Rio 2016 recipes: Brazilian Food cookbook, from fried cheese to cassava cakes

Teleport yourself to the city home to one of the most exciting cuisines in the world with Thiago Castanho's Brazilian Food cookbook. Using ingredients from the field, forest, river and sea the book is full of ethnic culinary influences. Split into small bites, street food, side dishes, meat and fish, bread and sweet treats, every aspect of the cuisine is covered.

Castanho is one of the country’s rising new stars in the culinary world, where his love of food began in 2000 when his father turned the living room into a small village restaurant. Helping from the age of 11, it grew into what's known as the “secret restaurant” . In 2011, along with his father, they opened a second restaurant, Remanso do Bosque, that uses traditional recipes with an innovative injection.

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Dadinhos de tapioca com queijo coalho e molho de pimenta agridoce. This classic recipe is from the acclaimed restaurant Mocotó run by Rodrigo Oliveira. The golden, crispy-skinned cubes packed with melted cheese, combined with the sweet and sour flavour of the chilli sauce, are a perfect combination with caipirinhas.

Serves 8

500ml whole milk
250g queijo de coalho or halloumi cheese, grated
250g granulated tapioca
about 8g salt
pinch of white pepper
vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Chilli Sauce, to serve (see below)

Gently heat the milk to scalding point in a small saucepan. Combine the cheese and tapioca in a bowl. Slowly add the hot milk, stirring constantly to prevent lumps forming. Add the salt (you may need more or less depending on the saltiness of the cheese) and pepper and continue stirring until the mixture thickens.

Line a baking tin with cling film and pour the cheese mixture into it. Cover the surface with more cling film to prevent a skin forming. Leave to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Preheat the oil to 180°C in a deep-fat fryer or heavy-based saucepan. Take the cheese mixture out of the tin and cut into cubes. Deep-fry in small batches until golden brown. Alternatively bake the cubes in a preheated oven at 190°C (375°F), gas mark 5. Serve hot with chilli sauce.

Brazil nuts are a high protein food and can be consumed in various ways. The milk made from them can be used as a substitute for coconut milk or cows’ milk, and gives a delicious flavour to recipes. It is a great alternative for lactose-intolerant people.

Serves 2

300g raw Brazil nuts

2 fresh pirarucu (arapaima) or cod fillets,
about 200g each, skin on
salt and black pepper
2 tbsp coarsely chopped culantro (Mexican/long coriander)
60g winter squash, cut into 5mm slices
1 red onion, quartered
60g okra, halved lengthways
60g West Indian gherkin or small cucumber, cut in half lengthways
60g mandioquinha (arracacha/Peruvian parsnip) or parsnip, cut into 1cm rounds
60g sweet potato, unpeeled, cut into
1cm rounds
60g tomato, quartered
3–4 sprigs of thyme, to serve

Put the Brazil nuts in a blender with 400ml of water and process for 5 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve and set aside (see tip, below). Season the fish with salt and pepper and leave to stand for 30 minutes. In a large saucepan, combine 1 litre of water and 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to the boil. Cook, separately, the sweet potato (for 5 minutes) and the mandioquinha (for 3 minutes) until al dente. Drain and set aside. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7. Put the fish fillets in a baking dish. Add the Brazil nut milk, culantro, squash, red onion, okra, West Indian gherkin, mandioquinha, sweet potato and tomato. Sprinkle the vegetables with a teaspoon of salt.

Bake for 10 minutes until the fish and the vegetables are cooked through and tender, then remove from the oven, scatter over the thyme and serve.

Tips from Thiago: The ground Brazil nuts left after straining the milk can be used to make cakes, pies and biscuits.

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I have great affection for this recipe because it reminds me a lot of my childhood, when I used to go to my grandmother’s house for the weekend. She prepared these little cakes in the morning and an unforgettable aroma always came out of the oven. The recipe is easy. We added to this version a caramel sauce made with cumaru, known in English as tonka bean – an aromatic Amazonian seed used in folk medicine and perfumery, and now also used for cooking.

Makes 10

Tonka bean caramel

500ml single cream
500g caster sugar
2 tonka bean pods or vanilla pods
100g unsalted butter
¼  tsp sea salt flakes

Cassava cakes

oil, for greasing
470g farinha de tapioca or Farinha de Tapioca
Substitute (see below)
45g butter, at room temperature
70g caster sugar
30g queijo de coalho or halloumi, grated
2 pinches of salt
500ml whole milk
1 free-range egg
1 tsp fennel seeds

To make the caramel, melt the sugar slowly in a heavy-based stainless steel saucepan. In a separate saucepan, heat the cream to scalding point. When the sugar has turned to a golden caramel, or reached 170°C on a sugar thermometer, pour the hot cream into it and add the tonka bean pods.Continue cooking until the caramel sauce coats the back of a spoon, then remove the pan from the heat. Stir the butter and sea salt flakes into the sauce, then transfer to a blender and process for 2 minutes. Pass the caramel through a sieve. Leave to cool, then store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Next make the cassava cakes. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4, and oil a large baking sheet. In a large bowl, combine the tapioca flour with the butter, sugar, cheese and salt. In a saucepan, heat the milk to 80°C and pour it over the flour mixture. Stir well, then leave to stand for about 30 minutes. When the mixture has cooled, add the egg and fennel seeds and mix well. Shape the dough into balls the size of golf balls, then put them on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Serve the cakes while still warm with some of the reheated caramel.

Tips from Thiago: If substituting halloumi for queijo de coalho, omit the salt in the cake batter. This recipe can also be served with Tapioca and Vanilla Ice Cream (see below) or plain vanilla ice cream.

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1 cashew fruit, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp caster sugar
4–8 ice cubes, crushed if you prefer
60ml cachaça

Put the cashew fruit and sugar in a cocktail shaker and crush with a pestle. Add the ice and cachaça and mix well to combine. Serve in a small, clear glass tumbler.

1 lime, sliced
2 tbsp caster sugar
4–8 ice cubes, crushed if you prefer
60ml cachaça

Put the lime and sugar in a big glass or cocktail shaker and crush with a pestle. Add the ice and cachaça and mix well to combine. Serve in a small, clear glass tumbler.

15 jaboticabas
2 tbsp caster sugar
4–8 ice cubes, crushed if you prefer
60ml cachaça

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Put the jaboticabas and sugar in a cocktail shaker and crush with a pestle. Add the ice and cachaça and shake well to combine. Serve in a small, clear glass tumbler.

Brazilian Food, by Thiago Castango (Mitchell Beazley) £16.99