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Below are some recipes of Brazil. Included are recipes for Feijoada, national dish of Brazil, moqueca, acaraje', caruru . A second gallery page of Brazilian recipes begins with Vatapá and includes recipes for couscous, coconut rice, churrasco (Brazilian barbecue), banana farofa and home made cocoa fudge.
After you have had an opportunity to explore the recipes below - and the rest of this site - please consider visiting http://www.cookbrazil.com/, which I think you will agree is an INCREDIBLE site related to Brazilian food and food preparation.
Portuguese and African influence is predominant in most of these dishes and some of them share an African origin by way of the Afro Brazilians (descended from slaves) who have contributed so much to the rich cultural heritage of Brazil. Before I forget I'll mention for you that farinha is manioc flour and farofa is manioc flour (or finely crumbled dried bread crumbs) that have been toasted, usually in a fry pan on top of the stove. Also; I use the spelling "couscous" for the nutty flavored pasta product of North African origin, which is popular in many regions of Brazil. Some sources spell it "cuscuz".
Since so many of the recipes below are associated with the state of Bahia, you will see that dende oil is often used. Dende oil is the oil of a palm originally brought to Brazil by African slaves. It adds an unusual color and flavor to food. Persons not accustomed to eating food prepared with dende oil should allow their systems some time to acclimate to this oil, as they would to any food that their digestive systems are unaccustomed to. But, by all means, don't completely avoid it! The Brazilian cuisine is a wonderful experience and none of it should be passed over without sampling. Red palm oil can be purchased at many ethnic specialty food markets.
Brazilian meals are commonly very heavy. Housewives or maids may have to spend the entire morning in the kitchen. And meals may be complemented with a soup, coffee and milk, bread, cheese, stewed bananas, manioc, inhame, sweet potatoes, couscous, marmalades, cakes, etc.
Feijoada, the national dish of Brazil is a culinary adventure of epic proportions. A legend had suggested that feijoada evolved over many decades as plantation owners in northeastern Brazil limited the availability of choice cuts of meat to their slaves. According to the legend "castoffs", like pigs ears and ox tongue, were creatively integrated into a fabulous meat and bean stew which they served over white rice or fried manioc flour. Recent studies now point to feijoada originating from a Portuguese dish.
Whatever feijoada's true origins, once it was "discovered" by the aristocracy it quickly won the favor of all Brazil.
For some segments of Brazilian society, most notably the upper classes, the end of slave supported plantations resulted in the need for a new "feijoada venue" for the labor intensive preparation of this dish. The fledgling restaurant industry was unable to satisfy the need because preparing Feijoada could not be accomplished without ceasing to prepare all other dishes. Some hotels in the south began to prepare Feijoada on Saturdays to meet the national demand and the national appetitie for feijoada continued to grow. Eventually the complicated and labor intensive effort came to produce feijoada on Sundays in the northeast (Aracaju and Salvador) and Saturdays and Wednesdays in the south (Rio and Sao Paulo).
But for other segments of Brazilian society making feijoada simplifies the task of preparing enough food to feed a lot of people. In this case it may not be considered so much trouble. Sometimes family and friends will gather for lunch and amuse themselves preparing the feijoada for that day together. It's common to begin preparing feijoada on Saturday night and finish cooking it Sunday to allow for spending a nice time with family and friends without worrying so much about the kitchen. One only needs to prepare the feijoada as the principal dish and add a tomato and lettuce salad and maybe some rice.
Feijao literally translated, means "bean". As beans are the basis of feijoada, the poorer among Brazilian society may prepare a feijoada suited to their own budget on any day, and eat it at any meal or even at every meal.
The first feijoada recipe I offer is a "Carioca" (from Rio de Janeiro) version, which I had at the Caesar Park Hotel on Ipanema beach. I liked it very much.
Also included are remarks from people in northeastern Brazil which will help you to prepare an even more genuine "Bahian style" feijoada. Feijoada often includes animal parts that many Americans may be unfamiliar with. Don't be shy to ask your local market. You should be able to find all the ingredients, even pigs ears (I've even seen them at my local Kroger supermarket from time to time).
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Carioca style "Feijoada Caesar Park" (from the Caesar Park Hotel in Rio de Janeiro) - serves 20.
