It started as most ‘ethnic food movements’ do – with small restaurants in the neighborhoods where immigrants settled, diners and lunchrooms and tea rooms opened by those who desired to offer a taste of home to their fellow émigrés. Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Thai – from family run bistros, the cuisine spread as those away the cultures of the ‘neighborhood’ learned of the good food and the word spread. The tardiest ‘new cuisine’ that is spreading like wildfire is Brazilian – a yummy blending of 3 divide cultures that comes jointly in serves and delicacies that aren’t found anyplace else in the Earth.
To understand the brazilian cuisine, one must read a little of its history. The base of Brazilian cuisine is in its aboriginal origins – the foods that sustained the native Brazilians – cassava, yams, fish and meat – but it bears the stamp of two other peoples as well: the Portuguese who came to conquer and stayed, and the African slaves that they brought with them to work the sugar plantations. Brazilian cuisine now is a seamless amalgam of the 3 influences that interweave in a unequalled and entirely Brazilian mode.
The staples of the Brazilian diet are root vegetables, seafood and meat. Manioc, derived from cassava root, is the ‘flour’ of the region, and is consumed in one form or a different at nearly all meal. The bitter cassava root is poisonous in its raw state, but when prepared properly, the cassava root yields farinha and tapioca, bases for a lot serves of the region. The Portuguese influence presents in the rich, sweet egg breads that are served at nearly every meal, and in the seafood dishes that blend ‘fruits de mer’ with coconut and other native fruits and vegetables. The national dish, bobo de camarao is one by these, a delicious mingling of fresh shrimp in a puree of dried shrimp, manioc (cassava) meal, coconut milk and nuts, flavored with a palm oil called dende.
It is the African influence that is most felt, though – as is to be expected of the people who functioned in the kitchens. Pineapple and coconut milk, shredded coconut and palm hearts worked their way into quotidian dishes, flavoring meat, shrimp, fish, vegetables and bread. Brazilian food, unlike the cuisines of many of the surrounding nations, favors the sweet rather than the hot, and more than any other South American cuisine, it carries the savor of tropical island breezes rather than the hot wind of the desert.
The more common components in Brazilian cuisine are cassava, coconut, dende, black beans and rice. Bacalao – salt cod – features in many dishes derived from the Portuguese, but flavored with typical Brazilian insouciance with coconut cream and pistachio nuts it becomes an wholly dissimilar food. It is typical of the Brazilian attitude toward food – an expression of a warm and open people to whom feeding and sharing food is the basis of hospitality. Brazilian cuisine is like its people – all are welcome, all are welcomed and all make their mark – without ever overwhelming the contributions of the other.
Example of Brazilian Cuisine : Brazilien Cofee Cookies.
Original recipe makes 4 dozenChange Servings:1/3 cup shortening.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar.
1/2 cup white sugar.
1 egg.
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1 tablespoon milk.
2 cups all-purpose flour.
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1/4 teaspoon baking soda.
1/4 teaspoon baking powder.
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Beat the shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, vanilla and milk until fluffy.
- Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and instant coffee.
- Add to sugar mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Shape dough in 1 inch balls. If it's too soft, chill it for a while.
- Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Flatten to 1/8 inch thickness with fork or glass dipped in sugar.
- Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees CV) for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned.
