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By Kimberly Wright
THE CLASS
On Saturday Annie and Jerry Manes, Susan Brennan, Peggy McNutt and I gathered at the home of Gabriela and Carlos Campelli Forte in Marina to learn a little bit about the cooking of Brasil.
Gabriela's home city is Rio de Janeiro, also home of the national dish of Brasil, Feijoada. Ironically, Gabriela learned to cook in France, including time in the kitchen of Paul Bocuse. It was only as an adult that she has learned to make the traditional dishes of her homeland.
Feijoada is a rich dish of black beans cooked together with various fresh, salted and smoked meats and served with rice, farofa, and couve (collards). As did many well-loved dishes of U.S. Southern cooking, feijoada originated among the slaves, making something wonderful from the leavings of their wealthy owners. Our feijoada was rather up-scale, including country-style ribs, pork 'osso buco' and bacon from Niman Ranch, ham hocks and smoked German sausage from Corralitos Market, fresh pork breakfast and sweet Italian sausages from Deluxe Foods of Aptos, and Roy's Swiss Sausage, handmade in Greenfield. Gabriela helped us to source other traditional ingredients, smoked neck bones and carne seca, dried beef.
As Susan, Peggy, Carlos, and several of Sunday's diners are vegetarian, we also made a dish of very well-flavored black beans without the meat. All of the sides were vegetarian, although in a meat-eating group they might contain bacon or salt pork. The rice is prepared pilaf-style, starting with onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil. The farofa is manioc meal, sauteed with onions and butter; we added shredded carrots which are a traditional option. The collard dish is called Couve a Mineira. The leaves are sliced very fine (less than 1/8-inch) and sauteed in olive oil with garlic and crushed red peppers.
On Sunday we transported the foods to our home, where we are able to set up a long table so that everyone can eat together. As we gathered, we enjoyed pao di queijo, delectable little cheese breads made with sweet and sour tapioca flours, eggs, oil, milk, and cheese. Lloyd put a lot of effort into experimenting with the recipe and sourcing the ingredients. We also made some fried manioc, which was also a hit.
We began with the traditional beginning to the Feijoada, the caldinho de feijao. Served in small cups, this is broth from the beans spiked with a little vodka or cachaca and topped with minced parsley, green onions, and cilantro. This is an unusual aperitif, and a preview of the flavors to come.
During the class, Carlos treated us to caipirinhas, a drink popular in Brasil. It is made by crushing quatered limes with sugar, and then adding vodka or cachaca. As good quality cachaca is not readily available here, we used vodka. We also prepared snacks; fried manioc (yuca), prawns, and cheese canapes. Carlos showed us a manioc root and how to peel away the fibrous brown skin and reddish layer beneath. The manioc is cut into pieces and cooked in salted water until tender before deep-frying until golden. Gabriela's innovation is to sprinkle it with a bit of grated cheese before serving.
THE FEAST
Dinner was served family style, with platters of meats, bowls of beans, rice, farofa and couve passed up and down the table. Lloyd also provided us with little yeast rolls, which in Rio are made by Portuguese bakers; according to Gabriela, there isn't any other strong tradition of yeast breads in Brasil.
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As a light dessert, we enjoyed a batida, a beverage made of fruit juice (in this case from cashew apples), vodka, and a little sweetened condensed milk whirled together in the blender.
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Lloyd has also started working with chocolate, so he brought some to share for another sweet bite. He is experimenting with stenciling white chocolate images onto dark chocolates; in this case, it was the Slow Snail!