Hey, Get off my Strogonoff!

     

It's Strogonoff Time!

       Stroganoff is basically the same word in Portuguese, only it  is spelled "strogonoff." It is not eaten with egg noodles, and really is made totally different from the stroganoff you are probably familiar with. If you live in Brazil, you have most likely tried this dish, as it is extremely popular.
      Because it is rare or impossible to find a can of cream of mushroom soup in Brazil, or pretty much most of what goes into a typical stroganoff recipe,the same taste has to be created using different ingredients. In the states, for example, my mother always uses cream of mushroom soup, ranch dressing mix (not ranch dressing!), mushrooms, and sour cream... among a few other things. Well in Brazil you really can't find any of those things! Most mushrooms you can find are these weird little mushy conserved mushrooms. They are squeaky when you eat them, and they really taste nothing like a mushroom. I mean they're basically pickled!
      Brazilians use some very interesting ingredients to make this dish, and though it wouldn't seem like, they end up creating a taste very similar to what I knew back in the states. This strogonoff is not eaten over egg noodles, but is instead served with/over white rice and potato stix. Interesting isn't it? Whether you live in Brazil or elsewhere, this recipe is not tricky or difficult, and it uses ingredients that most of you probably already have in your house.... especially if you live in Brazil. Also, if you live in Brazil and do not like the mushrooms here, you can sub chunks of heart of palm. Still just as yummy. The recipe I am about to share does not use onions because my husband HATES onions, so I always leave onions out of my recipes. Intead of onions I am using minced garlic and chives. Sooooo yum. So without further ado.....

What you will need:

• large skillet for frying beef
• cooking utensils
• 1 kilo or 2 pounds of cubed beef - a soft cut is best (chicken and shrimp can sub meat,too)
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions/chives (or 1-2 diced onion)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tomatoes - peeled/deseeded/diced
• 1 tbsp "molho ingles" or Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp mustard
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 cup mushrooms or heart of palm chunks
• 1 can of milk cream aka creme de leite

1. Melt butter in large skillet.

2. Brown meat to your desire. I like mine not totally cooked all the way through... ends up being softer in the end. 

3. Remove the meat and set it aside (keeping all the remaining juices and butter inside the skillet. Add you onions and sautee them. Here I omited onions and subbed green onion and garlic.

4. Return the meat and stir it into everything.

5. Add Worcestershire sauce and mushrooms. Keep everything simmering do not turn off heat. 

6. Stir everything together.

7. Add diced tomatoes, ketchup, and mustard. Mix together well.

8. Turn heat down to low and place lid on top. Leave it to simmer for 5 minutes. A good amount of juice should start to collect.

9. Remove lid and turn off heat. Once it stops simmering, add the cream little by little. Stirring it in really well before adding more. Until you have a nice, rich cream sauce.

10. Like this!

Check out the "helping hands" would ya!

11. It should look like this after the cream has cooled a little and settled. Serve this over white rice and you got yourself a delicious new way to eat Stroganoff! Throw some potato stix on the plate as a side and you have a complete traditional Brazilian dish! Good Luck!

Torta Happy!

   

If you are Spanish-literate at all, you may or may not be aware of the fact that there are two meanings for the word torta. In Mexico, it is a sandwich. In Argentina, it is a cake.
     In Brazilian Portuguese, it is nothing close to either of these; it is a breaded pie. By breaded pie I mean something along the lines of what you know as a "pot pie" in the states, only the breading is something rather simple thrown together in a blender. It is categorized in a group of food items known as "salgados". This translates into "salties" more or less in english. Salgados are more known as being small baked or fried foods that are served in between meals as a snack, and Brazil thrives off of them. They are a solid part of Brazilian culture. Salgados are often found served by street vendors, at farmer's markets, and in any bakery or deli. Most of the time you can find people eating salgados for breakfast or in between breakfast and lunch. They're also eaten from street vendors at night as a nice little night time snack. Tortas are usually served at delis and bakeries. They're really filling, so a lof of people will actually just have a slice for lunch. Generally people eat tortas with ketchup, mustard, mayo, or hot sauce. Or all of the above. There are several different kinds of tortas, but the most popular tortas are made with either beef (shredded or ground), chicken, sardines, or cheese. My favorites are both chicken and beef, but my boys love beef the most so I am constantly making beef. And this is what I will be showing you how to make.

