White rice_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

3 cups of long grain rice
6 tbs of oil
Salt and garlic

How to Prepare :

Place 2 qt. of water to boil
Rinse the rice in a strainer and drain.
Heat the oil in a medium pan, add the drained rice and stir in medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Add salt and garlic; stir for more 2 minutes.
Rice will fry and water evaporate. Add enough boiling water to cover the rice.
Bring it to boil and then reduce the heat to low, cover and let the rice simmer for about 20 minutes or until the water has evaporated.

Hint:

Keep adding boiling water just enough to cover the cooking grains. The water should be just enough to cover the grains during cooking. Bite one grain. If it is tender, remove the cover, let the remaining water evaporate and the rice is ready!

SERVE:

Serve it warm.

watch this video on how to cook brazilian rice.

Vaca preta shake_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

3 scoops of Neapolitan ice cream
1 can of coca-cola

How to Prepare :

Combine all ingredients in a large glass. Mix as desired and serve.
Children will love this shake!

Swiss Lemonade_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 lime
4 cups water
Sugar to taste

How to Prepare :

Cut the lime in halves and each halve into quarters.
Combine 2 cups of water with the lime quarter in a blender.
Beat for only 3 seconds. If you beat for a longer time, the lemonade will become bitter.
Pour the liquid through a strainer and add more 2 cups of water with ice and sugar to taste.

SERVE: Drink while fresh. This lemonade should not be kept on the fridge.

Note about lemons and limes:

The most used in Brazil for lemonade (limeades) are Tahiti limes (also known as Persian limes). They are more acid, has their unique flavor and the skin is thinner. The skin makes the bitter taste. Lemons are less acid and has the skin thicker, therefore, the lemonade turns out to be too bitter and weak (no good).

In some regions of Brazil you will find rangpur limes too. But you only can use their juice for lemonades. Discard the skin. Actually I grew up drinking limeade made with rangpur limes, they are the easiest one to grow in your vegetable garden.

Rangpur = limão capeta, limão laranjinha.

watch this video

Roast beef sandwich_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 piece beef round eye
4 cup water
1 cup vinegar
2 teaspoon salt
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 lb tomatoes
2 onions
1 green pepper

How to Prepare :

Accommodate the beef in a pressure cooker with the water, vinegar, salt and garlic. Cook in medium-heat for about 50 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam.

While the beef is cooling down, prepare the vinaigrette: mix together diced tomatoes (1/4-inch cubes), diced onions, diced green pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt and group pepper.

ASSEMBLE:

Finely slice cooked beef.
In a glass casserole, alternates layers of sliced beef with layers of vinaigrette and refrigerate.

Hint: Beef will get juicy and taste better if stayed overnight in the fridge.

SERVE: Make cold sandwiches.
Great for parties and picnics.

PS:

BEEF ROUND EYE SANDWICHES This is a tasteful and practical sliced beef you can use to make sandwiches anytime.

Feijoada_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 lb of varied pork sausages (prefer smoked sausages)
1 lb of pork tenderloin
some slices of bacon
1 can of black beans (15.5Oz)
2 tbs vegetable oil
salt, garlic, chopped onions and bay leaves (bay leaves give a special taste to feijoada)

How to Prepare :

Feijoada is made with black beans and pork meats.
You can use a can of beans already cooked or cook your own.
Add black beans to a medium-sized pot with 2 tbs oil, salt, garlic, chopped onions and about 6 bay leaves.
Cook for about 15 minutes in med heat and set aside.



In a separated panfry, cook cubes of pork tenderloin and slices of bacon with salt, garlic.
Add all the sausages sliced and stir medium-heat until dry all the water.
Add the cooked meat to the pan with the black beans and your feijoada is ready!
Cook your feijoada more 10 minutes to meat soak in the black beans. You can add some pepper sauce to your feijoada at this point.

Hint: to make the feijoada creamy, liquefy 1/2 cup of black beans in the blender and add to the feijoada.


SERVE:

Before serving the "Feijoada", you can serve a caipirinha as an appetizer.

Feijoada is a main dish frequently served with white rice, collard greens and seasoned manioc flour - farofa.

To follow the "Feijoada", we serve orange segments as a dessert.

Intro:

The slaves in the colonial Brazil created the "Feijoada". They started cooking the pork meats that Farmland owners discarded such as ear, tails, feet in a big pot with black beans. This dish became traditional all over the country. Since then, the dish was incremented with pork sirloin and sausages that transformed the menu in a famous entrée that everybody who visit Brazil have to taste. The following recipe is an easy-to-do version of "Feijoada" made only with pork tenderloin and sausages. This recipe is preferred for busy people that don't want to handle the salted pork ears, tails and feet found in the complete "Feijoada".

