Hot Dish Review

Although I didn’t have the chance to eat moqueca in Brazil last month, I have had it several times at Beleza. It is a simple and delicious curry-like fish stew made with coconut milk. I thought it would make an excellent dish to eat while trying out my uva (black grape) caipirinhas!

Well….the caipirinhas were weird. I’ll have to practice to get them right. But the moqueca was excellent! I combined several recipes, mainly using the one on Whats4Eats, cutting it in half for me and ST.

Here is my version:

3/4 lbs. prawns (12 large of the 16-20 count)
juice from 1 lime
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. canola oil
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red jalapeno, chopped
1 green jalapeno, chopped
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
cilantro (shitload)
black pepper
avocado

Marinate the shrimp in the lime juice and salt for 30 minutes in a glass bowl. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet and cook the onions until translucent (I used a little of the chicken broth so they wouldn’t get too dark). Add the jalapenos and garlic and saute for another minute or two. Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes until they soften. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, some cilantro, fresh ground pepper, and shrimp with their marinade. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.

The healthy section at Kroger has this awesome instant rice called Annie Chun’s Rice Express. There are three varieties, this time I got the multi-grain sticky rice. (Man, I still miss sticky rice in New York, delivered in plastic wrap.)

Serve the moqueca in a bowl over rice and top with sliced avocado and cilantro. So easy and so delicious! We opened a bottle of cheap tempranillo from Trader Joe’s (I call it “the pig”) since my caipirinhas failed.

Hours after arriving in Rio, AD and I were at a sidewalk cafe on the corner called Churrasco Vila Rica. Neither of us speak any Portugese so even requesting a menu was a task! She had her phrase book which came in handy but it was Deborah, seated at the table next to us, who gave us loads of advice….about Carnival, food, and watching our backs in Brazil.

She helped us order something to share. We wanted authentic Brazilian food, the everyday fare that the neighborhood folks love. Churrasco is a thin skirt steak, not the most tender or high quality cut, especially since it was cooked well-done. But we couldn’t complain, it’s grilled flavor hit the spot. Served with black beans, rice, and batata frita, a.k.a. fries.

There was also a mystery dish. We noticed other diners sprinkled it on their meat or beans so we followed suit. No one, not even Deborah in her relatively decent English, could tell us what is was exactly. Turns out it is called farofa, a traditional dish of the region. Made of toasted manioc flour it usually contains bits of bacon. I still don’t get why they use it, but I was compelled to do the same….hell, there was bacon in it!

We washed it all down with lots of cold cerveja!

Street food is everywhere in Rio. You can count on skewered and grilled steak, sausage, and chicken. AD got a steak skewer one afternoon that was really delicious, dipped in farofa of course.

Vendors sold fruit, mostly bananas and mangoes, but also agua de coco, or coconut water. They literally slice the top off a coconut and insert a straw. Ironically, my Mom told me about coconut water recently due to it’s extremely high levels of potassium. It was 95 degrees most days during our visit in Rio. People get sweaty! Which as we all know depletes one’s potassium. And what is full of potassium? Bananas and coconut water. Just goes to show that folks are naturally drawn to what their body’s need.

It was Morocco that introduced me to the frango frita, a pear shaped fried dough filled with minced chicken. M would get one every day after the beach and soon, I too was in the habit. He would get the sugar cane juice with it, both for a mere 2.70 Reals (about $1.50).

Lots of juice bars and snack shops in our neighborhood, like Hobby and Chan, sold them. I preferred the ones from Chan. Although they were drier, they had an awesome green hot sauce that we drizzled on the fritters after each bite.

Our hostel was right around the corner. Time for cerveja! There was a cooler right there in the lobby so I would run down and get a beer and go back upstairs to the deck where me and AD would check emails, smoke cigarettes, hang with the gang, and make plans for the next day, all in the sweltering heat of Brazil. Um cerveja por favor! Obrigado!

AD is prepared to travel the world, staying mostly in youth hostels and carrying a light load in her backpack. I, on the other hand, have never stayed at a youth hostel. Gansevoort or The Delano in South Beach is more my speed. But what the hell, I am hostile at times, so I decided to rough it with her in Rio de Janeiro. (Check out her blog, lots of great photos!)

I discovered staying at Cidade Maravilhosa Hostel is the closest thing to camping without a tent. We did have AC, but only from about 8pm to 10am. Believe it or not the bed was comfy….I slept like a baby every night.

Breakfast was provided in a common room with a festively printed plastic tablecloth. Bread, crackers, cheese, ham, coffee were always out as well as various fruits like watermelon, apples, and bananas. There was often a semi-sweet bread, almost like cake, that I would eat a small square of with a traditional Brazilian chocolate goo called brigadeiros, made of condensed milk, cocoa, and sugar. Condensed milk, we discovered is a common ingredient in Brazil.

On the second morning I found the mini baguettes in a basket under the little buns. It became habit for AD and I to steal a couple of them each day, along with apples and bananas for (free) lunch on the go! My best discovery, however, was the panini press. One of the kitchen/cleaning ladies had made a panini that second morning. Too late for me that day but on the third morning I found the press and made a ham and cheese panini with a mini baguette. With coffee, fruit, and a sweet pastry, I had my daily routine, after which me and AD were off on the adventure of the day….Carnival, Ipanema beach, the botanical gardens, Cristo Redentor, the tiled steps and tram at Lapa, the beach at Leblon.

We became scavengers. We rode the subway and the bus. I washed my hair once that week, never put on make-up, and wore only swimsuits and cover-ups every day (dude, it was 95 degrees!). The shower in our room was scalding hot so we showered in our swimsuits on the common deck, the scene of the Fat Tuesday cookout.

Ricardo, who runs the hostel, is a big man. The entire staff was so helpful and welcoming. They invited us to the cookout, just $20 Reals (about ten bucks US) for unlimited steak, sausage, salad, rice, salsa, and caipirinhas. Everyone we met was from a different country. Our roommates, A and S were from New Zealand. T from Australia shared a room with M from Morocco. France, Israel, Germany, England, Denmark….people from all over the world staying together. It was really an incredible experience.

Grilled steaks were cut up and served as appetizers. There was lots of meat, some well-done and tough, others medium rare and tender. I saw the kitchen/cleaning ladies making the salsa downstairs earlier. It was simple Brazilian fare. Authentic.

The best part of the cookout was when Ricardo ran out of limes for caipirinhas. He sent a kid that worked there to get more but the store was out so he bought black grapes instead. Uva caipirinhas! I watched as he crushed the grapes then added condensed milk, sugar, and cachaca to the shaker. I can’t wait to recreate them at home!

It wasn’t a luxury trip, it was an adventure. I wouldn’t change one sweaty, dirty minute! Thanks AD.