Brazilian Pão de Queijo

Versão em Português

This is one of the most traditional and beloved recipes in Brazil. Pão de queijo means literally cheese bread, however I don’t think this translation can express exactly this peculiar Brazilian snack. There are several kinds of cheese bread, but just one pão de queijo.

When I moved to the US  I was desperate because I couldn’t find pão de queijo in New Hampshire, for obvious reasons. I had pão de queijo for breakfast every day in Brazil, but I bought it at the bakery. In Brazil, especially in São Paulo, you can find pão de queijo everywhere. You can find it at the grocery store, at the bakery, at school, at College, at the bus and trains station, at the airport... So, there was no reason for me to bake them in Brazil. As soon as I arrived in the States I had to learn how to prepare, because I really wanted to eat it.

I had to research a lot to find the perfect proportion and the right ingredients to have the traditional pão de queijo. Bake in another country is never easy. Many factors like the origin of ingredients, the weather, the room humidity can change the recipe result completely.

Now I will teach you all the tips to everybody who is not in Brazil and wants to eat a authentic and delicious pão de queijo.

We are going to use a very specific and popular flour used in Brazil: the yuca flour. Yuca (mandioca, in Portuguese) is a native Brazilian root, very popular since Brazilian first people.

Yuca (mandioca)

I really love Yuca Flour (also called Tapioca Starch or Tapioca flour). It is gluten free, so this flour is perfect if you need or want to cut gluten out of your diet. It is really easy to find among gluten free products at good Grocery stores. I’ve already find it at Hannaford, Shawn’s, Price Chopper, Shoprite and Whole foods. Online you can buy at Walmart.com or Amazon. The most common brand is Bob’s Red Mill.

However in Brazil there are two kinds of tapioca flour: sweet tapioca flour (in Portuguese, polvilho doce) and sour tapioca flour (in Portuguese, polvilho azedo). The American tapioca flour is the Sweet one. We are going to need both of them to prepare a perfect pão de queijo. However, if you can't find the sour, it's OK to use the American only.

The sour tapioca flour can also be called Sour starch or Sour manioc starch. You can find it in Brazilian grocery stores. There are several around the USA. I bought mine at SEABRA FOODS or A&J Seabra in New Jersey. If you cannot go to a Brazilian grocery store, you also can order online. You can look for it at AMAZON or at a specific site that sells Brazilian products called RIO MARKET (products are delivered anywhere in the USA). Hint: look for “polvilho azedo”, in Portuguese, because it is easier to find.

Polvilho azedo = Sour starch or Sour manioc starch

Making a long story short: you are going to need Tapioca Flour "polvilho doce" (you can find at any grocery store) and Sour Starch "polvilho azedo"  (you can find at Brazilian grocery stores).

Finding the perfect cheese was difficult for me because pão de queijo in Brazil is made using a specific cheese called queijo meia-cura. You know, cheese is like wine, their characteristics depend on where they were produced, and nothing else can change it. I tried to use several kinds of cheese I found at the grocery, but the kind best fitted the recipe was the classic American Shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I used the Kraft one, but the brand doesn’t make any difference.

The other ingredients are just the regular ones: eggs, milk, oil, salt. Now it is just follow the instructions and taste the most delicious Brazilian pão de queijo in your home!

Let's learn!!!

1. Add 1 cup tapioca flour (sweet one) and 1 cup sour starch (sour one) to the bowl (I use the bowl of a stand mixer, but you can use any other).

2. Combine 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1/3 cup milk, ½ cup water and 1 tsp salt in a saucepan and bring to boil. I use vegetable oil, but you can use any oil you prefer.

3. Once this liquid mixture boils, pour it over the flour. Turn the mixer on and mix it well using the flat beater. You can also mix it with a spoon.

4. Keep it 15 minutes at room temperature.

5. After this time, with the mixer on add 2 eggs and 1 ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Let it mixing using the dough hook for at least 5 minutes. If you are not using a stand mixer, mix with a spoon for at least 10 minutes. The dough is supposed to be soft and sticky.

6. Wet your hands with water or oil, and, using a spoon, scoop some dough to shape little balls. The dough will rise, so shape the balls a little smaller than you want as a final product.

7. Place the balls on a baking sheet covered with a little bit of oil. Let some space between the balls to rise.

8. Bake on the preheat oven (375 F) for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden.

TIP:

You can freeze them if you want. Place the little balls on the baking sheet and bring to the freezer for at least 2 hours. Once they are frozen, transfer them to a ziplock. Once you want to use them, bake the frozen balls for around 30 minutes.

