It's Tradition!

Traditional foods in Brazil vary greatly from area to area. So much so that you can often tell where one is from by what traditional foods the start naming off.

Quibe

Okay. Quibe is technically traditionally Lebanese, but in Brazil it is as common as any officially traditional food. Which makes sense, considering there is a larger population of Lebanese in Brazil than in Lebanon itself. 

Quibe is made with a special type of wheat that is soaked in water for hours so it puffs up and is then mixed with meat and spices. It can then be fried (a traditional snack at birthday parties), baked, or eaten raw with olive oil and bread.

Raw quibe (the centerpiece), ready to be enjoyed. 

Fried quibe, a staple food at birthday parties. They can be made to have fillings as well.

                                                          Beijinho (Little Kiss)

The most traditional version of the sweet (the one I'm posting the recepie for)

Another popular version of the sweet, where they rolled the sweet in coconut shreds instead.

Another common staple sweet at birthday parties. In my state they are also  known as "doce de leite Ninho" (Leite Ninho sweet), after the name of the brand of milk powder we often use.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of powdered milk
  
• 1 cup of sugar
  
• About 1/2 a small container of coconut milk
  
• Cloves
  
  

Preparation:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients and slowly add the coconut milk until it has a soft but still firm consistency (you'll need to roll them).
   
2. Roll the “dough” into balls. I usually scoop out a tablespoon but you can make them smaller or bigger if you want. Depends on your own preference.
   
3. Roll the “dough” in sugar
   
4. Stick in a clove on top of each ball so that only the little “flower” part sticks out.
   NOTE: You're not supposed to eat the clove – they're decorational pieces that give a touch of flavour to the sweet!
   
   You can add food colouring to the "dough in order to give the sweet funky colours, and mould the sweets into pretty much any shape you want. Here are some examples:
   
   
   
   
   

   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

What's Cookin'?

Brigadeiro (Brigadier)

Brigadeiro is a staple sweet in Brazil. It is the most recognized birthday party sweet. 

A brigadeiro in the little paper "cup" most party sweets in Brazil are placed in.

Brigadeiro being made - a metal spoon works fine, but wooden spoons don't warm up as much or as fast,
so they're preferable so you don't end up burning yourself

The chocolate powder most used to make it in Brazil is Nescau (for a picture of what the can looks like check out my Breakfast post). The most commonly used condensed milk is Leite Moça (it's called Milk Maid in the US, I think). 

Really, any brand works for any of the ingredients, these are just the most popularly used. In Canada the chocolate powder I use as a substitute is Nesquik.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of chocolate powder
  
• 1 can of condensed milk
  
• 1 can of cream
  
• 1 tablespoon of butter
  
• Sprinkles (for rolling the sweets in)
  

Preparation

1. Put a pan on the stove and put in the cream, condensed milk, and butter. Once they start to warm up pour in the chocolate powder as you mix so you get it evenly distributed. You can pour the chocolate in before it's started to warm up, but it's easier to mix it in evenly this way.
   
   
2. Keep on mixing it until it thickens. The average time is about ten minutes. A neat way to check if the “dough” is ready is to pour a bit of cold water in a cup/bowl and place a tiny dollop of it in. Wait til it cools a bit so you don't burn yourself then try to roll it into a little ball. If you manage to do that and it doesn't crumble into the water then it's ready.
   
   
3. Wait for it to cool (you can cheat and put it in the fridge to cool it faster – I do!) then scoop up about a tablespoon and roll them into balls. The size doesn't actually matter – it depends on your preference, really.
   
   
4. Roll the balls on your preference of sprinkles. You can use any type you want. The most common are the ones shown, but you can use sprinkles with shapes, regular sugar, shredded coconut, almond/nut slices, M&M's...