Garotto- Ao Leite: Brazilian Chocolate

Brazilian Chocolate:


Just like any other chocolate...delicious. I am one who likes to eat chocolate, and I am with a Brazilian who is a Carnivore and a chocoholic to boot. You can imagine all the sweet treats he likes to eat, and all the treats he likes to share with me to make me just a little fatter.

Anyway, this is one of the sweet treats, that we like to eat together. In his family, they eat this for dessert sometimes and just have the chocolate by itself. For me, I can't have too much because it tastes too sweet after you start eating it for a while. To compensate, I have more with a glass of milk. This is a very nice combination. Chocolate and milk sure do go perfectly together.

Getting back to the chocolate though, Brazilian chocolate is very rich and very sweet. The kind that I tried was milk chocolate, however there are other kinds of chocolate in Brazil that I have not tried yet by itself. If I didn't know it was Brazilian when I tried it, I think I might have noticed a slight difference in the taste from what I normally have, but very slight, seeing as the taste is very similar.

Ambrosia: Brazilian bread with dried fruit

Ambrosia

Also known by a different Brazilian term, this Brazilian bread is made fresh with dried fruit inside to enhance its flavor.  The most distinguishable feature of the bread is its braid like shape and structure which is very unique. The bread is very light colored on the inside, just like regular white bread. However the top of the bread is a lot darker. You will surely notice a difference in the color between the outside and the inside.

The bread is very light in both texture and taste and I would recommend eating it with something on top to add moisture. I tried some for the first time a week ago and had Brazilian cream cheese on top of it.

I discovered that Brazilian cream cheese on top of the Brazilian bread was a good match because the two flavors mix very well together. I am quite accustomed now though to be eating Brazilian or other bread with Nutella in the morning, which I have a weakness for, but hey, who doesn’t?

To talk more about the actual bread, there are raisins inside of the bread which add a nice texture and moisture to the bread, which it definitely needs. As far as what other fruit is inside of the bread, that is very hard to tell. The only thing I could definitely taste when I had it was raisins, which I like very much.

In addition to the raisins inside, there is a creamy texture that covers the top of the bread. Infused within the “cream” or whatever it is, I’m not really sure, are coconut shavings which add to the delicious flavor. There are probably many different ways to make this, however the one  I tried I know was purchased in a Brazilian supermarket.

Here is a picture of what Ambrosia looks like:
http://ambrosiasoulfulcooking.blogspot.com/2013/09/brazilian-fruit-bread-egg-less.html  

Here is a recipe I found for Ambrosia:

Ingredients

·         2 cups all purpose flour

·         ½ cup milk (plus a tablespoon more if needed)

·         2 tablespoons sugar

·         2 tablespoons olive oil

·         1 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

·         ½ teaspoon nutmeg powder

·         1 tablespoon raisins

·         2 figs chopped finely

·         5 dried apricots chopped finely

·         1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

·         5 almonds chopped finely

·         Milk wash

·         2 tablespoons sugar dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm milk

Method

1.      Heat milk till very hot. Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves. Let it cool.

2.      Toss the chopped fruits and nuts in one tablespoon of flour.

3.      Whisk together remaining flour and salt. Add olive oil. Mix well.

4.      Add powdered cinnamon and nutmeg to flour.

5.      Add instant yeast to the luke warm milk. Cover and keep for 15 minutes. It should turn frothy

6.      Add milk mix to flour and knead for 6 to 8 minutes to get soft dough.

7.      Add more warm milk if the dough feels tight.

8.      Stretch the dough in the kneading plate and sprinkle dry fruits and nuts.

9.      Knead for another 5 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.

10.  Knead again for 2 to 3 minutes. Divide the dough into three parts.

11.  Make a braid as shown in the picture. Cover and keep it to rise for one hour.

12.  Coat the risen braid with milk wash using a brush

13.  Bake in a pre heated oven at 190 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cover with a foil if the bread turns brown and there is still some time left.

14.  Remove from the oven and cool in the rack. Slice when cold.

The Ugly Eats: MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) - Sloppy Joe's

Get a fork and spoon (and a plastic bag) ready soldier, because it's another review.

TODAY'S MENU: MRE: Sloppy Joe's.

