National Geographic Recipes

[Zee Palmer]

Thisis the national dish of Brazil. It is traditionally served on a Saturday and it is a festive meal to share with family and friends. There are as many recipes as there are cooks in Brazil and some regional variations too. I learned to make feijoada from my aunt in Rio and have adapted the recipe to use the ingredients that I can find in the U.S. We always start with caipirinhas and end with the Brazilian Style Flan for dessert. Plan to spend the morning in the kitchen and the afternoon around the table (all to the sounds of Brazilian music...).

The night before, soak the beans in a large bowl with water to cover at least 3-4 inches. Soak the carne seca in water to cover. The next morning, drain the beans and place in a large pot with water to cover by at least 3 inches. Bring the beans to a boil in medium heat.

Meanwhile, cut the carne seca into 1-inch pieces. Cut the sausage into 1-inch pieces. (When I use the Portuguese sausage I usually prick it with a fork and simmer it for ten minutes in enough water to cover; then I cut it.) Cut the ribs into 2-rib sections.

Add the carne seca, sausage, ribs and bay leaves to the beans. Simmer for about 2 hours or until soft (Goya brand black beans usually take about 2 hours) , stirring from time to time, adding water as necessary to keep beans covered. Keep an eye on the beans so they don't burn at the bottom!

Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until golden brown. Add two ladlefuls of beans and mash them. Put this back into the pot. It will thicken and season the beans.

Continue to simmer gently for at least another hour, adding water as necessary. A good feijoada should have a creamy consistency when done. Remove the bay leaves. Some people take the meats out at this point and serve them separately on a platter. I like to leave them in with the beans, it keeps them hot. Serve the feijoada and garnishes in ceramic bowls and platters, it will add a touch of authenticity!

To serve feijoada, put a mound or rice on your plate and place a ladleful or two of feijoada on top. Arrange oranges and couve around the sides. Sprinkle the beans and couve with farofa and add a spoonful of sauce to the side.

Live fire cooking is the world's first cooking method; it's the easiest and most forgiving, and definitely the most popular way to cook throughout the world. Barbecuing is no slouch in the U.S. either. Eighty-four percent of Americans own grills, and last year they fired them up almost three billion times.

Steven Reichlen's newest cookbook, The Barbecue! Bible, is a godsend to the global griller. The book is devoted solely to the art and science of cooking over fire, and Reichlen is the first to compile such an extensive collection of worldwide recipes for preparing all things grilled and barbecued. It's such a masterwork that it was nominated for a James Beard Award and won a Julia Child Award.

Reichlen took three years to fastidiously research the topic, traveling over 150,000 miles to cover five continents and 25 countries in his quest to discover firsthand how grilling varies from country to country. But Reichlen is quick to point out that his quest was "a labor of love, not of lucre." He notes, "During three long years on the barbecue trail, there wasn't a single meal I didn't enjoy."

He opens the book with a definition of grilling: "a high heat cooking method done directly over live flames." Grilling usually involves smaller pieces of food, cooked for short periods of time. Contrast this with barbecuing, described as "a long, slow, indirect, low-heat method that uses smoldering logs or charcoal and wood chunks to smoke-cook the food." Barbecuing normally involves larger and tougher cuts of meats. Once barbecue is defined, Reichlen launches into a very complete guide to the gear of grilling: the fuels, the types of grills and pits from which to choose, and the accessories and accoutrements. Next follows a practicum on pyro-physics, covering things like construction of the perfect kinds of fires, the timing involved, and the Ten Commandments of Perfect Grilling. It's exactly the kind of basic information that both neophyte and "expert" grillers need.

The next chapter includes 20 recipes for global thirst quenchers, both leaded and unleaded, because, after all, how can one tend a blazing (or slow and subdued) fire without a refreshing beverage within hand's reach?

But the real meat of this tome lies in the chapters dealing with the different classifications of grilled goodies: appetizers, salads, breads, beef, hog, ground meat/burgers/sausages, birds, fish and shellfish, and yes, even veggies. Some 100 pages of condiments, salsas, and slaws, and sauces to mop or slop follow these chapters. And the book even includes a generous sprinkling of worldly dry rubs. It's topped off with a section on grilled desserts, by which time you're ready to bring the world of barbecue to your patio.

Each recipe begins with extensive prefatory statements, loaded with historical and background information. They offer travelogue-style notes on the trips, restaurants, and casts of characters involved, usually followed by suggestions for serving, and substitutions and variations that apply. The recipes are well thought out and very easy to follow. They are accompanied by mini-sidebars on the country from which the recipe comes, the method used (direct or indirect), any advance preparation that can be done, and lists of any special equipment needed.

