"So I, Brás Cubas, discovered a sublime law, the law of the equivalencies of windows, and I established the fact that the method of compensating for a closed window is to open another, so that morality can continuously aerate one’s conscience."
Book: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria
Recipes: Brazil: A Culinary Journey by Cherie Hamilton
Bolinhos de Arroz com Sardinhas
(Rice and Sardine Croquettes)
For the croquettes:
4 cups cold cooked rice
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
6 cans boneless and skinless sardines
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
For the breading:
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups dry bread crumbs
In a large pot, mix the croquette ingredients until combined. Heat over a low flame, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When the mixture has cooled, heat 3 inches of oil in a deep pan, then shape into balls the size of a walnut. Dip each croquette into egg and then roll in bread crumbs. Fry in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve at room temperature.
For this recipe, I used flour instead of bread crumbs; I think that was something of a mistake since it didn't have the same flavor. I was actually thinking a recipe such as this might even benefit from the added crunch of corn flakes. Just a thought. Additionally, no matter how tempted you are to try it while it's still warm, it tastes much better at room temperature. Naturally, I learned this the hard way. I would also discredit the urge to add less salt if you think that the Parmesan is already salty enough. Mine tasted just fine, but the whole time I was eating, I was thinking "this could use more salt and pepper."
About the book:
I have always wondered about the morality of adulterers. How do they justify their actions? How do they look the spouse in the face, if they are acquainted? How can they profess love and cope with the jealousy that their loved one is probably still intimate with his or her marriage partner? Here's how Bras Cubas decides that he will justify his actions. On the night that he gets his first kiss from a married Virgilia, he finds a golden doubloon in the street. His conscience pricks at him, "I felt a certain revulsion in my conscience and a voice that asked me why the devil a coin that I hadn’t inherited or earned but only found in the street should be mine. Obviously it wasn’t mine, it belonged to somebody else, the one who’d lost it, rich or poor, and he might have been poor."
Still ruminating on his find, he decides to send it on to the police, to return it to its rightful owner. He imagines himself a great humanitarian through this act, "I clearly saw the half doubloon of the night before, round, shiny, multiplying all by itself—becoming ten—then thirty—then five hundred—expressing in that way the benefits I would be given in life and in death by the simple act of restitution." It is after this that he speaks about windows. Essentially, to his moral code, by sacrificing the golden doubloon, he has made up for the selfish act of taking Virgilia. He returned one man's coin; he can take another man's wife. One window closed; another open to air out his conscience.
Incidentally, when he finds five contos (about $5,000 roughly speaking but most likely worth a great deal more in the 1800's) on the beach, he does not report them. A golden half doubloon can be returned with equanimity, but the 5 contos he decides to keep and use for the dowry of some poor girl, perhaps. What he actually does is to bribe the woman who presides over his love nest by giving her the gift of 5 contos retirement money. In this way, I imagine, he is opening yet another window.
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