Country 24 - Brazil

The Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest Country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country and fifth most populated country. It is also one of the the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations.
The Atlantic Ocean is on Brazil's east coast and it also borders every other South American country other than Chile and Ecuador. 
Brazil was inhabited by many tribal nations before 1500 when it became part of the Portuguese empire. It gained its independence in 1822. 

Brazil's culture is influenced mainly by Portugal but also from Africa, it's Indigenous peoples and other european nations. The food varies greatly depending on the region reflecting the Indigenous and immigrant population of each area. Feijoada is considered the national dish with a typical meal consisting of rice, beans and meat.

For our visit to Brazil we made feijoada, couve-a-mineira and brigadeiro washed down with our version of caipirinha.

The feijoada went on first as it need to cook for several hours. It is very meat heavy so we left out the pork shoulder because you can have too much meat! We were able to track down some ok-ish chorizo in our local supermarket and we used ribs that were very meaty to make up for the lack of pork shoulder. We also used tinned black beans so we did not have to buy a huge bag of dried ones.

Meat and beans being added to the onion, garlic and chilli.

Simmering for a few hours.

The liquid has reduced and the dish is ready to be tasted.

The collard greens finely chopped and sauteed with shallot, garlic butter and olive oil.

We don't usually make desserts but this recipe sounded interesting. 
As I cooked the condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder I was reminded of a friend I shared a flat with at university. She used to make her version of banoffee pie by boiling a tin of condensed milk for a while then opening it and dunking a banana into the resulting goo! 😆

The milk, butter and cocoa powder were boiled for 10 minutes - it smelt good!

It was then left to cool for 2 hours before being formed into small balls and rolled in ground almonds or dessicated coconuts. (Our bag of coconut has an expiry date of 2015, it was unopened!!! Used it anyway! 😅

All ready to be eaten!

 The national drink of Brazil is Caipirinha. It is made using a Brazilian rum which is made from cane sugar rather than molasses called cachaça. We were unable to find Brazilian rum but we tracked down some from the Dominican Republic which is also made from cane sugar. 

So each cocktail is made from 1/2 a lime cut into small piece, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 ounces of rum, and we added lots of ice too! HIC!

Our final dish.

and for dessert!

The Verdict

It was ok. Gary really liked it. I really don't like black beans so I guess I had already made my mind up before hand maybe. The meat was really tender and tasty and the cabbage was good - we make similar recipe using kale. The chocolate truffles were firm and chewy, not like regular truffles at all. They were lovely with a strong cup of tea! 

A good learning experience but nothing we will make again - not what we were expecting from Brazil at all.

I nearly forgot to mention the Caipirinha! It was very good, we tried it with less sugar but it needed the sweetness. Did I mention it was good? In fact I'm slightly surprised I didn't wake up with a headache! Very good - like a mojito but without the mint, mmmmmm delicious!