Recipes: The Brazilian Table by Roberts and Roberts
Fish Paupiette with Crabmeat, Brazilian Style
For the Sauce:
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 medium onions coarsely chopped
5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 16 ounce can stewed tomatoes
1 yellow and 2 red roasted peppers, cut into large squares
2 cups fish stock
1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 bay leaf
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the onions over medium heat for about 3 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and stir well. After 2 minutes, add the cilantro (you don't want to over cook the cilantro, or it will turn brown). Add the tomatoes and peppers, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool, then puree in a food processor until smooth. Return to the pan and bring back to a simmer. Add the stock, coconut milk, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring back to a simmer and cook for three minutes before you add the paupiettes.
You can roast your own red peppers at home by blackening their skin in the oven, on the grill, or directly on your gas burner, if you're brave enough, then soaking them in cold water and peeling off the skin. Alternatively, you can just buy them from the deli or in a jar. Since it was so hot, I looked for them in the jar, couldn't find any, and made the recipe without them. The sauce was a little more pink than red and I imagine a lot less piquant, but still delicious.
For the Fish and Filling
2 egg whites
10 ounces of crab meat
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp cayenne pepper
6 scallions, blanched in boiling water and chilled in an ice bath
1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
6 fillets of hake, yellow tail, or king fish
Lightly whisk the egg whites and mix with the crab meat. Season with salt to taste. Pound your fish to a uniform thickness using a meat tenderizer if you have one; I find a coffee mug actually achieves somewhat better results, but that might just be because I don't own a meat tenderizer (thank you Tim Ostrander for teaching me that trick when we were back at UMass!). Lay one scallion out, cover with one fish fillet, and cover the fish fillet with 2 tablespoons of crab filling (or as much as you can stuff into it - I have a clear tendency to overstuff).
Roll the fish around the crab, tie off with the blanched scallion, and voila! Paupiette!
Make the rest of the paupiettes and distribute them around the pan of sauce, making sure they are completely submerged. Cover the pan with parchment paper and poach paupiettes for 20 minutes over medium heat.
I could not find hake, yellow tale, or king fish anywhere. It was 102 degrees the day I was making this recipe and I wasn't up for any kind of fish market adventure. I used fillets of Sole, which have a terrifying hard ridge down their center that I refuse to believe can ever be edible. As a result, I cut them in half, sliced off the bony ridge and made mini-paupiettes. This process caused me to use up all my blanched scallions and attempt to use raw ones to make up the difference. It didn't even pretend to work. I also had a lot of leftover crab meat which I simply added to the sauce to make up for the lack of roasted peppers. It was delicious.
Rice with Dendê Bechemel Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil
4 tablespoons of flour (I use Wondra for sauces and gravies because it's wonderful!)
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons dendê palm oil (which I cannot find anywhere so I just used some white truffle oil)
4 cups hot cooked rice
In a sauce pan, melt the butter with the olive oil until it foams. Add flour and stir to form a roux. Slowly pour in the milk a bit at a time, whisking between each pouring to prevent lumps. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Fold in the dendê (or truffle oil, or walnut oil, or whatever flavor you think will compliment the fish) and simmer for another 4 minutes.
Mix the sauce into the cooked rice.
To serve it all, make a small round of the rice mixture and place a paupiette (or 3 mini-paupiettes) on top. Surround the rice with a generous helping of the coconut-tomato sauce, then sprinkle with the peanuts that I forgot to buy.
Kitchen helper Julie (and best sister alive) was instrumental in chopping onions, arranging emergency uncooked scallion ties, and most importantly, making the now requisite pre-dinner Caipirinhas.
We also tried out some Portuguese wine I'd been saving for a special sister visit:
The recipe was pretty complicated but the pay off if you want to be fancy is worth the effort. It's an impressive dish that was enjoyed by sisters and as leftovers all around.
About the book:
Women just have the worst reputations! And according to male writers, they've been earning it for themselves since Eve ate that damned apple. This time, there wasn't even a snake to blame. As a consecrated virgin, she can't have sex or she'll be killed: ""The love of Iracema is like the wind of the desert-sands; it kills the flower of the forest," sighed the virgin." She knows this, Martim knows this, and as much as he wants her, of course he does the right thing and keeps his hands off her. But, to ensure that he sleeps and only dreams of her, rather than waking in the night and taking her, he asks her for the dream wine that the braves use to see their future. He drinks it and of course dreams of her, practically sleepwalking through all the motions of the act of love. She, seeing that he is dreaming of her, takes off all her clothes and lies next to him. Just like that, the little seductress gets herself de-Virginized and doomed to death for her troubles. What a foolish thing to do!
Martim wakes up, scandalized, fearful, and afraid for her, ashamed of the dishonor he has unwittingly brought to his host's wigwam, but still retaining his dignity, honor, and place in the world. As with Adam and Eve, it wasn't the man's fault; the woman made him do it. He can sing with the Ramones that it feels like "somebody put something, somebody put something in my drink!"
Incidentally, despite the fact that she is no longer a sort of vestal virgin, she is still able to perform her sacred duties at the feast, distributing the dream wine to the warriors without any mishap or ill effect from having given it up. That fact sort of calls into question all the taboos that claim sex will ruin your life, career, and ability to distribute dream wine...
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