Pão de queijo

AUTHOR Fernanda Rios

CUISINE Brazilian

SERVES Around 30

INGREDIENTES

1 cup (110g) tapioca flour

1 cup (110g) sour starch (polvilho azedo)

1/3 cup (80ml) oil

1/3 cup (80 ml) milk

½ cup (120 ml) water

1 tsp (6g) salt

2 eggs

1  ½ cup (150 g) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions 1. Add tapioca flour and sour starch to the bowl. 2. Combine oil, milk, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to boil. 3. Once this liquid mixture boils, pour it over the flour. Turn the mixer on and mix it well. 4. Keep it 15 minutes at room temperature. 5. After this time, with the mixer on add the eggs and the cheese. Let it mixing using 6. the dough hook for at least 5 minutes. The dough is supposed to be soft and sticky. 7. With your hands wet with water or oil, shape little balls. 8. Place the balls on a baking sheet covered with a little bit of oil. 9. Bake on the preheat oven (375F) for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden.

Brazilian Beans Recipe

Mudar para Português

In Brazil we eat beans every day, especially at lunch, sometimes at dinner too. Our typical everyday dish consists of rice, beans, a protein (could be chicken or beef, most of times) and salad. Sometimes we add potato to this dish too. Yes, in Brazil we eat tons of carbs! I have to confess, however this is my favorite dish, nowadays I eat this combination just at lunch in small portions and without potato. I’m 30, I cannot eat carbs at the dinner anymore and potatoes, well, just in very special occasions, even at lunch.

I use Carioca beans to prepare my recipe. This variety is the most common in Brazil, besides some regions prefer other kinds of beans. Carioca (also called Carioquinha) is very similar to Pinto beans. In my opinion, the difference is Pinto is a little bit longer and tougher than Carioca, but both are very tasteful. You can use any kind of beans you prefer to make this recipe, red, black, white.

Each family in Brazil has its own beans recipe. I will show you my recipe which I learned with my mom and with my sister-in-law.

First trick: soak the beans! Wash the beans really well, discard the water and repeat this procedure until the water gets translucent.  Then put your beans in a bowl and cover with boiled water. Soak for at least 10 hours or overnight. This procedure helps to eliminate the starch from the beans, which is the main reason for gas production (you don’t want the beans produce gas inside you, do you?) and it also helps to cook the beans.

After the soaking time, drain the beans and rinse one more time. To cook my beans, I use my slow cooker. In Brazil, everybody uses a pressure cooker, I don’t use and I explained why HERE. But, if you feel comfortable, you can use a pressure cooker, no problem. The beans will be cooked the same way, the only thing that is different is the cooking time.

In the slow cooker, add the beans (2 cups) and cover with water, more or less two inches above the beans line. Let it cook for 8 hours (low) or 4 (high). If you prefer to use the pressure cooker, let it cook for 30 minutes after it starts making noise.

When the beans are cooked, it’s time to add flavor and let your beans creamy. If you are using a slow cooker, transfer your beans (with the water where it cooked) to a large regular pot. Let it cooking over medium heat, with no lid for around 20 minutes. It will let your beans creamy. Stir sometimes.

While your beans are boiling in the other pot, prepare the season. In a large skillet, add oil (can be olive or vegetable oil), onions and garlic. These are the basic seasons. If you want to add more flavor, you can add bacon too. But this is not necessary.

When the bacon is golden and the onions translucent, transfer this mixture to the beans and stir.

Stir the beans. Season with salt and black pepper. Let the beans cook until they got creamy.

If you want, you can also add Polska Kielbasa sausage to the beans.

In Brazil we don't have Polska Kielbasa, but we have a very similar sausage called Linguiça Calabresa

You can store leftovers in the fridge for up 3 days (if they stay in the fridge too long, they started to produce gases again) or you can freeze them for up 2 months.

Serve with Rice and have the most traditional Brazilian cousine dish in your home.

Traditional Brazilian dish: rice, beans, a kind of protein and potatoes

I wish you could enjoy it!

My Slow Cooker beans recipe

BRAZILIAN bEANS

AUTHOR Fernanda Rios

CUISINE Brasileira

SERVES  6

IngredientS

·        2 cups dried beans (I used Carioca or Pinto beans)

·        Water enough to wash, soak and cook the beans

·        3 tsp oil (olive or vegetable)

·        ½ big onion, chopped

·        2 cloves of garlic, chopped

·        Salt and black pepper to taste

·        2 tsp bacon, chopped (opcional)

·        ½ polska kielbasa sausage, chopped (opcional)                             

INSTRUCTIONS 1.    Wash the beans several times, until the water coming out of the beans is translucent. Cover the beans with boiled water and soak the beans overnight or around 10 hours. 2.    After, drain the beans and discard the water. In the slow cooker, add the beans and enough water to cover the beans plus 2 inches. Cook around 8h (low) or 4h (high) until the beans are tender. If you wish you could use a pressure cooker for 30 minutes. 3.    When the beans are cooked, transfer them to a regular pot. Let them boil over medium heat without covering while you prepare the seasons. 4.    In a large skillet, add oil or bacon (optional). Add the onion and garlic, stir until translucent. Add this mixture to the beans. 5.    You can add Polska Kielbasa sausage to the beans (opcional). 6.    Add salt and Black pepper to taste. 7.    Stir and let the beans boiled until it gets creamy (around 20 minutes).

