Blue Cheese Pão de Queijo with Bacon

We've been getting on the kids' case about speaking too much English. We have a rule; at home we only speak Portuguese. Christian and I are not great at inforcing rules apparently because both Enzo and Maria are speaking way more English than Portuguese these days. Christian, the only one in the house who's first language is English, is the one who is the most disciplined about speaking Portuguese.  

We're your average mixed ethnicity family. We switch back and forth between two languages, we celebrate American holidays and wish we could celebrate all Brazilian holidays - for the 4 day weekends that are always coming up in Brazil. I'm not a purist, not with language, not with culture, and definitely not with food. I like mixing and experimenting and trying new variations.

Kerrygold, sent me a 3-pound wheel of their Cashel Blue cheese for me to use in a recipe.

Since cheese and crackers are my staple snack I have been eating away at this wheel like no one's business. This semi-soft cheese is creamy to perfection. I wanted to use this cheese in something besides a salad or the traditional pairing with steak or figs. Since, like I said, I'm not a purist I decided to try mixing the Kerrygold Cashel Blue with a pão de queijo recipe. 

If you've been to a Brazilian steakhouse you've probably had a pão de queijo or two. Pão de queijo literally means cheese bread and they're becoming more and more popular in the U.S because they are gluten-free, made with tapioca flour. I have a recipe that I like to make using my muffin tin. There are some great recipe out there as well like the one from The Kitchn and the one from Simply Recipes. 

For the blue cheese variation I experimented with an older recipe I had and modified it a bit. The chashel blue really brings the dough together. Not only does it add a mild blue cheese taste to the batter, it also makes the batter way creamy. As for the bacon, well you know... it's bacon one of the few foods you can never go wrong with.

Blue Cheese Pão de Queijo with Bacon

Yields: 5 dozen

8 slices of thick cut bacon

1 kilo (2.2-pounds) sour cassava flour or tapioca flour

1 + 1/2 cups warm water

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese 

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt to taste

*Preheat oven to 350

Cook the bacon until very crispy.Crumble the bacon and set aside. Reserve the bacon grease for later.

Mix the flour and 1 cup warm water. Break any large lumps with your fingers. If you've never worked wit tapioca flour before it may feel a little strange. It resembles corn starch and you will want to get the flour to feel smooth and chalky.

Measure out 1/2 cup of bacon grease. On a small saucepan heat up the bacon grease and the milk and bring to a boil. Then pour on top of the flour and water mixture.

Knead the dough until all the milk and bacon grease is well incorporated into the flour. 

Add the eggs, olive oil, Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese, parmesan cheese and salt and knead the dough until smooth. 

Add the crumbled bacon and fold it into the dough.

Roll little balls of dough on your hands and place on a cookie sheet 1 dozen at a time.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm 

Brazilian Style Lasagna

There are two traditional types of Brazilian lasagnas. The one I always make, is the ham and mozzarella cheese, red and white sauce lasagna. Sometimes I add ground beef to the red sauce (Bolognese sauce) but more often than not I don't. Mostly because it's an additional step. Also, I love meat but I don't need ground beef and ham together.

I'm a fan of lasagna, specially of Brazilian lasagna because it's kid friendly, and pregnant mother friendly. I work really hard to get my kids to eat everything. On a good day I lovingly encourage them. On a normal day I just lay down the law and force them to eat what's on their plate. But on a pregnant day I don't even try to reason with them or force them, I pretty much leave them to eat whatever they want. So now that I'm slowly feeling better instead of fighting with them I'm trying to make food they'll eat and enjoy. Brazilian style lasagna with loads of ham and cheese is something we all enjoy. Plus it's easy to make and there are always left overs.

And I can find all the ingredients in the little market down the street.

When I get back to fancy California with it's fancy stores where I can find all sorts of good ingredients I'll make lasagna with white sauce made from raw almond milk and I'll sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top for a nice nutty crunch. But for now I'll indulge in homemade creamy white sauce and simple ham and cheese.

For this recipe you'll need 8 cups red sauce and 6 cups of white sauce. You can use store bought but I recommend making it at home because it tastes better and it's easy. No news there right?!