The brave men and women who serve at home and abroad do a job that many of us would not be willing to risk our lives over, and they do it very well.  I can't vouch about the difficulty of these jobs, but I am sure they're very difficult, tiring, often times frustrating, boring, and probably even ridiculously petty.  But they do it.   And they do it with 200% of their effort.

The problem is, just like in any other occupational field, if you don't eat well, you won't work well; your performance takes a massive hit.  You need something around the ballpark of 2,000 calories-3,000 calories to maintain optimal function, otherwise you're prone to irritable fits, sluggishness, lethargy, and hyperactivity.    This thing provides you around 1,800 calories, and claims to be a 'good performance food' item.   But is it really?

Well, that's according to this cardboard box from the Sloppy Joe's packet anyway.  I doubt your average desk jockey needs this kind of energy.  Why settle for something thats probably been sitting around a warehouse for close to a decade (or more), when you can easily get an equally filling (and overladen serving of calories) from a local Wendy's?  

In fact, why WOULD you bother?  Why AM I bothering?   

Because I'm really good at wasting my money.  And I really want to find out exactly what kind of crap they're serving to the troops out of country.  And 'OK' does not cut it.   Not unless you're stuck somewhere in field, with no Drive-Thru or Starbucks to get your calorie laden nonsense, and you really don't have much of a choice, except for what 's in your bag.  Until they make a portable armored Starbucks Coffee food truck and deploy it, our troops aren't getting that 40 step tall-grande-venti vanilla soy-latter cappuccino macchiato-vague-italiano-mario-luigi coffee potion any time soon. You don't give the troops anything decent to eat, that gives bad morale  Bad morale makes for bad soldiering, and bad soldiering makes us lose the war.  That's why we ought to at least try what the troops are eating.  Maybe then we'd all at least get an appreciation of the countless drive-thru restaurants we take for granted.  Then we'd probably push for better combat rations for the troops.  They deserve better.

Let's get started.   When you open the bag, you get this:

Unpacked and 'Ready to Eat'.  A meal fit for a peasant.

These things are packed in both plastic and cardboard, and I'm guessing they're probably around from 2010, since they added the Garlic Mashed Potatoes in that year, according to MREInfo (a site, dedicated to reviewing and eating military & survival rations, go figure).  The main courses are packed in plastic bags and repacked inside the cardboard boxes.  The jelly, coffee, fruit punch mix, salt & sugar, pound cake and vegetable crackers are packed just in vacuum packed plastic.  I got this particular one from an Army/Navy shop nearby. (Source: http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-improvements.html)

1. Vegetable Crackers

 

 These crackers are not as crispy as the stuff you buy in the supermarket. These take a little more effort to break, they're probably meant to be that way.  These crackers were baked for WAR, not for you to snack on at 2 AM while browsing Gawker and Facebook.  I couldn't really taste anything 'vegetably' or anything particularly flavorful on these crackers, but Cheez-Its, or Vegetable Thins, they most certainly are not!

 

2. Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This was by far the most disappointing thing on the menu.  It actually ruined my impression of MREs.  As soon as I opened the packet, this whitish watery liquid started  leaking out onto my plate, and somehow stubborn 'potatoes' would not come out (I know what you're thinking, shut up).  I ended up having to squeeze the bag with my fingers like stuck toothpaste on a nearly empty tube.   

The 'Garlic Mashed Potatoes' weren't really potatoes at all, more like overly caked powdery 'potato' flavored 'stuff', with the texture of those foamy things UPS and FedEx use in their packaging to reduce impact when shipping goods.  I could not taste any garlic at all (not that I would want to, it would probably make everything worse).  The flavor was absolutely bland, and no amount of salt could possibly save it (I used both the included salt packets but this didn't help).  The 'potatoes' were not mushy; they were hard and crumbly, and you needed to break the 'mashed potato' square with a spoon.  Terrible.  This needs to get checked out of the menu, ASAP.

 It has the texture and consistency of baby food.

 

3. Sloppy Joe Filling

I have to say this was actually pretty decent.   Sure, it doesn't look very good, and I woldn't post it on Pinterest anytime soon, but the flavour and consistency are pretty decent.  The beef is chunky, has a good chew and texture, and has the right amount of moisture for something that's been sitting in storage for a couple of years!  I squirted some on the vegetable crackers, and ate the remaining stew with the plastic spoon.  At least R&D got this right.  I ended up finishing the packet.

4. Vanilla Pound Cake & Coffee Mix

 Pretty good.