Moving to the US: the bean saga

Mudar para Português

I moved to the States to live in a small town in New Hampshire called Hanover. My husband was studying at Dartmouth College and we lived there for two years. Besides the town receives students from all over the world, it is hard to find imported food in the area. People from this region also have a great appreciation for local products (which with time learned to value too).

Curious as I am, I tried to taste everything from the local cuisine. However, after a while, I felt a desperate need to eat what I used to have in Brazil. I was tired of Mac and cheese, ribs, pizza, burgers, wings and other things that may seem delicious (and they actually are), but I wanted my Brazilian food, I wanted rice and beans!

In Brazil, most part of people eats at lunch, and sometimes at dinner, a very typical and health combination dish: rice, beans, a protein (could be chicken or beef) and salad. Nowadays this is my everyday lunch too.

Prepare rice is quite simple. My challenge was to prepare beans. The first thing I thought: I need to buy a pressure cooker. Every Brazilian house has a pressure cooker to cook beans. So, I bought one online, the less expensive I could find. I tried to cook my beans. However, as soon as the pot had pressure, it exploded. I was in panic. I could have suffered a very serious accident because of that pot.

I got so sad and disappointed. Who already moved to a complete different place knows how difficult the adaptation could be. A simple bean can make you to feel down.
 
After, I learned how to buy a neutral bean. If you want something similar to Brazilian beans, you need to look for Pinto beans (what is so weird, because Pinto means Dick in Portuguese). Then, try to find those with no flavor or salt only.  There are several brands, but I already bought Goya, that is pretty good.
 

Then, to try to solve my problem, people gave me some advices. I had the possibility to buy canned beans. In Brazil, we do not have this kind of beans. By the way, we can find almost everything in cans in the United States. I confess, for me it was kind of weird and interesting at the same time. When I arrived at the grocery store was surprising: I’ve never imagined that could be so many kinds of canned beans. I chose one called pork and beans. I thought it could have a bacon taste. Well, my mistake. The beans are sweet. Traditional American beans recipe calls for brown sugar. But, I wanted Brazilian beans, not sweet beans.

But, the canned beans can be good, but it does not have the same texture and the same taste of baked beans. Besides, canned beans contain many preservatives and sodium, it is not very healthy , especially for those who consumes it every day.

I still didn’t know how to cook beans. I tried to cook in a regular pot, but it took me four hours and I needed to stir and add water all the time. Then, a friend of mine introduced me the slow cooker, also well know as its brand name CrocPot. It is very well-known in the US, but few people knows it in Brazil. I felt in love with my slow cooker and now I cook everything in it. The slow cooker works exactly the opposite way of the pressure cooker. It cooks everything slowly. As the water never boils, the food does not burn and you can leave cooking without supervision. You don’t need to stir, to add water, nothing.

Finally I will be able to tell you my bean recipe HERE. After all this saga, I can cook my beans at home and I hope you can do it too.

And you? Do you have any tips or stories about beans?

See you

About beans?

Mudar para Português

My story with beans started early. Maybe I was around ten, maybe more, maybe less, but the fact is that I began to realize that beans represented much more than a simple food that most Brazilians eat every day. I realized that, as a resident of the state of São Paulo, I had pinto beans in my home every day. I thought it was a universal rule. Everybody needs to eat pinto beans everyday and black beans just in special occasions. However, one day I found that in Rio de Janeiro people ate black beans every day.Oh my God, so people are not all the same?

Then I began to love beans. I love eating beans, but I love much more what they mean to me. They can tell a lot about the culture where people are from, their habits and the manner each one can see the world. So, since I was a child I had the crazy idea to write a book about beans. I wanted to enter in the house of people around the world and ask them how do they prepare beans. My friends were dreaming of being great doctors or lawyers while I was more interested to learn how to cook beans.

Now I am not a child anymore, I do not want just find out recipes on beans. I wish to discover the excitement, the memories, the culture, the cuisine back to each of us around the world. According to anthropologist Sidney Mintz, food creates a powerful social ties with the place where we grew up and the people who live together, building our identity, thus the way we eat strongly reveals the culture where we are from.

This is my goal, discover stories, cultures and habits around the world. Obviously I will talk about beans, I have not given up my silly book idea, but I will also talk about any recipe that is important to someone, because that is my objective, try to understand and take to your home how people around the world see this passion: food.

I wish I could see you soon!