Red Sauce or Plain Tomato Sauce

I love homemade tomato sauce that's simmered for hours and hours, the one I dream about but rarely make. Usually if I want to make tomato sauce I'll just throw some tomatoes in the blender with water and vegetable broth, warm it up and we're good to go. This sauce was just that with a couple cups of left over pumpkin puree.

Here are some excellent tomato sauce recipes you can try
Fresh Tomato Sauce from Smitten Kitchen
Marcella Hazen Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter from Steamy Kitchen
Basic Tomato Sauce from Simply Recipes

White Sauce
(printable version)

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup flour
6 cups milk
1 teaspoon nutmeg
100 grams shredded parmesan cheese


Warm up the butter in a medium sized pan until it's melted. Sprinkle the flour on top.

Mix until the flour and butter comes together.

Then Slowly add the milk and the nutmeg and stir constantly over low heat until it becomes creamy. If the flour and butter mixture isn't dissolving then use a whisk. When the sauce starts to thicken up (about 8-10 minutes of constant stirring) add the parmesan cheese and mix.

Now, on to assembling the lasagna

Brazilian Lasagna
(printable version)
prep time: 30 minutes
cooking time: 40 minutes
rest time: 15 minutes
Makes about 10 portions

500g of dried lasagna noodles
8 cups tomato sauce
6 cups white sauce (see above for recipe)
500 g of sliced ham
700 g of sliced mozzarella

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. In a large rectangular sauce pan pour 2 cups of tomato sauce and then layer dried lasagna noodles on top. 
3. Add 1 1/2 cups white sauce and then layer cheese and ham and another 2 cups of tomato sauce. Repeat with noodles, white sauce, cheese, and ham, red sauce.
4. Make a last layer of cheese on top of the lasagna. Cover with tin foil and bake for 40 minutes.
5. Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes.
6. Serve warm.

A Brazilian Birthday Party

Brazilian birthday parties are a big deal. The decoration revolves around the cake table, with mini rolled up fudge balls (brigadeiros) covered in sprinkles and other little treats. 

Rosita had her first Brazilian birthday party last month.

Rosita was born in Italy. A little over a year ago she moved to Itacare with her father who married a native of Itacare, a wonderful hear dresser, and my sweet friend. Rosita's step-mother wanted to throw Rosita a birthday party fit for a princess. Here are the pictures from Rosita's special day.

Have you ever been to a Brazilian style birthday party, if so what did you think?

p.s. Speaking of party did you know the whole country is in one big party right now? It's Carnaval! 

What Breakfast in Bahia Looks Like

When people ask me what a typical American breakfast is like I say pancakes, eggs, bacon. You know. But if you come to my house I'll probably just feed you cold cereal.

People ask what breakfast is like in Bahia. If you come to my house breakfast is just a paozinho (small French bread), some juice, and fruit. But, if you want a traditional breakfast it's more than that. It's fruit and a lots of things made from tapioca.

It's seriously, delicious.

1- Pao de queijo - small cheese breads made with tapioca flour. Easy to make, I promise.
2- Cuscuz de tapioca- tapioca couscous made with coconut milk and fresh shredded coconut.
3- Bolinho de estudante - deep fried tapioca couscous sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
4- Banana da terra frita - fried plantains, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
5- Rabanada - Basically, deep fried French toast.

It's like Christian says, most things are way better fried and if you add sugar and cinnamon it's a win.

We were able to eat well in Morro de Sao Paulo.
Tomorrow I'll show pictures from our trip.

Salpicão | Day 5 of 31 days of Salad

Sweet Juliana is the reason why I love my other job, teaching under-graduate students. For 4 years I worked as a Teaching Assistant for the Latin American and Latino Studies department at UC Santa Cruz. Juliana was one of my students. She kept me on my toes then and still keeps me on my toes now. Smart people make me happy, and Juliana is all sorts of smart. When I moved to Bahia in the Fall Juliana moved to Rio de Janeiro to study abroad. We like to share stories about our experience living in Brazil. You can read her travel blog and also her feminist blog, and then you can follow her on Twitter and on Facebook. You will love her I'm sure. Thanks Juliana for your delicious recipe and your beautifully written and photographed post - A+ for you.