Not that good.

 

This is by far the best part of the MRE.  The pound cake, despite sitting in the packet for god knows how long, actually tastes pretty good!  It's sweet, and is filled with vanilla flavor, it has a fluffy texture when you chew it down, and it is moist to the tongue.  If I were away out of country, in some miserable hot sweaty compound in Afghanistan and wanted to pretend I was in a coffeeshop pretending to be a starving artist writing a novel while in the middle of a firefight, with ricochets and supersonic whizz-bangs and cracking nearby, this would do the trick.  

I can't say the same thing about the coffee and creamer though.  The creamer didn't fully dissolve, and I'd end up having creamer flakes floating on my light brown coffee.  Not really a big issue, coffee tastes just as rich and sweet as any cup of Folgers or Chock Full O nuts.   So no complaints here.

I'm not going to review the Grape Jelly, and the sanitary wipe, because I had already finisehd the crackers, and figured that would be pointless anyway.  It's just grape jelly.  Big whoop.

All in all, I have to say that the MRE, in total, is......well, OK.  Like I said, OK dosen't cut it.  The troops need better quality rations. If we expect to put them anywhere for any length of time, they should be eating something at least more than halfway decent.  At least the government is still trying to find better ways of food preservation, and improving logistics to make fresh food available to them.  I hear irradiated food is the next big thing for rations, where they make fresh food 'fresh' without any sort of refrigeration or chemical preservation, by using radiation.  I hear the newer military rations are much better in quality, and that they actually have better military rations in the UK and France, but I don't think I'm going to be seeing those in the supermarket anytime soon, if they ever make it to the aisles at all!

I don't doubt that MREs do indeed provide the nutritional requirements needed to operate on the field, but I'm sure if you were in service and had to eat this stuff day in and day out, you may consider just going AWOL.   I also hear this stuff can cause constipation for weeks on end, and heard many humorous stories regarding them, hence, when I checked a website dedicated to military rations, they suggested drinking plenty of water before and after consuming an MRE.  Otherwise, you'd just have this stuff sitting in your colon for days.

Score: 3 out of 5

  

 

The Ugly Eats : Canned Eel

Hello, David here, and once again, I have another food review.

TODAY'S MENU: Canned Eel (Roasted) with Black Beans

I visited the H-Mart in Edison, looking around the canned goods section for something to do a culinary test run when  I stumbled upon this, never having tried eel myself.  Sure, I've had unusual delicacies (for an American anyway) such as beef tripe, animal cartilidge, fish roe, and shrimp paste, but I never actually tried eel.

Normally when we think of eels, we think of the scary, dangerous, snakelike water creature that gives you a painful electric shock if you try to grab it.   But the "eel" in this can isn't the same eel you're probably thinking of.   In fact, an electric eel isn't really an 'eel' at all, but is what's known as a "knifefish" as a member of the Gymnotiformes (Source: http://www.fishbase.org/).  The eels that the fishmongers sell and chefs prepare are members of the Anguillformes, the "true" eels, and therefore, the fishermen who gather this stuff and the cooks that prepare them can't get electrocuted by touching these 'eels', simply because, they're not the same eels.

They're also popularly eaten as seafood in Scandinavia, China, Korea Japan, and Vietnam.  You can eat them stir fried, barbecued on a stick, or have them sitting on top of a pillow of rice as sashimi.

So no, nothing bad is going to happen to you when you eat them.

Besides, the poor fish is dead anyway.  What harm can it do? 

...

Well, enough of the Biology lesson, let's get on to eating it shall we?

I actually had a bit of a bother trying to get this stubborn tin open.  I tried using the can opener on my Swiss Army Knife, but the weird half elliptical/rectangle shape would cause the can opener to jam, getting oil and bean gunk on it.  So I had to go out and purchase a dedicated can opener (the ones that cut using metal wheels, which you turn with a handle) at the convenience store.  I ended up wasting an extra $6.00.  Anyway, I finally get the thing open, and I get this:

 It looks NOTHING like the picture on the package.