What you will need:

• Frying Pan for beef.
• large deep dish pie pan or medium to large deep rectangular pan
• spoon, fork, knife, serving utensils
• large mixing bowl
• blender
  Filling
• 1 lb. or 1/2 kilo of ground beef
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. crushed garlic
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6-8 slices mozzarella cheese-- or whatever cheese covering you prefer (traditionally here either mozzarella or catupiry is used)
• -optional- diced onions, chopped green onions, olives, corn, diced tomatoes (really anything you like inside of cooked ground beef. I generally utilize whatever I have handy in the fridge at the moment.)
  Breading
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 whipped egg white (for topping finished raw pie with)
• -optional- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and/or 1/4 cup mayonnaise

Ok, here we go:

1. Put the raw ground beef into frying pan with the 4 tbsp. of oil and start cooking on medium to high heat.

2. Add all of your additions that you want for your ground beef along with minced garlic, salt, and pepper to your liking. For this instance I used shredded carrots, and green olives. 

3. Stir it all together and leave the meat to brown. While that is cooking, start your breading. Keep an eye on your meat as it is cooking. When it has completely browned, turn off the oven. The ground beef should not have much juice or moisture left in it. If it does, it's not done.

4. First put the milk, eggs, and oil into the blender on medium to high speed and leave to blend for a good 3 or 4 minutes. Don't turn it off yet. If you are adding parmesan cheese or mayo, add that now.

5. With the blender still going, slowly add your 1 1/2 cups of flour until you have used it all up, then add your baking powder and salt. Blend until it's all combined and stop.

6. If throughout the blending process the dough starts to get too stiff or hard to blend, add a little milk. 

7. Preheat oven to about 190 C or 375 F.

8. Take your deep dish or large rectangular baking pan and coat with margarine or butter. Coat that with flour.

9. First pour half of the contents in the blender into the baking dish. 

10. Next, layer on the cooked ground beef mix.

11. After that, spread mozzarella cheese over beef.

12. Top that with the leftover dough mix from blender. Smooth over with a spoon.

Note the small face resting on the counter, watching my every move. He's in training!

13. Separate the egg white from an egg and whip the egg white up until frothy. 

Top the torta with the egg white and gently spread it over the top.

14. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and bubbly looking.

15. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. 

16. ENJOY!

This is super yummy with ketchup and mustard (I think it tastes like a cheeseburger pie). It is also good with flavored mayo or hot sauce. I loooove mine with hot sauce! It's also super filling so it's a great meal idea for a family of 4-6 with a side salad or something like that.

Cheese Bread - Gluten Friendly Fun!

     Pão de Queijo ("poun" "dgee" "kay-dgoh")

Meaning cheese bread in English, pão de queijo is the staple starch of Brazil. Well, french bread is actually THE staple starch of Brazil, but cheese bread is a very close second. This yummy little bread is mainly eaten as breakfast and as a late afternoon snack, but can be found practically anywhere at any time of the day. They range in size, and can be very soft or crunchy on the outside. Inside reveals a delicious cheesy, chewy texture. Most prefer their cheese bread to be every warm to steaming hot; fresh out of the oven. Cheese bread is mostly consumed alone with coffee. The two compliment each other very well. I often see cheese bread cut in half and filled with things such as cheese, butter, or doce de leite. Cheese bread can be eaten with pretty much anything, as it is good with salty or sweet additions. For a quick lunch, I sometimes make mini sandwiches with them... and they are delicious. No  matter where you are staying in Brazil, always expect to see cheese bread on the table in the morning or late afternoon, as these are the times of the day when cheese bread is traditionally consumed. A lot of people will enjoy a tiny cup of Brazilian coffee with cheese bread at about 3-4pm in the afternoon, in addition to their morning routine.

        Though gluten free, each individual cheese bread can contain 80 calories and upwards depending on it's size and ingredients. This is a great option for people who are sensitive to gluten or are just trying to cut down on carbs. 