The Barbecue! Bible is also chock-full of larger sidebars, loaded with all manner of useful information, such as "How to Spatchcok a Chicken or Gamehen" (which involves partially deboning and butterflying) or "How to Grind Your Own Meats at Home," with the proper ratios of fat to meat. As a former chef of 25 years and a serious student of global cuisines, I could not think of a single bit of information not included.

For my test of the recipes, I chose a couple of Afghani dishes, mainly because I love what limited exposure I've had to Afghani cuisine and have been trying to locate an Afghani cookbook for the last two years. O Be Payaz (Onion Water Lamb Chops) were marinated in an intensely flavored mixture of pured onion, saffron, turmeric, and chiles, creating an exotic and succulent explosion of taste. Afghan Grilled Quail involved a marinade of paprika, coriander, cayenne, curry, cumin, turmeric, and yogurt. It produced moist and highly flavored birds that spoke of the Khyber Pass. Take a bite, close your eyes, and you'd think you were in a Silk Road market in Kabul or Herat.

Reichlen has created the definitive guide to grilling and barbecuing the foods of the world. It comes very highly recommended, and none of those 84% of Americans with grilling devices should be without it.

Steven Reichlen's cooking class at Central Market was much more than a shameless promotion of his new book, as these events sometimes are. It was nothing less than a culinary world tour, packed with information about cooking in general and grilling in particular. I use the word "grilling" because only three regions of the worldbarbecuein the classical sense -- the U.S., Mexico, and Jamaica/Guadeloupe -- while 95% of the world grills.

Reichlen grew up on TV dinners and horrible cooking -- quite a beginning for a food writer as talented as he is. As a student, on a whim he wrote a grant request to research medieval cooking in Europe. To his surprise, he was awarded an IBM / Watson Foundation Scholarship for a year. While in Paris, he took classes at the Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools, and this background led to him to become a food writer for Boston Magazine and, subsequently, an author of 16 cookbooks. Reichlen also writes for the L.A. Times Syndicate, National Geographic Traveler, and Food and Wine. His books have won numerous Beard and Child awards, and he's a highly sought-after food lecturer, consultant, and barbecue judge for national competitions.

Our menu began with Caipirinha (a Brazilian daiquiri), which set the mood for the entertaining lecture and courses to follow. We went downstairs, to be adjacent to the grill, for a round of Catalan Grilled Tomato Bread: toasted and rubbed with garlic cloves, olive oil, and topped with fresh tomato. It was a great precursor to the Australian Honey Sesame Shrimp on the barbie. We went back upstairs for the remainder of the class, starting first with Grilled Gazpacho -- a smoky blended classic Spanish tomato, bell pepper, and cucumber soup. Reichlen demonstrated the method of preparing Matambre, the famous Uruguayan beef roll, stuffed with peppers, cheese, sausage, bacon, and herbs, and topped with Chimichurri Sauce. A West Indian Butternut Squash Gratin followed as the vegetable, and dessert was a Coconut/Coco Loco Brulee, flame kissed to caramelize the sugar topping.

The dishes were all extremely appetizing and satisfying, and the constant flow of vital information held my interest solidly between courses. It's a real pleasure to be exposed to such a captivating lecturer and author, and the Central Market Cooking School deserves praise for bringing Steven Reichlen to Austin. --M.V.

Cooler temperatures and the promise of an apartment on the ocean means I'm spending most of this summer in Maine, which made for a mighty long drive through 20 states. So what better excuse to eat my way across the U.S.A.?

Anyone who's done it knows that in multi-thousand mile drives, there really isn't a whole lot to do other than howl along to whatever classic rock song is on the radio and wonder when, where, and what the next meal is going to be.

Singing is the easy part, and I have Jane and Michael Stern to thank for their guidance along the road. On a trip like this, one can easily fall back on fountain Cokes and salty snacks, but why settle for Fritos when you can have Frito Pie?

The trouble is, where do you get it? In your part of the country, you know where to go, but it's often hard to know what's worth your while on the road. Jane and Michael Stern, who eat professionally all the time, have made it their business to give the rest of us recommendations. In their classics RoadFood, Goodfood, and now, the glove-compartment sized Eat Your Way Across the U.S.A., they've sized up hundreds of America's culinary diamonds in the rough, where eaters can get a memorable portion of regional specialties and local color. Sidebars clue readers in to what types of foods to look for in what regions, with the restaurants -- most of which are somewhat inexpensive, many of which are glorious dives -- listed by state. Some restaurants get a paragraph, others warrant a page.

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