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MAY 26, 2014<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The iconic moqueca<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0The rich melting pot of African, European and indigenous culture permeates nearly every facet of life in Brazil, including of course the country\u2019s culinary traditions. \u00a0While \u201ccreole\u201d culture exists throughout the Americas, the influence of Africa features more prominently in Brazil than in any other country in the Americas with a legacy of African slavery. The Brazilian table of today has deep roots in the African continent, particularly West Africa. African migration to Brazil via the Atlantic slave trade dwarfed that of elsewhere, and slavery maintained a presence in Brazil for considerably longer than in other nations. \u00a0From 1530 to 1888 (the year of abolition), approximately 4 million Africans were brought to Brazil and forced to labor on sugar and coffee plantations, in the country\u2019s gold mines and in the homes of the wealthy in the major cities. The sheer volume of African slavery had a profound effect (and continues to have) with respect to the transfer of culture and cuisine, in particular the cultural and culinary traditions of West African nations such as Angola, Guinea, Congo, Nigeria, Togo and Benin. \u00a0Today Brazil has the largest overseas African diaspora of any country in the world, and in fact, has a larger black or brown population than any country in in the world except Nigeria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The sheer volume of African slavery has had a profound effect on the transfer of culture and cuisine in Brazil, in particular the cultural and culinary traditions of West African nations such as Angola, Guinea, Congo, Nigeria, Togo and Benin<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While the transfer of culture as a result of slavery has been profound, impacting Brazilians of all races, deep racial disparities still persist. \u00a0Brazil is one of the most unequal countries in the world, and the majority of society\u2019s poorest members tend to be black and\/or brown. \u00a0Slavery created a legally recognized social stratification along racial lines, and that stratification has impacted the upward mobility of individuals of African descent long after its eradication. \u00a0However, although slavery has greatly contributed to class divisions, Brazil never experienced the formal racial segregation that plagued countries such as the United States and South Africa. \u00a0Most Brazilians, including those who identify as white, have some African or Amerindian descent. \u00a0This racial mixing has undoubtedly influenced the country\u2019s gastronomy. \u00a0The cuisine of the African slaves (combined with that of the Portuguese and the indigenous) has become the country\u2019s cuisine. \u00a0 Nowhere is this influence felt like it is in the state of Bahia and its capital city Salvador. \u00a0Salvador is the center of Afro-Brazilian culture, and it is here where the most iconic Afro-Brazilian dishes were born. \u00a0During Brazil\u2019s colonial period, the location of its sugar plantations in the Northeast of the country meant that Salvador\u2019s port received the largest share of the country\u2019s African slaves, and the climate of this region, similar to that of the West African countries from which these men and women came, meant that many staples of their diets could be easily cultivated in the New World. \u00a0Okra (known as quiabo in Brazil), Palm oil (known as dend\u00ea), black-eyed peas (feij\u00e3o fradinho), dried shrimp and coconut milk were all transferred to Brazil, enabling many Africans to maintain core parts their existing diet. \u00a0The influx of these African staples also greatly influenced the diet of the Portuguese colonists. \u00a0In Bahia in particular, the tastes of the Portuguese departed markedly from the mother country and came to be defined by the signature \u201ctrinity\u201d of dende oil, coconut milk and malagueta chile peppers used by Afro-Brazilian cooks.<\/span><\/p>\n Today Brazil has the largest overseas African diaspora of any country in the world, and in fact, has a larger black or brown population than any country in in the world except Nigeria.