices and other alcoholic drinks are always available. But it's beer for most Brazilians, and it's not by chance the the giant beer breweries are major Carnaval sponsors. In the four days of Carnaval Brazilians consume about 400 million liters (or quarts) of beer - about a million a day. That's nearly 5% of the yearly total consumption for the country.

Recife's Galo da Madrugada (Rooster of Dawn), the symbol of the city's Carnaval

Food occupies a second place to drink in Carnaval culture. People have to eat, obviously, and have to eat more when dancing all day and all night on streets and sidewalks. But food isn't the focus during this time of year. People who are are out celebrating are more likely to buy a hot dog or popcorn from a street vendor just to keep going than they are to search out a good meal. In the big Carnaval cities, most restaurants, particularly upmarket ones, are closed. People eat what's cheap, filling and nearby.

This year, Flavors of Brazil will be celebrating Carnaval in Recife, our favorite Carnaval city. When the dust settles next week, on Ash Wednesday or shortly thereafter, we'll report back here at the blog.

Happy Carnaval, everyone! (Bom Carnaval, todo mundo!)

New Gastronomic Awareness at the Market

Since it was constructed over 100 years ago, Fortaleza's central food and produce market, the Mercado São Sebastião has grown and prospered, but has never been considered a gastronomic hotspot, even though one can buy all the traditional food stuffs of local regional cuisine as well as eat traditional northeastern food in a number of restaurants and lunch-stalls. Located in a distinctly down-market part of Fortaleza's downtown, the market has primarily served nearby residents and workers in the food industry, whether they are produce wholesalers, restaurant managers, or food producers. The lunch stalls which encircle the central produce section serve hearty, traditional meals from the early hours of the morning to the market's hungry vendors and customers, as well as to a few night owls who are accustomed to stop for a hot bowl of soup before heading home to sleep off the night's festivities.

panelada

The richness of the market and it's gastronomic value have always been underappreciated in Fortaleza, and many of the city's food establishment (produers and consumers alike) have never passed through the market's doors. That's all changing now as Fortaleza (like all of Brazil) is becoming more interested in all aspects of food and agriculture. Savvy consumers are doing their daily or weekly shopping at the market, knowing that the quality is high and the prices are low. Locavores and foodies arefamiliarizing themselves with the lunch stalls in search of the best panelada, galinha caipira or baião-de-dois. Things are definitely looking up at the market in all kinds of ways.

Being aware of the gastronomic and touristic potential of the market, the management of Mercado São Sebastião, in conjunction with SEBRAE, a governmental agency which aids small businesses, has initiated a project at the market to maximize its potential as a gastronomic destination. The market's vendors are being offered a course in local gastronomic history and tradition, standards of sanitation and hygiene, and entrepreneurship. The project includes a new gastronomic logo, which merchants who have completed the course can display at their booths, as well as signage in the market to help tourists and visitors find their way through the aisles and stalls.

In other cities of Brazil, a visit to the market is an essential part of tourists' itineraries. Belem's Ver-o-Peso market is the most visited destination in that city, as is the Mercado Público de Florianópolis in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Fortaleza, fortunately, is waking up to the fact that they already possess a market with similar tourism and gastronomic potential, and this new program is a valuable first step forward in making the Mercado São Sebastião an essential part of Fortaleza's tourist itinerary.

RECIPE - Bean Soup Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Feijão)

To wrap up Flavors of Brazil's series of posts on Brazilian beach-style soup recipes, we're posting one of the most traditional as well as most popular caldinhos (cups of soup in Portuguese) - bean soup with coconut milk. Along with the ever-popular fish and shrimp soups solds on the beaches of Brazil, bean soup is a favorite choice for Brazilian beach-goers on beaches all along the coastline of Brazil.

This soup can be made with any variety of dried beans. Even in Brazil, the choice of beans in this soup varies from region to region and from vendor to vendor. In Rio de Janeiro you're most likely to find black bean soup, and in the northeast of the country the most popular choice is carioca beans (similar to pinto beans).

This recipe starts with about three cups of basic Brazilian beans, already cooked. We published the recipe in back in 2010 and you can link to that recipe here), you can use those beans and some of their broth as the soup base. Either way you'll end up with a hearty and nourishing bean soup, enlivened and "Brazilianized" by the presence of coconut milk. The recipe makes a large quantity of soup, but it freezes marvelously, so you needn't worry about any going to waste.
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RECIPE - Bean Soup Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Feijão)


3 cups approximately, cooked Brazilian-style beans, and their broth (recipe here)
3/4 cup (200 ml) coconut milk
1 small chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp chopped green onion, for garnish
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnish
2 Tbsp finely chopped red or green bell pepper, for garnish
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Combine the beans and their broth, the coconut milk and optional chili pepper in a large bowl, then blend them, in batches if necessary, until you have a homogenous mixture.

Pour the blended mixture into a large sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat, and cook for about 10 minutes at a simmer.

Pour the hot soup in cups or mugs, and sprinkle the surface with chopped green onions, bell peppers and/or cilantro.
Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Fish Soup, Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Peixe)

Brazilian beach-style soups, whether eaten on a hot summer's day on the beach, or at home on a cold and damp winter's day, are marvelous pick-me-ups and satisfy without filling. In Brazil, these soups are served in small cups, often plastic ones when they are bought from vendors at the beach, but they are only improved when they're served in small proper soup cups or bowls.

