Brazil

Samba, Amazon jungle, coffee and lots of football. I cannot choose which of the foregoing words most accurately describes Brazil. This country has been on my ToDo list for a long time and it will probably be time to visit it soon. Brazil is the largest South American country, the fifth largest in the world. Parts of its territory are occupied by the jungle and have not been explored to this day. This provokes the imagination of many writers who describe mysterious tribes and rituals untouched by modern civilization.

Undoubtedly the most famous city in Brazil is Rio de Janeiro. Whether it’s because you heard about the grand carnival in February, when it’s all about samba, costumes and graceful dancers, or you want to go to Copacabana’s most famous beach, or see the iconic Jesus statue, or last but not least, you want to step at the world-famous Maracana Stadium, Rio is the place. Personally, I decided that when I went, I would miss the carnival. I don’t fall for crowds. Not to mention that Rio is not a safe place in general because of the many pickpockets and during the carnival you are even more likely to run out of things and money. It will be extremely important for me to visit the Iguazu Falls. I wrote about it in my article on Argentina, so now I just mark it as an important landmark and for Brazil.

Brazil’s food is a unique blend of cultures and cuisines. The local population has been cooking since time immemorial with cassava and guarana. African slaves have an impact on the cuisine of coastal areas, especially Bahia. Across the country, Portuguese heritage is reflected in the variety of dishes. Root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, peanuts, fruits like mango, papaya, guava, orange, passion fruit, pineapple and others are among the local ingredients used in cooking. Rice and beans are extremely common dishes, as are fish, veal and pork. Among the most famous national dishes are Feijoada – delicious black bean stew, slices of pork, salami and frankfurter, cooked with white rice, finely chopped cabbage and pieces of orange. Other popular dishes include Moqueca – fish or seafood prepared with palm oil and coconut milk, and Vatapá – shrimp, fish oil, coconut milk and rice.

Meat in Brazil is usually prepared with a small amount of olive oil. The locals prepare also their salads with olive oil. National dishes are very hot and salty – there is a logic to this because of the warm climate in the country. Hot pepper kills germs that multiply rapidly in heat, and salt allows it to withstand the blazing sun. Daily meals vary by region. Are often eaten at breakfast tropical fruits such as papaya and local pastries, tapioca, couscous, grilled ham and cheese, bread and butter or jam, coffee, juices or teas . Lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day. Afternoon snack (merenda or lanchinho) is a small meal between lunch and dinner, and may consist of coffee, tea accompanied by biscuits, typical pastries or bread. The dinner is light – soups, salads and vegetables, pasta, as well as rice and beans.

Because of the colonial Portuguese and their ability to successfully produce sugar cane sugar in Brazil for many years, there was slavery and serious export of people from Angola to the country with the idea of becoming slaves in the plantations. Today, Brazil is a free country, but much of its wealth is owned by several wealthy families. The ordinary Brazilian has succeeded in inheriting the love of the land from the Indians, the rebellious spirit of the negroes and all the best of all the nationalities inhabiting Brazil – Italians, Germans, Spaniards, French, Japanese, Arabs. Therefore, it is very difficult to describe the colorful world of Brazilian cuisine. According to experts in the Brazilian cuisine, the sweet taste of the dishes is emblematic due to the pineapples, oranges and bananas, which bring elegance to every table. In the marinades do not use alcohol but juices of various sweet fruits.

Pavê is a popular Brazilian dessert that is a distant cousin of the Italian tiramisu and the Charlotte cake. Unlike tiramisu, the cream is not mascarpone, and to my astonishment, the irrigation of the biscuits does not use coffee (nothing that Brazil is the number one producer in the coffee world), but milk with rum. I decided to present you my version of this cake for the state of Brazil.

Here are the products you need:

For vanilla pastry cream:

4 tbsp cornstarch

2 tea cups of milk

4 yolks (in the original recipe – 2 eggs + 1 yolk)

1/2 tea cup of sugar

1 vanilla

4 tbsp butter

For chocolate cream:

4 tbsp cornstarch

1 can of condensed milk

2 1/2 tea cups of milk

pinch of salt

1 vanilla

200 grams of dark chocolate

For the base and finish:

1/2 tea cup of cream

3 tablespoons sugar

1 vanilla

2 packets of biscotti (1 packet of vanilla and 1 packet of chocolate)

1 wafer crust or chocolate chip cookies for the base

1 tea cup of milk

1 tablespoon of rum

1 1/2 tea cups raspberries

Steps of preparation:

Start with vanilla cream. To do this, dissolve the corn starch in half a glass of milk. Beat the yolks with sugar. I decided to change the original recipe by putting only yolks in this cream, not whole eggs. My experience has shown that this creamy becomes extremely smooth and tastes incredibly thick. Warm the remaining milk with a pinch of salt on a stove to make it tepid . Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture, add the dissolved starch and place on the stove to boil the cream. You have to mix it constantly and also be patient and cook over low heat. When the cream thickens sufficiently remove it from the stove, add the butter and vanilla and stir until homogeneous. Cover it tightly with fresh storage foil (to prevent crusting) and allow to cool.

We continue with the chocolate cream. Similar to vanilla cream, we dissolve the corn starch in half a glass of milk for this cream. Put the remaining milk, a pinch of salt and condensed milk on the stove. In a thin stream mix the starch mixture with the milk and cook until thickened, not stopping stirring. Finally we add chocolate and vanilla and mix until homogeneous. We are left aside to cool down.

Put a spoonful of rum in a milk glass. At the bottom of a cake removable ring, we arrange chocolate chips cookies or wafer peel. We arrange the walls of the form biscottis soaked in milk very briefly. Pour half of the white cream. We arrange a layer of slightly soaked milk biscottis . Pour in half of the chocolate cream. We stack the half of the raspberries on top. Repeat the exercise as the cake ends with chocolate cream.

Beat the cream with sugar and decorate the cake on top. We also arrange the rest of the raspberries. Allow in the refrigerator to cool for a few hours.

I made two mistakes with this cake, one of which turned out to be fundamental. I used two packets of biscuits with two smaller packets inside. They were not enough. I had to buy two of the larger packages with 4 smaller ones inside. This is the case when there is no exact weight in the recipe. And the second mistake was that I cut the cake only two hours after making it. I could not resist the desire of those around me. But if even waited, it would still produce a similar result. 🙁 The important thing is not to panic. 🙂 The presentation has changed a bit and instead of a piece of cake I present you a mousse of cookies in a glass. The comments about the cake were more than positive. Everyone said that cakes that are eaten with a spoon are the best. Thus, the defect became an effect.

Despite the presentation, this cake turned out to be divinely delicious. In truth she is much better than her cousin tiramisu. Much gentler and much richer. And raspberries fit divinely into the whole picture. You can safely increase the quantity of the raspberries. You will only taste better. When something is screwed up in a recipe, the important thing is not to stumble, but to try to fix things in some way. However, taste is always the most important in the whole picture. And he is very little influenced by the presentation. The presentation is for the eyes. And nothing happened as I imagined it, I think I did well. The cup with the cake is also tempting. 😉

Next destination – British Indian Ocean Territory.