          

       There are TONS of recipes out there for cheese bread. If you live in Brazil, it seems the easiest option is to just go to your nearest deli and buy them already made; as they are quite cheap. Cheese bread mixes are also pretty easy to find in Brazil, and usually just a few ingredients need to be added in order to make them yourself. In Brazil there are also many stores that actually sell the cheesebread already made, and frozen. You just need to bring them home and pop them in the oven when you want them. But if you live in Brazil, you know these quick options don't make for the best cheese bread. It's all about making them fresh. I have found that preparing an entire batch of it is most economical, as I have the option on using only how much I need at the moment, and can freeze the leftover batch until I need it again. I can make a batch of cheese bread dough last for about 5 days, if I make about 8 a day. I make them in the morning, and there are usually leftovers which are eaten as snacks later on. There are only 3 people in my family, though. A batch of Pão de queijo usually runs me about 6 reais give or take depending on what ingredients I may or may not already have at home. This is cheaper than going to the padaria everyday and buying them already made. 

       For those who live outside of Brazil, there are still options available to you if you have an international market. When I lived in the states, I found both the complete mixes AND pre-made frozen versions at a number of international markets and Mexican markets. Rare that you will find them at Mexican markets, but sometimes the mexican markets sort of serve as a link to the central and south american world for their community, so it's important to check them out. If you are looking in an international market, check for the brand Yoki for your complete mix. You will only need to add milk,oil, and eggs, then follow the directions as listed on the package. I bought the pre-made frozen kind from an international market in St. Louis, once for Thanksgiving, and they turned out horrible. I don't recommend using those if you are not in Brazil. They are probably pretty old and they don't seem to react pleasantly when baking. The ones I bought barely rose, and ended up being super hard. Not how they're supposed to turn out! For those who are interested in making their own cheese bread, you will need to make a trip to either an international market, or speciality store, to buy what is called manioc starch. This is the flour derived from Mandioca. I know you can also find this at Whole Foods Market if you have one. 

       If buying flour in Brazil, you will see a lot of option before you in the store regarding mandioca flour. This is because they use mandioca for every kind of starch imaginable. If you try to look to much into it, you will confuse yourself. I have seen cheese bread recipes using all kinds of things from fecula de mandioca, polvilho doce, polvilho doce azedo, and polvilho doce granulado (usually caseiro). I usually end up buying the polvilho doce granulado caseiro because it was the first kind I ever bought when trying to make it on my own and it had an easy to follow recipe on the back. What you use is up to you, but I will tell you that most people use polvilho doce and when you use this kind, you add less ingredients. The recipe I am going to give on here will be for polvilho doce granulado caseiro, so if you want to follow my recipe exactly, get that kind.

So enough of my ramblings. Here is the recipe.

What you will need:

• medium sauce pan
• large bowl
• large spoon, preferably wooden
• 6 cups of polvilho doce(granulado caseiro is what I'm using) or if not in Brazil, Manioc Starch or Tapioca Flour/Starch.
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-5 eggs (depending on initial texture and your preference)
• 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
• baking sheet
• oil for coating hands

To make cheese bread:

1. Heat oil, milk, and salt in medium pan over medium heat (stir occasionally).

 Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

2. Add polvilho doce/tapioca flour to large bowl. As soon as you remove the milk/oil/salt from the heat, add to the bowl of flour and mix well until totally blended into each other.

It may be coarse to clumpy:

Leave to sit until it is has cooled enough to touch it. (You will be sticking your hands into it in a minute)

3. Preheat oven to 180-200 Celsius (about 400 Fahrenheit)

4. Once the mix is cool enough to touch, you can add 3 eggs and your parmesan cheese.

 Start off mixing it into the mix with a large spoon, but once it is too hard to move the spoon around, you'll need to get in there with your hands and mix it well with your hands.

 It is going to stick to your hands and it is going to be messy. Don't think it's not right if it starts sticking to your hands, because this is how it should act. The final result needs to resemble mashed potatoes. It should not be too firm that it resembles raw bread or pastry dough, but it should not be so runny that you cannot form a ball with it.

5. If it not resembling what it should, add another egg, and/or splash in a little more milk and oil. If it seems too runny, add in a little extra polvilho/tapioca flour. Once it is too wet to be a firm dough, yet not too wet to pick up and form a clump with oiled hands; it's ready.

6. Get out your baking sheet.No need to coat or line your baking sheet. 

7. Coat hands well with oil first. Keep it handy as you will need to reapply often depending on how sticky your batch is. This should not be like rolling bread rolls. This should not feel anything like raw bread dough. Like I said, it should look and feel more like mashed potatoes. Sometimes, when I'm not trying to be pretty about it, I just take the mix out by spoonfuls and plop it onto the baking sheet. It stills finds a way to form a ball when it cooks!