These soups (called caldinhos in Portuguese) are fortunately also very simple to make and don't involve a lot of time or effort. Whether January brings you chilly winter weather or the dog days of summer, you'll find that Brazilian beach-style ish soup really hits the spot.
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RECIPE - Fish Soup, Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Peixe)
Makes 4 small cups or 2 bowls

1 medium-size fish steak (any type of white fish)
1 medium fish head (non-oily fish only), thoroughly cleaned and rinsed
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 medium green pepper, seeded, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
handful fresh cilantro
1 cup (250 ml) coconut milk
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
additional chopped cilantro (garnish, optional)
croutons (garnish, optional)
chopped green onions, green part only (garnish, optional)
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In a food processor or blender combine the tomatoes (put in first), onion, green pepper, garlic and cilantro. Pulse to begin, then blend until you have a homogenous mixture. Reserve.

Cut the fish steak into large pieces. Combine the fish steak and fish head (whole) in a large saucepan and add 1 liter (1 quart) cold water. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Add the blender mixture and cook, at a slow boil, until the mixture has reduced by approximately half. Remove from heat.

Take the fish head plus any skin or bones out of the soup and discard. Pour the remainder in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a clean saucepan, then stir in the coconut milk and olive oil. Heat thoroughly, but do not boil.

Serve in bowls or cups, and pass additional cilantro, croutons and/or green onions in small cups as individual garnishes.

Recife's Surprising Favorite Beach Snack - Soup!

When you're at the beach on a hot and sunny day and you start to feel peckish, what perks your appetite? A cooling fruit salad? A bowl of gazpacho? A chilled, frosty drink? If you're from Recife, in Brazil's always-tropical northeast, it's not like to be any of those things. What makes your mouth water on a scorching afternoon at the beach is a cup of hot soup.

Hot soup?

That's right, in Recife, according to a survey by the city's municipal government and judging by the number of soup vendors that populate the city's most popular beaches, what beachgoers want is a cup of soup (called caldinho or "little soup" in Portuguese), steaming hot. Whether it's bean soup, shrimp soup or fish soup, soup is what hits the spot in Recife.

There is a scientific basis to this predilection for hot soup on a hot day. Ingesting hot food causes the body to sweat, and as the sweat evaporates, it cools the body. It's for the same reason that Thai food, Indian food and other cuisines from hot climes are often spicy - the chiles cause sweating, which cools the body. It's counter-intuitive, but it does work. And it seems that Recife's beach crowd has figured it out.

The garnishes that accompany caldinho are almost as important to customers as the soup itself, according to many of the ambulant vendors that walk the beach all day long, dishing out plastic cups of soup from a thermos jug and adding garnishes according to the customer's desires. Traditional accompaniments include quails' eggs, torresmo (pork rinds), corn kernels and olive slices.

In addition to ambulant vendors, there are beachside stands that sell soup to walk-up customers, and in the most popular of those, it's not uncommon to sell 80 liters (80 quarts) of soup on a weekend afternoon. Many of the stands are weekend-only propositions and are staffed by members of a single extended family.

Customers and vendors alike stress the importance of sanitation and hygiene, and regular beachgoers often have their own list of trusted vendors, from whom they buy caldinho exclusively. Vendor José Carlos da Silva, who has 20-years' experience selling soup on Recife's beaches, points out that the hot soup itself is normally safe to eat, but that one must take extra care when choosing the accompaniments which are normally at ambient temperature.

Coming up in our next posts are some typical caldinho recipes from northeastern Brazil. They're great whether served on a tropical beach, or in a snowbound cabin in the mountains.

New Juice Combos for Brazilian Dog Days

We are aware that the majority of our readers live in the Northern Hemisphere, some of them in very cold locations, and for those readers thoughts of "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" are far from mind. But Flavors of Brazil comes from Brazil and here in the Southern Hemisphere, January and February are the hottest months of the year (Just three weeks ago, Rio de Janeiro suffered under its hottest day since 1915 - 44C or 111F). So while you might be searching the closet for woolen mittens, or wrapping a thick scarf around your neck before heading out, here in Brazil, everyone is trying to stay cool.

One of the most effective ways to cool the body down is with a cold drink, nutritionists tell us, and Brazilians have long used icy fruit drinks to reduce body temperature when the temperature rises. (They also drink a lot of cold beer too, though nutritionists advise that alcohol impedes the cooling effect of icy liquids. So, in the interests of body-temperature management, we'll restrict the discussion in this post to fruit drinks.)

Brazil is famous for the variety and quality of its fresh fruit drinks, and juice stands are commonplace fixtures on streets and in shopping malls all around the country. Brazil has such an abundance of delicious tropical fruits (oranges, pineapples, mangoes, limes, passion fruit, watermelon, etc.) that juice menus often have twenty or more choices.

Recently, people in Brazil have begun to discover that mixing fruits together, or adding additional non-fruit flavors to a drink can have spectacularly delicious results. As a result, each year, new combinations become popular. A few years ago, fresh pineapple juice blended with fresh mint leaves swept the country, and today it's rare to find a juice stand that doesn't offer that combination. But we all crave novelty, so barmen and women in juice stands, hotel bars, and seaside restaurants continue to offer new mixtures to satisfy demand.

