"God keep thee safe, stout bark, amidst the boiling billows! God steer thee to some friendly bight! May softer breezes waft thee, and for thee may the calm jasper seas be like plains of milk! But whilst thou sailest thus at the mercy of the winds, graceful bark, waft back to that white beach some of the yearning that accompanies thee, but which may not leave the land to which it returns."
Book: Iracema by Jose de Alancar
Recipes: Brazil: A Culinary Journey by Cherie Hamilton
Iscas de Pirarucu ao Molho Floresta
(Fried Fish Cubes with Garden Sauce)
For the Fish:
2 lbs bonesless fish fillets (I used Cod and Catfish) cut into cubes
2 limes cut into slices
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lime juice
1 cup flour
Oil for frying
For the sauce:
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
1 green bell pepper
5 cherry peppers, chopped
1 bunch parsley, chopped
2 tsp white vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1 small hot pepper, seeded (optional)
Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bag and marinate in the fridge for 20 minutes (longer is fine).
Put all the sauce ingredients into a food processor and process until mixture resembles a colorful pesto (I couldn't find cherry peppers so substituted a red bell pepper and omitted the hot peppers for my mommy).
Discard the limes from the marinade, dredge the fish cubes in flour, and fry until golden brown.
Serve with toothpicks or as finger food with the garden dipping sauce.
Basically, this dish was quite tasty. We served it cold, not wanting to heat up Jay's kitchen during our super hot 4th of July party, and that was fine too. They were better when they were warm. Personally, I think the catfish was better than the cod, but I forgot to take a poll of what everyone else thought. There was a good deal of the sauce left over and the book says it can be used for any of the fried treats I've already made (I bet it would have helped with the Black Eyed Pea Fritters!). Jay and I are planning to use the rest of it on some pasta or grilled chicken, since it really is very similar to pesto.
About the book:
Yes, I have finally started reading my Kindle again. And here is a little prelude to my take on the story: When I was in India, I visited a town called Dona-Paula (incidentally, also a Portuguese Colony) and that town boasted a whole love story of two young people who couldn't be together so they threw themselves into the sea. My friend Monish told me that every town in India has a story just like that. Apparently, Brazil has them too. Iracema is the Brazilian version of Pocahontas and Dona-Paula all rolled into one and seemingly based on fact, though there is no mention of Iracema in Martim Soares Moreno's Wikipedia article.
We meet our hero - the white warrior (Portuguese Martim) as he is being cast about on the sea, his only companions a large mastiff and a small boy. It is understood that Iracema (the Tabajara Vestal Virgin; she of the Honeyed Lips - which is a direct translation of her name but which doesn't take into account the fact that she can talk to birds) is already missing from his life. We then flash back to the beginning of their romance which starts with her bathing naked and shooting Martim in the face with an arrow. He reflects on his wound thus, "The young warrior had been brought up in the religion of his mother, wherein Woman is a symbol of tenderness and love. He suffered more in his soul than from his wound." That's a manly man who can stand up from an arrow to the face, a sort of Portuguese Henry V. Naturally, we have some culture clashing between the warrior and the warrior woman. He is confused by her warrior-woman status and becomes even more distraught as he learns that she fully expects to protect him from the warriors of his tribe who know that he is really friends with an enemy tribe, the Potiguaras (the narrator informs us that they are derisively called "the shrimp-eaters").
Clearly, this can only end badly. Well, badly for the woman; history tells us that it works out pretty well for the Portuguese for a few hundred years.
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