4 Brazilian Recipes for a Dinner Feast

Within the kitchen of his central Dallas dwelling, chef Junior Borges reaches for a bottle of dendê oil. He provides a sluggish, beneficiant pour of the crimson liquid, derived from African oil palms, to a pot of moqueca. As the long-lasting Brazilian fish stew simmers on the stovetop and the oil warms, a pungent odor fills the air, and Borges’ expression turns into visibly happy. “If I’m attempting to characterize Brazil, I’ve to be true to the nation,” he says. “To me, nothing represents my upbringing and my tradition like moqueca.”

Greater than 20 years in the past, Borges pioneered a traditional but expansive strategy to Brazilian meals in the USA, one which elevates the nation’s African historical past, and he’s stored to it ever since. Because of the transatlantic slave commerce, individuals of African descent make up greater than half of Brazil’s inhabitants, and African influences are integral to and interwoven with Brazil’s nationwide foodways: Throughout the nation, African greens like yams and okra are mainstays in Brazilian kitchens.

Borges hails from Mimoso do Sul, north of Rio de Janeiro, however like many Afro-Brazilians, he has familial roots (by way of his grandmother) in Bahia, a coastal Brazilian state the place about 80% of the inhabitants is Black or multiracial, and the place many enslaved individuals had been pressured to work on sugar plantations throughout Portuguese colonization. A lot of Bahia’s most beloved dishes might be traced on to West Africa, comparable to acarajé, black-eyed-pea fritters full of shrimp and spicy pastes, that are a direct descendant of West African akara. Bahia can also be the place moqueca — a dish that’s grow to be synonymous with Brazilian cooking — is from, effervescent fiercely in time with the colourful pulse of the nation’s Black diaspora. Borges’ grandmother all the time served the stew with a aspect of farofa, the crunchy toasted cassava served alongside most meals. As we speak, Borges does the identical along with his personal model. It’s a part of an ongoing mission to honor his household and heritage whereas implementing components of his experiences cooking around the globe. “I began bridging these two issues,” he says, “and attempting to determine, ‘How do I characterize her, but additionally do my very own take?’”

Whereas rising up in Brazil, Borges explored Brazilian and French cuisines in Rio de Janeiro’s eating places; these dishes, alongside the Bahian ones he loved at dwelling, fashioned the inspiration of his culinary schooling. After shifting to New York Metropolis in 1999, he started working in bars and restaurant kitchens and making weekly visits to the Union Sq. Barnes & Noble as a way to learn and research the cookbooks there. He finally attended the French Culinary Institute and labored at quite a lot of fine-dining eating places in New York (together with A Voce, below 2010 F&W Greatest New Chef Missy Robbins) earlier than shifting to Dallas in 2014, the place he was the opening govt chef of the town’s outpost of Uchi. It’s in Dallas that Borges made his dwelling and grew his culinary profession, most not too long ago at Meridian, the place the menu centered Borges’ private strategy to Brazilian meals.

Borges leaps past the restricted expectations that usually bind Brazilian cooks to a profession of cookie-cutter steakhouses, as an alternative exalting Bahian, Brazilian, and world flavors. His picanha, a flavorful minimize of beef standard in Brazil, satiated the hungriest of Texas meat lovers whereas he was at Meridian; right here, he lashes the grilled roast with a zingy piri piri sauce. He sources native meats to reimagine feijoada and makes use of tapioca to present his pão de queijo, Brazil’s irresistible tacky balls of bread, a chewier chunk. Espetinhos de queijo de coalho, a snack of skewered cheese grilled over coals bought by distributors alongside the scenic coasts of Brazil’s seashores, is the inspiration for his Grilled Seashore Cheese. For it, Borges channels his childhood reminiscences right into a blistered tacky snack drizzled in a garlicky sizzling honey infused with Thai chiles and coriander. Brazilian foodways are Borges’ canvas for experimentation and evolution, which he tints with the assorted flavors and strategies he has amassed throughout his profession.

