xinxim

Chicken, shrimp and peanut stew.  Marinate 4 cut up boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the juice of 1 lemon, 2 minced garlic cloves, 2 tsp salt,  1 tsp pepper in refrigerator for 30 minutes.  In a heavy saucepan heat 2 tsp peanut oil and cook chicken and 1 diced onion for about 10 minutes.  Add 1 cup chicken stock, 1/3 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts (ground fine) and 1 minced serrano pepper.  Simmer 20 minutes.  Add 1 pound peeled shrimp.  Cook until shrimp cooked through.  Served with Brazilian rice (Wash 2 cups rice until water runs clear.  Saute 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves in 2 tbsp olive oil for 3 minutes.  Add rice and saute 3-5 min.  Add 4 cups water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 20 minutes.  Fluff)

 Both recipes were from Cooking the Brazilian Way.  This was much tastier than last night's.  Reminded us of Thai food.  Felt like it needed a little cilantro at the end.

Brazilian Pork Chops, black beans, kale and farofa

I'm not sure why my pictures are not uploading today.  I was able to upload an entire album in record time to facebook, but cannot upload 2 pictures here.  I will try at the end of the blog.  This meal wasn't very exciting.  The whole meal came from Cooking the Brazilian Way.  I'm not sure if the cause of the disappointment was my cooking, the recipe, or if this was how it was supposed to taste.  The pork chops were the one hit with the boys and me.

Farofa:  Saute 1 thinly sliced onion in 2 tbsp butter.  When soft add 1 lightly beaten egg, stirring constantly.  Add 1 1/2 cup manioc meal and cook until golden.  Add 1 tbsp minced parsley and 1 tsp salt.  Garnish with 6-8 sliced green olives with pimentos and cubed hard boiled egg.

Tutu a Mineira:  Mashed beans.  Place 3 cups rinsed canned black beans, 1/2 cup at a time in a food processor.  Mix until a smooth puree.  Add bean juice as needed to keep smooth.  In a saucepan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil.  Add 1 chopped onion and saute until soft.  Add 2 minced garlic cloves.  Add bean puree.  Slowly add 3/4 cup manoic flour, stirring constantly.  Cook over low heat 10-15 minutes.  Add more bean liquid as necessary.  (I ended up adding quite a bit of water since it seemed to seize up and develop an unappealing texture.

Couve a Mineira:  Collard Greens.  (I substituted Kale since I like it better and that is what was in the fridge).  Wash and slice the kale into ribbons.  Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan.  Add 3 minced garlic cloves.  Add the kale, salt, and pepper and saute about 4 minutes.

Costeletas de Porco:  Brazilian pork chops.  Mix the following in a shallow dish.  2 tbsp olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper and 1 minced serrano.  Add 4 lean pork chops.  Mix to coat.  Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.  Cook pork chops in a large skillet over med high heat until done.

This time the pictures worked.

Farofo

The rest of dinner

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.

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!

Brazil and Latin America

I went to the library today to get my stack of Brazilian cookbooks.  No luck.  I got a couple of Latin American cookbooks and a couple of international.  I am a little apprehensive, due to the lack of recipes that I am finding.  I will reach out to my friend Dre and scour the web.  I would be happy to have some contributions of Brazilian recipes.