8. Take out a small clump and try to see if you can roll it into a ball. If you can't it's ok, clump it as best you can together and place on baking sheet. Allow at least 1/4 to 1/2 inches between your cheese breads. They will rise but if they do touch one another they will easily come apart individually. Once you have what you want on your baking sheet, place in the oven on middle rack.

These, for example, did not want to form perfect balls so I just ended up plopping them onto a tray. But depending on how you made your mix, they may form perfect balls when you take them out of the bowl and roll them.

9. Let cook for about 20-30 minutes. You will smell them when they're ready. To me they smell like cheez-its when they're ready. They should start to puff up and most of the time they will crack open... this is normal. They should look a little golden and crispy on the outside when they're ready. I usually take one out and open it before I take them all out, just to make sure it's done in the middle.

10. Let them cool, but not too long, they're absolutely delicious when they're hot.

11. If there is remaining mix leftover, you can seal it up and keep it stored in the freezer until you want to make them again, then just let them thaw until pliable and throw however much you want into the oven.

13. Enjoy!

* You can also fill them with just about anything you like either before or after you bake them. A lot of people like to put their favorite cheese inside of the raw cheese breads. You need to make sure that whatever you are putting into the middle is totally covered by the dough. You can also stick a caramel candy or chocolate chips in the middle. Jelly is another really good one. Basically anything like I said. 

* After they come out of the oven, you can slather on butter, cheese spread, jelly, doce de leite, caramel, nutella, etc. It's all really delicious. It's very popular in Brazil for people to eat their cheese bread with doce de leite as a snack. SO GOOD!  You can even bring something different to a party and make finger sandwiches out of them..

Wow all this talk of cheese bread has made me hungry, I'm going to go grab a leftover from breakfast right now!

Caramel - Brazilian Style!

I could not rightfully keep a food blog about Brazilian food without including what seems to be the "glue" of most Brazilian desserts; Condensed milk. I have never seen a people consume as much of it as they do here. In almost every dessert you will find it as an ingredient, and if not, you can probably add it to the dish somehow. Condensed milk is the only ingredient needed to make what I am going to now discuss the making of; Doce de Leite. Doce de Leite ("doh-see" "dgee" "lay-chee") basically means Milk Dessert or Candy in English. Technically it means "sweet of milk," but that wouldn't really make sense to say. It tastes very much like caramel.
      That is how it actually originates though. To make condensed milk, you heat powdered milk and sugar on a stove until it begins to turn into a yellow-ish goop.
To make doce de leite from scratch, all you need is milk and sugar. You must be prepared to stand there stirring for a loooong time though. The end product is a very milk creamy almost pudding like dessert.
This type of doce de leite is also not exactly the same as the kind made the way I am about to show you, which is more of a caramel/candy type texture. I prefer this way the most. And here is the incredibly simple recipe for that:

What you will need:

• 1-3 cans of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 very large soup pot (depending on how many cans you plan to put inside of it)
• water
• utensil to retrieve can from hot water
• can opener
• self control (it is REALLY delicious)

Ready for the easiest recipe ever?

1. Place your UNOPENED can(s) of condensed milk into the pot and fill with enough water to completely submerge the cans. THEY MUST STAY COVERED WITH WATER! If you allow them to boil dry they can explode. Not good.
2. Turn fire on medium to high flame.
3. Once the water starts boiling, leave it for 2 1/2 hours. If you have a pressure cooker and can use that, it only has to cook for 40 minutes.
4. Once time is up, remove the can(s) and allow them to completely cool off before attempting to open it. If you try to open it while it's hot, the contents may burst out into your eyes and cause blindness. Or something bad like that. So just please let it cool off first.
5. Eat it out of the can or transfer into a bowl and store in the fridge. You can add pretty much anything to it, or add IT to pretty much anything.
6. Enjoy and share with others.

ALTERNATE RECIPE:

For those who would prefer to try the completely homemade version, here is how you do it:

1. Place 8 1/2 cups of milk into a large pot with 4 cups of sugar.
2. Stir the ingredients first without heat until the sugar is totally dissolved (to avoid clumping at the bottom of the pan when sugar begins to crystallize).
3. Medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. You are seriously going to be stirring for about 15 minutes before you start to see the mixture thickening and turning a golden color.
Here is what it should resemble when ready:

4. Remove from heat and allow to slightly cool before transferring into a container of your choice. Store in the fridge.
Note - In Brazil people often mix doce de leite with strawberries, prunes, coconut, and chocolate. I have also had it with candied figs.

