B is for Brazil

In 1974, I went to Israel for a year, to work on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, learn Hebrew in an ulpan there, and have adventures.  While on the kibbutz, I met Jeff, who was from London.  We became fast friends, had many adventures together, and, especially after his moving to the States some 30 years ago, have visited each other often, sharing as we got married and our children were born and grew up.  So, I was very excited when Jeff decided to come visit me in Washington.  We could travel around the city together having adventures and it was the perfect opportunity to have another “country” dinner.  It was also the perfect opportunity to invite over some colleagues who live in the area (one a former graduate student of mine) and their spouses.

The choice of Brazil for “B” was easy – several years ago, I had come across a recipe for moqueca, a Brazilian fish stew, that I fell in love with.  It immediately went into my “keepers” file, and I have made it several times since.  It is a very hearty and flavorful dish.  As for the rest of the meal – I contacted a Brazilian colleague of mine, Josue Ramos, and he and his wife, Simony, gave me some good suggestions to fill out the rest of the meal.

The Appetizer:

One problem was that Josue and Simony told me that crab and seafood are traditional Brazilian appetizers (at least from their region).  This was not going to pass the kosher test.  I ended up having quite a problem finding something suitable – there were some interesting soups, but since the main dish was a stew, I didn’t want a soup.  One recipe that did catch my attention was Pao de Queijo, which the site described as similar to French gougere.  My sons really like gougere, and I’ve made it dozens of times for them, so I was intrigued, even though it is supposed to be a Brazilian breakfast food.  It also does have cheese in it, but since the rest of the meal was pareve, that was OK. 

Things did not go well, and my end product looked nothing like the pictures.  First, other recipes that I found said that the traditional cheese used is Minas Curado, while other sites said that Queso Fresca could be used as a substitute (but that it was saltier).  Since Queso Fresca was available from our neighborhood market, I decided to use that.  However, I forgot to reduce the amount of salt in the recipe to compensate, so the final product ended up too salty.  The main difficulty, though, was getting the right consistency to the mixture.  I used cassava flour (Bob’s Red Mill, available locally), which should have been equivalent to the tapioca flour in the recipe.  We don’t use whole milk, so I used skim – maybe that was an issue.  But, in any case, it did not produce a gelatinous mass, as the recipe warned, but was quite solid.   I added more liquid until it seemed like a reasonable “gelatinous” consistency, but the result was more of a dough-ball than the light, fluffy breads pictured in all the web sites with similar recipes.

The final product was quite heavy, and a bit salty, but pleasant tasting.  They were also much better warm than cold – zapping in the microwave helped a lot with the leftovers.  The guests gave them a 4.3 out of 7, which is the lowest scoring dish, so far.  I wouldn’t want to make them again, except maybe to fix what I did wrong the first time around.  Oh well.  Fortunately, the rest of the meal made up for the so-so appetizers.

The Main Dish:

As mentioned, I have made Moqeuca before, and loved it.  The marinade for the fish has all my favorite ingredients (garlic, cilantro, ginger), and I love recipes with coconut milk in them (see my post on Afghanistan for more proof of that).  The other times that I made moqueca, though, I used olive oil rather than the traditional dende (red palm) oil.  This time, I decided to go authentic, ordering dende oil online (not cheap!).  I did save money on the meal by using cod, rather than sea bass – didn’t want to have to take out a loan for this meal.  The other substitute – I did not have fish stock, and did not want to use chicken broth (to keep the meal dairy), so I used vegetable bouillon cubes.  Did it make a difference?  If so, it was hardly noticeable – the moqueca was the clear star of the meal.  As for the dende oil, it did add a nice color to the dish, but given all the other flavors, I could not tell whether the flavor of the oil itself added significantly to the dish.  Next time (and there will be a next time), I will go back to olive oil.  I also left out the hearts of palm, since they were going to be in the salad.  But, other than all that, I followed the recipe strictly, even to the point of baking the fish cubes before adding them to the stew (if I needed to save time, I probably would not have done this added step).  If you are going to make this recipe, one thing to remember is that the fish really should be marinated at least 3 hours, as the recipe recommends.  A previous time I made moqueca I didn’t have time to marinate the fish fully, and I do think it affected the depth of flavor.

The guests all absolutely loved the moqueca and took multiple extra helpings.  Nearly everyone gave it the highest mark (7).  Even leftovers were a big hit when my son and his girlfriend popped over the next evening and happened to be hungry after a long day of travel!  The fish was really tasty but the best part was the luscious sauce.  It was especially great with the starch that I made (see below), turning it from ordinary to extra-special.  This dish sets the bar for the rest of the project!

The Starch:

Josue and Simony indicated that farofa is really the standard starch in Brazil.  Farofa is toasted cassava flour – same as the main ingredient for the Pao de Queijo.  Unfortunately, I seemed to have similar problems with this dish – using the amount of butter in the recipe did not seem to be enough to coat the flour, so I added about 50% more.  I also left out the chopped olives, since my partner detests olives, but otherwise followed the recipe (including using some of the precious dende oil), and did not have to make any accommodations for kashrut. 

The result seemed a bit grainy, despite (or maybe because) of all the extra butter.  So, as a contingency measure, I also made basmati rice.  It was a good thing, too – all that wonderful moqueca sauce needed to be sopped up, and the guests ate nearly all the farofa and most of the rice.  The consensus about the farofa was that it was nothing special by itself, but when combined the grains basically melted into the sauce and produced a truly wondrous combination.  Both the taste and the texture were marvelous.  I rated it a 5, but all the other guests rated it a 6, mostly because of the great way that it combined with the fish stew sauce.

The Vegetable:

Because there were already cooked vegetables in the moqueca, I decided to make just a simple salad for the vegetable.  Josue and Simony suggested a salad consisting of hearts of palm, tomato, and onion.  I found a recipe for Salada de Palmitos that was very easy to make.  My version has more tomato than the given recipe, and I used a Vidalia onion.  I also soaked the onion slices in warm water to soften them and cut down on their bite (I don’t recall where I read that trick, but it was very effective).

The guests liked the salad a lot – giving it a 5.5 out of 7 (I gave it a 5).  I keep having to remind myself that one can make good food very simply – not all fantastic recipes have to take hours.  It’s a lesson I will keep trying to remember as this project continues.

For dessert, we kept in the Brazilian theme with cut up mango and pineapple over non-fat frozen vanilla yogurt.  And, oh yes, some decadent chocolate chip cookies (not from Brazil, but no one complained).

Aside from the appetizer, which totally reflected my inexperience, the meal was a huge success. 

Next up: Cuba.  I’m excited at the thought (and wondering how I am going to keep it kosher…)