Brazilian Country Chicken

Recipe from Dri:   Dry 3-4 pounds chicken thighs.  In a large pan, coat the bottom with olive oil.  Sprinkle 2-3 tbsp sugar over oil.  When sugar starts to color, add chicken.  Brown hard.  Season with salt and pepper.  (At this point there was a ton of fat in the bottom of the pan, so we drained most of it.)  Remove chicken, add 1 coarsely chopped onion, 2 small leeks chopped thinly into half moons, 4 thinly sliced scallions, 3 large cloves of garlic and 1 jalepeno sliced.  Saute until softened.  Return chicken.  Add 2-3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (we used one can diced tomatoes), and 3/4 cup chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, reduce to med low and simmer covered until chicken is done, 40 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro and serve over rice.

Also from Dri:  Soak 2 bunches of kale in water and salt.  Rinse a few times until water runs clear.  Stack them and slice them into ribbons.    Blanch them in slightly salted boiling water for 3 minutes.  Drain.  In another pan, heat 3 tbsp oil.  Add 4 garlic cloves, sliced, and cook 2 minutes.    Add blanched kale and toss well.    Add 1 cup chicken broth and cook another 5 minutes, until tender.  Season with salt and pepper.

Oh! I loved this. Jocon

I am having a hard time finding recipes from Brazil.  There aren't any in the library, couldn't find one at the book store, not enough time to order one online.  I can find a few recipes online, but they are all very similar.  Variations of pork with black beans, the cheese balls that the yucca flour is impossible to find, and sauteed greens.  I got a couple of recipes from my friend Dri.  The chicken and barley soup didn't seem distinctly different except for the addition of a serrano pepper.  I will try her other chicken recipe this week.  I think there must be some kind of agreement between the Brazilians to keep their recipes top secret.  So I decided to branch out in Latin America tonight.  I needed a little break from the black beans anyway.  (Sam did note that he likes the fact that the leftovers from Brazil taste even better the second day)

So tonight's recipe is from Guatemala.  It can be made with either chicken or pork shoulder.

Jocon:  (from whats4eats.com)   Cube about a pound of pork shoulder.  Put a little oil in a pan. Add the pork.  Brown quickly.  Add 4 cups of water and 2 tsp salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer 1-11/2 hours, until pork is tender.  Drain pork, reserving cooking liquid.  Toast 1/2 cup sesame seeds in a hot dry skillet.  (You can use half sesame seeds and half pumpkin seeds, which was the plan, but I couldn't find my pumpkin seeds).  Put in spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind to a fine powder.  Put in food processor along with 2 corn tortillas that have been chopped and soaked in water, then drained; 1 cup chopped tomatillos, 1 bunch chopped cilantro, 1 bunch chopped scallions, 2 (or more depending on preference) serrano peppers, chopped.  Add one cup of the reserved cooking liquid and puree.  Return the pork to the pan.  Pour the sauce over the top.  Add 1-1 1/2 cups of remaining cooking liquid to give it a sauce like consistency.  ( I only had about 1/2 cup of liquid left).  Heat over med low and simmer for another 30 minutes.

I served this over rice with chopped tomatoes and a sprinkle of queso fresco.

Another beef stew

Last night I made another beef stew (we bought part of a grass fed cow, hence the beef stew recipes)  This one was not blog worthy.  It was made with coconut milk, ginger, lots of crushed red pepper and tomatoes.  I had high hopes, but it wasn't very flavorful.  If it tastes better today after it sits overnight I will post the recipe.

Cheese balls and Easy Feijoada

Ok, I admit I didn't make these.  My friend Dri from Brazil made these.  There is secret flour in this that is very hard to find.  It is made from yucca.  They are very delicious!

I didn't have 6 hours after work to make this the correct way for a dinner party that started in 1 hour.  So this is a quicker adaption of a recipe from simplyrecipes.com  Brown 1 pound of cubed pork shoulder.  Remove from pan.  Slice 2 italian sausage and brown in the same pan.  Remove.  Saute 2 chopped onions.  Add 1 head of garlic, minced.  Saute.  Add to the pan some chopped beef jerky (the flat kind.  of course the recipe doesn't call for beef jerky, it calls for carne seca which I have yet to find in town.)  Saute for a minute.  Add 3/4 pound sliced smoked sausage and one smoked ham hock.  Put the browned meat back in the pan, along with 4 bay leaves.  Add 1 can of tomatoes and a cup or so of water. Salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until meat is tender and falling off of the bone.  We simmered for about 3 hours.  Here's where we cheated.  We rinsed 4 cans of black beans and added to the meat.  Cook for another 1/2 hour.  Serve with rice.  Tasty.

