The basics of brazilian kitchen

2007-04-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

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There are basically four main ingredients that totally differ the brazilian kitchen from the other
kitchens I have seen so far.

The first one is Coconut and Palms, the second one is mandioca, and the third one is the sugar cane and the final fourth one is the boundless varieties of tropical fruits they have.

1. Coconut and Palms: Brazilians use coconut and other products of palms extensively in their kitchen, muquecas very famous specialty of Bahia and Espíríto Santo are basically sea fruits (brasilians call sea food (shrimps, calamari, fish, lobsters, crabs) as frutas del mar (fruits of the sea)) that are cooked slowly in the palm or coconut oil, the palm oil gives it a very smooth taste it is absolutely delicious. They also use coconut themselves extensively in the deserts, especially grated coconuts with different fruits or chocolate or vanilla and sugar. Also the hearts of the palms, called palmitos are also common in Brazilian kitchen, they are cooked and once they are soft enough brazilians eat it directly or make pastels from it (pastel is pastry in Brasil). Also in brazil there is a special type of coconut called coco verde. It is not the regular dry coconut we are used to eating. It is green and it is very juicy as if the juice of the fruit is already prepacked. After drinking the juice you either throw it away or cut it and eat the thin layer of pudding that remains in inner part of the coco.
Palmito and coco verde

Muqueca, a very tasty dish made from meat or fish slowly cooked in palm oil.

Páo de Queijo, another tasty food from mineira cuisine (cheese bread)

2. Mandioca: A very important vegetable, made from the root of Mandioca plant, is the main ingredient in different parts of brazilian kitchen. It is used to make faroffa, which is one of the main starchs in brazilian kitchen with spaghetti (no they are not as crazy as italians about spaghetti) and rice. Also it can be used to make tapiocas (a kind of spongy white bread made from mandioca) and balls of tapiocas which they put in the morning to their coffee!!! One interesting fact, the root of mandioca contains a lot of cyanite and is extremely poisonous, it has to be boiled for 2 hours prior to eating or cooking, otherwise it can be fatal, it is another hit and miss like the famous japanese poisonous fish where there is no other way to see if the deadly venom of the fish is properly separated without actually eating the fish!!!!! I guess the tapiocas I tasted so far were properly prepared =)
Mandioca in the fields, the root of mandioca tree (still contains cyanite), tapioca balls made from the root and faroffa, another product from the plant which is also one of the very main ingredients of brazilian kitchen.

3. Sugar Cane: Another one of the main components for the food, caldo de cana (sugar cane juice), is famous around all over brasil, it is one of the main ingredients other than cachaca (the brasilian raki we can say =), that is used in making caipirinha, and alcool (sugar fermented to etil alcohol) is the main fuel actually used in cars of brasil, and it is one of the main reasons that a country as big as brasil even is not dependent on oil at all.

4. And obviously the last ingredient is practically limitless number of fruits you can find in all different parts of brasil... I spent a serious amount of my time in brasil trying different fruits and fruit juices I can find in Brasil and can confidently even say that I have tried more tropical brasilian fruits and fruit juices from most of of the brasilians =)... Some main fruits that we can count are mamao, goiaba, abacaxi (pineapple), abacate (avogado), cupuacu, tapereba, caju, caja, jaca, mucusi, acái, seriguela, acerola, graviola, guarana (local to amazonas and also the main ingredient for the country wide most popular soda, guarana antartica), maracuja (passion fruit), mastruss (local herb, its juice is used for healing cold), umbu (brazilian plum), ingo and many more I dont remember right now... Something interesting about brazilian fruit juices.. As it is impossible to have that many fruits in one shop without getting it wasted, brazilians have this way of making fruit juices from fruit pulps. Those pulps are produced from the juices and regrigerated. It is a very common industry and practice in Brazil.

Acai, on the tree, and fruit itself.
Acerola and Cupuacu.
Guarana of amazonas and its seeds.
Jaca and Caju
Chirimaya (spanish) or piná (portuguese) a very tasty fruit from south america amazonas region.

Brasilian beers:
The most famous one is Skol, very common all over brasil. Skoll beats is another beer produced by the same company and it actually tatstes better. The secondary market is shared between Itaipava, Antartica, Kaiser, Brahma Chopp. Personally I liked those beers more than skol itself, my favorite being Kaiser. What can I say, tastes differ, and variety is the one that makes the world a more interesting place...

Brasilian drinks:
Caipirinha: The most famous brazilian drink prepared by sugar cane, cachaca and lime juice. Very tasty,,, if it is prepared by vodka rather than caipirinha, it is than called caipiroska...
Caldo de Cana: Sugar cane juice, also commonly drank in all over brasil...
Caldo de Cana and Caipirinha

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My Brazilian Kitchen

The basics of brazilian kitchen