Sardines pate

When I lived in Portugal I loved the little tuna and sardine pates that were served with a bunch of olives and a basket of bread as soon as you sat in a restaurant. I've been trying to find a good recipe and this one is pretty close to what I used to eat there. I think it tastes different in England because of the quality of the sardines that we find here (not as good as portuguese ones).

serves 4
1 can of sardines (in oil)
2 boiled eggs, peeled
1 tbspoon of softened butter
3 tbspoons of finnely chopped parsley
1 pinch of paprika
1 small onion, finnely chopped
sweet mustard (as much as you like)
piri-piri sauce

Drain the sardines, chopp the eggs and put them in a bowl. With a fork, shred the sardines with the eggs, butter, onion, parsley, paprika, mustard and a few drops of piri-piri.
Put it all in a food mixer and let it chopp it all until you obtain a thick cream (not liquid) - check the pic. Put it in serving bowls and cover with plastic film. Leave it in the fridge until it's time to serve. Serve it with bread, toasts, olives and cucumber pickles.
Original recipe and picture: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kSv05jSv-xg/Rp-n5JmmC0I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/-qp_PDcASc0/s400/pate-sardinha.jpg

Pasta with canned sardines

Easy
Time of preparation: 20-30 min

1 pack of pasta (I prefer spaguetti)
1 can of sardines (I think the ones in olive oil go best)
1 cup of double cream
1 cup of milk
1 tbspoon of corn flour
1 shrimp stock cube (I didn't have one and used vegetable and it was good!)
1 onion, finnely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 pepper chopped
1 tbspoon of butter
2 cloves of garlic, finnely chopped
coriander and parsley (a pinch of each)
salt and pepper

On a pan, add the onion and garlic, heating up with the butter. Let if golden. Add the sardines WITH the sauce, add the other ingredients (apart from the double cream). When everything is cooked (around 10-15 min later, add the double cream. If its still thin, mix the corn flour with the milk and add it to the mix. Mix it all up until it thickens.

Cook the pasta  al dente.
Distribute the pasta on plates or a big bowl and add the sauce. Mix it all up. Sprinkle some parmesan on top.

OBs: I didn't have double cream when I cooked it, so I just used the milk and corn flour. It was delicious anyway.

Cuscuz paulista (brazilian couscous)

This is not the couscous people know from Africa. Very different preparation and flavour:

1/2kg of cornmeal
1 tbspoon of manioc flour
1 cup of water with salt
1/2 cup of butter in room temperature
1 kg of shrimp
2 tbspoons of lime juice
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of oil
5 tbspoons of chopped onion
2 tbsppons of chopped coriander
1 cup of tomato puree
2 chili pepper, chopped and mashed
1 can of peas
olives

Mix the cornmeal with the manioc flour. Add the salted water little by little and mix it until you reach a farofa consistency. Add the butter, mix and let it rest. Peel and clean the shrimp, add the lime juice, pepper and salt.
Add oil to a frying pan and fry the onion and coriander. Fry the shrimps a bit, with the tomato puree and the chili. Cook it until the shrimps are done. Add the flour mix and enough water to reach a wet farofa consistency. Mix it thorougly, until it comes off the bottom of the pan. Put this mix in a tube flute pan, and pressure it against the pan, to keep its shape. Take it off the pan and decorate with olives, peas and shrimps.

Bobo de camarao (shrimp in cassava cream)

10 portions
1 hour

2kg of prawns
1kg of cassava/manioc/yuca roots (found in international food stores and pictured above)
2 medium sized onions, chopped
4 tbspoons of oil
1/2 kg of tomatoes, halved, peeled and seedless
2 tbspoons of chopped coriander
1 tspoon of pepper
1 cup of coconut milk
1/4 cup of palm tree oil (azeite de dende - international food stores)

Peel the cassava and cook it in water and salt (about 20 min). If the manioc has fibers that are too hard, you can remove them. Blend it and little by little add water (1 cup to every kg of cassava).

On a pan, fry the onion in the oil until slightely golden. Add the tomatoes and let it cook. Add the cleaned peeled shrimps, salt, pepper and coriander. Lower the heat, put the lid on and let it cook until the shrimps are cooked (about 20-30 min). Add the cassava cream, the coconut milk and the palm tree oil, mixing it well, until it boils.

Serve it with white rice, white wine or beer.

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.

Tuna pizza

Time of preparation: 20 min
4 portions

For the base, follow the instructions here.

The topping:
1 can of tuna
1/2 jar of tomato sauce
2-3 tbspoons of sweet corn
2-3 tbspoons of peas
200g of cheddar, grated

Mix the tuna and the tomato sauce, with a fork, tearing the chuncks of tuna. Spread this mixture on top of the pizza, sprinkle it with the cheese. On top of the cheese, sprinkle the sweet corn and the peas. Bake for 10-12 min.

Tuna casserole

Time of preparation: 35 min

1 small tin of tuna (or 2 if you prefer more tuna)
4 tomatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
5-6 medium potatoes, sliced (thick slices, about 0.5cm)
olive oil
olives (optional), sliced
coriander
salt and pepper

This is a very easy recipe and it's delicious.
In a medium pan, with lid, distribute the slices of potato, covering it with the tomato slices, the onion slices, tuna, coriander, salt and pepper (and olives if you want). Put a dash of olive oil on top of it (the more the merrier) and repeat the process untill you run out of ingredients. Put the lid on and cook it in low heat for 20 to 40 min (depending on the stove). It's not necessary to add water, for the tomato juice cooks the potatoes. It is done when the potato slices are cooked.

Serve it with white rice...It is very good!