Ingredients
4 1/4 lbs black beans
1 1/4 lbs dried beef
1 lb salt cured pork
1 lb bacon
1 lb smoked sausage
6 pieces dried sausage
1 piece smoked beef tongue
2 pigs ears
2 pigs tail (or equal amount of ox tail)
2 pigs trotters
1 large chopped onion
1 medium chopped onlion
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
oranges
hot peppers
rice, manioc, couscous or fried, shredded kale
Place beans and salted meats in SEPARATE bowls. Cover each with water. Keep covered with water for 24 hours; but change water every 6 hours.
Put ALL ingredients into a very large cooking pan and cover with water. Add ½ orange, 3 bay leaves, 1 medium chopped onion and pepper.
Cook everything over a low heat and gradually withdraw the meats as they are cooked to prevent them from becoming too soft.
In a separate pan heat a tablespoon of soybean oil and fry the 6 cloves of garlic and the large chopped onion. Pour into the beans and mix well.
Temporarily remove a cup of the beans and crush with a wooden spoon to thicken the sauce.
Serve with white rice, manioc (in the US you may want to substitute couscous) or fried, shredded kale along with oranges and hot peppers.
Tips:
- Always cook over low to moderate heat.
- The orange will add flavor and improve digestion.
- In the event that you must add water, always add boiling water.
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Serves 10-12.
Ingredients
4 cups dried black beans
1 lb dried beef
1 lb raw corned beef
1/4 lb salt pork
4 lbs loin of pork
3 lbs smoked beef tongue
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 lb spicy Portuguese sausage (or some other spicy sausage)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon ground dried chili peppers
Soak the dried beef and tongue SEPARATELY in cold water for 1 1/2 hours. Drain. In separate pots, cover the tongue and the dried beef with fresh water and bring to a boil. Cook the dried beef for 15 minutes. Drain the dried beef and cut into small pieces.
Cook the tongue for a total 2 1/2 hours while preparing other ingredients.
Wash the beans, cover them with water and bring them to a boil. Cook the beans for 2 minutes and remove them from the heat. Allow them to soak for an hour then drain, add fresh water to cover and bring back to a boil. Add the dried beef and cook over a low heat for another 2 1/2 hours.
While the beans are cooking: Combine the corned beef and salt pork in a saucepan, and add water to cover, bring to a boil, cover and cook over low heat for 2 1/2 hours.
Season the pork loin with the salt and pepper, and roast in a 375 degree oven for 2 hours. When the beans are tender drain the corned beef and salt pork, then add them to the beans. Temporarily remove a cup of the beans and puree them in an electric blender (or mash them into a paste with a wooden spoon). Add the orange juice to the beans and cook over low heat for another hour.
Heat the oil in a skillet. Sauté the onions and the garlic in the oil for 5 minutes, then add them to the beans. Brown the sausages in the skillet; then drain the grease and add them to the beans along with the chili peppers. Cook for another 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning.
Drain the tongue; trim away the root ends and peel off the skin (if this has not already been done).
Slice all the meats and arrange on a platter. Put the beans in a deep bowl. Serve the meat and beans with rice or manioc or couscous, sliced oranges and pickled onions.
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In Bahia we use brown beans, not black, and we soak the beans in water for 12 hours to soften them. For feijoada we use soy oil, which hasn't such strong flavor. And in Bahia we don't add orange juice to the feijoada; but we do eat oranges with feijoada. Pepper, in Bahia, is added only in powder form ( "Pimenta do Reino" ) and a little kümmel (cumin). A good Bahian way to make pepper sauce for serving with the feijoada is to crush pepper and mix with salt, vinegar and olive oil. Bahian style feijoada is better when more salted pork, smoked pork and dried beef are added to it. Pork and dried beef should be covered with water the day before cooking.
Begin cooking feijoada by pouring soy oil in a pan ( I prefer to cook in pans rather than pots because feijoada burns more easily in pots) and placing on the stove. Then add chopped onions, garlic, cut up tomatoes and parsley to the pan and saute. Add the meat and, only later, the beans. Cook slowly over a low heat until the meat and beans are tender.
When the feijoada is just right don't put forks, tablespoons or other utensils into it. Only put utensils into the dish when you are going to eat it, otherwise you'll spoil the flavor and turn it sour. Feijoada is often served with beer.
