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Tag Archives: Snacks
A tip for BBQ’ing at a friend’s house
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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:
- Spiced with the basic Brazilian condiments: a rub made with black pepper, salt and garlic.
- Make sure you cut all the parts to the same height so the vegetables aren’t taller than the meat or they will scorch the edges rather than cooking in the meat juices.
- Try to ensure every skewer has a few fatty pieces of rump to keep the whole thing nice and moist.
And by the way: if you really want to be remembered by one and all, take some Brazilian Cheesy Dough Balls!
Patricia’s Sfihas
Sfiha
My friend Bethany, who’s actually from Lebanon, would probably not recognise these as proper Sfiha. In Lebanon these are more like a small pizza with mince lamb on top. Somehow, when they got to Brazil this particular triangular closed format became more popular. Probably because the closed ones are just more practical – you can pack several in your lunchbox without the filling all falling out. And as Brazil has precious little lamb around (I know, it’s weird!) the most popular filling became just beef.
I found this recipe on Patricia Scarpin’s beautiful blog Technicolor Kitchen and had to five it a try. As the grandson of a Lebanese I used to gorge on these at every family gathering. These are also very popular in Rio and many humble snack bars sell them.
Makes 60
Filling:
- ½ kg (17 ½ oz) ground beef
- 2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, finely diced
- ½ onion, finely diced
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- 2 teaspoons salt
- juice of 1 lime
- freshly ground black pepper*
Dough:
- 30g fresh yeast
- 500ml warm milk – I used 1% fat
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 5 ½ cups (about 780g) all-purpose flour – I used only 730g
How to prepare:
- Start with the filling: place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC/428ºF.
- Now, the dough: place the yeast in a large bowl and add the milk. Mix well with a fork until the yeast is dissolved. Add the sugar, salt and oil. Start adding the flour, gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes. Take small portions of dough – the size of a walnut – and make them into balls. Place onto a floured baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside for another 5 minutes.
- Using your fingers – I used a rolling pin, it was a lot easier – open each dough ball into a circle. Place ½ tablespoon of beef filling** into the center of the circle. Fold in the lower third of the circle towards the center of the sfiha, then the left and right thirds of the circle, forming a triangle. Pinch the ends together to seal the filling inside.
- Place the sfihas, 1 inch apart, onto an oiled baking sheet.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.
- If you prefer your sfihas softer, place them inside a pot right after they’re out of the oven and put the lid on (I did not do that).
- You can also use an egg wash on the sfihas before baking them, which I think is completely unnecessary.
* the original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon bahrat; I didn’t have any in my pantry, that’s why I used black pepper instead.
** the ground beef is used raw in the filling and releases water and blood after being mixed with the other ingredients. To prevent the dough from being watery, I placed the filling inside a colander over a bowl and squeezed the small portions of filling between my fingers to get rid of any excess liquid before putting them in each dough circle.
Check out her other recipes at The Technicolor Kitchen
Kibe – Rio’s ‘Arab’ street snack
Wow. It’s been 7 months since we came back from Rio and we’re still trying to edit down the stuff we filmed there. This one is a real special one for me as it features the first man I ever saw cooking – my dad – Dr. Nadir Farah.
Kibe (or Quibe or Kibeh) is a great meal/snack. This recipe was passed down from my grandmother Inês, who came from Lebanon to a small town in countryside São Paulo in the 20s and joined a large Arab/Lebanese community which dominated that area. I never actually saw her making this recipe (or was too young to remember) but we prepared it at home many many times. In fact I remember always joining my dad and 2 brothers in the kitchen whenever Brazil was playing the world cup and we had friends coming round to watch the game.
Incidentally, Brazil couldn’t give a damn about the tensions in the Middle East. For us, anything past Greece is ‘Arab’. So Kibe usually falls within bracket of ‘Arab food’. And there are many ‘Arab food restaurants’ in Rio and São Paulo. Kibe itself is sold in practically every street bar in Rio as well as on the beaches. It’s a simple and wholesome snack and it can come with a variety of fillings.
Music:
The tracks in the clip are from Bottletop’s Sound Affects – Brazil. Bottletop is wonderful charity who use fashion and music to fund projects which have a positive impact on the health and well-being of young people world-wide. To find out more about their work, where to buy the CD and how to make a donation visit www.bottletop.org
The ‘chorinho’ track is by ‘Choro na Feira’ (www.choronafeira.com), who will be featured in another of our clips. I will post full details later.