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This cross-cultural transference of foodstuffs worked the other way as well. \u00a0Portuguese colonialists brought chiles, tomatoes, peanuts, and cassava (known as mandioca in Brazil) to West Africa, in turn influencing the cuisine of the region (and further influencing the cuisine of Brazil as subsequent generations of Africans crossed the Atlantic). \u00a0It\u2019s hard to think about West African cuisine without these ingredients. I used to think that Brazilians were the only people in the world to accompany their meals with a ground cassava meal known as farofa only to learn that today in countries such as Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana a strikingly similar food is served and known as gari (or garri). All of these ingredients, whether native to the New World or brought by Africans, play an important role in Afro-Brazilian cooking. \u00a0Carar\u00fa<\/em>, arguably the oldest African dish in Brazil dating back to the 1600s, features okra, dried shrimp, cashew nuts and dend\u00ea oil. \u00a0Acaraj\u00e9<\/em>, familiar to any visitor to Salvador by virtue of being sold in the city\u2019s plazas by Bahian women in traditional dress, are black-eyed pea fritters fried in dend\u00ea oil, stuffed with dried shrimp and slathered with malagueta chile sauce and\u00a0vatap\u00e1<\/em>(another Bahian classic \u2013 a paste of dried shrimp, coconut milk, tomatoes, dend\u00ea oil, and cashew and\/or peanuts). \u00a0\u00a0Then there\u2019s\u00a0Xinxim de Galinha<\/em>, a rich chicken stew that also contains the usual suspects: \u00a0dend\u00ea oil, coconut milk, peanuts, cashews, malagueta chiles, and dried shrimp. \u00a0And of course, one can\u2019t forget the iconic\u00a0Moqueca<\/em>. \u00a0For me, the Moqueca defines Afro-Brazilian cooking (see my recipe below). \u00a0Present here too is the Bahian \u201ctrinity\u201d of dend\u00ea oil, coconut milk and malagueta chile, but it\u2019s in the Moqueca that one is reminded of both Brazil and Africa\u2019s connection to the coast and the vast Atlantic ocean over which both the people and the ingredients that came to represent this cuisine traveled. \u00a0This delectable seafood stew utilizes both finfish and shellfish in various combinations with the \u201ctrinity\u201d along with tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, garlic, and cilantro. \u00a0As with most Brazilian cuisine, these hearty stews are typically accompanied by white rice and the ever-present\u00a0farofa<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Religion has also played a role in the transference of African culture and culinary traditions. \u00a0While Brazil is a predominantly Catholic country, in Bahia, Yoruba, Ewe, Fon, and Bantu tribal beliefs combine with some elements of Catholicism in the form of a distinctly Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candombl\u00e9. \u00a0A polytheistic religion, Candombl\u00e9 practitioners worship a number of gods (or orix\u00e1s) to whom they offer food as part of sacred rituals, and each god is often associated with a particular food. \u00a0For example, Yansan, the goddess of winds and storms, prefers acaraj\u00e9. \u00a0Yemanj\u00e1, the mother of creation, prefers melon, while Oshal\u00e1, the orix\u00e1 of the wisdom of heaven and earth, eats white corn and yams. \u00a0In the case of Yansan\u2019s acaraj\u00e9, what was once a historically ritualistic offering of Afro-Brazilians is now deeply embedded in Brazil\u2019s culinary fiber. Of course no dish is as deeply embedded in Brazil\u2019s culinary fiber as\u00a0feijoada<\/em>\u00a0(that quintessential stew of black beans, pork, dried beef and sausage), and I would be remiss here without concluding on a word about the African influence on Brazil\u2019s national dish. \u00a0It has long been conventional wisdom that\u00a0feijoada<\/em>originated with Brazil\u2019s slaves, and in fact, this is the view currently shared by the majority of Brazilians. \u00a0The story goes something like this: \u00a0the slaves in the kitchen were given the scraps of meat the masters didn\u2019t want, and the slaves would cook up these leftover parts with beans to produce a glorious, flavorful meal. \u00a0Eventually this \u201cfeijoada\u201d worked its way up the social hierarchy and came to be beloved by all Brazilians.<\/span><\/p>\n Rio at night<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Recently, however, historians have dispelled this tale as a myth. \u00a0The reality appears murkier. \u00a0The most plausible view is that\u00a0feijoada<\/em>, like so much of Brazilian culture, reflects a mixture of European, African, and Native American culture. \u00a0Feijoada<\/em>\u00a0is at its core a black bean dish, and black beans were consumed by the indigenous before Portuguese colonization and became popular amongst Portuguese colonists in the 16th century, at a time when slavery in Brazil was only in its infancy. \u00a0The cultivation of beans expanded across the country as Portuguese colonists expanded throughout the country. \u00a0Furthermore, the African cultures from which slaves came did not have a culinary tradition of mixing beans with pork, whereas the Latin cultures of Europe (in countries such as Portugal, Spain, France and Italy) certainly did. \u00a0The meats used in feijoada, too, were not thought of as scraps at all. \u00a0The elite appreciated the ears, feet and tails of the pig. \u00a0Anyone who has eaten a\u00a0feijoada<\/em>knows it\u2019s an incredibly meaty dish. \u00a0It\u2019s implausible that the slaves would have been given such meat in such quantities for their meals. While the slave origins of\u00a0feijoada<\/em>\u00a0have been largely debunked, it\u2019s also incorrect to state that