When I travel, I love to explore history, art, and culture. To prepare for any trip, I read non-fiction books about the region and fiction by regional authors. But I also focus on food. I always visit grocery stores, enjoy local cuisine, and sometimes take a cooking class.
My husband and I traveled to South America last fall. The trip was planned around two family weddings in Brazil — one in Rio and another in Sau Paulo ten days later. On our first day in Rio, we took an all-day tour with Joel’s cousins. We saw all the important sights. We spent a day at the beach. But the highlight of Rio, for me, was a cooking class we took with Chef Alex da Silva.
Cocktail: We were joined by a young Norwegian couple, backpacking through South America, and another couple from Texas, on a short business trip. Class began with learning how to make the Brazil’s national cocktail — the Caipirinha (pronounced kye-pa-reen-ya). It’s made from three simple ingredients — fresh limes, sugar, and Cachaça (ku-sa-shuh). Brazil’s answer to Caribbean rums, which are usually distilled from molasses, cachaça is distilled from the fermented juice of sugar cane. According to Liquor.com, “This important difference yields a spirit that is characterized by its funky, grassy flavors. And those singular flavors set the Caipirinha apart from other sweet-and-sour cocktails like the daquiri.”
I drank at least one Caipirinha every day in Brazil and even though the ingredients are supposed to be the same everywhere, there were significant differences among them. The ones we made in class were good and plentiful. After a couple of them, our little group of fellow travelers became fast friends.
Our menu started with cassava prepared three ways and served with an amazing sweet and savory sauce/dip that is our teacher’s own recipe; I call it Chef Alex’s Picante Sauce for Everything. Our main meal included steak, rice, chopped salad, and another Brazilian specialty called Farofa, also made from cassava.
Cassava was and still is a staple of the indigenous South American diet. It is a root vegetable also known as yuca, but is different from yucca, which is an ornamental plant.
Our appetizer included fresh cassava prepared two ways. We peeled and cut the roots into chunks. Half were tossed with a little oil and roasted in an air fryer and the other half were boiled in salted water. We ate them with Chef Alex’s Sauce.
We made two additional items, one with cassava flour and one with tapioca flour (or tapioca starch), both made from cassava root. Flour is made from cassava that is peeled, grated, pressed to remove the liquid, then sifted; it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. It has a slightly nutty taste, a lot of fiber, and can be used for baking.
Tapioca flour is made from the liquid extracted during the flour-making process. The white sediment that separates from the water is tapioca starch. It’s like the difference between corn meal and corn starch. Tapioca starch is often used as a thickener.
First, we made tapioca crepes. To make them, we put about half a cup of tapioca in a small strainer. We swirled the flour through the strainer with the bottom of a small glass over a warm pan, until there was a layer thick enough to hold together when flipped. As the tapioca slowly gets hot, its gelatinous characteristic makes it stick together to form a crepe. We saw these crepes on breakfast buffets at hotels, where they could be filled with sauteed vegetables for a savory dish or with fruit for a sweet one. We simply cut them into quarters to create chips for the sauce.
Chef Alex’s Sauce: The recipe for Chef Alex’s Sauce is at the end of this story. But I want to include a few notes about a some of the ingredients.
To achieve the deep red color, he used a powder that is popular in Brazilian cooking. In Portuguese it’s called colorifico, a name that seems obvious even without knowing the language. He didn’t know exactly what it was or how to translate it, but I knew — it’s annatto powder. Annatto is a small, red, sort of oblong pointy seed that is used mostly for its rich color. Sometimes the seeds are cooked in oil and then removed to give a dish color. I bought some in a Brazilian grocery store, but it is easy to find in the Latin section of most local stores.
Chef Alex also used a combination of dehydrated onion, garlic, and parsley that I found at a market in Sao Paulo. But it is easy enough to make yourself. Combine the dried ingredients in equal parts and keep a jar handy. I have used it in so many dishes; it’s really an excellent flavor bomb for soups, stews, marinades, dips, and dressings.
I was able to find guava jelly locally; look for the Goya brand products in the Latin section of your grocery store.
Steak: Chef Alex cooked the steak using the “reverse searing” method. Instead of searing meat in a pan (or on a grill) and finishing it in the oven (or on the cool side of the grill), the steak is roasted in a 250-degree oven until it is 5-10 degrees away from your preferred doneness. Then it is seared in a hot pan to brown the outside and finish cooking.
To prepare a steak for reverse searing, rub it all over with kosher salt, set it on an uncovered plate and let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours to dry out. Remove it from the fridge about an hour before you put it in the preheated oven.
Farofa: Next, we sauteed some onions in a pan until they browned slightly. We added cassava flour, lowered the heat, and cooked the flour, stirring frequently, until it was toasted and brown. This is farofa, which is used sort of as a condiment. Dishes of rice and beans, fish stew, or anything saucy are served with farofa on the side. As you eat, you either sprinkle the farofa on top or push it into the sauce on your plate. Its crumbly texture absorbs delicious juices so you get to enjoy every drop.
Salad: We made a simple chopped salad of cabbage, bell pepper, onion, celery, and tomato. The ratio for a classic vinaigrette is three parts oil to one part acid. Chef Alex uses a combination of freshly squeezed lime juice and vinegar to make his. It’s a perfect accompaniment to the rich, fatty steak.
Caipirinha
Do not try to use simple syrup or sour mix for this drink. You must use whole fresh limes and granulated sugar. The muddling releases not only the lime juice, but also the oil from the skin.
Ingredients
1 whole lime, cut into eighths or smaller
2 tsp sugar
2 oz cachaça
Directions
1. In a double rocks glass, muddle the lime pieces with the sugar until the limes are really smashed up and you can see the juice.
2. Fill the glass with ice, add the cachaça and stir briefly.
Alex’s Picante Sauce for Everything
From Cooking in Rio
Take your time with the onions. Add about a quarter cup of water at a time, let it cook out, and then add more. Keep the onions moving. They become golden and very soft and develop a rich flavor that is the base for this delicious sauce. I make another sauce/ingredient that we call Magic Green. After tasting Chef Alex’s sauce, my son dubbed it Magic Red. Use this sauce on absolutely anything — as a dip, on meat, chicken, or fish. My son even spread it on a hamburger.
Ingredients
2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 lg cloves garlic, minced
About 1-inch fresh ginger, peeled & minced
1 sm red Thai chili, ribs & seeds removed for less heat
About 1 to 1¼ C water
Seasonings
1 TBSP Annatto powder (for color)
2 tsp Sweet paprika
1 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Dried thyme
1 TBSP Combo (dehydrated parsley, onion, garlic)
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
¼ C raw or brown sugar
2 TBSP guava jelly
3 oz cachaça or rum
Juice of 1 lime
Directions
1. In medium, deep skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and onion.
Cook, adding water periodically, until onion is golden and very soft. Continue cooking until most of the water is cooked off.
2. Add fresh ginger and garlic & cook for 1 minute.
Mixture should be mostly dry at this point.
3. Add all dry seasonings & toss to make sure all the onion is coated in spices. Toast for about 1-2 minutes. Do Not Burn.
4. Add more water — enough to just cover the onions and bring to a boil.
5. Add sugar & jam. Stir to combine.
6. Add cachaça or rum and continue to cook until mixture thickens. Adjust consistency with water — wetter for a sauce; drier for a dip.
7. Finish with lime juice.
Serve hot or cold.
