Chapter 29 - Coxinha de Galinha and History is Written By the Victors

"'Poti has arrived at the cabin of the great Maranguab, father of Jatobá, and has brought his white brother to see the greatest Warrior of the Nations.' The old man only opened his heavy eyelids, and passed a long but feeble, look from the grandson to the stranger. Then his chest heaved and his lips murmured— 'Tupan wills that these eyes should see, before being quenched, the White Hawk side by side with the Narceja.'"  (Editor's Note:  "O gavião branco, the white hawk, whilst Narceja is the snipe. Batuireté in thus calling the stranger, and speaking of his grandson as a snipe by comparison, prophesied the destruction of his race by the whites. These are the last word he speaks.")

Book:  Iracema by Jose de Alancar
Recipes:  The Brazilian Kitchen by Leticia Moreinos Shwartz

Coxinha de Galinha

(Chicken Fritters)

For the filling:


1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup shallot, minced (omitted because while at the store I thought I had one at home...)
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 pickled sweet red pepper, drained and finely chopped
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded
2 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp chives, chopped


Heat the oil over medium high heat.  Saute the shallots (if you bought them) until they are tender, add the garlic and peppers and heat through.  Mix the pepper mixture with chicken, mayo, and chives.  Chill until you're ready to assemble the fritters.

For the fritters:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp of chicken stock
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp turmeric (optional, but I included it, gives a nice flavor and rather dramatic yellow color)
1 cup flour, plus extra for kneading
A plate of flour, a plate of lightly beaten egg whites, and a plate of bread crumbs for dredging 
Oil for frying


Heat the soup stock in a casserole pan.  Add the oil, and turmeric (I omitted the salt because I use already salty bouillon cubes).  Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously for one minute to dry the dough.  

For the next step, you could knead it on your own, but I highly suggest a food processor with the bread kneading attachment.  The dough is remarkably sticky, and when the processor is done with it, (about 5 minutes) it will closely resemble the color and texture of play-doh, except with a much more pleasant smell.  Scrape the dough out onto a well (stressing WELL) floured surface and knead by hand into a flat disk (it will still be hot, so I just let mine sit for about 10 minutes before touching it).  When it has reached room temperature, roll the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick.  Use a 3 inch round cutter (or the widest glass you have, in my case this is only about 2.5 inches) to make your rounds.  

To assemble the fritters:


Fill each round with just under a tablespoon of filling.  Lift up and pinch together 2 sides.  Then gather the other edges to meet in the middle, making a "beggar's purse."  This can then be elongated gently to make the "classic drumstick shape" at which I failed miserably.  The dough, again, is very sticky, I kept some on hand for emergency repairs whenever my filling poked out, which happened quite often.

Once the fritters are shaped, coat each one in flour, dip it in egg white, and then coat it in bread crumbs.  Heat the oil over high heat and fry until golden and crispy.  Keep warm until the sauce is ready.  

For the cheese sauce:


1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups Catupiry cheese (a web site told me that if you can't find this, you can make faux-Catupiry cheese by melting together 2 blocks of cream cheese with close to a pound of Meunster cheese.  It's actually pretty tasty)
2 tbsp chives, chopped
Black pepper to taste


Heat the stock in a sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Add the cheese and whisk until it is completely melted and integrated into the stock.  Add the chives and season with pepper. This is the dipping sauce for the fritters and it's pretty delicious. 

The cookbook says this is classic Brazilian bar food, so I made it to celebrate the triumphant return of our friend Anthony.  He was laid low for a bit by some medical issues, but is feeling back to his old self, for which we are thankful.  The fritters and the cheese sauce got a little cold on the trip to our favorite haunt but this didn't stop them from being devoured by the company.  They even got compliments from a stranger whose seat we'd unwittingly taken and to whom I offered snacks in recompense (sorry Ben, I guess that guy ate the 2 that should have gone to you).  

About the book:

There are some prophesies that are written after they have come true.  In this case, the passage I cited above is used to show undoubtedly that the Portuguese Martim was meant to take over Brazil.  And not just a small part of it, he gets bored with his wife, his friend Poti, his hunting and fishing and hiking around.  We are told that he is filled with "ambition."  And poor Iracema speaks her own prophecy, "When the White Warrior's son has left the bosom of Iracema she will die, like the AbAtil, after it has yielded its fruit. Then he will have nothing to detain him in a foreign land."  But she is mistaken, she is not going to be cast off for a "white virgin" but for the entire land of her very own people.  As with the prophecy of Batuireté, who has stayed alive only to see the conqueror of his land, Iracema's will most likely also come true, as it is equally written by a victor, seen through the lens of hindsight.