Africans had no hand in this dish. \u00a0Myths typically have roots in reality after all. \u00a0It\u2019s important to remember that the character of slavery was different in Brazil than elsewhere, with a much higher rate of racial mixing. \u00a0Interracial relations were less rigid in Brazil and not solely defined by slaves\u2019 status as a commodity. \u00a0The cultural mixing that occurred in the plantation houses worked its way into the foods. \u00a0While the black beans forming the base of the dish were introduced by Native Americans and the practice of mixing pork with beans was introduced by the Portuguese, by the time\u00a0feijoada<\/em>\u00a0became \u201cfeijoada\u201d it was almost certainly an African hand in the kitchen doing the work. Together, and over considerable time, these three cultures influenced one another to create a dish that came to define the country. \u00a0It\u2019s truly a dish emblematic of Brazil as a whole \u2013 that \u201cmistura\u201d of African, European and indigenous ways of life.<\/span><\/p>\n Recipe: Moqueca Baiana de Camar\u00e3o<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Moqueca Baiana is a classic Bahian seafood stew made with coconut milk and dend\u00ea oil. \u00a0This recipe keeps things simple by using only shrimp. \u00a0Of course, if you\u2019re one of those people like me who likes to make things hard on oneself, feel free to knock yourself out and make the coconut milk from scratch. \u00a0It\u2019s absolutely delicious, and in the spirit of making things \u201cauthentic\u201d I decided to go this route. \u00a0I\u2019ll confess that next time I might just pick up a can of the stuff, and in that case a moqueca can make a quick weeknight meal. Another note on authenticity: \u00a0to be a true Moqueca Baiana the dish needs to include dend\u00ea oil. \u00a0This can be hard to find in many places, but I\u2019d suggest checking Brazilian, African, or Latin American markets. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen natural foods stores carry as well, and it may be sold simply as palm oil. \u00a0If you have no luck finding dend\u00ea oil go with olive oil instead. \u00a0Given dend\u00ea oil\u2019s distinctive flavor you won\u2019t have an authentic Moqueca Baiana, you\u2019ll actually be making something closer to a Moqueca Capixaba from Brazil\u2019s Southeastern state of Esp\u00edrito Santo but still really tasty! In Brazil a moqueca is always served with white rice, farofa (toasted manioc flour), and pir\u00e3o (a mixture of fish stock and manioc flour roughly the consistency of a creamy polenta). \u00a0White rice alone though will do just fine.<\/span><\/p>\n Servings: 6 Prep Time: 30 minutes (1 hour and a half if you make your own coconut milk and stock)<\/span><\/p>\n Cook Time: \u00a020 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n What to Drink: \u00a0Ice-cold beer, pilsner style<\/span><\/p>\n Ingredients:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Preparation:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 1. \u00a0Peel and devein shrimp. \u00a0Set aside in the refrigerator till ready to use. \u00a0If making your own stock reserve shells for that purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. \u00a0Slice the onions, bell peppers and tomatoes into thin rings about \u2154 of a cm thick, discarding the seeds of the peppers. \u00a0If using, slice the pimentas de cheiro in half and discard the seeds. \u00a0Set aside a few slices of the onions, peppers and tomatoes to use as garnish.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. \u00a0Heat a heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium heat and add the onions, peppers and garlic and saute until softened a bit, about 3 \u2013 5 minutes. \u00a0Be careful not to overcook.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. \u00a0Once the vegetables are soft, add the tomatoes and malagueta peppers (or their substitute) and saute for another minute. \u00a0I recommend piercing the malaguetas and tossing in whole. \u00a0That way you can more easily remove them once the dish reaches a heat level to your liking.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. \u00a0Add the shrimp stock and coconut milk, season with salt to taste and bring the stew to a simmer and cover. \u00a0Simmer for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to marry. 6. \u00a0Uncover the pot, add the shrimp and simmer for 2 more minutes. \u00a0The shrimp will cook quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n 7. \u00a0Adjust salt if necessary and add the reserved onions, peppers and tomatoes, cilantro and remaining dend\u00ea oil. \u00a0Squeeze a bit of fresh lime juice into the pot at the end to brighten up and round out the dish.<\/span><\/p>\n 8. \u00a0Serve with white rice, and optionally, butter-toasted farofa and pir\u00e3o.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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\u00a0Image credit:\u00a0Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h5>\n