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The
cuisine of Brazil, like Brazil itself, varies greatly by region.
This diversity reflects the country's mix of native Amerindians,
Portuguese, Africans, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Poles, Syrians,
Lebanese and Japanese among others which has created a national
cooking style marked by the preservation of regional differences.
From west to east it stretches nearly 2,700 miles from the Andean
foothills eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. The largest cities are Sao
Paulo (16 million people), Rio de Janeiro (11 million), Belo
Horizante (3.8 million), Salvador (2.3 million), Recife (1.8
million), and Porto Alegre (3.1 million).
Brazil
is politically subdivided into 26 states and territories plus the
federal district of Brasilia. About 1 million native Indians lived in
Brazil when the first Portuguese explorers arrived early in the 16th
century. Beginning in 1538, almost 5 million Africans arrived before
the abolition of slavery in 1888. Portuguese immigrants were followed
by Italians, Germans, Syrians, and Lebanese. Asians arrived during
the 1930's
In
Brazil , eating is, like so many other things, another pretext for
pleasure-taking. There is no such thing as Brazilian haute cuisine
per se, but the food tastes damned good almost anywhere you go. Even
more remarkable is the cultural know-how about what, where, when and
how to eat.
This
arte de comer bem (art of eating well) has nothing to do with either
fussiness, or pseudo-scientific taboos. Brazilians simply understand
that the body feels better when it's kept hydrated with fruit and
water while at the beach, or that a fattening little snack and a few
sips of strong coffee or cold beer make the ride home from work
infinitely more pleasant.
The
most basic `Brazilian' meal can include Portuguese olive oil, native
manioc, Japanese sushi, African okra, Italian pasta, German sausage
and Lebanese tabbouleh. Still, the cuisine can be reduced to three
delightful principles: generosity, freshness and simplicity.
The
nearest Brazil gets to a national dish is feijoada, a black bean
stew which is traditionally served on Saturdays. Visitors must also
try out the churrasco (barbecue) restaurants and we highly recommend
a visit to a rodizio, where they will keep up the servings of a
variety of cuts of meats, unless and until you ask them to stop.
Although
Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, the national drink is
cachaça, a sugar cane alcohol. You will find this in the
famously potent caipirinhas and mixed with fruit juices in batidas.
Guaraná is the most popular soft drink and the draught beer
(chopp) is a tasty lager. Brazilian wines are beginning to be noticed internationally.
Servings
are generous and the meal will include arroz e feijdo (rice and
beans), the principle staples of the Brazilian diet. Each is cooked
with garlic and onions. To the rice add tomatoes, and to the beans
add bay leaves and perhaps some bacon. On top of the beans, sprinkle
farofa - manioc flour sauteed in butter, perhaps with bits of egg or
bacon. Grilled meats, known as churrasco or grelhadas, are the meal's
crowning glory: chicken, beef or pork is dredged in salt, set on a
spit and grilled slowly over an open fire. A green salad or sauteed
or steamed vegetables (beets, carrots, green beans, yams or kale)
round out the main course. Then follows sobremesa (dessert), which
could include either fresh or preserved fruit, a pudding enlivened
with coconut or passion fruit, or the flanlike quindim. The meal ends
with a strong, sweet shot of Brazilian coffee.
Brazilian
restaurants outside of Brazil tend to serve, more specifically
Bahian cuisine, perhaps because it's the most obviously exotic. It
developed in the kitchens of the region's sugar plantations, and its
African origins reveal themselves in the three main ingredients:
coconut milk; the spicy malagueta pepper; and dende oil, a
reddish-orange extraction of west African palm. The delicious seafood
stew known as moqueca includes all three and is a classic Bahian
speciality. On the streets of Bahia , you can't escape the smell of
acaraje - fritters made with brown beans and shrimp fried in dende oil.
Feijoada
Completa
Serves
six
Preparation
time: 40 minutes
Cooking
time: 2 hours and 30 minutes (approximately)
Suggested
beverages: lime "batida" or beer
Ingredients
800
grams of black beans
250
grams of dried beef ("carne seca")
250
grams of salted pork ribs
1
pork trotter
1
pork tail (or ear)
100
grams of smoked loin of pork
80
grams of smoked bacon
2
large pork sausages ("paio")
1
Portuguese sausage
1
onion
3
cloves of garlic
1
soup spoon of olive oil
2
bay leaves
1
orange
Preparation
The
night before, clean the port trotter and tail and soak them in cold
water together with the already cleaned pork ribs. In a separate
bowl, soak the dried beef cut into pieces. Change the water in each
bowl at least four times.
Put
the salted meats on the stove in a pan with plenty of water. Boil
for 10 minutes, drain off the water, pour in clean water and cook.
Use the same procedure for the dried beef, putting it to cook in a
separate pan. When the meats are tender, but not shredded, drain off
the water and cut the pork ribs into pieces. Set aside.
Cut
the "paio" and Portuguese sausage into thick slices, the
smoked bacon into small cubes, and the smoked pork into medium-sized cubes.
Place
the bans in a large pan with a thick bottom. Add water, the bay
leaves, and the orange cut in half, with the inner peel but without
the outer peel. After cooking for 45 minutes, add the salted and
smoked meats, the dried beef, sausage and "paio." Leave to
cook for 20 more minutes.
Remove
two soup ladles of beans from the pan. Chop the onion and garlic
finely. Sauté them, without letting the brown, in a skillet in
the olive oil. Add the bean paste to the skillet and cook for two
minutes. Return the entire mixture to the large pan, mix and taste
for salt. Adjust the temperature as necessary and leave everything to
cook 20 minutes more or until well cooked. Serve with white rice,
sautéed kale, manioc meal. Accompanied by fresh orange slices.
The
meats can vary according to individual taste. It is very important
that the oily build-up on the surface be skimmed off periodically
while cooking.
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