Around the World in 52 weeks: Brazilian Food You Should Try

Brazilian Food - YUM!

We've had a busy few weeks, my daughter started Kindergarten and we had a few other things going on, so when I looked at the recipes for Brazilian food and saw that many of them needed lots of prep and long cooking times I was kinda bummed. I wanted to make the national dish, Feijoada, which is a black bean stew with different meats and sausages in it. I wanted to make some of their different filled rolls, a dessert, etc. etc. but I just didn't have the time. Luckily for me, we live in such a great area that I was able to find a Brazilian restaurant that had all that wonderful food already prepared! Yeah for America and Viva Brazil!! So off we went, my mother and I, to Cafe di Casa in South San Francisco. A tiny little hole in the wall that was PACKED with people - always a good sign. Feijoada was the special of the day, so we ordered that and some coxinha, which were pear shaped fried pastries filled with shredded chicken in a mild sauce and cream cheese. We also ordered an empada, a little hand pie with similar chicken but no cheese. The people in the restaurant we all so friendly (which was good since we were shoulder to shoulder) and told me all the other things on the menu I should try another time, but we had enough for now, so we went home and had our feast.

Starting from the top , we have Feijoada over white rice, below that some collard greens, the pear shaped pastry is the coxinha and the round pastry is the empada. The food was milder than I had expected - personally I like a little more spice. The pastries were my favorite and I was really surprised by the collard greens. I've never had them before and they were a little bitter but really good. The feijoada was nothing special- black beans with meat. I kinda expected more from the national dish, but I'm glad I tried it. The kids, however, took one look and declared that they didn't "like" Brazilian food! Maybe their tastebuds are tired of all the travels :)

Little did they know I had some yummy surprises in store. Ones that wouldn't take all day to prepare....

Cooking Project: Pao de Queijo- Brazilian Cheese Bread

For this delicious chewy roll you will need :

1/2 cup olive oil or butter
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp salt
2 cups tapioca flour (this is gluten free if you are sensitive)
2 tsp minced garlic
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup shredded cheese
2 beaten eggs

1. Preheat oven to 375º

2. Add first 4 ingredients to saucepan and heat to boiling. Remove from heat.

3. Add tapioca and garlic, mix well and set aside 10 mins.

4. Stir cheese and eggs into tapioca mixture and mix well. Hands were required - it got pretty messy :)

5. With your goopy hands, scoop up about 1/4 cup of dough and place on ungreased baking sheet.

6. Bake 15-20 mins or until golden brown.

They are sooooo good warm but still pretty good room temperature!

They were perfect for an after school snack with our next project -

Brazilian Lemonade (Limeade?)

This recipe was on a few different websites and they all referred to it as lemonade but it doesn't have lemons?! Oh well, when in Brazil.... for the recipe you will need: