Making the most

We've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in class lately. It's all about eating locally and organically.
It struck me as interesting how people simply don't know about where their food comes from. I know that I don't ever think much about where my food came from. Well, I didn't. Now I'm trying to be more conscious of where the food I eat has been.

Many Brasilian recipes come from local sources. Local to Brasil. Many are specifically local to the area of Brasil where the dish originated.
I found it difficult to find some ingredients in some recipes that I wanted to make. For instance, I couldn't find some specific types of peppers or types of fish. Some things I could find, but they were too expensive for me to afford.

I remember being really upset about how difficult it was to obtain some ingredients. I never really thought about the prices of items changing due to the season they are naturally ripe.

The recipes created by the people of Brasil come from what is available to them. Because of the climate in Brasil, vegetables and fruit have longer seasons that in America. These recipes would be much more economic to make there. When three bell peppers cost five dollars, a recipe can be expensive to make if it calls for six. But, if I lived in Brasil, the peppers would cost three for one dollar and this recipe would be very inexpensive to make.

How could I make a Brasilian dish for little money in America? Well, I should just make the recipe when bell peppers are in season here. That limits my cooking season to the growing season. I guess there is a price to pay.

But what is that price?

By paying a higher price for peppers out of season, I get to cook my Brasilian recipe in January. The peppers might not be as flavorful and also might have an off texture.
If I pay a lower price for peppers while they are in season, I can only cook that recipe during that time. But, the peppers would be more flavorful, have the best texture and be more readily available.

I think that I am much more likely to start buying peppers in season and saving my Southern Hemisphere cooking for a time when the weather is more like the climate where the dishes were created.

Brasilian food is very much a reflection of the country. Each area has dishes found more commonly in those areas. These dishes are made from the ingredients that the people of the area had access to. Along the coast, meat is often substituted by fish as the main ingredient. In areas where vegetables don't grow as readily, fruit is a large part of the peoples' diet.

Much like the DIY crafters, Brasilian cooking is all about using what you can to make due. In class we've been talking about "Making Due in America." It seems that everyone has ways of making due. For Brasilians, people need to make due with what they have in order to survive.

It seems a lot like my mother's father's recipes. Many of them are simple dishes, not a lot of ingredients. My mom always said they were pesant foods. I guess that my grandfather's Italian food has a lot in common with Brasilian food. The food of pesants.

This pesant food of Brasil has become famous. People seek out 'Brazilian Steakhouses' like Fogo de Chao hoping to find a uniquely Brasilian experience. This experience has been projected onto Brasilian cuisine. People think the 'authentic' Brasilian meal consists of all-you-can-eat meat and vegetable dishes. But the reality is far from this. The meat dishes either consist of whatever is available to the people of the area or are the meals of gauchos (cattle ranchers).

In a world where people label things how they choose, how can anyone keep their true identity? Who decides what is really authentic?

Feijoada extravaganza!

When a recipe says it serves 8-10, usually I don't actually believe them but hte recipe I used to make my feijoada really did serve that many! (or would have had there been that many people. As it is, I have a fridge full of leftovers. Yum!)


First, I had to cut up a bunch of onion. I used whit instead of yellow because I already had some white lying around from other endeavors. Then I cut up a few strips of bacon and a ton of garlic. I sauteed these in a large pot for 10 minutes and then added cayenne pepper. The recipe called for an actual pepper to be ground, but I just used the bottled powder stuff.



Next, I chopped up all of the meat for my dish. I used pork loins and packaged corned beef lunch meat for my meat, even though the recipe calls for much more meat and more expensive meat. I feel that, even though I'm not following the recipe directly, I still have the spirit of feijoada since the dish was a combination of all of the cheap stuff that was available to the poor people of Brazil.



I then added all of the meat, beans and water to the sauteed mix and let it simmer.



And about three hours later.... ta-da! Feijoada.

I can see how this meal came to be. Poor Brazilians and the African slaves took everything they could get, including the cuts of meat others wouldn't eat and beans and rice, already a staple in their diet, and threw it together into something they could eat. This meal cooks without much supervision and feeds a lot of people!It makes sense that it has become a dish served all over the country. When people make this dish, they pay homage to those who created it out of necessity and carry on the tradition of using what is available.

My new plan

Alright, so, originally I was going to take this one day cooking class through the town of Bloomington. This class was supposed to be tonight. Unfortunately, when I tried to sign up for the class a few weeks ago, it was already full.

We were supposed to learn how to make feijoada, farofa and a few other smaller dishes.
Since I can't take this class, I've decided to teach myself how to make feijoada. This might be a problem, since I've never even tasted feijoada much less tried to cook it.

According to cookbrazil.com feijoada was created by the slaves who cooked the pork meats that Farmland owners discarded such as ear, tails, feet in a big pot with black beans.