A recent report in Rio de Janeiro's O Globo newspaper highlighted the most popular new juice combos for summer 2013 in that famously hot city. One very popular drink this summer is mango with mint, which employs the cooling sensation that mint gives to pump up the refreshment factor of the juice. It's long been known that citrus-based drinks cool very effectively because their acidity encourages production of saliva which cools the mouth, so new citrus combinations are very popular this year, particularly tangerine combined with carrot.

The addition of non-fruit ingredients to juices is new in Brazil, but popping vegetables into the juicer along with fruits is increasingly popular. Vegetable juices aid in retention of water in the body, which increases the body's ability to resist heat, so there's a valid nutritional reason for adding vegetables as well. Nutritionist Andréa Santa Rosa Garcia recommends a mixture of coconut water and lime juice, blended with parsley and kale, and adds that this combination can also help to alleviate stress.

If it's 10 below where you live, tag this article for reference when the dog days return next summer. If you're enjoying a Southern Hemisphere summer, whether here in Brazil, in South Africe or in Australia get out your blender, get adventurous when shopping for fruits and vegetables, and combine, combine, combine.

One Million Page Views - Thank You / Obrigado!

Earlier this afternoon, Flavors of Brazil passed the one million page view mark. We've been watching the page view counter closely the last few days, and knew that it was only a matter of time before we'd cross the seven-figure boundary - but we're still blown away now that it's happened. The Internet is an awfully big place, and in Internet terms one million is a tiny number, yet when we started the blog just over three years ago, reaching such a number wasn't even a goal. Now that we've reached it, it does feel like a goal, and we feel like we've just scored one.

The reader statistics provided by Blogger and FlagCounter give more information that just the number of pages being viewed per day, per week or per month, and some of them we find surprising. Since the language of the blog is English, it doesn't seem surprising that the country that provides Flavors of Brazil with the highest percentage of hits is the USA, with 41.7% of all page views. The fact that the second country is Brazil is a bit of a surprise, though, considering the blog is not written in Portuguese. Brazilians represent 13% of all visitors to the blog. Next in line in the top five are three more English-speaking countries - the U.K. (6.7%), Canada (5.5%) and Australia (3.2%). In all, we've had visitors from 220 countries, including single viewers from the Central African Republic, Gabon, Saint Helena, the Vatican (could it be Il Papa himself?), and the Solomon Islands.

The post which has received the most hits, somewhat oddly we feel, is our post from January 20, 2012 on the jackfruit. It's been seen just under 48,000 times. The most popular recipe on Flavors of Brazil is for fish moqueca, from December, 2011. As of this moment 10, 932 people have looked at this recipe.

Apart from the sheer size of that 1,000,000 number, one of the most gratifying statistics we've received is that returning visitors consistently outnumber new visitors. If a million people visited Flavors of Brazil but none of them returned, the number wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. So we want to take this milestone as an opportunity to thank our visitors, new ones and returning ones. We hope that you'll want to keep coming back to Flavors of Brazil and that each time you do you'll find something interesting, odd or valuable. Or all three.

Thank you all very much. Muito obrigado.

RECIPE - Mashed Squash, Brazilian-style (Purê de Jerimum)

There's something uniquely appealing about mashed vegetables - which is probably why they're often atop lists of favorite "comfort foods". Perhaps it's because they are a throwback to one's early childhood when all solid food was mashed, perhaps it's because of the large amount of fat (dairy, vegetable) that mashed vegetables can carry. Whatever it is, who doesn't like mashed potatoes, or mashed anything for that matter?

Brazilians are no exception to this rule. Mashed potatoes are universally loved in Brazil, and here they really do pack a caloric punch, as they are laden with generous amounts of cream, butter and even cream cheese. But other vegetables get the mashing treatment here, and Flavors of Brazil would venture to guess that "Miss Runner-Up" in the mashed vegetable popularity contest in Brazil would be mashed pumpkin, or as it's called in Brazil, purê de jerimum.

The most common name for pumpkins in Brazil is abóbora, but they are also known, particularly in Brazil's northestern region as jerimum. The etymology of abóbora leads one back to Latin roots, and the word came to Brazil with the Portuguese. Jerimum, however, comes from the Amerindian Tupi-Guarani family of languages, and hearkens back to the vegetable's New World origins.

Like mashed potatoes, purê de jerimum is basically a mixture of mashed, cooked vegetable plus additional liquid and fat. What distinguishes purê de jerimum is that the additional liquid and fat are in the form of coconut milk, which gives the final dish an unusual and distinctive flavor, with the pumpkin's inherent sweetness brought out by the coconut milk. The high fat content of coconut milk also ensures the silky mouth-feel that's so important in mashed veggies.

Try this dish as a new side dish with roasted meats or poultry. It will be a rousing success, we promise. Even if your guests can't identify the flavor of coconut milk in the dish, they'll appreciate what it adds to the flavor profile.
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RECIPE - Mashed Squash, Brazilian-style (Purê de Jerimum)  
Serves 6

1 lb (450 gr) peeled, seeded and cubed pumpkin or other winter squash
1 1/2 cup (375 ml) canned or bottled coconut milk
salt to taste
chopped cilantro (optional)
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Cook the pumpkin in plenty of boiling water until it is very tender. Drain thoroughly in a colander, and then place the cubes in a large mixing bowl.

