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

Prawns with lime and tomato

Time of preparation: 20 min

1 bag of prawns (1kg)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, finelly chopped
juice of 1 lime
pepper
salt
coriander, chopped
chives, chopped

This is the easiest thing and tastes delicious. Just put it all on a pan, add a bit (not much) of boiling water, close the lid and let it cook for 10 min.

Serve it with white rice and salad

Brazilian fish 1 (Moqueca de peixe capixaba)

This is a version from the southeast state Espirito Santo.

2kg of fresh fish (it's important to be a mild flavoured fish. In England I used black halibut and it worked perfectly).
salt
juice of 2 limes
3 bunchs of coriander
3 bunchs of chives
2 onions
4 tomatoes
3 tbspoons of olive oil (Sometimes I use a special palm tree oil called oleo de dende, but this is not necessary, since it's difficult to find here)
1 tbspoon of saffron
pepper
thick slices of potato (enough to cover the bottom of the pan, so the fish won't get stuck to the bottom)

To make it more fancy: add 1/2kg of prawns to the recipe.

Season the fish with salt and juice from 1 lime.
In a big pan, add the olive oil, the potato slices and the spices: onion, chives, coriander and tomato, everything chopped up and the coriander. Add the fish and put spices again. If you still have fish left, repeat the process.

Add the juice from 1 lime and cook in low heat for 15-20 min (DON'T add water)

Let it rest for 10 min and serve it with rice and pirao.

OBS: pirao is a pate done with the fish. Check the recipe here.

Brazilian chicken soup (Canja de galinha)

This chiken soup is a brazilina tradition. Whenever someone is sick at home, mothers all over the country prepare this easy to digest soup, which helps with morning sickness, nausea, stomach aches, etc.

time of preparation: 1 hour (stove) or 20 min (microwave)

1/2 tbspoon of oil
2 tbspoons of chopped parsley
1/2 cup of rice
3 chopped carrots
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
chicken breast or chicken wings and drumsticks or (my favourite) carcass
1 1/2 litre of boiling water
salt

Heat up the oil and fry the onion, celery and garlic. Add the chicken, the carrots, salt and water. Let it cook (about 30 min). If you are using chicken carcass or wings/drumsticks, remove them from the soup and remove the bones with 2 forks. Return the meat to the pan, and add the rice. Let it cook (generally takes 20 minutes). Serve it with bread.


Microwave:

In a microwave dish, add the oil, onion, celery, chicken, carrots, 1 cup of boiling water and salt. Mix it well, put the lid on and cook it in max potency for 4 minutes. Add the rice and 5 cups of boiling water. Return it to the microwave in max potency for 10 min. Let it rest for 3 minutes and serve it.

Strawberries cream

Time of preparation: 30 min
6 portions

Cream:

3 tbspoons of sugar
3 yolks
1 tbspoon of corn flour
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of strawberries blended in the mixer
2 tbspoons of cooking sugar (for the meringue)

Topping 1:

1 pack of strawberry gellow
2 cups of water

Topping 2:

1 cup of double cream
1 tspoon of vanilla
1 tbspoons of cooking sugar
6 strawberries


Cream:

Mix the yolks and the sugar, add the milk and the corn flour. Cook it untill it thickens. Turn off the heat and add the straberry pulp.
Make a meringue whisking the egg whites and adding the cooking sugar. Add the cream to the egg whites and mix it thoroughly. Put the cream in individual glasses and put it in the fridge to thicken.

Topping 1:
Prepare the gellow following the guidelines. Wait for it to cool and thicken and then dice it. Put it on top of the strawberry mousse.

Topping 2:
Mix the double cream and add the sugar and vanilla until you get a squirty cream consistency.

In each glass with cream, decorate it with gellow, squirty cream and the strawberries (1 in each). Leave it in the fridge until you serve it.

Coriander Açorda

Açorda (pronounced a sor da) is a traditional portuguese dish that is very creamy and goes well with fish, mushrooms, etc.

time of preparation: 30 min

350g of old loaf (2 days old)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed with salt
1/2 bunch of coriander, chopped
salt
olive oil
hot water
1 egg, whisked

Slice the loaf in thin slices. In a big pan, add olive oil and fry the crushed garlic. Add the slices of bread and mix them well in the mixture of garlic and olive oil. Add half the coriander and little by little add hot water, to soften the bread. Mix it all with a wood spoon creating a cream, that can't be too solid or too liquid.
When the acorda is ready, check the spices and , without stop mixing, add the egg. Sprinkle with the rest of the coriander and serve it hot.

Duck with olives

Time of preparation: 1h 30m
4 portions

1 duck (1.2 to 1.5kg)
300g of green olives, seedless
3 tbspoons of butter
1 onion, grated
2 tbspoons of flour
2 cubes of chicken stock
1 cup of dry red wine
ground pepper

Put the olives in a small container with cool water. In a frying pan, melt 1 tbspoon of butter and fry the duck (washed and with no spices), letting it golden all around.

In another pan (a big deep one, to cook the duck later), melt the rest of the butter and fry the onion. Add the flour and mix it until it is homogeneous. Add the chicken stock dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water, the wine and the ground pepper. Reduce the heat and let it boil. Last time we cooked it, the sauce was too thick so we added a bit more water until it was more liquid (that's to taste). When the duck is ready, drain it and add it to the boiling sauce. Let it cook slowly in low heat, with the lid on for 45min to 1h. 15 min before serving, add the drained olives and let them cook with the duck.

Serve it with white rice and chilled dry rose wine

Raisins cake

time of preparation: 1h20m
10 portions

100 gr of butter
200 gr of sugar
4 eggs
350 gr of flour
1 tbspoon of baking soda
300 gr of raisins

Mix the sugar and butter until you get a cream. Add the eggs, one by one, always mixing. Add the flour and the baking soda, little by little. When the mixture is homogeneous and creamy, add the raisings, slightely wet and rolled in flour (so they won't sink). Put the cake mix in a greased tray and bake it in a hot pre-heated oven for 10 min and them lower the temperature (to medium or gas mark 5) for another 40 min.

Avocado smoothie

time of preparation: 5 min
2 smoothies

1 small avocado, with no skin and no seed, chopped
1/2 litre of milk
3 tbspoons of sugar

Put it all on a blender and mix it for 2 min. Serve it in tall glasses with ice, if you want.