Pirao de peixe (Fish pate)

Pirao (pronounced peer om) is commonly served with fish and rice in Brazil. It is a recipe rooted in the indigenous population in the country. It is some sort of fish pate, served on top of the tipical white rice and has a mild flavour that adds to the flavour of the fish. So you have a neutral flavour (rice), a mild flavour (pirao) and the brazilian fish (moqueca), which is very rich, all in your plate.

The tricky thing here is to find manioc flour/cassava flour, because it has to be done with this flour. You can find it in brazilian shops and there are some that sell it online.

Time of preparation: 10 min

boiling water, enough to cover the ingredients
pepper
1 onion, in quarters
1 clove of garlic
manioc/cassava flour
the head of the fish - Right, this is in case you fished it or bought it whole, which is a tricky thing to find in UK. What I do: I cut a bit of the fish (about 100-200g) to use here.
parsley
1 bay leaf or laurel
salt

Cook everything together in low heat until the fish starts to flake. Remove the fish and the other ingredients and sieve the left over gravy. After sieved, return the gravy to the pan and add another cup of water. Add the manioc flour, bit by bit, until you get a creamy consistency (can't be too runny or too thick...should be the consistency of a thick white sauce). Serve it hot with fish (roasted, fried, cooked) and white rice and don't forget to put on the table a good pepper sauce or chilli sauce, so people can add their own.

Here's a brazilian video showing how to do it. Even if you don't understand anything they are saying, you can see the process described above and see how the end result should be