Using a potato mashed, mash the squash to desired consistency (some people like some texture remaining in the dish, others prefer a smooth puree).

Stir in the coconut milk and mash for a few more seconds until the coconut milk is thoroughly mixed in. Season to taste with salt.

If desired, stir in a handful or two of chopped cilantro.

Put the pumpkin in a decorative serving bowl and serve immediately as a side dish.

Recipe translated and adapted from Namorando na Cozinha blog.

RECIPE - Shrimp in a Pumpkin (Camarão na Moranga)

(First off, a note for students who are just beginning to study Portuguese. This is not a recipe for shimp in a strawberry! The word for strawberry is morango, and this recipe is for shrimp in a moranga - with a final "a". Moranga is a word that means pumpkin, or at least one of those winter squashes that can be used like a pumpkin). Even native Portuguese speakers get these two words mixed up sometimes, and the Brazilian version of Internet sites like Ask Yahoo are full of questions asking basically "Are morango and moranga the same thing?" To avoid confusion, we'll skip the Portuguese terms in this post and just refer to the vegetable in question as a pumpkin.)


A stand-out centerpiece for a fancy dinner table, or a buffet, Shrimp in a Pumpkin is a familiar showpiece for Brazilian dinner parties, Christmas and New Year's feasts, birthdays, and anniversaries. Undeniably spectacular, it's also undeniably delicious, and for many Brazilians, it's their favorite way to eat shrimp. It's also undoubtedly one of the best ways to serve shrimp to a crowd.

You can use any large winter squash for this dish, though a bright orange pumpkin makes a visually appealing presentation. In contemporary Brazilian restaurants, the dish is even popping up in individual servings, using the small mini-pumpkins that arrive in supermarkets in the holiday season. One of those, filled with shrimp and sauce is just perfect for one person. The traditional version, however, employs a large pumpkin to serve the entire party.
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RECIPE - Shrimp in a Pumpkin (Camarão na Moranga)
Serves 6

a 6 lb (3 kg) pumpkin or other squash
2 lbs (1 kg) medium shrimp, cleaned, peeled and deveined
2 limes
2 tsp salt
1 small serrano or jalapeno chile (optional), halved and seeded
3 bay leaves
2 cups shrimp stock (recipe here)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 cups cream cheese
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp good-quality curry powder
2 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
4 Tbsp finely-chopped Italian parsley
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Cut a circular opening in the top of the pumpkin (as you would for a jack-o-lantern). Using a spoon and your hands, remove all the seeds and strings from inside the pumpkin. Wash the pumpkin thoroughly inside and out, then dry the inside with paper towel. Reserve.

Preheat the oven to 205C (400F).

Put the shrimp in a large mixing bowl, then add the fresh-squeezed juice of two limes, the salt, the halved chile and the bay leaves. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for about one hour (while the pumpkin roasts).

Wrap the pumpkin in aluminum foil, place a large baking pan, and roast in the oven for about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and reserve, keeping warm. No not turn off the oven.

In a large saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp each of butter and olive oil, then saute the chopped onions for a few minutes, or until the onions are transparent but not browned. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for a few minutes, or until the tomato begins to break down. Add the cream cheese, and combine thoroughly, making sure that the cheese has melted and combined with the other ingredients. Reserve, keeping warm.

In a mixing bowl containing the shrimp stock, whisk in the flour and continue to whisk until their are no lumps. Mix in the curry powder and optional Tabasco sauce. Stir this mixture into the cream cheese/tomato sauce, and reserve, keeping warm.

In a large frying pan, heat 3 Tbsp each of olive oil and neutral vegetable oil. Remove the shrimp from the refrigerator and saute (in two batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding). Cook for a few minutes only, stirring constantly but gently, until all the shrimp have become opaque and turned pink. Do not overcook. Stir the shrimp gently in the the sauce mixture.

Open the top of the pumpkin (leaving the rest of it still covered with aluminum foil. Reserve the top. Pour the shrimp mixture into the pumpkin, filling it completely if possible. Return the filled pumpkin to the hot oven and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the aluminum foil, then place the pumpkin on a large serving platter. Sprinkle the surface of the shrimp mixture with chopped parsley. Serve on a buffet table or at the center of a dining table, with a large ladle for serving the shrimp from inside the pumpkin, along with a bit of the cooked pumpkin.

RECIPE - Homestyle Squash Compote (Doce de Abóbora Caseiro)

When you think of squashes, what comes to mind first - main course or dessert? We'd bet that for the majority of our readers, squash brings to mind something that's served with the main course - to accompany meat or chicken, for example. Many might even say that squash has nothing to do with desserts. It's only when they are reminded that traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts often feature pumpkin pie for dessert, and that pumpkin is merely one of many kinds of squash, that they might concede that squash and sugar go together.

Some squashes are quite sweet in and of themselves, of course, but combining members of the squash family with sugar, honey or coconut milk is an old culinary tradition in Brazil, and for many Brazilians, abóbora (Portuguese for squash or pumpkin) is something seen more often on the dessert table or buffet than it is as a vegetable side dish.