Borges left Meridian late final yr to start out his personal hospitality group, which he hopes shall be a launching pad for his future Brazilian restaurant ventures. With it, he joins a small however rising variety of Black Brazilian cooks who’re feeling empowered by their heritage and wanting to share one other dimension of Black identification. There aren’t that many Afro-Brazilians in the USA, however these locally discover each other. And for Borges, as he considers his subsequent enterprise, dwelling and heritage stay on the forefront. In Dallas, this father of three tosses a dish towel over his shoulder and checks a spoonful of moqueca, then takes one for his younger daughter Maia, who’s gesturing for a style. The outdated and new flavors meld collectively harmoniously, reminding him that he’s precisely the place he must be.

Junior Borges’ Brazilian Pantry

Cassava Flour

Referred to as farinha de mandioca, cassava flour is created from cassava (also referred to as yuca) that has been grated, pressed, dried, and floor right into a flour. The flour is toasted with salt, spices, and, usually, smoked meats to make farofa, a crumbly, crunchy flour resembling gently powdered breadcrumbs. Farofa is a ubiquitous aspect dish on kitchen and restaurant tables throughout Brazil. In Bahia, it’s not unusual to style farofa that’s been toasted with dendê oil, which provides it a deeper, considerably nuttier taste than different variations. A cousin of West Africa’s garri, which can also be derived from cassava root, farofa is a necessary a part of Brazilian meals and is a satisfying, conventional match for substantial dishes, for example atop or alongside meaty feijoada or moqueca (recipe p. 110).

Malagueta Chiles

The malagueta pepper, about two inches lengthy and bearing a resemblance to the hen’s eye or Thai chile, is extensively utilized in Brazil. Whereas it’s out there contemporary, mostly it’s preserved—giant jars of the crimson chiles are a daily sight in Brazil’s bars and eating places. Borges all the time retains just a few jars of the peppers available so as to add to hearty stews and soups. “You may as well use the brine, which has spice and acidity to it, for various dishes,” he says, noting that if you need a modest quantity of warmth, including only a few drops of the brine to a dish does the trick.

Dendê Oil

Pungent, burnt-red-orange dendê oil animates virtually each dish in Afro-Brazilian delicacies. The dendezeiro palm tree, native to Africa, bears a small fruit that produces the scarlet oil. Dendezeiro palms could have arrived in Brazil with enslaved Africans as early because the 1500s, based on some historians. What is understood for positive is that by the 1600s, this palm oil was a key a part of Bahia’s quickly rising non secular and culinary tradition. It’s thought-about a necessity for meals ready as choices for orishas—Bahian non secular deities—and equally important for giving each physique and depth to the area’s most celebrated fare, stippling moqueca and enlivening acarajé, seafood-stuffed black-eyed-pea fritters.

Cheese

With only one chunk of Brazil’s heaven-sent cheese bread, pão de queijo, it’s straightforward to see why cheese is a vital element of the nation’s biggest culinary contributions. Borges has two constants in his kitchen: queijo coalho (actually “cheese curd”), a cheese with a springy, elastic texture that he makes use of for his aromatic and smoky grilled seaside cheese, and catupiry, a creamy cheese with a clean texture that’s the filling for pão de queijo, in addition to pizzas, crêpes, and coxinhas, deep-fried Brazilian snacks usually stuffed with rooster.

Tapioca

Tapioca is a naturally gluten-free starch that’s derived from the juice of pressed cassava. There are two important sorts: candy tapioca flour (polvilho doce), a wonderful powder derived from contemporary juice, and bitter tapioca flour (polvilho azedo), made with juice that has been fermented to develop a tangy taste. Borges makes use of candy tapioca flour to make beiju de tapioca, mild, contemporary crêpes that the chef describes as “one of the indigenous elements of the delicacies.” Beiju de tapioca might be full of fillings like chocolate, cheese, and even eggs—which Borges prepares for his daughter—and is a favourite straightforward meal throughout the Brazilian diaspora. It’s within the firm of different favourite tapioca-based dishes, comparable to pão de queijo, which Borges makes with each candy and bitter tapioca.