For our twentieth country date night, we traveled to Brazil! I was happy to get to do this one with family, too, because Brazil has such amazing food, music, and culture -- and their most popular dishes are naturally gluten-free, which is great for my stepmom.
Clockwise from left: Picanha, feijoada with orange slices and collard greens, pão de queijo
In cooking this meal, I learned that Brazilians are passionate about MEAT! The centerpiece of the meal was the picanha (grilled steak), but even the feijoada (black beans and rice) had a bunch of different meats in it. Not a vegetarian-friendly cuisine, it would seem -- although that's no issue for us.
The picanha is a cut of steak I don't believe I've ever had before - top sirloin cap. It had a layer of hard fat on the top, which was interesting to me - and I liked getting it onto the giant skewer, which Mark bought when he did
the Iran dinner. It was good, though I should have taken it off the grill a couple minutes sooner - it was pretty well-done after only 15m (the recipe suggested 20m+ but I think our grill gets quite hot).
The word feijoada comes from feijão, which is Portuguese for beans. It was delicious -- and rather salty, thanks to the carne seca (dried beef). This was the single most expensive ingredient I've bought for one of these dinners - it was a (to me) shocking $42 -- not sure if this was because it was imported, or just because it's a fancy cut of meat. Even the caviar I bought for the Russian night was "only" $32 (although the overnight shipping was pretty rough on that).
The feijoada also called for chouriço (a pork sausage similar to chorizo), which is another food I hadn't had before. I ended up using linguiça, which the saleswoman at the specialty grocery (
El Mercado Latino, at Pike Place Market) recommended.
I think chouriço and linguiça are similar, if not identical products --
per Mashed.com:
"If you've been confused between linguiça and chouriço in the past, you're not alone. Gaspar's, known for its Portuguese sausages, notes that its chouriço uses the same meat and spice blends as its linguiça, but has 'more of a kick.' Another company, Mello's Finest, says the difference is that chouriço is made with beef casings — however, Leite's Culinaria claims both sausages are traditionally made with pork casings. Factor in the hundreds of family recipes for both sausages that have been handed down through generations, and it's likely the debate (and confusion) will go on for years to come."
It was certainly good, though!
We ate the feijoada with collard greens, orange slices, and 2 kinds of Brazilian hot sauces - vinegar infused with malagueta peppers, and Mendez (made with same). I really liked both. The Mendez especially I would be glad to add into regular rotation - spicy yet creamy.
The star of the dinner was the pão de queijo (cheese bread), which was made with sour manioc (fermented tapioca) flour and mild cheese (I used oaxaca cheese, per the salesperson at El Mercado). I really liked the smell of this flour - it actually smelled sour, which was cool to me.
These were a big hit!! The 4 of us easily ate two dozen of them. They were a bit like the cheddar biscuits you get at Red Lobster. I think these could be part of any meal of the day -- and would be great at a BBQ.
For dessert, we had brigadeiros (Brazilian truffles). These were super easy to make, although not super easy to make well haha... it was very hard to get them to hold their shape, because they are just sweetened condensed milk (I used itambe brand), cocoa, and butter, rolled in chocolate sprinkles. I ended up sticking them in the freezer until dinner time. I liked them, but they are VERY sweet, not for everyone.
Ready to toast our caipirinhas!
Enjoyed the caipirinhas, which I'd never had. The cachaça was good - I read things that said it's similar to rum but it didn't strike me that way. It seemed less sweet and more complex, maybe notes of wood or grass? Not really sure. But I liked it. In Brazil, any drink made with cachaça is called a "batida." Saúde!
When? March 4, 2022
Who cooked? Lauren
What's for dinner? (Recipe links)
Brazil Stats
- Population: 212.6 million (about 2/3 the population of the United States)
- GDP: 8th in the world
- Life Expectancy: low... 67th in the world, at 75.9 (well below USA which is 40th)
- Founding Date/Age in 2022: 1822/ 200 years old this year!
- Official Language: Portuguese
- Rankings --
- Largest producer of
- Citrus
- Orange
- Açai
- Heart of palm
- Dry beans
- Soybean
- Brazil nuts
- Yerba mate
- Sisal
- Fiber crop
- Cashewapple
- Sugarcane
- Niobium
- Largest renewable freshwater resources
- Most murders :(
- A bunch of volleyball, soccer, and handball distinctions