Throughout Brazil, one of the oldest, most traditional (and easiest) ways to turn squash or pumpkin into a dessert is to cook it down to a thick puree, spice it with cinnamon and clove, then sweeten it with sugar and a splash of coconut milk. This recipe is so basic that Brazilians simple call it Doce de Abóbora, which means Squash Dessert or Squash Sweet. It's served at weekday family meals, and it's served on fancy dessert tables. It's popular with all economic classes in Brazil, as squashes are generally very cheap in Brazil, and it doesn't require expensive ingredients.

This recipe can be made with any type of winter squash - Hubbard, Butternut, Acorn, etc. It can also be made with pumpkin. Summer squashes (e.g. zucchini, pattypan) are not suitable as they contain too much water. It can be served warm or cold (though cold is more typically Brazilian). If you wish to make it a bit richer, pour a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk over the squash once you've put it into individual serving dishes.
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RECIPE - Homestyle Squash Compote (Doce de Abóbora Caseiro)
Serves 6

2 lbs (1 kg) winter squash, any type, peeled and cored, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup coconut milk
3 cups granulated white sugar (more or less, to taste)
2 small sticks cinnamon
4 cloves
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Put the squash into a large heavy saucepan,. Add a very small quantity of water (less than half a cup). Add the sugar and stir to mix. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. When the sugar has dissolved, add the cinnamon and cloves, and continue to cook, mixing and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Continue to cook until the cubes of squash have become very tender.

When the squash is tender, using the same wooden spoon, begin to mash the cubes against the sides of the pan while continuing to cook over low heat. When all the squash is mashed and the mixture begins to pull away from the bottom and the sides of the pan, add the coconut milk and mix it in.

Cook for an additional two or three minutes only, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. Can be served slightly warm, at room temperature, or chilled. Divide the mixture between six dessert dishes, and pour additional coconut milk over the puree if desired.

VEGETABLES OF BRAZIL - The Squash Family (Abóboras)

Although when speaking English we are accustomed to speaking in terms of butternut or acorn squashes, pumpkins, gourds, marrows, pattypans, zucchinis, etc., as separate foods, in fact all these vegetables are squashes - that is, botanically, they are all members of the genus Curcubita, the squashes. In Brazilian Portuguese, they are all inguistically linked together and called abóbora. To Brazilians a giant pumpkin and a small baby zucchini are both abóboras, although to help consumers along, some types are identified separately by modifiers or unique names. Zucchinis, for example, are generally referred to as abóbora italiana (Italian squash) or abobrinha (little squash). There are also unique regional names which are largely American in origin, such as jerimum, which is a Northeastern term for large pumpkin-type squashes.

The cultivation of squash goes back a very long way in human history, and archeological evidence seems to indicate that squashes were first cultivated in Mesoamerica between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. Native Americans referred to squashes as one the "three sisters" (the three main native food crops), along with corn (maize) and beans. In native American cultures, all parts of the squash were eaten (as they still are today in the area). The flesh, the seeds and even the blossoms are all essential ingredients in traditional Mexican, Peruvian, Brazilian and other New World cuisines.

Brazilians cook and eat squashes in many forms - in soups, in purees, which can be either savory or sweetened with sugar, salads, in breads and cakes, and in stews and hot-pots. Larger, sturdier squashes, are even used as containers for other foods. In the next few posts on Flavors of Brazil, we'll detail some of the uniquely Brazilian treatments of this important family of vegetables.

RECIPE - Watermelon Caipirinha (Caipifruta de Melancia)

It's been a rough start to winter in Europe and North America recently, but Brazil is currently suffering one of its hottest and driest summers on record. This past Wednesday (26 December), Rio de Janeiro experienced its hottest day in almost a hundred years - since 1915 to be precise. The official temperature, as measured by the municipal weather department was 43.2 degrees celsius, which translates to 110 degrees fahrenheit. A friend of ours who lives in Rio reported that one of the large time-temperature signs on Rio's beachfront was reading 51F (or 124F) though he did say that the sign was in the sun. Whatever the official numbers were, it was a scorcher, and though the temperatures have moderated slightly in the past few days, these are Brazil's dog days.

At such extreme temperatures, nothing really relieves the heat, though air conditioning, fans, a dip in the sea and a cold drink all help. Brazilians love icy cold fruit drinks in the summer, and although alcohol doesn't really aid in heat relief, a splash of cachaça, Brazil's national spirit, is a traditional addition to fruit drinks.

The most traditional fruit employed is lime, and the most traditional cocktail is the caipirinha, which Flavors of Brazil has covered extensively in the past. But, increasingly, Brazilians are mixing up their fruits and creating new variations on the caipirinha theme. This one, from one of Brazil's best-selling food and wine magazines, swaps cubes of chilled watermelon (melancia in Portuguese) for the traditional lime.

One of the unique things about the caipirinha is that the whole fruit is used in the drink, not just juice. In this case, though the watermelon rind, thankfully, is not included, the cubes of watermelon are crushed in the glass and are not strained. The seeds make for a beautiful drink, and the pulp of the watermelon makes this a cooler that you can chew.

The drink requires a very ripe watermelon, so those readers of the blog who live in the Northern Hemisphere should probably wait until their summer arrives. Brazilians, Australians and other Southern Hemisphere residents can try one now, when the days are hottest and watermelons are ripest.
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RECIPE - Watermelon Caipirinha (Caipifruta de Melancia)
Makes one drink

1/2 cup cubed ripe watermelon, chilled
2 oz. cachaça (can substitute vodka or white rum)
1 Tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tsp fresh-squeezed lime juice
cubed ice
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In a cocktail shaker or large tumbler, combined the watermelon, cachaça, sugar and lime juice. Using a mortar or the handle of a large wooden spoon, cruch the watermelon cubes to release their juice, but don't completely liquify them - leave some small chunks of pulp.

