Chapter 22 - Bife a Cavalo, Farofa, Cenoura com Molho de Abacaxi e Passas, and Fear of the Dark

"The old Pagé, who had watched all night, talking to the stars, and conjuring the bad spirits of the darkness, entered furtively into the wigwam."

Book:  Iracema by Jose de Alancar
Recipes:  The Brazilian Kitchen by Leticia Moreinos Shwartz
               Brazil:  A Culinary Journey by Cherie Hamilton

Bife a Cavalo

(Steak with Fried Eggs)

4 8 ounce rib eye steaks
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
4 eggs
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/4 cup shaved parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste


Salt and pepper the steaks on both sides.  Pour the oil and butter into a large skillet and saute the steaks over high heat.  Cook them to your taste, which for me is rare, about 3 minutes on each side.  

Remove the steaks from the pan, cover with foil and rest.  Back in the skillet, reduce heat to medium and crack each egg into the pan.  Cook until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft, 2-3 minutes.  

Place the each egg over a steak and recover with foil.  Add the shallots into the pan juices and cook over medium heat, swirling the pan, about 1 minute.  

Serve the steaks and eggs with shallot butter, steak juices, and parmesan on top.

Absolutely delicious.  It's a little tight getting the timing right so your steak doesn't get cold, but the dish is superb looking when it's finished. 

Farofa

(Toasted Cassava Flour with  Dendê Oil)

2 cups cassava flour (also called manioc meal or tapioca flour)
1/4 cup dendê oil (or olive oil if you can't get dendê oil)
1 large onion, minced
2 eggs hard boiled and chopped (optional and omitted because we already had eggs in this meal)
1/4 cup chopped black olives (omitted as an oversight - I don't like them, but I did chop some and then forgot)


Heat a skillet over medium heat and toast the cassava flour.  It will turn a light brown color.  

Place the flour in a bowl and heat the oil over medium heat.  Saute the onions until they are golden. Return the flour to the pan and stir to coat it completely in the oil.  It will retain a flour-like consistency.  It will not turn into a porridge even if you add extra oil as we did.  Serve at room temperature garnished with eggs and olives, if you so desire.

This dish is extraordinarly un-American.  It's flour, kids.  Flour with a tasty, unique flavor, but flour all the same.  It's dry in your mouth and grainy on your tongue.  Props to kitchen helper Julie Nariman who took a second helping.  It was good when you took a bite of the Farofa with a bite of the steak, but I will not ever cook this recipe again.

Cenoura com Molho de Abacaxi e Passas

(Carrots with Pineapple Sauce and Raisins)

1 cup finely diced fresh pineapple
1 cup pureed fresh pineapple mixed with 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup raisins (calls for golden, but I used a mixture of raisins)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
pinch of turmeric
pinch of cinnamon
3/4 pound carrots, shredded
2 tbsp mayonnaise (omitted as everything else we were eating was already pretty rich)
1/4 cup fresh chopped chives (omitted from the grocery list accidentally)
Salt and pepper to taste


Bring the pineapple and water to a simmer over low heat.  Add the diced pineapple, raisins, mustard, and vinegar.  Cover over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the raisins become soften and the mustard dissolves.  Add the spices and season with salt and pepper.  Chill the mixture completely and fold in the mayonnaise (or not).  Mix with the grated carrots and serve chilled.  

The steak and the salad was delicious, the farofa I never need to see again.  You can see from the picture, it's just a pile of flour with a little bit of onion in it.  Julie and sister Julie were well fed and happy with the results, the one egg that broke in the pan suited sister Julie to a T as she doesn't care for wet yolks.

The meal was accompanied by the rest of the Portuguese wine and newly improved Caipirinhas.  Improved because kitchen helper Julie Nariman taught me how to a make a simple syrup that ensured the sugar wouldn't sit at the bottom of the glass!

Kitchen helper Mindy helped me experiment on the leftover carrot salad by adding mayo to a small portion of it.  We decided not to add it to the rest as it stood up well by itself and it was gobbled up at Jay and Ben's rooftop barbecue the following night.



About the Book:

Universal fear of the dark!  It's so clearly the reason why we have streetlamps all over the place, even in closed down parking lots at night.  In the Tabajara culture, the Page, or wise man, sleeps all day in his village wigwam so that he can chant and pray all night.  He is warding off the evil spirits of the dark and keeping his people safe.  A sort of primitive lamplighter.