Compared to the picture above, it looks like a family of roaches decided to open a little nest in the packaging, but in reality doesn't actually  look THAT bad. Nothing smells off,there's no leak on the tin, so there's no risk of me catching botulism.   Thing is, I wasn't expecting the fish to be so....stiff.  When I poke it with my fork, it doesn't flake or fall apart, but stays perfectly firm.  I take a piece with my fork, put it in my mouth, chew, and let it linger around my tongue for a while, and strangely enough, it tastes....sweet.   It tastes nothing what I'd expect "Roasted Eel with Fermented Black Beans" to taste like.  I'm not getting any saltiness or yeasty flavors, and I'm not getting much savoriness from the eel.   The best way I can describe it,is that it tastes like, "candied fish".  It's stiff and it tastes sugary, and is very much unlike what I came in and expected this stuff would taste like.  The flavor of the beans are unremarkable, and they sort of crumble in your mouth with no flavor.  Deciding not to waste any food, I scrape the remaining pieces onto a bread roll and eat.

 I have to say, I was actually disappointed with my purchase.  Then again, I'm eating something that's been canned and has had any and all trace of flavor leached and sapped out of it with preservatives, so I can't exactly be angry.   I'd like to try the real thing, but I don't really know where I can go out and buy the stuff without forking more than $20, without having to visit some ironic hole-in-the-wall hipster, posh 'chic', seafood joint in New York City, or in Brooklyn (ugh) where I'm expected to tip 200% of what I ordered.  I'm too poor for that,

I need to stop rambling over this.  I've already spilled my coffee on my laptop keyboard and can ill afford another one.  Better just shut up and deal with my dissapointment like a real man.

Score: 2 out of 5

"MorningStar Farms" Mediterranean Chickpea Veggie Burgers

These MorningStar Farms Mediterranean Chickpea veggie burgers tasted a lot better than I expected. I first bought them to try something new, but now they have become a weekly purchase! Not only do they taste phenomenal, there are only 110 calories in each burger. My favorite way to eat them is on a whole wheat round, with pickles and onions. As you can imagine, vegetarians have limited options when it comes to a variety of meals. These "burgers" are a great way to expand your choices and try something new!

"Dr. Praegers" Spinach Pancakes

Dr. Praegers Spinach pancakes are delicious! On top of being great for you, they are a meal with only 80 calories! They are GMO free, have no saturated fat, and absolutely no cholesterol. I like to melt a slice of 10 calorie diet swiss cheese on it.

"Boca" Veggie Ground Crumbles

Boca Veggie Ground Crumbles can be used for various things. I first heard about them through word of mouth. The idea of using "fake" meat in my meals grossed me out. Eventually, I caved in and bought a package. The crumbles could be used as a substitute in pasta, as a meat sauce. One of my personal favorite meals, is to make tacos with the crumbles. If I didn't know that the veggie crumbles were not made from meat, I would of never even tasted the difference. 

"Boca" Flame Grilled Veggie Burgers!

These All American Flame Grilled veggie burgers have you tricked that you are eating meat! Throw them on a bun with some tomatoes, lettuce, and a pickle! They are only 120 calories a burger!

Picanha: Brazilian cut of beef

Picanha: Brazilian cut of beef

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beef_cuts_Brazil.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Picanha3.jpg

Picanha is a popular cut of Brazilian beef. This cut is rarely seen in the U.S. which is a shame because it is very delicious! In English this cut of meat would be called the rump cap or rump cover. The reason why this cut is not generally seen in the U.S. is that the rump cover is commonly divided into other sections such as the rump and not separated as its own part.

The way that Brazilians cook meat is amazing because of the texture and the taste. Brazilians cook the meat with the fat on remove it after it has been cooked. In America, people that have Picanha have the fat cut off before it’s cooked usually. The reason the fat is left on, is to increase the quality in the flavor of the meat. Maybe that is why it is Brazil’s most popular cut of beef. Brazilian picanha might be the best meat I’ve ever tried.  Looking at it, Picanha looks just like any other cut of meat (to me at least). I am not an expert in meat since I don’t eat it all the time, but the taste is much better than regular American cuts of meat.

If you want to try picanha, you will have to go to a Brazilian butcher. Luckily there are many towns that have Brazilian supermarkets.

Brazilian Fudge

Brazilian Fudge:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/brazilian-peanut-fudge/

Brazilian Fudge is very good! Its odd name translates into foot boy, and I am unsure why this is the name used for the dessert. I tried Brazilian fudge for the first time over the weekend when my boyfriend’s dad made it for us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t around when he made it, but I know that he made it himself instead of buying it. Looking at it, the fudge is a very light caramel color. It is cut into small squares about an inch and a half by an inch and a half.