Now, this dish has been changed to include different parts of the pig, depending on how the cook likes it, but is one of Brasil's most famous dishes.

The recipe in my new cook book would be way to expensive to make and it takes 5 hours! So, I've decided to use a different recipe.

The recipe I've decided to use if from the site Brazzil.com. It claims to be "news from Brazil" and the page this recipe came from is labeled "1001 Feijoada recipes" I've copied the recipe here, in case anyone would like to try it.

Feijoada à Nordestina (Northeastern feijoada)

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large yellow onions, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed

4 slices bacon, chopped

1 cup Italian parsley, chopped

5 large tomatoes, chopped

1 red cayenne pepper, chopped

4 cups dried beans (any kind of small brown bean), soaked overnight, drained

1 lb. salt pork, boiled for 5 minutes, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 lb. Italian sausage

2 lbs. corned beef, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 lb. smoked lean ham hocks

1 whole chicken breast, boned, skinned, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 lb. round steak, cut into 2-inch cubes

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

4 bay leaves

2 1/2 quarts water

1 lb. pumpkin, peeled, cut into 2-inch cubes

2 chayote squash, peeled, cores removed, cut into 2-inch cubes

1/2 lb. green cabbage, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 bunch collard greens, washed, shredded

1/2 lb. fresh string beans, ends removed, cut into 2-inch lengths

1 large potato, peeled, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 small sweet potato, peeled, cut into 2-inch cubes

3 ripe plantain bananas, peeled, cut into 2-inch lengths

Heat the oil in a large, heavy, deep pot and stir-fry the onion, garlic, and bacon for 2 minutes or until light golden brown. Add the Italian parsley , tomatoes, and cayenne and sauté for 1 minute. Add the beans, salt pork, Italian sausage, corned beef, ham hocks, chicken, round steak, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, and water. Cover and simmer for 2 hours or until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally and adding water if needed to ensure that the beans are completely covered while cooking. Add the pumpkin, chayote squash, green cabbage, collard greens, string beans, potato, sweet potato, and plantain bananas. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Do not overcook the vegetables. Serve immediately. Serves 8-10.

I would feel more comfortable with this recipe and it's authenticity as an actual recipe from Brasil if I knew exactly who was giving me the recipe. I was hoping that by using the recipe from "The Art of Brazilian Cookery," I would feel more comfortable because a bunch of Brasilian language websites came up when I searched for her name. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find much information about her or any pictures of her. But seeing as I am a poor college student, I'm not able to afford all that her recipe calls for. I think I'm even going to be creative with the ingredients for the recipe above.

Oh well. Wish me luck!

Hardships

So... this is my new blog. My last one was deemed SPAM by the wonderful people here at blogger.com.

This is the post I was going to post last week, but couldn't because my blog had been dismantled. After trying to find a way to get it back together for the past week, I've just created a new one.

I've been having some difficulties finding the time to make the recipes I've been finding online. Most require a fair amount of time in order to be made, also they take quite a bit of money-- two things I seem to be running a bit short on. Oh well.

Last week I took some time to explore what Brasilian food is. I talked to my friend Chelsea who lived in Brasil for two years. She said that when she thinks of Brasilian food, she thinks of steak, fish, feijoada, and pao de cajo.

I also picked up a book about Brasilian cooking titled 'The Art of Brazilian Cookery' by Dolores Botafogo. Botafogo makes a point in her book to explain how Brasilian cuisine is heavily influenced by the many immigrants from all over the world who have come to Brasil. She says there are many from Portugal, America, Ireland, England, Italy, Germany and many Eastern European countries. There are also many from East Asia and Africa. All of these people come to Brasil and mix their cultures with the indigenous peoples of Brasil and those who are descended from the slaves and Portuguese settlers.

Each culture has put a twist on cooking from their home or cooking that they learned in Brasil. These twists are what make Brasilian food so unique.

In Belem, in the north on the Amazon, many dishes come from native origins. Fish in many forms is a popular dish as well as many items using the fruit that grows plentiful in the area including many using the para nut (or Brasil nut). On the coast, one would expect to find many dishes made with shrimp and other sea faring animals. Vegetables are often used, and, as well as everywhere in Brasil, you will always see black beans and rice at every lunch and dinner.

In the south of Brasil, meet is the main staple for this is cattle country. Manioc flour (locally called farofa) is a big part of the cuisine of the gauchos (cowboys). But it can be found everywhere in the country. Many types of breads and cereals are found in the area because the grains needed are more easily grown here. As you go farther south, there is a heavy German influence shown in the cuisine. Many dinners consist of pumpernickel bread an cold cuts.

There is much more to say about the Brasilian food scene, but not enough space to write it all. It is safe to say that there are a lot of dishes that are universal to all of Brasil, but there are also dishes special to each area.