Many non-Brazilians may consider feijoada so much work because they aren't familiar with Brazil's everyday food. Brazilians don't eat so much fast food, and everything we eat is made with only fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, etc. We're used to having many dishes at each meal, including one or two kinds of meat and one or two vegetable dishes. We also often include soup and salad, feijão (a light feijoada with only a little meat) or feijoada, rice and/or spaghetti, mandioc farinha or farofa, one or two kinds of marmalade, etc.
Many people, myself included, prefer feijoada with banana. I put feijoada, farinha and rice in my dish I cut banana (da prata) in round slices and eat them together.
Another good thing is feijoada broth, "caldo de feijão". To create this treat pour only the broth of the feijoada into a medium glass and add some olive oil, vinegar, pepper sauce, green parsley, green onions and collard greens. We drink this while drinking beer or caipirinha. Caipirinha is made from fermented sugar cane liquor, or "cachaça", sugar and lemon. Oh! I'm starving!
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In Bahia the beans in our feijoada are not black; we almost never use black beans. Ours are brown, called "mulatinho" (mulatto is the resulting of a black and white union). Black beans the original beans brought by the slaves and are a cultural preference. I myself prefer a light feijoada with many vegetables and no pork. I really prefer the kind of feijoada that emphasizes vegetables, as is more common in the state of Sergipe, Bahia's neighbor at the north. They commonly add vegetables like pumpkin, carrots and potatoes.
Both Bahia and Sergipe have wonderful soil for agriculture in the sense that they are rich in minerals, like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. But much of the land is also very acid and must be corrected with treatment. Perhaps most important is that there are many regions which experience long periods of drought, so that the land remains hardened by the sun. It doesn't mean the soils aren't fertile, they are not productive, but they are fertile. As always there are significant differences from region to region - within Bahia. For instance, there is a Massapê (violet) soil, Bahian Reconcavo, which is both fertile and productive. And in Juazeiro, in northern Bahia, there are lands that have been made productive by treating the soil and (most importantly) by adding very fine irrigating systems. This has revolutionized agriculture to some extent as, the grape, which supposedly could only be grown in southern Brazil is now a success in Juazeiro where one of the finest wines in Brazil is produced. But, generally speaking, the best Brazilian wines come from southern Brazil, especially Rio Grande do Sul. Juazeiro is more known for delicious "eating" grapes, and many kind or delicious fruit.
The fertility of soil depends on many factors and the principal for Bahia and Sergipe is water. Barreiras, a region where I once worked is an "Agricutural Frontier". Many kinds of fruit are produced thanks to irrigation. The soil is not so rich there but they add chemicals which, unfortunately, may also destroy the original vegetation (the "cerrado"). Many small, rural, farmer don't have the resources to make the land produce and are experiencing increasing difficulty competing with large scale agri-businesses.
In Sergipe they make a feijoada made of vegetables, much more than meat. And I've never had feijoada without tomatoes. "Fradinho" beans are truly white. They're used to make acarajé, abará and are cooked with shrimp.
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This wonderful moqueca recipe comes from Marusia in Bahia.
Moqueca is usually made with some kind of seafood such as fresh fish, shrimp, lobster or other shellfish or dried salted cod (known as bacalhau in Portugal or Brazil). But dried meat or eggs may be used; but see Marusia's notes regarding these (below). Except for the bacalau the seafood should be very fresh, and you should clean it very well (with lemon juice).
Place the seafood or meat into a large bowl with salt and generous amounts of chopped onions, diced fresh tomatoes, chopped parsley & cilantro leaves, chopped or crushed fresh cloves of garlic, chopped sweet pepper, coconut milk, olive oil and lemon juice. Allow the meat or seafood to marinate in this mixture for several hours so the flavor of the spices will be sufficiently absorbed. You may also include some pimentas de cheiro (aromatic pimenta - refer to notes) in this mixture.
Finally, place the fish and marinade into a frying pan over low to medium heat and cover. When the marinade begins to boil add dendê oil and allow the fish to cook for 4-5 minutes (a little longer if using meat in place of seafood). Don't overcook moqueca or the dish will be less enjoyable; only cook until the seafood or meat is ready to eat.