Fill a large old-fashioned glass with ice, then pour the drink over. Do not strain the drink, leave the seeds and chunks of pulp in the drink.

Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Polenta with Turkey Ragu and Mushrooms

Capixaba chef Sylvia Lis, using the Italian traditions of the mountainous interior of the state of Espírito Santo, combines left-over roast turkey with polenta and mushrooms to create an unusual and delicious lunch or dinner main course. The dish is based on Italian-immigrant traditions and is often served on December 25th (in Brazil, that's the day after the Christmas meal - not the 26th). Our previous post on Flavors of Brazil details the traditions surrounding this dish, this post will provide the recipe.
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RECIPE - Polenta with Turkey Ragu and Mushrooms (Polenta com Ragu de Peru e Cogumelos)
Serves 6

For the ragu:
3/4 lb (300 gr) left-over turkey meat, shredded
1/3 lb (150 gr) mushrooms, shitake if possible, sliced
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 to 3 cups combined turkey broth (made from roast-turkey carcass) and left-over turkey gravy
2 sprigs fresh thyme
extra-virgin olive oil
salt to taste
finely chopped Italian parsley (for garnish)

For the polenta:
2 cups polenta
1 cup cold water
3 cups boiling water
1 Tbsp cream cheese
salt to taste
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Prepare the ragu:
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil, then add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until the onion softens but doesn't brown. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for a few minutes, tossing the mushroom slices frequently. Add the shredded turkey and the white wine. Bring the wine to a boil and cook for a few minutes, or until the wine thickens a bit. Add the turkey broth and gravy bit by bit, until you have a medium-thick rich sauce. Season to taste with salt if necessary. Reserve, keeping warm.

Prepare the polenta:
In a large saucepan, combine the polenta and the cold water, stirring and mixing until all the polenta becomes moistened. Add the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and pulls away slightly from the edges of the pan. If necessary add more boiling water, in small amounts, to make sure the mixture doesn't become too thick - you want it to be just slightly soupy. It should be just pourable. Stir in the cream cheese, making sure it's completely mixed in, then season for salt.

Mounting the dish:
In a large deep rectangular or round serving dish, pour out the polenta. Using a ladle, spoon the turkey and mushroom ragu over the surface of the polenta, starting in the middle of the pan and working your way out to both ends. Sprinkle the ragu with chopped parsley and serve.

Christmas Leftovers - Espírito Santo-style

This post should by all rights have been published yesterday, at least if the majority of Flavors of Brazil's readers were in Brazil. The post is about day-after Christmas leftovers and what to do with them, and in Brazil the Christmas feast is eaten late in the evening on December 24th, not on December 25th. Consequently, it's on the 25th that Brazilian family cooks have to deal with leftovers.

However, most of our readers come from English-speaking countries, and in the majority of those countries, the Christmas feast comes to the table sometime on December 25th, and the leftover situation comes to the forefront only on the 26th. (We're not even going to get into the whole business of when Australia and New Zealand eat leftovers, there on the other side of the International Dateline.) In honor of those readers we've decided to use our post for today, call it Boxing Day if you want, to give our readers a bit of a lesson on what cooks in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo often do, and to pass on the recipe if you want to duplicate their efforts at home.

The fertile and mountainous state of Espírito Santo is located on the southeast coast of Brazil, occupying the stretch of coast north of Rio de Janeiro state and south of Bahia. It's a state that has a long agricultural tradition and for centuries European immigrants who were farmers in the Old World have chosen to continue that path in Espírito Santo when they arrived in the New. Espírito Santo has a large number of citizens who can trace their ancestry back to Italy, and many of them are farmers or come from farming backgrounds. Espírito Santo has a large dairy industry and many of Brazil's Italian-style cheese come from that state.

As always, immigrants to Espírito Santo brought their food traditions with them, and the cuisine of the interior of the state, in particular, is heavily influenced by Italian foodways. Capixabas (the demonym for people who live in Espírito Santo) are like most Brazilians and usually eat turkey for Christmas, which isn't really an Italian tradition. But when the 26th rolls around, local cooks make sometime typically Italian out of the turkey they have on hand. They make a rich ragu with turkey and mushrooms and serve it with polenta. What could be more Italian than that?

In our next post, we'll provide the recipe for this delicious way to deal with excess turkey.  

Brazil's Christmas Meal - Regional Variations

Just like North Americans do, most Brazilians eat turkey for their big Christmas celebration meal. That makes sense - after all the turkey is native to the Americas. In certain European cultures, goose is favored, or even salt cod - which also makes sense, as these foods have a long European tradition, but in the New World, turkey reigns supreme.

However, Brazilian Christmas isn't just about turkey. There are some other dishes that are equally traditional in Brazil, and which either are served alongside a turkey or instead of one. These traditional dishes vary from region to region in Brazil, which makes sense considering the huge geographical, climatic and cultural differences from region to region in this, the world's fifth largest and fifth most-populous nation.

