Showing posts with label Brazilian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brazilian. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

BRAZILIAN RICE

This rice recipe is DEElicious! Someone commented on one of the Brazilian recipes that I posted the other day, and left this recipe. It sounded good, so I decided to try it tonight. I made a rotisserie chicken in our rotisserie oven (YUM!) and made this rice to go along with it. A definite keeper. Will be making this one again and again. The only thing I'll change about it will be, the next time, I'll use chicken broth, rather than water for the liquid.

BRAZILIAN RICE

Vegetable (or canola) oil - enough to cover the bottom of a sauce pan
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 small onion, chopped
Salt
2 cups rice

Heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in hot oil, season with salt, cook until the garlic starts to turn slightly brown. Add rice and stir well. Cover rice with very HOT water, about 1/2 inch above the rice (I used chicken broth and it gave it a ton more flavor). Bring to a hard boil. Cover and turn off heat. DO NOT take cover off from rice. Rice should steam for about 20 - 30 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve with your favorite entree.

Monday, August 18, 2008

FRANGO MOHLO - Chicken in sauce

This is another Brazilian dish that Althea used to make a lot when she was here. I was talking to her on the phone last night, and I was all excited to tell her that I posted some of her Brazilian recipes. You have to know her to understand the humor in this, but she said, I'm going to get on there and critique everything you posted, pointing out all your mistakes! LOL I told her about this Mohlo and she informed me it was a "made up" recipe. The Mohlo recipe simply means "sauce." Not sure whose idea it was to add the chicken to it, but I sure like it! Also, when I first posted it as "Pollo" that was incorrect. Pollo is Spanish. The Brazilian word for chicken is "Frango." If you ever travel to Brazil and holler out "OH LOOK! There's a chicken on the side of the road!!" You might get slapped. Chicken in Portugese means prostitute! *hehe* I don't know why I didn't remember that, because that actually happened to me. Well, not the slapping part! LOL But the yelling out about the "chicken!" I also tried to order "chicken" in a Brazilian restaurant and Althea corrected me in front of the waiter and said "Frango" and had a good giggle with the waiter. Then they exchanged some Portugese. I'm just sure they were agreeing what a ding bat I was! LOL Anyway, this one is my personal favorite. I just love the flavors of the dish. I always try to make extra so we have leftovers! LOL Because it's just as good the 2nd time around!

FRANGO MOHLO - Chicken in sauce

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small cans salsa Cesara (in the ethnic section of your grocery store)
1 small can tomato paste

In medium saucepan, melt butter. Add chopped onion and garlic and cook until opaque. Add chunks of chicken and cook until done. Add salsa and tomato paste to the chicken, stir to combine. Cook until heated throuh. Simmer on low until ready to serve.
Serve over white rice.

BIFE A' MILANESA (Breaded beefsteak)

This is pronounced "Beefy." I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's really what the Brazilians call it! LOL And I know this is the same pic as the Feijao, but I serve them together. They just sort of go together. It's one of our favorite Brazilian meals! This is so easy - it's just breaded cube steak, but it's really tasty with the Feijao (Fay-jown).

4 cube steaks
olive oil
Flour
Thyme leaves
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Season the steaks with the salt, pepper, garlic and thyme. In a separate bowl, to the flour, add 1 Tblsp of thyme leaves. Roll the steaks, coating both sides well, in the seasoned flour.
Fry in hot oil over med - high, for about 10 to 15 minutes or until done. Remove steaks from skillet, drain on paper towel and serve with Feijao.




FEIJAO - Brazilian black beans and rice


This is Feijao (Fay-jown). My sister-in-law, Althea (Hubby's younger sister) and her family are missionaries to Brazil. They have been there for 12 years now. When they were home on their last furlough, they stayed with us. We have lots of extra room and enjoyed the fellowship with them during their time home in the states. Althea loves to cook too, and would often cook up a big ol' batch of Feijao for us all. We loved it so much that I learned how to make it. So every time we get the hankering for some Brazilian food and get to missing Althea, we cook this up and think of her!


In America, we eat meat and potatoes. In Brazil they eat Feijao. It's a staple on their dinner table. The slaves in the colonial Brazil created the "Feijao" (Fay-jown). They started cooking the pork meats that Farmland owners discarded such as ear, tails, feet in a big pot with black beans. This dish became traditional all over the country. Since then, the dish was incremented with pork sirloin and sausages that transformed the menu in a famous entrée that everybody who visits Brazil have to taste. This is an easy-to-do version of Feijao made only with bacon and sausages. This recipe is for busy people that don't want to handle the salted pork ears, tails and feet found in the complete Feijoada.


INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of varied pork sausages (prefer smoked sausages)
1 lb bacon, chopped in bite size pieces (I used scissors to cut it up)
2 cans of black beans (15.5Oz)
1 can refried black beans (15 oz)
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
2 or 3 bay leaves (bay leaves give a special taste to feijao)

PREPARE:

In a dutch oven, fry chopped bacon with salt, onion and garlic.
Add all the sausages and stir over medium-heat until heated through.
Feijao is made with black beans and pork meats. You can use a can of beans already cooked or google how to cook dried beans. Add black beans & refried black beans to the meat in the dutch oven, and add in the bay leaves.
Cook for about 15 minutes on med heat until hot and bubbly, stirring often to keep from sticking.
Simmer on low until ready to serve. If it gets to thick, just thin it a bit with hot water.

Hint: If you do not have a can of refried black beans, to make the feijao creamy, you can liquefy 1/2 cup of black beans in the blender and add to the feijao.

SERVING SIZE: 6 portions.