Moqueca can be served with white rice, dendê farofa or rice of haussá. Arroz de Haussá is cooked with water and a little coconut milk. In another pan you prepare moqueca with dried meat and smoked shrimp. Then add the rice in a big dish and ladle the moqueca over it.
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A "False" Moqueca (Ensopado)
This "Moqueca de Peixe" is really an Ensopado, and not a moqueca at all I think it's too mild; but worse it lacks dende oil and coconut milk, and it uses canned tomato soup! Marusia in Bahia tells me that "In the state of Espirito Santo (ES) they have a dish they call moqueca capixaba. Like this it doesn't use dende oil (it also doesn't use canned soup!) Instead urucum, a kind of seed, is fried in olive oil. This oil is used to give the color of dendê to the dish. But they don't use dendê and coconut milk. In the south of Bahia, at the beaches I'm studying, there are many tourists from ES (which is near) and you can find this moqueca capixaba. "Capixaba is nickname for people who were born in ES, just as "carioca" is a way to refer to someone from Rio de Janeiro.
Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons salad oil
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed tomato bisque soup
1 lb fillets of sole or other white fish cut into 2 inch pieces
fresh cilantro to taste (or only if you must, 1 teaspoon of crushed
coriander seeds)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 minced clove of garlic
teaspoon crushed red pepper
Cook onion in oil until tender. Add remaining ingredients and cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until done, stirring gently from time to time. Serve over white rice. Makes 3 cups.
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Plan on 2 pieces of fish to a person.
You can estimate the quantities of other ingredients. I will offer you the quantities for 1 portion . . .
1 medium onion sliced
2 diced fresh tomatoes
chopped parsley to taste
cilantro leaves to taste
3 cloves fresh garlic
1 sweet pepper cut into wheels
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 pimentas de cheiro (aromatic pimentos)
1/2 cup dendê oil
white rice, dendê farofa or rice of haussá as a side dish!!! (1 cup cooked
with water)
Moqueca made with meat: uses dried meat that must be soaked for 12 hours before cooking to reconstitute it.
Moqueca made with eggs: You put first all the spices and coconut milk and dendê oil into a heated frying pan, then add the eggs. No meat or fish. Sometimes, a bit of smoked shrimp. This kind of moqueca is a very personal version, not appropriate to offer guests because it's poor moqueca. It means you don't have anything better to eat this day.
And eat everything listening to the music of a Gal Costa CD Mina d'água do meu canto sound.!!! Do you know Caetano Veloso's Ciúme? It's lovely and Gal sings on this CD".
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Most of time Moqueca is made with seafood. But we have also a plate named "Roupa Velha" (old cloth), that is made with meat slightly spoiled. It's a Moqueca of spoiled meat.
Moqueca must be made with dendê oil and coconut milk. Without dende oil we would call it ensopada (soup). And only on the interior of Bahia you will see people using coriander seed. Here in Salvador we only use the leaves (cilantro). Finally: Condensed tomato? That's terrible. Never do such a thing! Use only natural ingredients, not industrialized.
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This wonderful recipe comes from Marusia in Bahia.
Place dried black eyed peas (the white beans with a brown dot on them; called "feijão fradinho" in Brazil) in water to soak for 24 hours. The beans should be husked and crushed, either in a stone pistel and mortar or in an electric blender. Also chop and crush some onions. Salt and mix the crushed or blended beans and onions into a paste until it foams a little. Acaraje paste is well worth sampling, but be careful - it may not keep for more than a few hours.
Put some dende oil in a hot pan on the stove. Preheating the pan will allow you to avoid burning the oil as the pan heats; Dende is a red oil produced from a type of palm which grows in northeastern Brazil but originated in western Africa. Place the paste by tablespoons into the pan and fry until golden brown. Serve while still very hot. You may, if you prefer, add pimenta sauce, or vatapá (see recipe below), or tomato salad (see Marusia's notes below) or shrimp sauce to acaraje' after cooking the way you might add catsup to a hot dog!
Amounts of ingredients - Just a pinch of salt, and enough dende oil to fry potatoes. The more you use, the more golden acarajé becomes pimenta sauce - it's a separate dish: you dry fresh hot pimentos and smoked shrimp in the oven. Then you crush them and fry them in dendê oil.
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Acaraje' is fried in dende oil in potato sized cakes. After fried we open it and put vatapá and shrimps. The Baiana (woman vendor) asks if you want with vatapa or maybe with a salad? Pepper (please, at this time say no! Without shrimps costs U$1,00 with U$1,50. I prefer only vatapá and shrimps. The same dough is used to make abará, which is cooked into banana leaves, carefully folded like envelopes. And served on the same way with the same prices. you crush them and fry them in dendê oil.
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Pimentos "pimentos" are the red ones sometimes stuffed into green olives These are very hot though. Its name is Pimenta Malagueta. We have also the sweet one, bigger than it, without the hot, red ot white or yellow. It's very common in Spanish dishes, in powder form. When I say tomato salad I mean chopped tomatoes with olive oil and vinegar, like barbecue sauce.
Acarajé is a ritual food of Candomblé (the secretive African religion that was disguised behind a facade of Catholicism by the slaves in Brazil). To Candomblé, all people have a principal "orixa", like a saint, which protects them' it's associated with the "head" of that person. There may also be two more orixas that offer protection: orixas from the left and right side. It's something like having principal and ascendant "signs" in astrology.
Acaraje' It is the food for Oxum (the Niger River Goddess) and sometimes for Ibejis in the "Caruru de São Cosme" festival celebrated on 27 September. The Caruru de São Cosme festival regards Cosme and Damião, who are the symbol of childhood in Candomblé. They are Erês, and protect children. I think acaraje' survives because of it's relationship to the religion. Most vendors in Bahia sell acarajés in response at the bequest of their orixás. And when they begin to make acarajé in the day, first they fry 3 little acarajés: for the Erês.
In Bahia we buy from acarajé from street vendors, who first fry onion in the oil before frying the acaraje', and we eat in the streets, on the beaches or take home to eat with beer before lunch. We have today a supermarket acaraje in powder or frozen form but they're poor imitations. When vendors make acaraje they first fry an onion in the dendê oil and then put the acarajé into the hot oil. You cut the acarajé like bread and put only a little of the sauce - be careful!
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This recipe is provided by Dani's mother in Salvador da Bahia!
Cut 100 okras into very little pieces. It is a slave job. The okras have to be new and soft. To test them you have to break the extremity of each one. If they break easily and the point is separated from the rest, then it's good, not fibrous.
Other ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 onions
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon toasted, ground peanuts
1 tablespoon toasted, ground cashew nuts
1 small piece fresh ginger root; 2 to 3 centimeters (about an inch)
50 grams (2 ounces) headless dried, salted shrimp (I'd try an oriental food market)
Fresh cilantro leaves to taste
In an absolute emergency only you might substitute the (coriander) seeds for fresh cilantro; but then I would crush them using a stone pistel and mortar and NOT use dried ground coriander because it will not have the pungent flavor from the leaves or oil.
Blend all of the ingredients in a blender. Originally they used a pistel and mortar but a blender will work well for this.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a cup dende oil in a pan. Here in the US you may have to look hard for this; I don't think most Americans will understand that dende is a very special palm oil brought from west Africa by black slaves that adds a unique color and flavor. Add the blended sauce with 50 grams (2 ounces) of headless dried, salted shrimps. After 15 minutes add the cut okra, and stir for a little while. Salt to your preference, but only after adding the sauce with shrimps because they already have salt in them. Cook for about an hour, stirring from time to time.
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If you have read the recipes for acarajé you may recall that Marusia associated that dish with the African Orixa (saint) Oxum (the Niger River Goddess) and sometimes for Ibejis in the "Caruru de São Cosme" festival celebrated on 27 September. Marusia says that caruru is associated specifically with Cosme and Damião in the "Caruru de São Cosme" festival celebrated on 27 September but also sometimes in Yansã festival in December. As a dish, it's made with okra the way Dani said. But as a CD (Cosme and Damião) food we have caruru and a lot of foods and we commonly serve them all together at the same time in the dish - caruru, efó, vatapá, chicken xinxin, omolocum, dendê farofa, sugar cane, rapadura, popcorn, fried bananas and rice. It's a huge dish with a little of each food. Yansã caruru is made the same way but the okra is cut in little circles rather than in quarters and then in little pieces: it's a different ritual.
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Last Updated January 20, 2003