BECAUSE FIFAAAAAAAAAAA!
Although nobody in our house is a true sports fan, I played soccer in high school and have always felt drawn to 'short term' sporting events, like the Olympics and the Fifa World Cup.
Because of the World Cup, we are learning about Brazil, just as we did a unit on Russia during the Olympics.
I'll write more on that on my regular blog, but here, of course, we're featuring food!
After getting some books from the library and researching online, we settled on a few things we knew we could make without offending the food allergies.
First up, tropical fruit!
Papaya, guava, orange, and granadilla (another excuse for Toby to smash one on his head)
And then we made a scrumptious fruit salad.
Which I froze the leftovers of and blended into a sorbet the next day :)
Next up, feijoada (fey-ZHWA-dah), which is supposedly THE Brazillian dish to have.
Basically its a black bean and smoked meat stew, but I've learned that feijoada is like our chili, in that every family has their own recipe, and everyone's grandma makes the best.
So needless to say, finding a solid recipe to go from was hard.
Finally I sucked it up and just made something.
I soaked dried black beans to be 'authentic' and cooked them with stewing beef chunks, gluten free honey garlic sausage, and smoked ham steaks (yes, those horribly over processed pre-packaged slabs of ham. It was easier than cooking a whole ham for one use.)
Served with rice, steamed kale, and orange slices.
So needless to say, finding a solid recipe to go from was hard.
Finally I sucked it up and just made something.
I soaked dried black beans to be 'authentic' and cooked them with stewing beef chunks, gluten free honey garlic sausage, and smoked ham steaks (yes, those horribly over processed pre-packaged slabs of ham. It was easier than cooking a whole ham for one use.)
Served with rice, steamed kale, and orange slices.
And then
Brigadeiros!
These chocolate truffles are traditionally made with condensed milk and butter and rolled in chocolate sprinkles afterwards. I bypassed this idea early on because I knew I couldn't really get around the dairy issue.
However, on one episode of Are We There Yet (a kids travel show that we like)
they are in Brazil and make these with powdered milk instead. I found some powdered soy milk at the bulk food store, but COULD NOT for life of me find a recipe using it online.
The vegan recipes I did find all included a way to make your own condensed milk, which just seemed complicated with not real milk. I did try it, and the end result was more of a fudge icing, not something you could roll in to a ball.
Finally, I watched the Are We There Yet episode 3 times to try and gauge how much they were using of each ingredient. It was pretty successful!!
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter (could be 1/3 cup probably, they were pretty buttery, however the dough didn't stick to your hands)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup soy milk powder
2 Tbsp coco powder
Combine ingredients in a sauce pot on stove and heat until just bubbling. Reduce heat so mixture doesn't stick to bottom, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Scrape mixture into a heat proof bowl and let cool.
I let it sit for about half an hour, stirring it occasionally, then put in the fridge for about 15 minutes before i worked with it.
We didn't have chocolate sprinkles, but we thought the green went with Brazil. We ran out so I used goji berries and icing sugar for the rest.
I couldn't find true guava paste, but we found 'quince jam' which in my opinion is the same thing, but maybe there's a taste difference. Don't know, cause I've never been to Brazil!
Still delicious! Olé!
Combine ingredients in a sauce pot on stove and heat until just bubbling. Reduce heat so mixture doesn't stick to bottom, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Scrape mixture into a heat proof bowl and let cool.
I let it sit for about half an hour, stirring it occasionally, then put in the fridge for about 15 minutes before i worked with it.
We didn't have chocolate sprinkles, but we thought the green went with Brazil. We ran out so I used goji berries and icing sugar for the rest.
For another desserty snack: Romeo and Juliet
Guava paste and white cheese eaten together for a salty sweet treat.I couldn't find true guava paste, but we found 'quince jam' which in my opinion is the same thing, but maybe there's a taste difference. Don't know, cause I've never been to Brazil!
Still delicious! Olé!
Happy Eating!!
