Recipes: Brazil: A Culinary Journey by Cherie Hamilton
Acaraje
(Black-Eyed Pea Fritters)
5 cups black eyed peas
2 large onions
1/2 cup dried shrimp
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp salt
Oil for frying
I could not find dried shrimp so I used canned cocktail shrimp, which I imagine gave much, much less flavor to this dish. In the original recipe, you soak the shrimp in warm water for 10 minutes, then drain and pat them dry. Then you just dump it all into a food processor and mix until it is uniform consistency.
I was entertaining a vegetarian so I processed the beans, scooped out some mixture and added flour, then fried these into little tablespoon sized balls. These fried up nice and brown and crispy with no problems. I then added the canned shrimp to the remaining bean mixture and processed until smooth. I tried to fry up a batch in my seriously hot oil and they turned into mush. I added some flour and voila, perfectly fried, though rather bland tasting Acaraje.
Not the best Brazilian dish by a long shot. Guests politely ate them, but I suspect that's because they looked good and fried not because they actually tasted good. I do think the dried shrimp would have added a lot more flavor. They are supposed to be served with a fish sauce that seems super complicated to make for just an appetizer, so we improvised with cocktail sauce and a yogurt garlic sauce. The next fried treats that we made were far, far more delicious.
Bolinho de Macaxeira Recheado
(Beef-Stuffed Manioc Balls)
For the Dough:
2 lbs manioc (cassava or yucca)
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I added extra)
For the filling:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 cup minced onion
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tsp black pepper
Oil for frying
Peel the manioc root and remove the woody core. Cut into cubes and boil in water until very tender (just as you would to make mashed potatoes). Drain and cool.
While the manioc is boiling, heat a skillet over medium high heat and saute all the filling ingredients together (I added the parsley last so it would retain it's nice green color). Drain the beef mixture and set aside to cool.
When the manioc is cool, mash it with a potato masher (which I don't have) and by no means attempt to mash it with an electric hand blender, (despite the fact that I've successfully done just that before) it will overheat your blender and throw the circuit breaker on your entire kitchen. Should this occur, run and get your kitchen helper to assist you in locating exactly which breaker was flipped, flip it back, and resume regularly scheduled cooking by kneading the remaining dough ingredients into a thick dough.
Generously flouring your hands, as the mixture is a bit sticky, roll the dough into balls, flatten them, and fill with about a tbsp of the ground beef mixture.
Close the dough over the filling and roll back into neat little balls. Heat cooking oil over high heat and fry until golden.
Drain on a paper towel and enjoy!
They were devoured by Jay and Ben with a garden salad (the former who deserves thanks for helping me to roll them out and whose hands can be seen above modeling the perfect beef/manioc dough ratio - mine were always a little overstuffed). The leftovers were popped into a microwave at work for about 30 seconds and again eaten up quickly to rave reviews.
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