Pão de Queijo is one of the most delicious of the thousands of Brazilian recipes you can make with Cassava. I know it sounds strange, but the main ingredient is not ‘cheese’, but the cassava starch, not only replaces wheat flower in this recipe, but gives it the intense cheesy taste. Continue reading
Tip for BBQ’ing at a friend’s house:
When summertime hits London the supermarkets start stacking their shelves with BBQ tat and all manner of self-lighting lumpwood charcoal. Almost immediately after invitations for little impromptu BBQ parties start to pour into my email inbox.
Most Brits would just happily turn up sporting a Tesco bag with the odd pack of sausages or burgers, but not me – no! no! Given half a chance I’d turn up with a huge chuck of Brazilian rump steak (Picanha) and roasted it on a spit in proper Brazilian Churrasco fashion, but when going to a friend’s house I have to live with the fact they might not be as well equipped in the grill department as I am. So I have learned to adjust my expectations.
My tip is: buy regular supermarket rump steaks (with as big a layer of fat as you can find), chop them up into rectangles and make little kebab-style skewers with some green and red peppers and some red onions.
The skewers will grill really well on even the most modest of grills; they will be easy to eat (just bite the chunks straight off the skewer) and the combined price tag is fairly low. But oh so much better than burgers or cheap sausages!
A few points to look out for:
And by the way: if you really want to be remembered by one and all, take some Brazilian Cheesy Dough Balls!
Everybody knows the ‘Caipirinha’ by now. It’s the the drinks menu of not only Brazilian bars, but most modern bars of any denomination. So now that our national drink has taken over the world, I went in search of a few different options to teach you.
I visited Guanabara – London’s premiere Brazilian live music venue – and got the 2 best barman in the house to prepare us a couple of Brazilian cocktails with a difference. Check out this recipe for ‘Riotini’ (a Martini made with Passion Fruit and Cachaça) and ‘Strawberry Caipirinha’, a lighter, fruitier version of the old favourite.
Cuca tries out a takeaway barbecue grill. One of those cheap things you buy from the supermarket and use when you to a picnic. Will it work? You can also see a good recipe for Farofa with banana and a typical accompaniment for Churrasco – Molho a Campanha – a light vinaigrette.