Above: Salada de
Palmito — hearts
of palm salad
vinaigrette.

Left: Pudim de
Leite — caramel 4
custard.

A vegetarian Brazilian feast.

ANNABEL COHEN

Special to The Jewish News

B

razilians love their Brazil.
Especially the cariocas, as
Rio's inhabitants are called.
Their affection for this mar-
avilhosa (marvelous) city is everywhere
— from the endless beaches opening
to the Atlantic, to it's samba and sim-
ple, yet richly flavorful, cuisine.
A recent trip to Rio clq Janeiro,
Brazil revealed that Brazil's Jews, most-
ly first- and second-generation
Brazilians of European descent, still
make traditional "Jewish" foods like
gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and
kugel, but usually only on Shabbat and
on Jewish hblidays. Otherwise, they
love to eat Brazilian foods, especially
the national dish, feijoada (fay-jho-ah-
dah), a robust stew of black beans and
meats served over fresh white rice.
What's more, even though Brazil is

2/20
1998

128

Brazilian Jews find interesting ways
to kosher the native cuisine.

the world's largest Roman Catholic
country, there is a growing interest
among many Jews to embrace and for-
tify their Jewishness. Part of this
involves keeping a kosher home.
This is no small task. Buying
kosher foods involves special trips to
the few tiny kosher butchers in this

city of more than 5.5 million people.
Most kosher butchers sell a sparse
selection of mostly American-made
produCts and meat and poultry.
But, as Brazilians say, querer e
poder, roughly translated as "where
there's a will, there's a way." So while
there's not much available in prepared

kosher foods and mixes, there's an
abundance of tropical vegetables and
fruits — essential to the Brazilian
palate.
The typical Jewish Brazilian meal
commonly includes a simplified feijo
da, without all the meats (Brazilianl
almost always use pork with their
beans). Accompaniments include a
requisite farofa, ground, toasted mar
ioc (yucca or cassava) root flour spri t
kled over the beans as both a foil to
the spicy, hot stew and a means of
thickening the beans so that they do
not run over the plate.
Other sides include grilled sliced
meats, salads of sliced tomatoes or 4
watercress, hearts of palm, sliced
oranges and a cold onion sauce, the
Brazilian equivalent of salsa.
The following recipes have been
adapted to be part of a complete vet
tarian meal, but are suitable as a cor
SAMBA on page 130