My relationship with Latin American salads has been an evolving one. In general, I find that while a hearty plate of fried plantains, or tacos, or plain black beans and rice can satisfy almost all my cravings, the salads I have eaten south of the border just never seem to cut it. The wilted lettuce and pink tomatoes with vinegar are nothing compared to the gardens-in-a-bowl I'm used to eating on the California coast.

But lately I've realized that maybe I need to rethink my concept of salad. Like Damaris, I am currently living in Brazil, and I've learned to stop looking for my traditional salad ingredients and start picking up on what the other Brazilians are eating. I started appreciating shredded beets, mango, and palm hearts.

So after hearing about Damaris' 31 Days of Salad, I decided that I would use this as an opportunity to learn a new recipe. One of the main goals I have for this year that I am spending in Brazil is to learn more about my Brazilian half. This particular month, I am staying with my Brazilian family in the state of Espirito Santo, whose inhabitants are known as Capixaba (pronounced Ca-pee-sha-ba). It felt only fitting that I make a Capixaba salad, so I decided to ask our family's maid, Vania to teach me how to make this Salpicão recipe. Normally I'm not a fan of mayonnaise, but I like this recipe because it uses very little. You could even leave the mayonnaise out altogether, and just have a slightly drier salad. Hope you like it!

Salpicão

(printable version)

half a carrot, shredded

half an onion, chopped very fine

one bell pepper, chopped very fine

three celery stocks

two chicken breasts

three tablespoons mayonnaise

1/4 cup raisins

salt

1. Boil chicken breasts until well cooked, then shred finely. Add salt to taste, along with any other seasonings you want. 
2. Take the leaves off of the celery stocks, wash and chop them finely (can be substituted for parsley also).
3. Mix carrot, onion, bell pepper, chicken, celery leaves and raisins, adding mayonnaise once well mixed. After adding the mayonnaise, be sure to mix well.
4. Can be served on its own, or on top of salad greens.

Day 1- Green Papaya Salad

Day 2- Avocado and Mango Salad

Day 3- Eggplant Vinaigrette
Day 4- White and Green Salad: Escarole, Pear, Avocado

Açai on the Beach

I'm raising beach bums. Baby Maria wakes up and asks "beach?" It doesn't matter if we go to the beach 3 times a day she's never beached-out.

Enzo on the other hand hates leaving the house. If he had it his way he would never leave the house. But then... when he does leave the house he's totally content and has a great time. Is this a 5 year old thing? I don't really get it.

Two children raised by the same parents with totally different personalities. What else is knew?

One of the things they have in common is the munchies. Does it matter if I feed them a huge breakfast before we go to the beach? No. About 20 minutes of running around and digging in the sand and swimming is enough to make them hungry. Oh, another thing they totally have in common is their hunger-mood, the funk they feel when they're hungry. They get that from me.

Knowing this I come prepared, prepared with our metal cups from home so the guy who sells Açai on the beach can fill them up with frozen Açai, granola, bananas, and honey.

A cup of one of these and we're good to go for another couple hours, building sand castles, making sand forts, swimming, pretend swimming, surfing, pretend surfing ...

Garapa | Sugar-Cane Juice

Sometimes all it takes is leaving the house to be reminded of good-great-wonderful things. Some of my favorite things to eat I can't make at home. And that's a good thing, because it forces me to get out more.

I've always been a big fan of garapa, sugar-cane juice. I told Christian that I wanted to do a sugar free month, but then I remembered that I'm addicted to sugar-cane juice. There goes that ideas.

There's this guy (yes, the dude above) who makes an exceptional garapa. When he puts the sugar cane through the press he throws in a thick slice of ginger and half of a lime. Holy. Smokes. I can't even tell you how refreshing it is to drink this special ginger-y, Lime-y, sugar-cane juice, filled with ice, when we leave the beach.

Thank you Brazil for being so wonderful.

In other news

// We got a bike. A most excellent purchase.
// The town has been buzzing with camera crews filming a surf reality show.
// Christian is happy. He said he had the best surf session today since we moved here.
// Maria tried to convince a total stranger to taker her surfing. And he almost did!
// Playing in the sand never gets old. Why is that? I am so content with a plastic shovel in my hand.
// I married a guy who likes to dance and there are plenty of opportunities to go dancing here. Tomorrow we shall dance.