 

Brazilian Shrimp Stew

Adapted from Gourmet 2002:  Oh this was good!  We served it with leftover black beans and rice.  Marinate 1 1/4 pound peeled shrimp in 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/4 cup orange juice with a splash of apple cider vinegar.  (The recipe called for 1/4 cup lemon juice, but I didn't have a lemon so I subbed the orange juice and vinegar)  Marinate 20 minutes.  Saute 1 chopped onion and one chopped bell pepper in 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil until soft. Add 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tbsp chopped cilantro.  Cook for another minute, stirring.  Puree one can of tomatoes.  Add to onions.  Simmer briskly for 15 minutes, until thickened.  Add 1 cup coconut milk (I used light) (at this point I added broccoli florets because I needed a green vegetable, the recipe didn't call for it but I think it made it more interesting) and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add shrimp and cook stirring until shrimp are cooked through.  Add another 4 tbsp cilantro and season with salt pepper.  (The recipe called for stirring in 1 tbsp palm oil, but I didn't have any.  It was still good without it.)

Braised Brazilian Beef

Heat 3 tbsp oil.  Saute 1 medium chopped onion with 3 minced garlic cloves.  Remove and put in slow cooker.  Brown 1 pound chuck roast cut into cubes with 3 sliced italian sausages.  Put in slow cooker.  Add 1 can of tomatoes to deglaze the pan, along with 1 large can green chilis.  Add 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp salt and 3 tbsp chopped cilantro.  Add to slow cooker.  Add 2 tsp brown sugar and 1/3 cup sliced green olives.  Cover and cook on low heat 5-6 hours.  Serve with rice, top with green peas.  This was good.  It has a little more tang than the standard beef stew.

First night of Brazi

Salad:  Sliced hearts of palm and tomatoes dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.  Not sure where I found this.

We couldn't find a recipe for broccoli, and we have a lot of it. We cooked 2 strips of bacon until crisp, then tossed in some steamed broccoli.  It tasted more like bacon than broccoli.  A little juice from the resting steak plate too.  This was originally a recipe for Brazilian Collard Greens.  We just substituted broccoli.

Brazilian Black Beans (from the joy of cooking) and rice.  These were really good.  I never would have thought to add orange juice to my beans.  Cook 2 cups rinsed black beans with 4 cups water and simmer 1 1/2 hours until tender.  (I had to add more water after about an hour)  Poke a few slits in one hot italian sausage.  Put in pot and cook another 45 minutes.  Remove sausage, cut into slices and return to pan.  Meanwhile in a saute pan add 1/4 cup olive oil.  Saute 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped bell pepper and 4 minced cloves of garlic until soft, but not browned.  Add 1 tsp cumin, 3/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 3/4 tsp cardamom.  Cook one minute, then add to beans.  Cook beans another 1/2 hour.   Add 3/4 cup orange juice, 1/4 dry sherry and 1-2 tsp salt and pepper.  Cook another 15 minutes.  We made the rice by heating olive oil in a pan and adding 1/2 small diced onion, 4 minced garlic cloves.  When softened we added the rice.  Saute for a minute or so.  Add enough water to cover by an inch or so.  Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to steam for a little while.

Steak:  Here's another recipe that I found online that we adapted.  The original recipe called for 2 pounds top round.  We had a giant T-bone, so we used that instead.  We marinated it in 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 tsp tequila, 1 tsp crushed red chiles, 1 tsp cayenne, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp oregano and 2 tsp garlic.  We let this sit for about 6 hours.  The original plan was to grill it, but it's Missouri in December, so it was cold and dark.  Instead we cooked in a smokin hot cast iron skillet.  We let it rest 15 minutes, then sliced it across the grain.  Super tender and tasty!  One of the best steaks I have had in a long time!