Recipe: Dadinhos de Tapioca com Queijo
A few members of the International Club of Rio (InC) discussing their latest events and fundraising activities.
It occurred to me the other day that I’ve changed quite a lot since I came to Brazil. It’s hard to know how much of that change has been due to actually being in Brazil and how much it’s been just the natural process of getting older or various other possible factors. But regardless of the reason(s), the extent of the change really hit home a couple of weeks ago when I found myself giving a talk to around 50 members of the prestigious International Club of Rio (InC) – currently in its 50th year.
Late last year one of my food tour guests, Susan, mentioned that she was a member of this group which aims to create a community of English speakers in Rio. The group (formed of many different nationalities including Brazilians) gets together for social events, helps newcomers settle in and raises funds for philanthropic activities and services. “We’d love it if you came along to one of our meetings and gave us a talk about how you came to Brazil and some background on Brazilian food,” she said. “Our guest speakers usually speak for about an hour”.
Now if this proposition had been put to the old Tom who lived in London you can be sure he would have run a mile! I was never a big fan of public speaking – even a 10 minute presentation to a handful of work colleagues used to give me palpitations back in those days. But with hardly a moment’s hesitation I found myself agreeing to Susan’s suggestion and a couple of months later I was standing in front of a large group of women of all ages and telling them my story. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed the entire experience. I don’t suppose it’s really for me to say, but it felt like the group enjoyed the presentation too (at least they laughed in all the right places and gave me lots of positive feedback afterwards). How times change.
I first tried these tasty, cheesy ‘dice’ in Café do Alto in Santa Teresa.
A couple of days before the talk, it occurred to me that it might be fun to make something for the audience to eat while I spoke. I guess the idea was that even if they hated my presentation at least some tasty food might put them in a forgiving mood. The response on the day was so positive and I had so many requests for the recipe that I ended up promising to put it up on the blog. So here it is:
Dadinhos de Tapioca com Queijo
Dados is the word for dice, so the full translation here is something like ‘little tapioca and cheese dice’. I discovered this delicious snack in a restaurant a few months back and enjoyed it so much I decided to find out how to make it. It turns out to be really easy – the ‘little dice’ are actually cubes of tapioca and cheese that are deliciously crisp on the outside and pleasingly chewy and cheesy on the inside. I recently read an article in The Guardian saying that tapioca is becoming the new trendy ingredient (oh please!) so I guess the timing is good.
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Ingredients (makes around 25-30 dice)
250g tapioca granules*
300g Queijo Coalho cheese coarsely grated**
1 tsp salt
Black pepper
500ml whole milk
Sunflower oil (or similar) for deep frying
*There are various different grades of tapioca, ranging from big round tapioca pearls down to a very fine powder. I’ve had great results using the stuff that looks just like granulated sugar.
**Queijo Coalho is just like Halloumi and I found this worked perfectly in the recipe when I was last back in England.
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Steps
- Place the tapioca, grated cheese, salt and a good grind of black pepper in a large mixing bowl. Mix well using a wooden spoon.
Grated cheese, tapioca granules, salt, pepper – mix.
- Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is hot but don’t allow it to boil.
- Gradually add the hot milk to the tapioca and cheese mixture, stirring all the time.
As you mix the milk in the mixture will become kind of lumpy – that’s expected and not a problem.
- Turn the slightly lumpy looking mixture out into a lightly greased tray or container (I use a shallow, plastic Tupperware-style container for this). Pat down the mixture using the back of a spoon so that it is evenly spread across the container. The depth of the mixture should be at least 2cm (1 inch).
Smooth out the surface of the mixture so it is evenly spread in the container.
- Cover your container and leave it in the fridge for least 3 hours (or overnight).
- Turn the mixture out onto a chopping board. By the now the mixture should have congealed (sorry, horrible word) into a solid block. Cut the block into whatever size and shape you want. I normally go for 2cm ‘dice’ but anything goes really. At this stage the dice will keep for a day or two in the fridge. You can also freeze them and save for another time – I haven’t seen any negative effects on the end results.
- When you’re ready to make your dice, heat the sunflower oil in a deep-fat fryer or saucepan (taking all the usual precautions to avoid serious injuries, fires, etc). There should be enough oil to comfortably cover the dice when frying – the exact amount of oil will of course depend on the size and shape of your pan/fryer. The optimal temperature is 170°C (340°F) but I don’t think it has to be exact.
- Carefully lower the dice into the hot oil. Fry the dice in small batches and don’t be tempted to put too many in at once or the temperature of the oil will drop too much and the end result will be soggy, greasy dice (yuck!). The dice may stick together a bit at first, but just manoeuvre them apart using a fork – as they crisp up on the surface they will stop sticking. When they are nicely golden brown all over, remove the dice from the oil and drain on kitchen towels.