Moqueca Baiana de Peixe // Traditional Fish Stew of Bahia

Fish. The reason why we moved to Itacare Bahia was because of fish. You see, my husband is researching how Itacare went from an economy that survived on fishing to an economy that now survives on tourism. Itacare is a beautiful beach town where it's not uncommon to meet someone who tells you that they came on vacation and then never left. The good thing (and I guess the bad thing too) about tourism is that tourists often want to consume culture. They want a taste of the local and the traditional and here the local and traditional often tastes like fish. Moqueca Baiana, a traditional fish stew in Bahia, is served in almost every single restaurant you walk into. I'm glad because that means that there is still a demand for fish and so fishermen still have jobs.

When the sun starts to set the fishermen are usually coming in from a hard days work, bringing in the catch of the day. That's when Christian returns from his fieldwork and when I grab my iPod and head to the beach for a quick run. I like to run on the Orla, which is where all the colonial houses are, where the fishing boats dock, and where there is always soccer games and volleyball games and children playing in the sand. It's a mighty good place to be at, with an unbeatable energy.

Beach Food

Hi friends how was your weekend? We took a little excursion to Jeribucacu, a beautiful little beach you hike in to. Christian wanted to go for the surf and I wanted to go for the food. Jeribucacu is known for both. Rumor has it that the best tapioca in town is right there on that little beach. Unfortunately the tapioca lady was gone for the day so I had to wait to come back home to eat from the tapioca stand near our house. Don't get me wrong, tapioca is good anywhere but I bet tapioca on the beach is even better. Nothing like eating food with the taste of sea salt in the air.




I didn't eat Tapioca on the beach but I did eat a grilled cheese stick, which has to be my favorite beach food of all times.

Now I'm dreaming about globetrotting my way through beaches and writing a book about beach food because I know Brazil isn't the only place with fun and interesting food. What do you think? Could beach food be the new street food?

Want to see Enzo hiking and my cute little sister? Here are more pictures of our day trip.

Brigadeiro Tutorial from Give Me Flour

Amanda Areias, a fellow Brazilian, has one of the most beautiful food blogs I have ever seen. Give me flour is a creative inspiration and also a resource for amazing recipes. 

Brigadeiros, fudge balls made from sweetened condensed milk, are a classic Brazilian treat and today is the perfect day to make brigadeiros. September 7th is our Independence Day and I'm so tempted to make Amanda's brigadeiro recipe to celebrate. But instead I'll be cleaning our new rental. Blegh! I would rather be cooking than cleaning any day of the week but tomorrow we move in and there is a lot that needs to be cleaned up including the kitchen. Maybe I'll wait until we're fully moved in to a clean house to make brigadeiros. Talk about celebrating, nothing deserves more celebration than finally settling in.

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{Foodbuzz 24x24} A Guide to Street Food in São Paulo Brazil

São Paulo is my home town. In fact it is the home town of millions of people with the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, a rising Korean population, an established Arabic, Italian, and Bolivian, community to name a few. Think NYC, only much larger. São Paulo is great not only because of all the international influence but also because people from all different regions in Brazil migrate to São Paulo, bringing with them tastes from back home.

This month I was selected to participate in the Foodbuzz 24x24 event, where 24 bloggers create 24 meals in the space of 24 hours. Normally I would cook something but since I'm on vacation I decided to take you a long with me, on a little trip around the city of São Paulo. I've highlighted 10 of my favorite street foods around the city, all of which I was able to eat as I walked and took the metro around the city on Saturday. I'll show you pictures and give you a brief description of the food and the places where you can find it. I have made a more extensive album of pictures on my Facebook page and a subway guide here which you can print so when you get a chance to come to Brazil you won't get lost in São Paulo, and I promise you won't get hungry either.

My favorite place to hit up on a Saturday morning in the city is Praça Benedito Calixto. It's located in one of my all time favorite neighborhoods, where street art is celebrated, and cool little shops are the norm. Every Saturday from 9:00am-7:00pm the square is full of vendors selling antiques and hand made crafts. Praça Benedito Calixto not only has vinyl records galore it also has a big selection of street food. 