This week, in the food section of the nationally-distributed newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, a number of well-known chefs from regions all around the country discussed what is traditional in their city, state or region, and provided recipes for some of the most popular regional Christmas dishes. In our next few posts, leading up to Christmas day, we'll detail some of these dishes and pass on the recipes to our readers. It's Flavors of Brazil's way of wishing our readers, who come from 220 different countries, a very Brazilian FELIZ NATAL!

More Moonshine - Mocororó

Caju (cashew) fruit

Back in 2010, Flavors of Brazil published a post about a Brazilian drink called aluá, a lightly acoholic concoction made from pinapple peelings, sugar and water. (There's also a version made with soaked dried corn and recipes for both can be found here.) At the time we noted that aluá, which has a very long history, is particularly associated with tradional festivals - the festas juninas of Brazil's northeast, and the feasts that play an integral part in the ceremonies of the Bahian afro-brazilian religion Candomblé.

The folk traditions of northeastern Brazil also include another fruit-based alcoholic beverage, and this one is associated with specific folk rituals as well. The drink is called  mocororó, and drinking it is an important part of a folk dance in that region of the country called torém.

Both the drink, mocororó, and the dance, torém, have been traced back to pre-Columbian indigenous rituals, and both to this day carry connotations of Brazil's first inhabitants. Both are found throughout the northeastern part of Brazil, but are most closely associated to the traditions of the state of Ceará, where Flavors of Brazil is based.

Almost universally, primitive humankind has discovered ways to turn the sugars in fruit drinks into alcohol, and to imbibe the result for ritualistic use or purely for pleasure. Sweet drinks, left in the open air for a few days, become inbued with natural fermenting agents, primarily yeasts, and these agents transform the sugar in the drink into alcohol. What was once fruit juice becomes an alcoholic drink.

Humankind has long since learned how to help this natural process on its way, both by the artificial introduction of fermenting agents, and by the controlling the temperature of the drink so that it remains at a temperature conducive to fermentation. In the production of mocororó, Brazilian Amerindians left the introduction of fermenting agents to nature, but did lend a helping hand once fermentation had begun.

Mocororó is made from juice pressed from the caju fruit (the same fruit which gives us cashew nuts). The juice is left in the open air until fermentation starts, and then it is put into clay or glass containers. At this point, a very clever technique is used to enhance the fermentation process. The containers are buried in hot sand (which is easy to find along the coast and on riverbanks of Ceará) for up to six months. The sand ensures a perfect and consistent temperature for fermentation (and presumably also makes it less easy to "sample" the product before it's ready). After some time, the mocororó is dug up by which time it has quite an alcoholic punch.

 Mocororó is traditionally served in indigenous festivals and ceremonies in which the torém is danced. The Brazilian National Central of Folklore and Popular Culture describes the torém this way:

Group dance with participants of both sexes, who form themselves into a circle with a soloist in the center. It is a ritual dance of indigenous origin, whose participants imitate animals - like the jump of the mullet fish, the fight of raccoons, the song of the parakeet, the lunge of a snake. Shaking an aguiam, a type of maraca, the soloist advances and retreats, quivers, jumps and stamps his feet, often imitating the snake or the lizard, demonstrating his dexterity and flexibility. The other dancers mark the beat by stamping their feet and moving around the circle in a counter-clockwise direction. The music is sung by the soloist and repeated by the chorus of the other dancers. Mocororó is distributed during the dance  Prevalent in the state of Ceará, the torém is danced during the caju harvest season, on social occassions and when indigenous groups meet other tribes.

The drink has stayed close to its origins and there is no commercial production of mocororó in Brazil. As a result, Flavors of Brazil cannot comment on either its flavor nor its alcoholic strength. But we have our eye out for it, and should we ever come across any, we'll report back soon there after (as soon as we recover, that is).

Translation and adaptation of Portuguese text by Flavors of Brazil.

PHOTOS - Brazil's Own Fleur du Sel - Flor de Sal

As detailed in our most recent post, Brazil's nascent flor de sal industry is centered on the northeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. The state is blessed with the right climatic conditions for the formation of flor de sal crystals, as there is plenty of scorching sun and hot, drying winds. These conditions foster the growth of the salt crystals, but they also make for difficult and trying work. In intense heat and wind, workers harvest the delicate crystals from the surface of pools of hot brine. Flor de sal is a heavenly product that is produced in hellish conditions.

These photos, which come from the Paladar section of Brazil's Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, show both the beauty and the hellishness of flor de sal production. We thought our readers might enjoy seeing them. (Remember to click the photos to enlarge them to full size).

Brazil's Own Fleur du Sel - Flor de Sal

flor de sel crystals

NaCl is the four-letter chemical recipe for salt, a mineral that is an essential component of human nutrition. A chemical compound of one ion of sodium (Na) and one of chlorine (Cl), salt is absolutely essential for animal life, though it can be harmful when consumed to excess. The table salt (also called halite) that most of us consume daily originates, at varying degrees of remove, in the world's seas, where the concentration of this compound is what makes sea water "salt water."

