Food and drink Archives - Page 3 of 39

Acarajé Recipe: a delicious labour of love

25/07/2015/6 Comments/in Food and drink

This how the pros do it – the acarajé of Nega Teresa.

I think it’s fair to say that not everyone loves Brazilian cuisine. Accusations/complaints I hear from time to time include that it is heavy, overly rich and boring. I’m not going to tell you Brazilian food is light and zingy in the way we think of Thai or Peruvian cuisine, but if you take the time to get beyond the obvious stalwarts like feijoada and the churrascaria meat orgies then things get a lot more interesting and, potentially, lighter too. Most dishes can be given a lighter touch with a few tweaks and recently I’ve been playing around with one of Brazil’s most tasty (and interesting!) dishes.

Eating acarajé is like taking a delicious bite out of Brazil’s past. When I first started learning about Brazilian cuisine one of the things I found most fascinating was the clear links back to West Africa that were still very evident. Acarajé was brought to Brazil by the slaves taken from Ghana and Nigeria – I’m told you can buy Akara (as it is known there) on the streets of Lagos to this very day.

For those unfamiliar, acarajés are fritters made from black-eyed beans – the finished item (somewhat reminiscent of a falafel) is split open and filled with dried shrimp, a nutty, shrimpy paste called vatapá, an okra based mix called carurú, a dab of hot sauce and, optionally, a salsa-like mix of tomatoes, cucumber and coriander/cilantro. They come from Bahia, Brazil’s heartland of Afro-Brazilian culture, and are traditionally sold by baianas, the hugely photogenic women dressed in the traditional garb of of the state (vestuário).

At first sight, making acarajé seems like so much work that it’s one of those things best left to others (see also: puff pastry). But the nice thing about doing it yourself is that you get to tweak the recipe, play around with the flavours and generally make it just the way like (and most likely annoy the hell out of the purists). There’s only one hassly step but once that’s out of the way it’s a really enjoyable dish to prepare:

The best coffee in Rio

25/06/2015/16 Comments/in Food and drink

Mmmmm, crema…

On my last visit to Melbourne I was reminded of a couple of things. Firstly, Australians are obsessed with coffee (a little too obsessed in my opinion, but I guess that just makes me a coffee philistine). Secondly, Brazil produces more coffee than any other nation on Earth (this was mentioned on a poster in some uber-cool coffee shop I visited). So you’d think coffee would be a big deal back in Rio, right?

Hmmm, not so much actually. That’s not to say Cariocas don’t drink coffee – they do, gallons of the stuff. But if picky antipodeans (Kiwis are at least as bad as their Australian cousins in my experience) come over here expecting decent flat whites in every street café they’re in for major disappointment. While the general standard of coffee here isn’t bad – at least it tends to be reasonably strong, not that wishy-washy ‘diner coffee’ that I’m told is quite common in the US – it’s usually pretty forgettable.

Then not so long ago my friends Isabelle and Helena told me about a place that they confidently proclaimed to serve ‘The Best Coffee in Rio’. Not only that, but the establishment in question was doing something rather interesting with its business model.

La Veronese and a different kind of pizza

03/06/2015/6 Comments/in Food and drink

La Veronese – looks aren’t everything!

One of the lessons I’ve learned on my travels is that some of the best places to eat look so unimpressive that you’d walk right by if you didn’t know better. Many people visiting Rio don’t know better and so they wander into the flashy places that look inviting and end up disappointed (and a lot lighter in the wallet). Just a couple of weeks ago I received an email from an exasperated tourist saying “I’ve wasted too much money and too many calories on mediocre meals in Rio. Please tell me there’s more than this!”.

Luckily for us (residents and visitors alike) there is more than this! Sometimes you just have to look past the ugly exteriors to find the best food. For example, my favourite bolinhos de bacalhau are served in a slightly shabby looking building in Lapa with frosted glass windows – not the most inviting scene for the uninitiated:

Making Tapioca from scratch

12/05/2015/9 Comments/in Food and drink

Have you ever made fire the old fashioned way? You know, by rubbing two sticks together or using some other cunning bush-craft technique? I haven’t done it myself, but it appeals to me greatly. I like the idea of doing it at least once just to prove that I can and also to experience the magic of what is really quite an amazing process when you stop to think about it. After that I expect I’ll be happy to go back to using a lighter or matches.

I’ve noticed recently that my will to do things from scratch has been extending into the culinary world too. I’m not quite ready to butcher a cow’s carcass, but I wouldn’t rule it out one day. For now I’ll content myself with smaller achievements – like tapioca extraction!

For those who don’t know, tapioca is the starch that is extracted from the cassava root. Cassava goes by many names – manioc and yuca are two of the most common and in Brazil we have (at least) three: mandioca, aipim and macaxeira. Tapioca starch can be used to thicken sauces in much the same way as corn starch (known as ‘cornflour’ in the UK, fécula or amido de milho here in Brazil). It can also be used to make a delicious pancake known as beiju de tapioca or just tapioca. They’re a big hit with most people who try them.

Most of us buy our tapiocas from street vendors or market stalls – whether topped with something sweet or savoury, it’s a delicious and satisfying snack (you can also buy the hydrated starch powder in supermarkets so you can make your own tapiocas at home). Until recently there had always been a missing step in my knowledge and experience of this operation – how do you extract the tapioca starch from the cassava?

Turns out it’s pretty easy and rather a fun little project – here’s what you do:

Recipe: Dadinhos de Tapioca com Queijo

16/04/2015/20 Comments/in Food and drink

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:

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