First up is the booth called Natural Dazu, where Diego, his mom, and Diego's friend all work together to make whole grained baked goods. Natural Dazu was the first street booth to sell salgadinhos made from whole wheat. Salgadinhos are baked or fried doughy snacks with some type of savory filling. The one I ate is called chinelinho, sandals, and it's filled with fetta and spinach. It's perfect for an early morning snack.

The sweet life of a teenager and a flan ice cream recipe that will make you love him even more.

Gabriel - "I was invited to prom, what's prom?"

My little cousin came to live with us back in February so that he could learn English. I'm not 100% sure his English is improving since we only speak to him in Portuguese but I do know he is learning a whole lot about American culture.

Prom, for example, is American culture at it's finest.

Don't worry his Brazilian suave-ness is still intact. So much so that he's already used the ice cream flan recipe his grandmother hand wrote him to impress a girl.

Brazilian Breakfast

at 2:02pm 

on a wet afternoon that made the whole day feel like it was a sin to be out of bed.

The early afternoon was the magical moment where time was still, all was well, and I could finally eat.

Normally, I breeze through breakfast sipping on a cup of herbal tea and taking big bites of toast to get it out of the way. Breakfast is just so that I don't feel like a beast when I'm trying to get the kids ready for school. As soon as the sugar hits my bloodstream I'm golden, and herbal tea and toast nails that perfectly.

But if you haven't eaten anything by 2:02pm you're full on hungry.

Toast and herbal tea will still be consumed but why don't we throw some good ol' sausage and eggs on top of that toast and call it a meal?!

Sausage and eggs together is a breakfast classic. I don't know who came up with it, what culture started it, or if someone even had to come up with it, because it's so obvious how well they compliment each other no one really should take credit for the genius behind a well prepared breakfast with sausage and eggs.

Brazilians, eat sausage and eggs but slightly different than Americans.

For one thing, we're all about the sauce. Food needs to be wet, dripping down your chin.

First you make the sausage, you season it just so. The juices from the sausages, tomatoes, onions, and parsley, mix together into a prime brothy sauce. You separate the sausage mixture from the broth leaving a welcoming pool for your eggs. Then crack -- the eggs are poached in the bubbly broth.

cooking on vacation is all about improvisation

Our tiny rental has a tiny kitchen with a tiny stove and even tinier oven. It took four people yesterday to light up the gas oven. I was determined to make a cake even if it has to be mixed by hand in a metal cooking pan with very few ingredients.

I bought a cake mix and improvised with the ingredients so I could give it more flavor. I used the Dona Benta cake mix. Dona Benta is the Brazilian version of Betty Crocker. Coincidence that both starts with a the letter B? I think not. I mean, I don't know but both mixes are probable the exact same so hopefully this recipe will work for my American readers as well.

The mix calls for three eggs and 3/4 cup cold milk. I substituted the cold milk for 1/2 cup strawberry yogurt and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk. I don't have a measuring cup so I just poured one yogurt caontainer in the mix and measured the sweetened condensed milk in the empty yogurt container. I figured it was 1/2 a cup. Cake mixes are forgiving so if it's a little more or a little less than actually 3/4 cup it will turn out fine. The real difficulty was getting the yogurt cups away from baby Maria. Did I mention that we brought very little toys? She drags these things around the house as if they were race cars. I'm amazed at how few things we actually need to have fun.

Anyway, I baked for 30 minutes at medium heat and after it cooled off I drizzled some more yogurt and sweetened condensed milk on top. It was such a hassle to get the oven to work I wanted to maximize my efforts by making it as sweet as possible. Heck, if we're having dessert than we're having DESSERT.

I was happy with the results. 

We'll possibly make it again on Friday for baby Maria's first birthday.

We're also improvising on the feeding front. No high chair means feeding baby Maria on the stairs. She sits for about 10 seconds and then crawls away leaving crumbs all over the floor. I don't really mind since the place we're staying in is so tiny it takes about just as long for me to sweep the floor.

Hooray for vacations.