Rio Grande do Norte

Some salt comes from large underground mines, in areas which once were seas. Other salt is harvest directly from evaporated sea water. In Brazil, most of the salt consumed is obtained by this second method, and the large majority of it comes from the northeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. What makes this small state such an important producer of salt? It's a combination of location and climate. Rio Grande do Norte sits on the western shore of the tropical South Atlantic Ocean, so there's plenty of the basic material of salt - salt water. And Rio Grande do Norte's climate, which for most of the year is hot, cloudlessly sunny and reliably windy makes for rapid and efficient evaporation of sea water. As they say in Rio Grande do Norte, salt practically makes itself here.

Most of the salt harvested in the region, whether for industrial use or for human consumption, is made by pumping salt water into large pools (called salinas in Portuguese) up to two meters deep and exposing it to the constant sun and wind, waiting for the water to evaporate and leave only the salt behind. The mineral is then harvesting and refining into the type of salt required by its intended use.

Until recently, in Brazil, salt intended for human consumption was refined for purity, then packaged and sold without differentiation or variety. But in Brazil, as in the rest of the world, in the past decade or so humans have begun to show an interest in unrefined or natural salts, in salts that reflect regional differentiations, and in salts with different crystalline formation. One of the most popular of these "gastronomic" salts is called fleur du sel, a French term meaning "flower of salt", though in Brazil is it translated into Portuguese as flor de sal.

Although imported French fleur du sel has been available for quite a few years in gastronomic emporia in Brazil's big cities, it's only been in the past four years, since 2008, that domestic Brazilian flor de sal has become available, and it's only now that it's becoming widely available. All of that flor de sal comes from Rio Grande do Norte.

The term fleur du sel refers to a specific crystalline formation of salt, one that has a characteristic lightness and crunch and one that is suitable for garnishing a dish at the last minute or for a dish in which the cook wants only a part of the dish to be salty. The technique of making fleur du sel originated in Brittany, in France as much as a millennium ago, and it is this ancient technique which today produces Brazil's own flor de sal. Water is pumped into a series of pools, and as it evaporates, it is moved from pool to pool, becoming more concentrated with each step. When the water finally becomes a super-concentrated brine, and only under perfect climatic conditions of abundant sun, heat and wind, a fine web of hollow salt crystals forms on the surface of the brine and can be cafeully scooped from the surface. This is flor de sal. Formed of fragile, hollow, light crystals, flor de sal is pure salt in its most delicate  natural form. The hollowness of the crystals is what gives flor de sal its typical crunch and what differentiates it from garden-variety salt.

Making flor de sal is difficult, hot, backbreaking work, and it depends on perfect weather conditions - if there isn't enough wind, or there are passing clouds, the crystals won't form on the surface of the water. So in Brazil, as elsewhere, flor de sal is significantly more expensive than table salt. However, since production commenced four years ago, Brazilian consumer acceptance of flor de sal has grown every year, and today there are three firms producing it in Rio Grande do Norte and selling it throughout the country. Today the market is purely domestic, but there are plans to increase production and develop the export market for Brazilian flor de sal. The potential for growth in this industry is enormous, as Rio Grande do Norte is blessed with all the ingredients for making flor de sal. Some other locations, such as the world's large deserts, have plenty of sun and wind - it's the water they are lacking. Others, like Pacific Islands, have all the salt water they can handle, but are too cloudy or humid for the crystals to form. When it comes to flor de sal, Rio Grande do Norte, apparently, has it all.

With material translated and adapted from Paladar, Estado do S. Paulo newspaper.

INGREDIENTS OF BRAZIL - Feijão Manteiga (Butter Beans)

If the Lord's Prayer were colloquially translated into Brazilian Portuguese, those who recited it wouldn't ask for their "daily bread" but rather for their "daily rice and beans." In the biblical prayer bread represents the food required to sustain the body, and for millions of Brazilians, rich or poor, it's not bread that they eat every day of their life, it's rice and beans.

The beans that Brazilians eat on a daily basis are not, of course, green beans. They are dried legumes that have been reconstituted and cooked in liquid until tender. In fact, Brazilians don't even use the word feijão (which means bean) when referring to green beans. They have another word, vargem, for this vegetable and don't consider it a bean at all. Beans mean dried beans, full stop.

There are numerous varieties of dried beans eaten in Brazil, ranging from black beans to white ones, and from large kidney beans to small pea-shaped varieties. The choice of bean is often regional, and most people in Brazil do not eat one type of bean on Monday, another on Tuesday, etc. The bean they eat is always the same. If a Brazilian was raised on black beans, that's likely all he or she eats, and if it was carioca beans served at the family table, that'll be the bean of choice forever.

One bean that is very strictly regional is called feijão manteiga, which translated literally into English means butter bean. However, the bean is not the same as the lima bean, which is called butter bean in many regions of the USA. That bean is called feijão-de-lima in Brazil. The bean on which Brazilians have bestowed the moniker feijão manteiga is a medium-size, light brown bean about the size and shape of a pinto bean, but without the mottling that gives that bean its name.

The Brazilian butter bean is well-named, for it has a rich creaminess when properly cooked, and this richness gives it the mouth feel of butter, though there is almost no fat in the bean. The taste is also characteristically nutty with a hint of sweetness. It's one of the most flavorful and delicious of all the thousands of varieties of dried beans.

Feijão manteiga is eaten primarily in Brazil's north and northeast, and in the state of  São Paulo, and is not well known in other regions of the country.

In the next post on Flavors of Brazil, we'll publish a traditional recipe from São Paulo for this delicious legume.