Esfirras or Esfihas_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

8 cups (2lbs) all-purpose flour
4 envelops FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
8 oz margarine
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups milk
1 egg

Filling:

3 lbs ground beef
2 diced onions
2 diced ripe tomatoes
1 diced red pepper
salt and ground
4 tbs oil


How to Prepare :

Heat the oil in a saucepan and lightly fry onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Then brown the ground beef with this mixture.

In a large bowl, mix one cup of flour with yeast, sugar and salt,
Heat milk with margarine until very warm (130 °F) and pour into this dry ingredients and mix well in the bowl. Combine the egg and remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (at least 20 minutes, or use a heavy-duty mixer).

Roll the dough into a rope and cut into 2 inch long pieces. Cover and let the pieces rest for 2 hours in a warm place or until they double size.

Flat each piece with a pin on a floured surface and place the filling the in the center. Fold the dough over the filling on three sides to wrap it into a triangular shape.

Place esfirras with seam down on a large floured baking sheet (do not grease), leaving room for dough to rise.

Let the rolls rest for half hour while you heat the oven to 400°F.

Brush each esfirra over with egg yolk and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Hints: Make the esfirras smaller if they are snacks for parties. Add juice of two limes to the filling to make it better. Let the filling drain in a strainer before use. In order to esfirras hold their shape during baking, the filling have to be free of liquids. You also can make your own filling. I like filling with chicken and red peppers. Be generous with the filling, esfirras should be well stuffed when you wrap them.


Note about yeast:

2 envelops of active dry yeast equals 1 cake compressed yeast.

1 cake has 0.6 ounce or 17 grams.

Active dry yeast is a shelf-stable mixture of dehydrated yeast granules and filler. When mixed with warm liquid, the yeast cells once again become active.

Quick-rising is a more active form of active dry yeast. It does not need to be hydrated before mixing; up to 50 percent less rising time is needed with this product than with active dry yeast. It can be used interchangeably with active dry yeast, with adjustments in rising time.

PS:

ground beef dumplings Esfirras or esfihas is the name of this sort of bread filled with ground beef. You usually eat them d uring parties or as a street food. Although very popular snack, it is known in Brazil to be of Arabian origin. This recipe is for the wrapped esfirras also known as esfiha massakara, the other variation is the open esfirras when you bake without wrapping the dough

Coffee batida_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

½ cup of cachaca
1 cup black coffe
½ cup of coffe cream or ½ cup vanilla ice cream
4 tbsp of sugar

How to Prepare :

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Mix well, serve with ice.

Batida of Coconut_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 can (14 oz) sweetened
condensed milk
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup cachaca
1 ½ cup milk

How to Prepare :

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Mix well, serve with ice.

Batida Angel's pee_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 ½ cup cachaça
1 can coconut milk
½ cup groselha syrup
1 cup crushed ice


How to Prepare :

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Shake well and serve.

Empada_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

Crust:

4 cups all-purpose flour
12 oz margarine
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoon cold water
Salt

Filling:

2 boneless chicken breast
½ cup green olives (chopped)
½ cup heart of palms chopped
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt

To baste:
1 egg yolk

How to Prepare :

Crust: Save the egg white of just one egg. Combine the yolk and remaining whole eggs with flour, margarine, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix all ingredients vigorously with the fingers for about 10 minutes or until it becomes dough while holding the bowl with the other hand. Add the spoons of cold water to the mixture to reach the dough consistency. Do not knead the dough; just squeeze it with your fingers until mixed. Pat dough into a ball and let it rest while you prepare the filling.

Filling: Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, oil, salt, and 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam, or cook for about 30 minutes in a saucepan.

Remove cooked chicken and save the broth. Finely chop chicken breast and place it in a saucepan. Add green olives, heart of palms, tomato paste and stir in 2 tablespoon of flour. Place sauce pan over medium heat and cook filling while adding broth slowly to give a paste like consistency.

ASSEMBLE:

Take small amounts of dough and press against the mold to line it up to a bit over the edge.

Fill the mold with chicken. Make a small lid with the dough and cover the mold. Press the lid borders against the mold to seal the line crust with the cover and cut the excess off. Brush top of pies with egg yolk.

BAKE: Preheat oven to 375 °F. Bake for about 25 minutes of until top becomes golden brown. Let it cool and release from molds.

SERVE: Place mini pies in baking cup to serve.

Note: you need 4 eggs for this recipe. Use small eggs.

For the crust, you use 3 yolks and 2 whites.

For basting, only the yolk. Therefore, you will have 2 egg whites left over if you do the recipe right.

