Taking Brazilian cuisine to New York with #SkypeMoments

Ah well, so much for my high hopes of two posts on a Friday. I was actually kept very busy on Friday night by a rather exciting project. For anyone who hasn’t read my previous posts on the subject, some time ago I became Skype’s ‘Brand Ambassador’ for food.

In the build-up to Christmas, the good people at Skype got Frank Bell (Skype’s Music Ambassador) and me together to come up with a plan. The idea was to stage some kind of fundraising event that would involve music and food as part of Skype’s ‘Social Good‘ project. We eventually decided to host a dinner party at Haven’s Kitchen in New York. Frank would be performing live, both on his own and also accompanied by a collaborator over Skype. I was given the task of designing the menu for the night and Skyping in to oversee the preparation on the night and also to say hello to the guests.

Of course I’ve put menus together in the past – I guess every time any of us have guests over for a meal we have to decide on a series of things to eat, right? But this was a different proposition. My menu was going to be prepared by a professional chef (David Mawhinney) and his team and served to around 40 influential New Yorkers who had been selected to attend the event. I was definitely feeling the pressure.

David Mawhinney of Haven’s Kitchen doing his thing.

I decided to opt for a menu inspired by Brazilian cuisine – I have always thought that many of Brazil’s best dishes are better suited to chilly winters than stifling summer heat, so New York in the depths of winter seemed perfect. Here is the final menu:

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Cocktails

Caipirinhas & Blueberry Mojitos

Entrée

Caldinho de feijão com dadinhos de tapioca e queijo (V)

Black bean soup with tapioca and cheese ‘dice’ (vegetarian option)

— OR —

Rabada com agrião

My take on the classic Brazilian combination of oxtail and watercress – slow braised oxtail shredded and served on a sourdough crouton with fresh watercress.

Main Course

Moqueca Baiana com arroz de coco e farofa de dendê

The classic seafood stew from Bahia, made with shrimp, white fish, coconut milk, peppers, cilantro and dendê (palm oil) with coconut rice and palm oil farofa

Dessert

Pudim de tapioca com cachaça envelhecida e mirtilos

Tapioca and condensed milk pudding with aged cachaça and blueberries

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I’m sure the purists will have some issues with this selection: what is rabada com agrião doing on a sourdough crouton? Why add blueberries to pudim de tapioca? To these questions I invoke the ‘artistic licence’ defence – I did it that way because I thought it would be nice, and seriously, those tapioca/condensed milk puddings really need something sour to stop them being so cloyingly sweet.

Want to see how the event turned out? Here is a selection of shots taken on the night:

Guests taking their seats.

Something for the vegetarians: Caldinho de feijão (black bean soup).

I came up with the idea but it was Chef David Mawhinney who put it together so beautifully – Rabada com agrião (oxtail with watercress). Image from David Mawhinney’s instagram account.

Moqueca Baiana: Plated up like this, you can’t see the sauce, but believe me, underneath the seafood, cilantro and farofa there was coconut rice and lots of delicious moqueca sauce.

Pudim de tapioca com mirtilos (tapioca pudding with blueberries).

As well as food there was, of course, music.

Frank Bell doing his thing.

Frank did an amazing job of getting the room warmed up and after 3 songs, I Skyped in to greet everyone, raise a toast and say a few words about our fundraising efforts. Lucky for me, Skype had sent over a nice bottle of wine so I didn’t feel completely left out (and also, I suspect, to calm my nerves!).

There I am on the screen, no doubt saying something simultaneously witty and profound…

The fundraising aspect of the night came with a silent auction of all kinds of prizes and treats, one of which was a cooking lesson with me! All in all the night was a great success and we are waiting eagerly to hear how much money was raised. There are a couple of local charities I was hoping to select as beneficiaries (Luta Pela Paz and Favela Brass) but sadly for reasons beyond my control that wasn’t possible this time (I’m hoping to host some more fundraising events later in the year for these guys). Instead I selected a project to provide Biodigesters for needy Brazilian farmers – these will reduce the need for people to cut down wood for fuel and also reduce the need for industrial fertilisers.