There is really no end to what you can put in this stuff... and put it on. It makes any dessert more delicious. It is also wonderful on toast in inside of breads and donuts! Have fun and experiment, or just eat it right out of the can/container like I do!

Bolinho de Chuva. Rain never tasted so good!

              If you live in Brazil, I bet you really miss donuts. If you live elsewhere, I bet you would love to have a recipe which resembles donuts and requires half the work involved in making donuts from scratch. So here for your tasting pleasure, I introduce Bolinho de Chuva. (Bow-lean-yo) (dgee) (Shoe-vuh).
              This roughly translates into "little rain cakes," and there are 2 main reasons behind it's name. The first reason is because when the batter is dropped into hot oil, it quickly forms what resembles a rain drop. For beginners such as myself, the rain drops even end up with tasty little crunchy tails. I think I love these things just for their delicious tails. I love crunchy stuff.
               The second popular story with these cakes is that often times when it is rainy and chilly outside here in Brazil, parents and grandparents whip up a batter of this stuff and serve it warm to their kids, warming up their bellies and keeping them happy as they are trapped indoors staying warm and dry. So these treats just started getting referred to as rain cake. Pretty cute.
               If you plan to try these out I will say 2 things: The ingredients are super simple and easy to have handy in the house, BUT, plan on throwing away the first few that you make because they will most likely either burn or will resemble more of a fat funnel cake than anything else. You have to make sure the oil does not get too hot, and you have to work on a technique that will allow you to get ball shaped cakes, not snake like. This recipe makes a big batch of about a dozen or so though, so it's ok to play around a little. I would best describe the taste as a mix between funnel cake and donuts rolled in sugar. I personally like these without the sugar and cinnamon coating, but everyone likes different things. These are also FABULOUS when made with a filling, which I have not yet done.

On to the little cakes:

You will need:

• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• Oil for frying, about an inch and a half maybe of oil, more or less
• extra sugar and cinnamon for rolling the cakes in
• medium pot or iron skillet for frying
• 2 medium sized bowls for mixing ingredients
• medium spoon
• paper towels or some kind of towel to dry cakes on
• A bunch of kids or hungry people to help you eat them

Directions:

1. Beat eggs with sugar, one egg at a time, constantly beating until thick and  dark yellow.

2. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to sugar mixture. You'll end up alternating 2-4 times, just stir after each time you add something and add the next, stir, etc. etc.

4. Mix well.

5. Pour your frying oil into the pan and put over medium heat. You want it to get pretty hot, but if you put it on high heat, you will definitely end up with burnt cakes that are gooey in the middle. If you see the oil start to smoke... you've gone to far!

6. This is the part that takes practice. With your medium spoon, take what would be about a tablespoon full and gently place the mix into the oil. Don't move your spoon at all while doing this. Try and get the majority of mix from the spoon into the oil at the same time, and any drizzles that comes afterwards need to be firmly held into the ball in the oil to keep it from drifting away from it and creating a lizard tail. Most likely you will end up with tiny little tails coming off of each ball, which is totally normal.

7. Allow the cakes to fry for about a minute.. maybe less, before you flip them over to the other side to fry. Once they have reached a golden to light brown color, they're ready.

8. Take each one out and place on a paper towel (I use old pillow cases because I think paper towels are such a waste of money). Let them dry there and cool off a little.

9. Roll them in a cinnamon/sugar mix and enjoy. You might want to make just half with sugar/cinnamon to see which you prefer. Some people find the cinnamon/sugar version to be way too sweet. You decide.

10. Let them stay uncovered as long as possible. Once you cover them they will begin to get soft and lose their crunch.

11. Serve with coffee or hot chocolate. Especially on a cold or rainy day!

Note: People often coat things with the batter before dropping it into the hot oil. Pieces of banana coated in the batter and fried are phenominal! I have also seen people coat chunks of chocolate, jelly, and caramels.

When mixing the batter, things like raisins, nuts, etc. can be added before frying for different flavors and textures. The options are endless!


Boa Sorte! Good luck!