Colloquialisms, sayings, & Slang

Churrasquinho de gato – Cat barbecue

Any bbq of questionable origin (it isn't necessarily actually made of cat).

Pastel de ar - Air pastel

A pastel is a kind of popular pastry in Brazil that can be savoury or sweet and has varying flavours (I'll make a post on it in the near future, but for now, think "deep fried pita pocket"). 

An air pastel is a pastel that has very little filling inside (the bigger the pastel, the ore likely this is to be). The idea is that since there's so little filling, the filling for that pastry is "air".

Colloquialisms, sayings, & Slang

Churrasquinho de gato – Cat barbecue

Any BBQ of questionable origin (it isn't actually made of cat... one hopes).

Véi, véio – Oldie, old

Slang akin to “dude”. It's particularly popular among  those of the 90's generation.

Estar frito – To be fried

A term used similarly to “to be screwed” in English, but isn't considered to be a swear like “screwed” is. Closer to "to be in a jam" swear-wise.

                                                          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...
   

Food, Glorious Food...

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.

Pamonha

A paste made with corn and milk that is wrapped in corn husks and boiled into a a dumpling. May have filling, or may not. Once it's boiled it has a solid (yet somewhat crumbly) consistency.

What Pamonha looks like inside the husk

Newly made pamonhas

Mandioca frita

Fried cassava. Cassava is a type of tuber root not unlike a potato. It's a popular vegetable in Brazilian cuisine in many ways, one of the most popular being fried cassava. (Cassava is sometimes also known as manioc).

Raw cassava cut up  and piled for the supermarket

Fried cassava

                                                  Food, Glorious Food...

Almoço - Lunch

Lunch is the most important meal of the day. The overall content of what one is eating varies, but the staple lunch food is rice, beans, and some type of protein (usually meat or a fried egg or something). 

We often have a little dish of “batata palha” (straw potato) on the table to add to the rice (it's also popular on stroganoff). Batata palha is comprised of thinly cut potatoes that are then fried into matchstick-thin potato sticks. They're similar to Hickory Sticks. 

Batata palha

There are many traditional meals that are also commonly eaten for lunch.

Food, Glorious Food...

Dietary habits vary from area to area, and this does not hold true to all of Brazil, or even all of an area. But for the most part, this is what the first meal of the day is like:

Café da manhã (Morning Coffee) - Breakfast

Unlike in North America, it is the lightest meal of the day. It usually consists of bread and butter and a cup of coffee or chocolate milk, sometimes juice.

Coffee

Coffee has three levels of “strength”. I don't mean this taste-wise (though the flavour is affected), but rather how much coffee you put into the cup.

The weakest is “Pindago” (dripped). It has very little coffee, and is mostly milk. This is the kiddie version of coffee, with just enough to get the kids used to the bitter taste of the drink.

Next is “café-com-leite” (coffee with milk). It has a lot more coffee, but is still somewhat diluted due to the milk. Many people drink this in the morning instead of straight-up coffee.

The last is, of course, plain black coffee - café preto.

Bread

Our breakfast bread is not sliced bread. It's like an itty bitty mini loaf we call “pão de sal” (literally, bread of salt).

It looks like this:

Many of our sandwiches are made with this type of bread instead of sliced bread as well.

Chocolate Milk

We have two traditional brands: Nescau, and Toddy. In Brazil chocolate milk is not a drink just for kids. Adults may not usually drink it as much as children, but it's not embarrassing to drink a glass of Nescau or Toddy in the morning like it seems to be in North America.   

Coming soon... Lunch!