The 3 teaspoon of cold water should be the exact amount to give the right consistency to the crust. But with practice, you can make your own adjustments of water depending on the size of eggs and type of flour available.

Coxinha_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

3 boneless chicken breast
½ chopped onion
2 chopped cloves of garlic
6 tablespoon margarine
2 cubes beef bouillon

salt

ground pepper
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (8oz) cream cheese
2 eggs
Bread crumb

How to Prepare :

Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, garlic, beef bouillon, salt, ground pepper, margarine and 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam.

(If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cut chicken breast into 2-inch cubes and cook with the same ingredients in a saucepan over medium-heat for about 30 minutes or until done.)

Remove chicken breast from broth. Finely chop chicken breast to make the coxinha filling.

You can increment the filling with parsley, green onions. But do not add liquids to the filling.

Bring exactly 3 cups of the remaining broth to boil. Add the 3 cups of flour into the boiling water and stir vigorously with a wood spoon for about 1 minute until it becomes dough. Take dough out of pan. When warm, knead dough until it becomes smooth and dissolve the flour lumps (about 10 minutes).

Flatten dough with a rolling pin to about ¼-inch thick and cut medium size circles with a biscuit cutter. Place the dough in your palm, place a small cube of cream cheese and a teaspoon of chicken filling previously prepared.

Dose the ingredients according to the size of the dough circle you cut so that you can close the dough with the filling inside. Knead scraps and re roll, repeat cutting circles until all dough is used.

Fold and close the dough in a shape of a drum stick (a little chicken drum stick in Portuguese translate to "coxinha"). Grease hands if necessary.

Baste the filled dough with egg whites and roll them over breadcrumb.

Deep-fry the snacks 350 °F for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Place in baking cups and serve with guarana.

Capeta_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 shot vodka (2 oz) or cachaca
1 teaspoon sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon guarana powder

How to Prepare :

Mix well and pour over ice.
One variation is to add 1 teaspoon of a strawberry powder, those type that you add to the milk (such as Nesquik).


Capeta Intro:

“Capeta” is a very well known traditional Brazilian cocktail that’s mixes vodka and guarana, which is rich in caffeine. ‘Guarana’ is an indigenous Brazilian shrub that can contain 3~4 times more caffeine than coffee. However, unlike coffee, the source of caffeine in guarana is released slowly, so you don’t feel the “surge” that comes with drinking coffee. Capeta was invented at the "Passarela do Alcool" in Porto Seguro , Bahia.

Caipirinha_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 lime quartered
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 shot of cachaca
1/2 Cup of ice cubes with water

How to Prepare :

Place the lime and sugar in the bottom of a glass.
Using the handle of a wooden spoon, crush and mash
the limes. Pour the liqueur and ice. Stir well.

ALTERNATIVE PREPARATION
Using Lemon/Lime soft drink.
MIX
1 Cup of lemon/lime soft drink with ice
1 shot of cachaca

watch this video about Caipirinha

Bolinho de estudante_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

1 cup (250ml) milk
1 cup (250ml) coconut milk
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour
Pinch of salt
Oil to deep fry or shortening.
Sugar with cinnamon to sprinkle over.


How to Prepare :

In a large bowl place sifted tapioca flour.
In a saucepan bring to boil the milk, coconut milk, salt and sugar. Pour
boiling mixture over tapioca flour and mix well. Let dough rest for about 30minutes.

Preheat the fryer to 350 degrees F, using a tablespoon, take a spoon of dough and roll into 1 1/2 - inch (40cm) cakes. Fry about six cakes each time until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes, flipping just once for overall browning. Remove the cakes from the oil and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar with cinnamon and serve.

Hint: The fryer temperature is very important. If it is too hot, the cakes
will burn outside and be doughy inside. Control the amount of liquid you pour over the tapioca flour in order to get the right dough consistency.

Acaraje_Brazilian Recipes

Ingredients :

2 cups of black-eyed peas; soaked overnight
1 cup water
2 cloves of garlic
11/2 tablespoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt


How to Prepare :

Rub the peel off the beans against a dishtowel.
Combine all ingredients in a blender. Beat for about 4 minutes or until you get a dough.
Pour the mixture in a mixing bowl.
Heat the oil to 350°F and deep-fry spoonfuls of dough for 8 minutes or until dark red. Pat them dry in paper towel.
Stir the mixture left in the bowl frequently to avoid watery stuff.

Hint: to make the traditional acaraje, you have to combine the deep fryer oil with 3 tablespoons of palm oil. But remember: this oil mixture cannot be used to fry other dishes because of the palm oil strong taste.

SERVE: Street vendors in Bahia (northeastern Brazil) split the acaraje and fill them with vatapa.