Golden, crispy, chewy, delicious. Now you just need to decide what to dip them into.
Serve the dice with melado (molasses/treacle) or whatever zingy dipping sauce takes your fancy. If you know your guests will be up for it then go for something spicy. Otherwise you can do what I did on the day of the presentation and serve the dice with my version of HP Sauce. Bom apetite!
Amazing how your personality adapts to a new place eh?
I had those dados at a place called The Butchers Market in Sao Paulo the other day. Bit dangerous, ate too many of them alongside a Macaroni & Cheese and pulled pork sandwich. Couldn’t help myself but felt rough after.
Hey Richard – you’re right, it really is amazing how much being somewhere new can change you. I only realise now that most of the ‘barriers’ that stopped me from doing things before were self-made and (fairly) easily brushed aside.
Self control is vital with these fried snacks the Brazilians are so fond of. I find the most dangerous situation is when I’m really hungry – that’s when I eat a few too many and then the grease overload catches up with me a bit later. Urgh… ;)
This looks so good! I will try it as soon as I get to Recife again!
Hey Luciana! Let me know how it goes – I expect you’re an expert in the kitchen, but this recipe is a nice easy one :)
Caramba, speak for an hour! I honestly think I could not fill up more than 15-20 minutes, before even I would be tired of hearing me talk.
I always used to feel that way! Anything more than a few minutes seemed like a lot. But I was covering my whole life story, my food tours and a few of the things I’ve learned about Brazilian cuisine over the years. An hour flew by (for me at least!).
Pertaining to Brazilian cuisine, my experience has been that there almost really is no `Brazilian cuisine`, per se. It really is far more a regional thing than a national one. Take fejoida for example, a dish that pretty much everyone would agree is `Brazilian`. The flavor and many of the contents of the fejoida that you would eat in Curitiba (flavored with beef and pork) tends to be pretty different from the dish of the same name in Salvador (flavored with seafood and pork and spices common to African dishes).
Totally agree. First time I had Northeastern Feijoada I was blown away – very different to what I’d had before and utterly delicious! I’m hoping that one of these days I can do a tour around Brazil and sample all the regional specialities. Just need to find a few spare years for the trip! ;)
“Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now”
– Bob Dylan
:-)
I thought the Byrds wrote that lyric. No?
Hey Carlos – according to Wikipedia it was a Dylan lyric in the song ‘My Back Pages’ that was performed by The Byrds in 1967 and not performed by Dylan until 1988.
I have to say I was just surprised to see Gritty quote a beatnik protest singer though ;)
Either way, great lyric!
I think one of the highlights of serving dadinhos is that after your guests devour them you can casually retrieve each empty plate and say “DADS all folks”. LOL.
Hey tom-
Random question but I’m wondering if you know where I can buy veal bones? I want to take a stab at Demi glacé but I can’t figure out how to get some bones! Valeu
Mike
Hi Mike! Hmmm, you don’t hear much about veal here do you? If you’re dead set on using veal bones then I’d recommend chatting to your nearest butcher and seeing if they can get some or perhaps you could get in touch with these guys? http://www.vitellone.com.br/a_vitellone/a_vitellone.asp
But I’m sure, like me, you’ve got used to substituting other ingredients when hard to find ones aren’t easily available. This discussion (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/762287) seems pretty relevant and suggests that using beef bones (including ox tail) can be OK if you don’t boil them for too long but even better, turkey or chicken bones. Good luck – I’m sure all the effort will pay off in the deliciousness of the end product! :D
Looks like I’m going to be purchasing some chicken feet at the feira for the first time in my life…obrigado Tom!!!
Good luck Mike – let us know how you get on!
Oh my, these looks a amazing. :) Making stat!
Hey Anna – fingers crossed they are a success. I was so surprised how easy they are to make. And it’s a total bonus that you can make a big stack of them and then freeze them for later – kind of handy to have tasty nibbles on standby for an impromptu party! ;)
My son-in-law is from Brazil and I would like to learn a lot more about Brazilian cuisine. We were in Rio a few months ago and I had tapioca squares for the first time. They were served with honey. How would I modify this recipe to make them? Also had tapioca crepes at the Hippie Fair. They were filled with coconut and were delicious. These were new taste treats for me!
Hi Cheryl – thanks for your comment! It’s always nice to hear about people discovering Brazilian food. I’m not clear how the “tapioca squares” you mention are different from these “tapioca dice” – they are usually served with honey, melado (like golden syrup/molasses) or a spicy tamarind sauce. The tapioca pancakes are great aren’t they? I have mine with eggs or cheese!