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.

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.

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.