Delicia Delicia

Some of you may be thinking that all of Latin America eats beans and rice on a regular basis. Well, I definitely cannot counter that argument. What I can argue, however, is that Brazil does the whole beans and rice thing better than the rest. What do they do differently from the other countries? The make feijoada.

Feijoada is composed of mainly: feijão (beans - in Rio they're usually black beans), arroz (rice), farofa (grainy substance made of manioc flour), and meat. Various other ingredients are often included, but due to the fact that I do not know the names nor how to make them, I will emit them from this post :) Anyway, the things I listed are the basic components.

The maid who comes to my host mom's house on Wednesdays and Fridays came today and tought me how to make feijoada. We went to the grocery store so she could show me how to pick out some good dried meats and to grab a few other things we needed. When we got back to the house she showed me the whole process. Basically we cooked some cut-up onion and garlic, and added some beans that had been dry/hard but were soaked for a while in water. Then we rinsed and boiled the meats various times to get some of the salt out. While the meat was boiling, we made the farofa. The farofa was extremely easy - just cook up the manioc flour with onion and garlic, oil and some margerine, and eggs. Once the meat was done we tossed the meat in with the beans and added water. The feijão is cooked in a pressure cooker - otherwise it takes way too long and wastes a ton of gas. Then finally we made the rice. The beans we used were a kind that my host mom already had in her house, but apparently they weren't quite the right kind because they didn't yield much caldo (broth) like the beans are supposed to. So since we used the wrong kind of beans it took a while longer to cook than usual, but once it was finally done it was delicious! I've already eaten about 2.5 servings and I'm about ready to go grab some more. I probably shouldn't though if I want to be able to move at capoeira tonight.

Yesterday I learned how to make Brazilian desserts! I went to the apartment of a friend from capoeira and she showed me to how make bolo de laranja (orange cake) and brigadeiro (the most amazing and easiest dessert). I'm kinda sorta dating a boy from capoeira and it's his birthday next week, so I'm going to make him a bolo de laranja for his birthday, and I'm going to add some caldo de maracujá (passion fruit dressing) on top. The orange cake is pretty easy, and I like it because you use entire oranges - peel and all. I'm thinking also of making some brigadeiro with suco de maracujá (passion fruit juice)... just because learning to make these things make me all giddy. So brigadeiro is essentially condensed milk heated in a pan with whatever sweet ingredient you want to add to it. The most common addition is cocoa powder. The kind I made at my friend's house was with cocoa powder, and I also made some more when I got back to my house when my friend Ellie came over. This time we made them into the little balls and added sprinkles. Brigadeiro can be eaten in various forms (cake frosting, as-is, bombons, ice cream, etc.) but I think the little balls - bombons - are the most fun.

All of these things are fun to learn and delicious to eat but also very dangerous because I have no self-control when it comes to good food. But I'm really excited to get better at making these things so I can come back and share with you guys :) [By the way, I will start taking pictures of my own soon, I promise.]