When Brazilian chef Paulo Machado, founder of the Paulo Machado Institute focusing on food research and member of the Slow Food Movement, speaks animatedly about his country's cuisine, he gets a twinkle in his eye, painting colorful visions of produce and dishes full of history with his stories.
With the exception of, perhaps, the hugely trendy acai bowls and smoothies, Brazilian food has yet to capture palates around the world the way Peruvian fare has. To be sure though, Brazilian chefs like Alex Atala are slowly but surely making headways in showcasing the cuisine by expressing the essence of native ingredients in more sophisticated ways.
Traditional Brazilian dishes include salada de abobrinha con pimentas Amazonicas, where zucchini is marinated with herbs and perfumed with peppers from the Amazon, and barreado, a dish from the south of Brazil, where meat is simmered for 14 hours in a closed clay pot and served with manioc flour and plantains.
Here, Marchado shares his recipe for moqueca baiana, a traditional seafood stew from southeast Brazil, typically served with rice and pirão, a thick porridge-like sauce made with manioc (yucca) flour and stock.
Moqueca Baiana (Brazilian Seafood Stew)
Recipe courtesy of Paulo MachadoServes 4
Ingredients
2 kilograms white fish (grouper, monkfish or kingfish)
1 kilogram prawns, peeled
Juice of 4 green lemons
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt, to taste
Coriander and/or cilantro, finely chopped
Flat leaf parsley and spring onions, finely chopped
Pimenta bodinho or maleguata (hot red chiles), finely chopped
5 tomatoes, sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 white onions, finely chopped
3 capsicums (red, green, yellow), diced small
Colorau de Urucum (sweet paprika powder)
300 grams yucca flour
White rice, for serving
Method
1. Marinate the fish and prawns in the green lemon juice, half of the chopped garlic, and some salt. Set aside.
2. Pound the rest of the chopped garlic in a mortar with some salt until a paste forms.
3. Add the chopped coriander or cilantro, parsley, spring onions and hot red chiles to the garlic paste.
4. Heat up a large pot (Brazilians use a large clay pot) over low to medium flame. Add in the garlic-herb mixture and the tomatoes. As soon as you start to smell the perfume from the herbs, add a splash of olive oil.
5. While the claypot is cooking, sear the fish and prawns in another pan, and then transfer it into the claypot on top of the herbs.
6. Add in the onions, capsicums, and sweet paprika powder. Put on the lid and let it cook for about 10 minutes. You can add a bit of water to reach the desired consistency.
7. To make the pirão, take a bit of stock from the claypot and put it into another pan to cook. Mix the yucca flour into the stock while stirring till a thick sauce is formed, about 5 minutes.
8. Serve the seafood stew with white rice topped with pirão.