When tasting it, the fudge tastes very similar to American peanut butter fudge. I personally think that Brazilian fudge is a little sweeter than American fudge, perhaps due to using sweetened condensed milk. I’m not really sure why else.

The texture is very similar to American fudge. One difference though is that Brazilian fudge has tiny pieces of peanuts throughout as opposed to American fudge which is smooth and doesn’t have pieces in it, (at least not the American peanut butter fudge I’ve tried). This is possibly due to Americans using peanut butter in fudge rather than roasted peanuts.

Brazilian fudge is very good and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a bit of a sweet tooth. It’s just the right amount of sweet for a light dessert without being too sweet!

Original recipe makes 12 servings

Ingredients:

·         1 (8 ounce) jar roasted peanuts, skins removed
·         1 (8 ounce) package tea biscuits (such as Marie Biscuits)
·         2 tablespoons white sugar
·         1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

 Directions

1. Line a 9-inch square dish with waxed paper.
2. Pulse the peanuts and biscuits together in a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse flour. Add the sugar and pulse to mix. Pour the sweetened, condensed milk into the mixture and process until the mixture forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the food processor bowl.
3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared dish and press with your hands into an even layer. Allow to sit at least 15 minutes, up to overnight. Remove from the dish and cut into squares to serve. Store in air-tight containers between uses.

Catupiry- Brazilian Cream Cheese

Catupiry- Brazilian Cream Cheese

Catupiry is the American equivalent of cream cheese. It was first made by an Italian immigrant in Minas Gerais in 1911. Catupiry is not as thick as cream cheese and much easier to spread. Just looking at it and its consistency you might think it looks more like mayonnaise than cream cheese, which is what I thought when I first saw it.

Catupiry can be used on bread or toast, or really anything you want to put it on. I have only tried it on Pao de queijo, however I prefer the pao de queijo plain instead of with catupiry. 

My First Brazilian Restaurant Experience

My first Brazilian Restaurant Experience: Cantinho Latino Restaurant

I figured since my part of the blog was about Brazilian food, I could talk about my first experience having Brazilian food. The first Brazilian restaurant I went to was called Cantinho Latino Restaurant located on Cross Ave in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just minutes away from Kean. If you are Brazilian or like Brazilian food, you are probably familiar with this restaurant. There are also other good Brazilian restaurants in Newark; however those restaurants are more expensive.

I was first exposed to Brazilian cuisine in September when I started dating my boyfriend Allan, who was born and raised in Brazil. He was used to eating Brazilian and Portuguese food a lot knew that I loved eating anything and everything, so he took me to this Brazilian restaurant one night to try. We walked in the restaurant, and as soon as the woman behind the counter saw us walk in, she started speaking to us in Portuguese. My first thought was, “Umm what is she saying to us?” Meanwhile, my boyfriend was going back and forth with her in Portuguese translating everything the two of them said for me so that I knew what was going on. It was an interesting experience. The woman made me feel more at ease when two minutes later she looked at me and told me that her husband was American and didn’t speak Portuguese.

We got a menu which was written in Portuguese but translated underneath in English. I immediately asked Allan what food was good, since I had never had any Brazilian food before. He told me that he pretty much ordered the same thing every time. Some kind of meat, usually chicken, steak or pork, grilled or fried. We ordered Bife a Cavallo which is steak with egg and a similar meal with chicken which I forget what it was called. We had Guarana, Brazilian soda to drink, and rice, beans, and yucca to go with the food. It was my first time having all this new food that I NEVER EVEN KNEW EXISTED!

I was told that meat or seafood is very common in Brazil and that almost all meals are accompanied by rice and beans (or at least rice).

For dessert we had pudim de leite condensado (pudding of condensed milk) which on the menu was translated to “Flan” in English, although I think that it tasted nothing like flan.  It was very good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t understand how they could call it flan on the menu when the consistency and texture was clearly nothing similar. Flan has more of the texture of cranberry jelly (the jellied kind not the berry one), and the pudim de leite condensado was much denser, kind of like eating a dense carrot cake but milkier.

All in all, my first Brazilian restaurant experience was wonderful and I have since had a lot of Brazilian/ Portuguese food which I thoroughly enjoy, much like almost anything else I eat. (sad to say, but true)